The Circle: Autumn

by Keisha Ervin

“Yo, this shit is whack. I’m out. I can’t get next to this nigga Q at all,” Autumn complained, her cheeks flaming over.

  “What you mean? He ain’t tried to push up?” Fallon asked incredulously. Fallon knew her baby sister wasn’t a slouch in the looks, body, and clothing areas, so she was a bit surprised at what she was hearing.

  “That’s what I’m saying…no! He hasn’t even tried to holla at all. I see mad bitches swirling but it’s like he ain’t interested in none of them either. Maybe the nigga is gay?” Autumn asked with much attitude lacing her words.

  “Nah…I think it’s a game baby sis. You don’t want to give it one more day?” Fallon asked from experience. “You know how those big timers do…they act like they ain’t interested but that’s just to see how thirsty you’ll get. I hope you playing it cool like I taught you because that nigga probably watching your every move you just don’t know it. Be careful that he don’t figure you out too. Keep playing that innocent role and see what happens.”

  “C’mon now. I’m not going to be like these thirst bucket bitches throwing myself at his fucking feet…but damn…a nigga starting to fuck with my self-esteem n’ shit,” Autumn continued complaining. “I mean he ain’t even looked cross eyed at me from what I can tell.”

  “Please. Stop the madness. You know your ass is gorgeous. You don’t need a nigga to chase you to prove it, so stop it. He probably playing games…trust me…stay one more day and see what’s up. I won’t tell Rain and Dayvid we had this conversation. You know what to do chick…work it out.” With that Fallon was gone. Autumn slumped down on her hotel room bed frustrated. She was feeling Q a lot and the fact that every time he even glanced her way it was like she was invisible to him was really throwing her off.

  “A’ight Fallon I’m going to do what you said, but I’m telling you if this nigga don’t bite soon I’m out,” Autumn spoke out loud to herself as if Fallon were still on the phone or right in front of her.

  The next morning, Autumn decided that she needed a bit of sprucing up. After almost two weeks in Akron her hair and nails needed to be done. She also thought a few new items of clothing would make her at least feel better about herself since Q’s blatant disregard had started taking a little toll on her self-esteem. Autumn asked the front desk clerk at the Marriot where was the closest high-end mall, nail, and hair salon located and headed out for some much needed pampering.

  Dressed in a tight fitted Victoria’s Secret Pink sweat suit, with no makeup on and her long, dark hair thrown up in a high, messy bun, Autumn examined her newly manicured nails. It wasn’t the quality of work she was used to in Baltimore, but it would do until she could get back home to her personal nail technician that she and Fallon used.

  After paying the nail technician, Autumn carefully threaded her wrists through the handles of all of the shopping bags she had acquired from her trip to the mall and headed out of the nail salon. As she made her way to her car, Autumn noticed a silver Range Rover moving slowly through the parking lot in her direction. Autumn’s guard immediately went up as the Range continued to creep up on her. Turning to face off with the driver of the Range Rover, Autumn stopped at her car, let the bags on her wrist fall to the ground and grabbed her purse where her little .22 lay waiting. If a nigga was going to run up on her, he was certainly going to get more than he bargained for…after all she was a Porter and they didn’t get caught slipping that easily. With her head tilted to the side as if to say bring it nigga, Autumn waited, eyes squinted and her hand on her pistol.

  The Range Rover slowed to a halt right in front of her and the dark tinted passenger window slowly went down. Autumn was already mean mugging and waiting.

  “I feel like you been following me miss. You look real familiar,” Q yelled across from the driver’s seat. Autumn’s heart throttled up in her chest and a hot feeling came over her body as soon as she laid eyes on Q’s gorgeous, smiling face. Autumn moved her hand from her purse and she could feel the tension easing out of her face. She squinted against the sun and looked into his vehicle. Q was alone, which was a first since Autumn had been watching him.

  “You don’t look that familiar to me,” Autumn played it off, meanwhile her insides were jumping for joy. Q laughed heartily, he could tell she was bullshitting. “I’m dead ass,” she smiled coyly.

