A Hustler's Wife

by Nikki Turner

  Tina, on the other hand, was hot. Anytime she would see Yarni's car anywhere she would flatten the tires. Rallo would only give Yarni one of his cars to drive and he'd take care of getting new tires. Tina would throw eggs at Yarni's car, but never approached her when she saw her.

  One night, Dougie Fresh made a guest appearance at the Grand Opening of Polo Bay Lounge. Richmond was live this night. Everybody was out. Yarni drove Sophie, Jerri and Monica, but something was wrong. She didn't feel right for some reason.

  "If I was to get to fighting, would y'all help me?" She asked out of the blue.

  "No doubt," the three replied in harmony.

  "Girl, you know I got your back. I don't know 'bout anyone else, but I got you," Sophie made her position known.

  "Girl, don't ask no crazy questions, you know we got you." Jerri said.

  "Girl, please, I wish somebody would try to roll up on you while you with me." Sophie said.

  Yarni had on sky blue suede coochie cutter shorts, with the suede shirt tank top to match. She was definitely turning heads in the club. She made eye contact with this dude. She asked the three girlfriends if any of them knew who he was. None of them did.

  She pushed her way through the hot, smoke-infested, con-gested crowd. She stopped to chat with folks she knew on the way over to the bar. When she approached the bar somebody she knew from high school came up to her, and gave her a hug.

  They gave each other a brief catch up. She didn't notice who was behind her. She inched her way up to the bar, and squeezed in to place her drink orders.

  "Umm, one Pina Colada, Absolute and cranberry juice, Baltimore Zoo, and a Heineken," Yarni told the bartender.

  "Wait a minute, Sweetness. You just walked right up and cut in front of me. I am trying to order a glass of Alize," The man sitting on the bar stool said while using his hand to clarify what he was saying over the loud music.

  The waitress looked at them both.

  "Go ahead, ladies first," he said, with a toothpick in his mouth. In the mean time, he started talking to one of his homeboys.

  "May I have a tray to carry all my drinks?" Yarni asked the waitress. She put the drinks on the tray except for the glass of Alize, tipped the waitress and tapped the dude on the shoulder that she had made eye contact with earlier when she first arrived to the club.

  "Good things come to those who wait. Thanks for allowing me to go in front of you." She slid the drink over to him and picked up her tray of drinks. She walked away from the bar leaving him speechless!!!

  Not ten minutes later, he was walking over to her table carrying a tray with drinks on it for her and her girlfriends. He kept the drinks coming all night. He sat over at Yarni's table and talked to her. He looked good to her. He was a russet brown complexion with the sexiest full eyes and long eyelashes. He rocked a perfect rounded fade haircut with a little, short beard on his face. His face possessed a few razor bumps, which didn't matter because Yarni was definitely attracted to him. He was a medium build, tight abs, not too muscular, but she could tell he worked out. He wore money green suede shorts with a short sleeve shirt with gold buttons to match. His footwear made the ensemble; some green and gold dress shoes with no socks, and a diamond ankle bracelet. They laughed and giggled together.

  He bopped a cool dance for her, and moved just the right way.

  She took a dollar bill from her pocketbook and was shaking it while he danced. They were having a ball. Yarni put on her sunglasses and was dancing in front of the mirror around him. They were all into each other, and boy did they put on a show.

  The females in the club were UPSET that Yarni had the attention of this man. No one really knew who he was. They knew he had plenty of dough. He had come home from jail about two years ago. He was a dude that played the background. He was rarely out at a club. And when he did come to the club, it was through the back door, and he left through the back entrance where his car would be waiting. They couldn't believe that he was over there in her face and dancing for her too. What the hell was going on?

  Yarni saw Tina and her hood rat friends from a distance. She thought to herself, how did they even get in here with sneakers on, them no-class- having Bitches. She whispered in her girl Sophie's ear.

