I dropped the ingredients that I was carrying on the counter and ran to the door to let my bestie in. A few moments later, Blu came sauntering in dressed casually in a pair of high waist Citizen jeans, a grey cropped Alexander Wang sweatshirt that read Wang on the front, and a pair of wheat Timbs. Her now long blue hair was done in a side fishtail braid, and she was wearing the Melody Ehsani hoops I’d bought her for her birthday last year.
“Hey, bitch! What you ‘bout to cook?” she asked as she dropped her Celine bag on the kitchen table.
“Nothing for your greedy ass. I’m cooking my man filet mignon with sautéed shrimp, garlic mashed potatoes, and oven roasted asparagus. Oh and some cheddar biscuits.”
“You better burn, ho!”
We both laughed. Blu took a seat at the bar style island that extended from Grey's kitchen.
“So what's been up, sis?” I asked her. I hadn’t really seen or talked to my girl much since our impromptu trip to Grey’s club. We’d seen each other here and there and texted, but we hadn’t really chilled in a minute.
“A little bit of this, a little bit of that. You know how I do.”
“You still kicking it with Kimani?” I asked.
“Yeah, girl,” she smiled so wide that I saw her molars.
“Oop! Let me find out! So have ya’ll made things official yet?” I pulled a medium sized skillet from underneath the sink and rinsed it out in the sink.
“Oh, no. We’re good how we are.”
I looked a Blu quizzically as I placed my hands flat on the counter. I didn’t get her. She had herself a perfect man, and she was okay with not having a title? Kimani was a cool ass nigga and, from what I could tell, he treated Blu exceptionally well. He was fine, paid, down-to-earth and was in the process of building a brand for himself. I couldn’t understand what she was waiting for. She was going to mess around and lose this nigga trying to let him do him.
“You better lock that down. This nigga has over five-hundred thousand followers on Instagram alone. How many of them bitches you think are up in his DM’s while you’re over here trying to play it cool?”
“Kami, I’m good. We good. We understand who we are to each other, and I don’t need a label to define that. We are moving at a pace that I like, and that’s good with me.”
I laughed to myself. If she likes it, I love it. It couldn’t have been me and Grey though. Bitches needed to understand who he belonged to, and I made sure every chick Grey encountered knew he was mine. If Blu wanted to pretend that she was good with keeping it light, I wasn’t going to butt in. But I could tell by the way that Blu’s face lit up when I mentioned his name that her heart was in deep. She thought she was protecting herself by keeping things simple, but she wasn’t doing anything but fooling herself.
“Anyway, what’s been going on with you and Grey? I am still in shock that you sold your place and moved in with him. He must be slanging, honey, because you loved that loft.”
I scoffed. “Yeah, maybe a little too much.”
Blu’s eyes widened. I turned away from her and retrieved the chopping board from under the island.
“What do you mean? Please tell me you found proof this time. Spill the tea!”
“I mean…no, not really. I just have this feeling. I’ve been trying to catch him in something but every time I do, I end up looking stupid. I’ve been through his phone, his emails, his pockets…and I swear all he does is talk business. I haven't even seen another chick’s name in his phone. But I know something is going on. Call it a woman’s intuition.”
Blu cocked her head to the side. “Girl, I am your friend, and I am going to keep it all the way a hundred with you; you’re fucking crazy. Grey is all about you and his money. A blind person can see that. Leave that man alone and just enjoy being his woman. Bitches like you kill me! Always looking for something to be wrong just so you have a reason to show your ass,” she giggled.
I quickly got offended. I slammed the large knife into the onion hard, making Blu jump slightly. “Now this is why I don’t ask you for relationship advice. When’s the last time you were in a relationship anyway?” Silence filled the room. “Exactly. Not never. So don’t be so quick to throw advice about a situation you ain't never been in.”