  “You’re the new girl in town everybody talking about huh? I been seeing you around, but you always look so serious like you ain’t tryna give a nigga no play,” Q said lightheartedly, with a smooth baritone that sounded like music to Autumn’s ears.

  “Maybe I’m new…maybe I’m not,” she came back sassily. Then she winked to let him know she was playing.

  “Nah you new. I’m the king of this city, I know who’s new and who’s old,” Q replied, rubbing his neatly lined goatee. Autumn felt like she could just faint. For some reason she felt like she was speaking to a celebrity.

  “King of the city huh?” Autumn laughed. Q laughed too.

  “So where you headed? I might be looking for a lunch date,” Q said, flashing that make-your-pussy-thump ass smile of his. Autumn was beside herself, her stomach was doing flips, her toes were balled up in her Gucci sneakers and she was clenching her ass cheeks together so hard they were trembling a little bit. Q couldn’t tell though, because Autumn was a master at keeping a poker face and appearing to keep her cool.

  “Lunch sounds like a plan. It’s a good thing I’m hungry,” she answered.

  Q got out of his Range, walked over, picked up Autumn’s bags, threw them in his backseat and opened his passenger side door for her. Oh a gangster and a gentleman, Autumn said to herself.

  “You mean we going now? I’m not dressed to go nowhere,” Autumn whined touching her messy bun for emphasis. “I’m thinking I would have a chance to go change or something.”

  “Nah, we going now. No need to change for me. I already know how good you look all dressed up. Like I said, I’ve seen you for a few days now. I did notice you. I like to see this real side of you anyway. I think you’re more beautiful without all of the bells and whistles and expensive clothes,” Q told her. Autumn let a smile slip across her lips, all the while her heart was beating wildly in her chest. She had never really dated anyone. The few times she’d snuck around with dudes, Dayvid always found a way to dead it before it could really blossom into anything serious.

  “So your mother named you Q?” Autumn said sarcastically as they drove away. Q started laughing.

  “Nah…my name is Quinton, but only my special friends and family call me by my government,” he chuckled.

  “Good…Quinton, I’m Autumn. It’s nice to meet you,” she said boldly. Just like that, things in Akron had changed for Autumn.

  For the next five days Quinton showed Autumn a good time. They went to high priced dinners, he showed her all of the spots he owned…including two strip clubs, he sent flowers to her hotel and he even took her apartment hunting after she lied and told him she was looking to move there. Their time together was light and void of tension. It was really nothing like Autumn had ever experienced, especially because most of her dates were based on setting dudes up and being fake. It was so easy to be around Quinton that Autumn almost forgot he was supposed to be her next victim. She felt totally different around him. Her palms would sweat, her heart raced, her brain was stimulated like never before and something was definitely going on between her legs. Autumn had asked herself a few times if this was what love felt like.

  Autumn was falling for Quinton and the more she did, the less she wanted to go through with setting him up. Nothing had convinced her more than one night she accidentally fell asleep at Quinton’s decked out, penthouse condo in Cleveland without a care in the world.

  “Mmm,” Autumn awoke and as soon as her eyes cracked open to her surroundings panic immediately hit her like a ton of bricks falling from the sky. She popped up in Quinton’s bed and looked around wildly. A cold sweat broke out all over her body and she instinctively reached around for her purse wher
e her gun was kept.

  “Fuck!” Autumn cursed under her breath when she realized it was the next morning and she was still at Quinton’s house and in his bed. “How could you be so stupid?” She scolded herself.

  Autumn looked around but didn’t see Quinton. His Presidential Rolex, iPhone and wallet were all on the nightstand on the opposite side of the bed. That told her that he probably hadn’t left the condo, but where was he, she wondered.

  “You slipping, bitch. You know Rain and Dayvid would be barking if they found out you slept at the niggas house without letting them know for safety. Fallon would be calling you a dumb bitch for not fucking the dude too,” Autumn whispered to herself as she gathered her clothes. Her older siblings were not totally opposed to Autumn and Fallon using their bodies as bait to get at a victim; however, Rain and Dayvid didn’t like the idea of the girls really sleeping with the potential victims and they liked to know where their sisters laid their heads every night.