  "Girl, Tina and her girls are over there." Sophie alerted Monica and Jerri. Yarni never let Tina know that she'd acknowledged them. They tried to make it known that they'd seen her. They were watching her like a hawk. She kept acting like she was having a ball with the mystery man. When she saw them out of the corner of her eye looking at her, oh, she showed off more. A couple minutes later, Sophie told her that she was going to the restroom. Jerri said she was going to get a drink. Mystery man said he'd be right back because he had to go to the restroom. Monica was talking to some dude. Monica asked Yarni if she have an ink pen in her pocketbook. She started fumbling around in her bag for an ink pen. When she finally looked up, she saw Tina and her two other girlfriends walking up. They were less than fifteen feet away from her. While her hand was still in her pocketbook, she felt around for her knife.

  She knew it was about to go down!

  She saw Sophie come out of the bathroom and walk back over there in that direction. They finally got in front of her. Not Tina, but Tonya, one of Tina's girlfriends who was about thirty pounds bigger and three inches taller than Yarni, black as tar, a gap between her front teeth and broad shoulders, approached her.

  "Why you be talking about me?" she asked Yarni while Tina and the girl stood behind her.

  "I don't even know you to talk about you," Yarni told her.

  "Why you rolled your eyes at me then?" Tonya asked, fishing for an argument. Yarni looked straight in Tonya's eyes.

  "Look, I don't know you, nor have I ever seen your Bamma ass before, but straight up, get the fuck out of my face." Tonya turned and started to walk away. Tina, wearing the gold earrings with "Rallo" and "Tina" inside of them, with the

  "Rallo" popping out a little, said something to Tonya. Tonya turned back to Yarni and smacked her. Then Tonya proceeded to turn and walk away. Wait a minute, does she actually think she's going to smack me and just walk away? Oh, I think not! Yarni was dressed to impress. Yarni was very prissy, but at the same time, she wasn't a punk!! Yarni jumped up, grabbed that guttersnipe from the back and started slicing and dicing her. Yarni caught her by surprise, had her on the ground and was on top of her, whipping her. Tonya was not even fighting back. At this point, Tina jumped on Yarni's back and started pulling Yarni's micro braids. Yarni started fighting Tina trying to get her off of her to stop pulling her hair. Yarni reached her hand behind her head, put her fingers in Tina's eyes, and Tina released her hair immediately. At that moment, security grabbed Yarni. They picked her up off of her feet and carried her to the back of the club. She was still kicking when she went past Tina.

  The big bald headed dark skinned security guard with a deep voice, tried to be patient with Yarni.

  "Look, I don't know how much damage you did to the girl laying on the floor. Normally under these circumstances, we'll lock somebody up and press charges, but since you are a personal friend of the owner's best friend, we're not," he continued as he made it clear to Yarni. He instructed her as he pointed, after he heard another security guard over the walked talkie.

  "Smokey the Bear has just arrived, get lil momma wolf outta here."

  "Go into the bathroom and clean yourself up. The police just arrived. In order to protect you from them, we're going to have to hurry and take you through the back entrance." Yarni had never been in an official fight. She was in shock over her reaction to the whole situation. She had no idea that she could ever get violent if the situation presented itself. I can't believe I actually got into a fight. Oh, my God! Where did I get all that strength and rage from out of nowhere. I could feel my heart beating fast, but I had no idea that I would go off like that.

  I know am going to look a wreck. I am going to be messed up.

  To her surprise, she only had three scratches on he
r back, but her braids were all over her head. All the bobby pins from the way she had it styled, were gone. Most of all, she was mad that her suede outfit was ruined. She looked in the mirror focusing in on the blood on her new outfit. Shit, she thought, this was the last one like this. I can't even replace this outfit. I know blood ain't going to come out, and especially since this is suede too.

  Shoot, I really like this outfit. I wonder where my girls at? I hope they don't get locked up behind this foolishness. I hope they just left on their own, but I am driving. Man, I hope they are O.K. As she tried to pull it together, some girl walked up to her and looked at Yarni through the mirror.

  "It's so foul that your girls didn't even help you, but you was still rumbling by yourself. Girl, I give you your props." Yarni couldn't believe her ears. "What?" She bawled up her face and looked at the girl.