“I have common sense,” Blu shot back. “So I don’t have to have been in the situation to know what’s right or wrong or what to tell your deranged ass what you should do. Now if you want to keep your man, you need to rein in the crazy and act like you didn’t just check out of an institution.”
“You not going to keep calling me crazy in my house, Blu!” I yelled.
I could feel my face flooding with anger. It would be nothing to chuck this knife straight into Blu’s flesh, and she was tempting me.
Blu stood to her feet. “Kamikaze, you’d better chill with all that damn yelling. I ain’t the one.”
I hated that name! She thought I was displaying signs of crazy before, but hearing that name flipped a switch that brought me out of my body and turned me into someone else. Stabbing the wooden chopping board with the tip of the knife, I leaned across the island and got up in Blu’s face.
“Bitch, try me if you want to, but you already know how I get down! You feeling froggy, then jump, bitch!” I could see the spit flying from my mouth and landing on her face.
She paid it no mind, as she stepped even closer to me. “I’m going to disregard your outburst because we’re sisters, but let it be known that this will be the last time that you talk to me out the side of your neck and I don’t bust you in your shit. I’m going to make my exit and save your life, so call me when you’re on your meds.” Blu snatched up her purse and stalked to the door. After she opened the door, she whipped around to face me. “If you know what's good, you would lock Grey down before he finds out just how coo-coo your ass is for cocoa puffs. You don’t want another Shye situation on your hands, now do you?” Blu smirked before she walked out and slammed the door behind her.
“Ughhhh!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as I pushed all the frames, vases, and candles off the foyer table and to the floor.
The mention of Shye’s bitch ass only added fuel to the fire that was raging inside me. Shye Bryant was my first everything. Being so up under my father for so long, when I got to college, I didn’t know what to do with myself. My first trip to college was actually to an HBCU, Clark Atlanta in Atlanta, GA. I was happy to be away for a while because my dad wasn’t there to make sure that I was all about my books, and my attention began to wander from studying to partying.
I met Shye at the school’s annual fall pajama jam. He was strolling with his Alpha frat brothers, and I was watching from the sidelines in awe of all the fine, buff young men dancing around with their shirts off. When Shye jumped up and landed a clap between his raised leg and then stomped the floor with force reminiscent of an earthquake, he looked in my direction and I instantly got hot all over. His nutmeg colored skin was dripping with sweat, and I couldn’t help but stare at his ripped body that resembled a Greek God. He smiled a megawatt smile at me, revealing his dimples, and an electric shock shot up my spine.
We exchanged numbers that night, and a few weeks later we were official. He was everything to me, and I couldn’t have been more in love if cupid had actually shot me with that damn arrow. Everything changed for us during my second semester. Shye became extremely busy with school, his fraternity, and football, while I made my life completely about him. I would skip class to the point where I couldn’t even tell you what classes were on my schedule. Instead, I’d spend all day holed up in his room plotting different ways I could please him. At first he was excited that I was at his beck and call, but he quickly got annoyed. His annoyance pissed me off. Once he started distancing himself from me, I started getting suspicious that he was messing with another girl.
I was quick to let any of those hot in the ass girls on campus know that he was mine and that I was more than happy to hand out ass whopping’s to any bitch that tried to go against
the grain. But only one chick was bold enough to try me. Parker Princeton pranced her baton twirling, rump shaking, band dancing ass right up on my man. To my horror, Shye dropped me like a bad habit. But I wasn’t having that. I went out swinging. I won’t go into detail about my actions, but just know that it was enough for Shye to call the police, get a restraining order, have me forced off campus and kicked out of school. Not only was I furious but I was embarrassed as hell. I promised that it would be the last time that I got that crazy over a nigga. But lo and behold, I could feel myself going there with Grey.
Even though I didn’t want to admit it, Blu was right. I needed to reel it in and stop acting like a damn nutcase if I wanted to keep Grey around. Since I didn’t have any proof that he was messing around, I buried the thought of him cheating in the back of mind and put a lockdown on the crazy juice I had currently been sipping. I loved Grey more than I had ever loved a man, and I needed to make sure that he would be a permanent fixture in my life.