  The night before when Quinton had invited Autumn to his condo, they had a few drinks, but she had not allowed herself to get drunk or so she thought. She remembered lying on Q’s chest and talking to him into the wee hours of the morning, but what stuck out to her the most was that he didn’t even try to have sex with her. Quinton had been a perfect gentleman that night. In fact, in Autumn’s eyes he was a perfect man for her, not to mention fine and paid. He shared with her that he owned just as many legitimate businesses as he did illegal ones. He didn’t have any kids, but he claim his ex’s two kids because he is the only father they know. That endeared Autumn to Quinton even more because not many men would take on being a father to kids that weren’t theirs. Quinton told Autumn he broke up with his ex because she was too insecure, too materialistic, and he really didn’t trust her.

  When they talked about their childhoods, Quinton shared that his parents had been hustlers just like him, but they had both died when he was younger. Things had gotten deep between Quinton and Autumn, but not so deep that she shared that much about herself with him at that time. She did however tell him that her parents were also dead.

  Autumn had decided at that moment that she wanted to know Quinton on a different level so she had taken him off her list of victims to rob. Now she would have to convince her siblings that Quinton wasn’t a good target. That was going to be the hard part.

  “Aye look who rose from the dead,” Q said cheerfully as he walked into the bedroom with a tray of good smelling, home cooked food. “I cooked you some breakfast,” he said flashing his winning, heart-melting smile. Autumn quickly forgot her dilemma and was back to being coquettish around Quinton.

  “You cooked it? Or…”Autumn laughed, raising her eyebrow at him. Suddenly she wasn’t in a rush to leave anymore and she instantly forgot about her siblings waiting patiently for the report on Quinton.

  “A’ight…a’ight…maybe Maria cooked it, but I told her exactly what to cook,” Quinton relented. “See, turkey bacon because you said you don’t eat pork. Pancakes, egg whites, with a side of fruit. All for you, picked out by me.” They both bust out laughing.

  “Oh but steak and eggs for you?” Autumn commented.

  “Well…that’s a man’s meal in the morning,” Quinton replied.

  That morning Autumn and Quinton shared breakfast on the terrace outside of his bedroom like they were a married couple. It was like some shit from a romance novel. Autumn, being so young, was finding herself real caught up. She realized she had only dealt with little, immature boys prior to meeting Quinton. He was a real man and she was falling in real love with him.

  Again, while they shared breakfast, Quinton and Autumn engaged in more deep conversation, this time Quinton told her he was looking for a good girl to settle down with. He spoke about all of the trouble he had been going through finding a woman that wasn’t either scheming on him for money or setting him up for the downfall. Autumn was immediately plagued by guilt. She had definitely been setting him up for the downfall.

  “I gotta run back to my hometown for a few days Quinton,” Autumn announced in a disappointed tone. As badly as she wanted to stay, she knew she had to break up their little thing or else she might never go back to Baltimore and her siblings. Any man that had Autumn contemplating leaving her siblings behind had definitely taken a hold of her heart and she knew it. It was a dangerous emotion that she hadn’t experienced before. Now Autumn was starting to understand the shit Fallon had gone through for Linx.

  “Damn ma, I thought you was staying in town,” Quinton replied disappointedly.

  “I’ll be back. I promise you that, it’s just I found out there was some old business I need to handle,” Autumn lied. For the first time since she and her siblings had started doing heists and robberies Autumn felt bad for lying.

  “Let me take you and bring you back then,” Quinton told her with apprehension in his voice. He looked so sad and dejected that she was leaving. Autumn could tell he didn’t believe she would be back. She could also tell Quinton was feeling her just as much as she was feeling him.

  “I would let you take me, but I definitely have to handle this on my own. I promise you…and I don’t make promises…I’ll be back,” Autumn said with feeling. She meant every word she had said too. Quinton was the one for her. Autumn was definitely in love.

  ***

  Autumn returned to Baltimore two days later with her nerves on edge and her heart aching for the man she had fallen hard for. Her thoughts had been totally filled with Quinton while she drove home, but once she arrived, she knew that facing her siblings would be a major challenge. Autumn took a deep breath, shook off the feelings of dread she had been battling and banged on the door to the Porter safe house.