  "Yeah, your friends, left you." the girl said, and right then and there, Sophie walked in.

  "Girl you alright?" Sophie asked.

  "Sophie, where were you?" Yarni fairly brawled.

  "I knew they were coming over there to start something, so I went to get security!" Yarni saw red.

  "What? You went to get security?" Yarni punched Sophie in the face. She commenced to beat her down as if she had stole something. Security rushed in the bathroom and the guard couldn't believe it. Yarni had Sophie in the stall of the bathroom beating her head up against the wall. "Need back-up in the ladies room. Lil momma wolf is at it again," the security guard screamed over the walkie-talkie. As soon as the security grabbed Yarni, Sophie tried to escape by crawling under the stalls. Yarni was walking in front of the security guard and caught a glimpse of Sophie in the last stall closest to the door. She moved so expeditiously that security was caught off guard. Yarni ran into the stall. Once she got into the stall security grabbed her, but not before she kicked Sophie in the face with her clog style, sling back, suede shoes. The security guard was amazed with Yarni's energy.

  "Do you want to go to jail?" He had to ask.

  "No." Yarni replied.

  "Didn't I tell you to be cool?" Security escorted her to the back door and the mystery man was waiting in the alley for her.

  "Did you drive?" He asked.

  "Yes, my car is right in the front of the club."

  "I'll give you a ride home. I'll get my homeboy to get your car and meet up with him in an hour."

  "Thank you, but no thanks. I don't go anywhere with strange men."

  "Yeah, under normal circumstances, I wouldn't recommend it, but these aren't normal circumstances."

  "Do you have a cell phone? I lost mine somehow in the club." She suddenly thought to call home.

  He pulled out his Motorola cell phone attached to a black bag. She called Gloria to tell her what was going on. She gave her his license plate number in case he turned out to be a psycho. Yarni let Gloria know that she would be there in a half hour.

  Gloria insists that she stays put until she gets there. Yarni knows for a fact that if Gloria comes to pick her up, she will add fire to the situation as Gloria use to be a real pistol in her day.

  While she still had access to the Motorola, Yarni called Rallo and filled him in on what just happened. She instructed Rallo to find out the outcome of her battle with Tonya. She also tells him to make sure they don't press any charges out on her. He'd already heard what happened. Tina had already called. He said that Tonya had to get a lot of stitches. She also let him know that dude was all in Yarni's face, and how Yarni looked like she was enjoying mystery man's company.

  On the ride to her house, the mystery man revealed that his name is Benjamin. His mother named him Benjamin because when she looked at him, she knew that he'd make plenty of them. However, he was called Bengee for short. He was the silent partner in four different restaurants in town. He owned and operated a landscaping business also, she thought to herself, just how typical it was for every dude who claims he is out, or getting out, of the drug game, always gets one of two businesses. A detail shop or a lawn care business. Bengee explained, he lived alone and had done six years in the pen. He was now the most eligible bachelor on the street. By the time they got to her house, she'd basically knew his whole life story. But, she didn't focus on a word he was saying.

  ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

  All Yarni could think about was, that she'd had enough of the whole situation with Rallo. She was sick of his little dick and fed up with his baby mama drama. She especially didn't like his attitude when she called him to inform him of the fight. It was time to move on.

  After Bengee dropped Yarni off. Rallo came over to make sure everything was cool with Yarni and, more importantly, to give her the third degree about who the nigga was she was talking to all night at the club. She denied everything and did a flip mode on him.

  "How can you believe anything that Tina says? Why would you even approach me with anything that skank had to say? You should know yourself that Tina is only going to bring lies." She knew that after this whole ordeal, she wasn't messing with Rallo anymore. He never meant her any good anyway. All the money wasn't worth all the drama. She just needed a way to get some money from him as her severance pay as well as to throw salt one last time for his trying to be disrespectful towards her husband, Des. She knew just the plan.