Grey
December 2014
I twirled the velvet box around in my hand for the umpteeth time. I had never felt sicker to my stomach than I felt now. Standing in the bathroom of the Hotel Bel-Air, I could feel myself about to lose my cool. There was nothing I wanted more than to walk out of this hotel and leave Nakami and her fruit cake ass father far behind. But I couldn’t. The money that I was making with Hero was far more than I had been making in the D, and I had a far wider reach. I was perpetrating a boss nigga before; now I was one. I couldn’t give that up. I’d be damned if I ran away from good money because my ninty-nineth problem actually was a bitch.
And a pyscho bitch she was. I almost didn’t make it here to the dinner that was taking place outside these doors. A nigga was damn near behind bars off Nakami. I placed my hands on the white marble countertops as I thought back to the events that took place earlier today.
“Grey?” The shrill of her voice let me know that I had some explaining to do.
Huffing, I got up from the living room couch, adjusted the volume on the sound system, and calmly walked towards the kitchen where I knew Nakami was. When I walked into the spacious kitchen, I eyeballed the fuck out of Nakami. Her back was turned, and all I could see was her perfectly round ass hanging out of a pair of grey sweat shorts. The thought of running my hands underneath them was abruptly cut short when she swung around with a deranged look on her face.
“What?” I asked. Just the look on her face alone irritated me.
“What is this, Grey?” She held up a bottle of wine and wiggled it in the air.
“A dildo. What the fuck does it look like?”
“Oh, you got jokes? Well, since you think it’s comedy hour in this bitch, I got a riddle for your ass. Let’s see if you think this shit is funny. What’s flat and broke and scratched all over?”
I waved Nakami off and started walking back towards the living room. I didn’t have time for her bullshit today. I was already going to have to put up with Hero in a public setting, so I didn’t have the patience for extra shit.
Beep. Beep.
The sound of my car being unlocked caused me to stop in my tracks. “What’s flat and broke and scratched all over?” The riddle played through my head a few more times before I bolted out the door and opened the garage. My brand new, onyx black, 2014 Aston Martin Vanquish was now sporting four flat tires, a busted windshield, and numerous scratches to the body.
“Are you fucking…” I walked closer to the car to survey the extensive damage that had been done. I had brought this baby home only three days ago, and it was completely damaged. Behind me I could hear Nakami laughing her ass off. Before she could get another giggle out her mouth, I was in her face with my hands around her throat and her body pinned up against the open door. She barely put up a struggle. In fact, I swear she smiled the entire time. Reality hit me like a brick when I heard a dog bark close by. I released her from the chokehold and pushed her inside the house. I didn’t need my neighbors all up in my business.
“Why?!” I shouted.
Nakami stood calmly in the foyer mirror, surveying her neck for bruises. “Oh, now it ain’t funny is it?”
I remained silent and clenched my fist together. In my mind, woman beaters are pussyies, but Nakami was encouraging the beast in me to come out and play. And that nigga didn’t care if you were a man, woman, child, dog, cat, or God. You could get it just like anybody else could.
“Who you been entertaining in my house, Grey?”
“My house,” I corrected her.
“Minor details,” she said with a roll of the eye and a shrug. “Who have you been entertaining in my house?!”
“Nobody.”
“Nobody, huh? Then whose wine is that in the refrigerator?” She put her hands on her hips.
I looked at her just as crazy as she was. “What?”
“The wine, Grey. You drink red wine. Gaja Barbaresco to be exact. I don’t drink wine. I prefer champagne. So what little rat bitch have you had up in OUR crib whose taste level is only at an Arbor Mist level?”
I looked at Nakami for a moment before I walked off. I was liable to knock her head clear off her shoulders at this point.
“Oh, so you just going to walk away while I’m asking you a question?”