  “Look who the cat dragged in!” Rain quipped when she opened the door for her baby sister.

  “What’s good ya’ll?” Autumn flashed a fake smile, when her insides were really churning with nerves. It seemed like they were all waiting for her to present the blueprint for their next hit. Their eyes told her that everybody was depending on her to deliver good news. Autumn already felt fucked up inside for what she knew she was about to do. Dayvid stood up, Fallon stopped messing with her nails, and Rain loomed close by with anticipation glistening in her eyes.

  “You tell us what’s up,” Dayvid said hugging his sister but at the same time getting to the point.

  “Damn, I’m happy to see ya’ll too,” Autumn snapped, a little annoyed that they seemed to be hawking her and she hadn’t even been home for twenty minutes.

  “It’s not even like that…you know we are happy to see you. But we been waiting a while to get this work, so we need to know what’s up,” Rain defended. “You know how this shit works so don’t act all brand new baby sis.”

  “It’s a dead issue in Akron,” Autumn announced. With the facial expressions of her siblings you would’ve thought Autumn had dropped tear gas on their asses.

  “Whatchu mean?” Dayvid asked, his eyebrows dipping low on his forehead.

  “Just what I said. That shit out there is dead and so is that nigga Q’s business. I don’t know who said that nigga Q was caking but I can tell ya’ll he’s not worth it,” Autumn said flatly. It was like she had dropped a bomb in the room. Dayvid’s eyes shot open, Rain twisted her lips, and Fallon raised one eyebrow and craned her neck. Autumn knew what that meant—she would have to come correct with whatever story she decided to tell because it wasn’t going to be easy to convince her siblings.

  “Look, I know ya’ll thought ya’ll knew a lot about that nigga Q, but I saw it all first hand. He ain’t the big time nigga we thought he was. That is all a straight front. We’d be spending more on hotels, gas, and shit like that to set up the hit on that nigga than we would be making off of hitting him. He’s small time…something we wouldn’t dare fuck with,” Autumn lied with such fluidity that she even shocked herself. That was the shit that falling in love with a nigga could do to a chick—make you lie to your family, the feds, the cops, and anybody else to pro
tect a nigga.

  “You sure Autumn? Because I heard he is real big time…like own clubs and shit. I heard he drives six different luxury cars and owns like four houses…that don’t sound like small time to me,” Fallon jumped in, her eyes squinted suspiciously. “I mean I seen the nigga and he look like he got real long money to me. I have never seen him in anything less than about twenty stacks worth of jewels and clothes at a time.”

  Autumn rolled her eyes at Fallon. She wanted so badly to tell her sister to shut up before Rain and Dayvid started pressing her.

  “Yeah, I thought the same thing or else I wouldn’t have wasted my time going to Akron, but it’s all a front. I told you the nigga paid me no mind the whole time I was there. Come to find out, he probably knew a bitch like me wouldn’t fuck with a low level worker like him. As I followed him around, I could see he wasn’t about shit. That nigga lives with his baby’s mother in a little shack house. He doing hand to hand deliveries out on the streets. I think he comes to B’more as a little low paid runner for a real connect out in Ohio and Q be fronting using some of his boss’ dough when he’s in town…but he definitely ain’t worth our time. I can’t see him ever holding more than about two or three stacks at time…shit Fallon you spend two stacks in a hour at the mall…you still think it’s worth it,” Autumn assured with her toes balled up in her shoes and waves of nausea cutting through her gut, hoping her siblings bought her story.

  “A’ight that ain’t about shit so let’s move on to the next,” Dayvid replied, slouching back in his big chair, still giving his baby sister a suspicious eye. Dayvid wasn’t about wasting any more time. They needed a lick and they needed it soon. He knew in order to keep their skills and keep their paper right they always needed to be working.

  Autumn’s shoulders slumped with relief when her big brother agreed to move to another potential victim. Dayvid wasn’t always the easiest person to convince of things, so Autumn knew it was her lucky day. Autumn could still sense that Fallon and Rain might not be buying her story, but as long as Dayvid said move on, Autumn knew her sisters will fall in line.