  Yarni knew that Rallo felt awful about the fight, and he should have. She knew he was in the street life. She also suspected that he messed around on her. She felt like if you're going to cheat, at least keep your women in check. Inform them of their place and make them play their position. Taking all this into consideration, she decided to use this to her benefit. He knew that the fight was because of him. He felt guilty because he was still sleeping with Tina every now and then. He'd explained to Tina that it could be "no more them," that he was with Yarni now. He shouldn't have slept with Tina. He knew that she was going to get out of hand. Tina just gave the bomb head. This week, especially, oh he spoiled Yarni! He brought her a 7-carat tennis bracelet and her allowance was tripled. He agreed to go on a 7-day cruise with her. He gave her the money to go pay for it. She didn't because she wasn't going on any cruise with him. She just kept the money.

  After all this, she decided she had gotten enough from him.

  They went to Tyson's Corner Mall. They just put out their new fall line. She knew she was going to be going back to school soon.

  She shopped early for her school clothes. She figured she'd better get it now. She knew when she left him alone she wasn't going to able to afford shopping sprees in the exquisite boutiques. They actually had a nice day together. All good things must come to an end, huh?

  When he dropped her off at her house, she gathered all her bags and told him that she was going in the house to lie down because the Tai food they'd eaten was making her feel nauseat-ed.

  The next morning, she changed her phone number to a non-published number. She pulled her car into the closed garage, so it appeared that she wasn't home. When she did leave the house, she drove her mother's spare car, a Toyota Cressida.

  When he called on her mother's line, her mother would just say Yarni wasn't available. He wouldn't dare ask Gloria any questions.

  After about four days, he realized she really didn't want to mess with him. I can't believe how she just booked up and left me like that. After all the good times, he thought, she let one incident come between us, and I went all out to make it right, not hustling, just straight catering to her that whole week. That cruddy bitch! Then, to put the icing on the cake, his cousin's girlfriend told Rallo she'd seen Yarni down at the prison, visiting Des. She described what Yarni had on from head to toe. It was one of the outfits he had bought her. The gall of her. She had him looking like the laughing stock of Richmond. What was he to do now?

  Rallo decided to tell all the hood rats from around the p.j.'s that if any of them saw that bitch, Yarni, anywhere at all, he didn't care if it was at church on Easter Sunday, he wanted her beat down. He'd pay anybody $250.00 to beat her every time they saw her.
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  It didn't take long for Yarni to get a whiff of the rumor. One day she was in the beauty parlor, some girls were talking about her and didn't even realize that she was right there. She got her beautician to go over there and ask who and what they were talking about. They let the cat out of the bag.

  When she got home, she was so furious with the whole thing. She paced the floor trying to make sense of this matter.

  She looked at Rallo's picture that she had on her dresser.

  "Now, enough is enough! I let you get off easy when I just stepped off. Now, you don't appreciate it when a sister walks away! No, you gotta have drama. Well, let the games begin, Mr.

  Rah-llo. We'll see who gets the last laugh; He who laughs last, laughs the longest. You just HAAADDDD to take it to another level. Now it's on!!!"

  She pulled herself together and paged Rallo. She put 4000 in after her number to make it look like it was somebody trying to spend $4,000. Just as she thought, he called right back.

  Yarni made her voice sound real weak. "Hey, it's me. Sorry I haven't called you. I've been feeling so bad every since we came back from Tyson's. I've been feeling so weak that I didn't call and give you the new number. I changed it because some how, Tina got my number and was playing on my phone. I really need you right now. My doctor's office gave me a sick patient appointment, and I can't drive myself. I need you to come and take me." Of course, Rallo agreed and rushed right over.

  Yarni threw on some sweatpants and sneakers and she kept her hair wrapped up in a doobie. She planned out every single detail. She let him go back in the room with her to see the doctor. They asked her for her urine sample so Yarni peed in the cup.

  When they did a pregnancy test, it came back positive. She had gone by her cousin's house, who was pregnant, and got her to pee in a cup with a top. She had the cup in her pocket all along and used her cousin's pee instead of her own. They asked her when her last period was. She told them a date two months before. She reminded them about how irregular her periods were. They told her she was six weeks pregnant, and the doctor prescribed prenatal vitamins.