“You really off your shit, you know that?” She just stared at me. “When ya homegirl Blu came over here a few weeks ago, what did she bring with her?” Nakami didn’t respond, so I continued, “Let me go ahead and answer that for you; she brought over a bottle of blackberry merlot by Arbor Mist. Kept trying to get you to try it because it tasted like juice.” I walked up on her. “You remember that?”
Nakami didn’t say anything, but the look on her face let me know that she did remember. I wasn’t letting up so easily. “DO YOU REMEMBER, OR NAH?!” I screamed. Nakami jumped at the bass in my voice and tried to shrink away like a little kid. “Naw, bring that ass back here.” I grabbed her arm and yanked her back towards me.
“Ow, Grey! You’re hurting me.”
“I don’t give a fuck. You just damaged a damn near $300,000 car…no, damn near $400,000, since I had custom work put in on it. And you crying because I’m sinking my nails into your skin? Fuck outta here, man.”
She wiggled a little, trying to get out of my grasp, but I held firm.
“I don’t care where you get the money from. Whether you take it from your own personal stash or you go crawling to your daddy, you will be replacing that car out there. No, you can’t get it fixed. Scrap that shit. Buy me a brand new one just like it. All custom everything. Since you think this shit is a game.”
Nakami bit down on her lip, and her eyes filled with water. I was annoyed by the audacity of her to try and shed tears off of a situation her crazy ass has put herself in. Finally, I let go of her arm and walked off.
“Baby, I’m sorry! I just thought that…” She begged and pleaded with me to forgive her for the next few minutes, and I tuned her out. I had come this close to choking the life out of her and ruining everything that I had built in the last few months. I didn’t know what needed to happen, but I needed to get a leash on this broad before my whole plan went up in smoke before I had a chance to put it in action.
That ordeal had happened less than eight hours ago. Now I had to swallow my pride and get on one knee. My patience was running thin, and I was damn near ready to bust my gun and jeopardize my money flow to get rid of this migraine named Nakami. But I ain’t no quitter. For nothing. So I was going to take a deep breath and go back out there to that dinner and secure my future.
Kimani
January 2015
“Steph, man, look. I need to be on that show. Whatever you need to do to put me on or get an audition, do it. That’s what I’m paying you for. Please don’t call again unless you have good news, ma.”
I hung up the phone and tossed it on the couch in frustration. Conversations with my agent had been more stressful lately. Seems like the TV industry only wanted to hire models as ba
ckground niggas, and I ain’t never been a background nigga. The fact that I had been working my ass off at these acting classes and working privately with an acting coach added more angst to my frustration, because I felt like I had the juice and nobody was willing to give me a chance.
Knock knock.
Who the hell? I was not in the mood for company. Begrudgingly, I pulled myself off the couch and answered the door. Blu barged in, attacking my lips with force. I almost tumbled over as she barreled her way in. I pulled back from the kiss, holding on to both of her arms and looked at her strangely.
“What the hell, Blu?”
She huffed. “What? I missed you.”
I threw her the side eye and let go of her. Closing the front door, I walked past her and back into my large living room, heading straight to the adjacent bar.
“Who pissed in your Cheerios?” she asked.
“Why are you here?”
“What do you mean? I just told you I missed you.” I heard her fall into the plush leather sofa behind me. I reached for the bottle of Remy V and poured myself a double shot without asking Blu if she wanted one.
“Blu, I ain’t spoke to you in two weeks because when I asked you to be my girl, you dipped in the middle of night and started ignoring my calls. You wanted to be done. That’s what I got by your actions. So we’re done.”
“Can you get out your feelings? It wasn’t nothing personal, Kimani. It was just-”
“Nothing personal?” I laughed and then threw back my shot. “It was all personal. I ain’t been in a relationship in damn near five years, I choose you as the person that I want to be with and you get ghost? You can stay ghost, bruh.”
Long As You Know Who You Belong To Page 7