Strawberry nodded and batted her long eyelashes at him. He was so fine, and if she wasn’t tainted from another man, she would beg to take him down right then and there. It was no secret that she loved him and would do anything for him. She proved that every day. Many people would say what he made her do was not love, but she begged to differ. She knew Sir loved her, and no matter what, nothing anyone told her would change that. The two had met during Strawberry’s sophomore year in college, back when she was just Maria Calico. She’d seen Sir a few times in the club with his boys, and each time, he always looked like a star. He asked her on a movie date one night, and after that, the rest was history. The two were inseparable, and he made her feel like a queen.
Her fairy tale ended after they’d been dating for some months, and Sir’s past came to haunt him. He and Strawberry had moved in together, and she was starting to see that the flashy life Sir lived back then was just a show. He didn’t have any real money. She was working doubles as a waitress to cover their bills, all the while still attending classes. One night, Sir came running in the house beaten up and bloody, and it scared Strawberry to death. He rambled on about how he owed a man named Honcho $5,000, and he didn’t have it. Sir told her that if he didn’t pay what he owed that night, then they would come and murder him. He held her hands and told her that there was only one thing that could save him. When she asked him what that was, he explained to her about how everyone knew he had the thickest chick in the city. Everyone wanted a piece of her ass, including Honcho. If she slept with him, then his life would be spared. At the time, Strawberry felt as if her whole life had spiraled out of control within seconds, but the last thing she wanted was for Sir’s death to be on her hands.
“Will you still love me if I do this?” she asked him.
“I’ll love you more than anything.”
Young and naïve, she believed him, and she did it. It was the most demeaning experience of her life, especially since she hadn’t given herself to many men before that. But when it was over, everything went back to normal . . . until Sir needed another “favor” . . . and then another.
When Strawberry finally got up the courage to tell him no because she didn’t want to do it anymore, Sir slapped her so hard that she flew backward.
“You gon’ do what the fuck I say, bitch,” he hissed in her face. “You my property now. Where else you got to go? Everybody in the city knows you as the ho that fucks for cash. Ain’t nobody gon’ take you seriously.”
His words to her were ones that she would never forget, because he was right. Who would want her? Strawberry never thought that five years later, she would still be whoring for him, but if she did everything Sir told her to, he took care of her. They were a team, he always said. He promised her that when they had enough money saved, he would move her to Hawaii, and they would live their happily ever after.
Sir bought them food with the money Strawberry had just given him and drove them back to their home in East Memphis. It was only five o’clock, and Strawberry hoped that Sir would just let her sleep the rest of the day since she’d literally been working since before the sun came up. She stepped inside the apartment and welcomed the AC blessing her skin. Summers in Memphis were usually hot, but that day, it felt like a sauna. Although she’d already taken a shower, the few seconds she’d spent in the heat walking to the apartment building had caused her back to start sweating.
“I feel gross,” she told Sir. “I’m about to go take a shower.”
“Nah.” Sir wrinkled his eyebrow at her. “I just bought this food. Sit at the table and eat. We have business to discuss.”
So much for getting some sleep. She knew what he meant by “business.” She sighed and trudged back down the hallway that led to their bedroom and sat at the round table in the dining room. Their two-bedroom apartment was spacious and had a lot more room than the small studio apartment they used to have. It was completely furnished, and Strawberry’s favorite spot was the living room. There was a plush leather couch and matching love seat that faced the long balcony. Sitting kitty-corner on the wall next to the balcony window was the entertainment system. Inside it was a fifty-inch TV with three connected game systems and almost 100 DVDs lined up neatly. The two glass end tables on either side of the couch matched the rectangular coffee table, and Strawberry raised her eyebrow because there was incense still burning in its holder.
“I thought you were at work,” she asked, taking a bite into her burger. “Why is there incense burning?”
Sir glanced at the living room, and then back at Strawberry. She knew that she was playing with fire by questioning him about his whereabouts, but she didn’t care. He said the reason she had to catch a taxi to all her spots that day was because he would be working. The last time she checked, you couldn’t be a bank teller at home.
“I was working.”
“At home? How can you work for the bank at home, Sir?”
She quickly switched from being a working girl back to being his girlfriend. She could see the agitation building on his face, especially when she called him “Sir” instead of “Daddy.”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I quit that job weeks ago.”
“Weeks ago?” she exclaimed, not understanding what he was saying. “You quit weeks ago? How could that be true when you’ve been going to work every day?”
“Look, I make more money with you on the streets than I ever could at that bank, shorty. It’s time for us to tighten up.”
“What do you mean tighten up?” Strawberry’s voice rose, and she didn’t even know it.
“Everything all right out there, Daddy?”
The voice caught Strawberry off guard, and she looked from where Sir sat across from her, to the hallway of their home, and back at him.
“What was that?” she asked with a confused expression.
“Come on out here, Sugar. You too, Spice!” Sir called down the hall and then focused his attention back to Strawberry. “Like I said, I’ve been working. I want you to meet a few people.”
Two black women came from the back room. Both had on nothing but bras and panties with long weaves hanging down their backs, but that was where the similarities stopped. One of them was tall and light skinned with slanted eyes and puffy pink lips. She was almost as thick as Strawberry, but not quite. Her cute face and voluptuousness was the perfect distraction for her crooked teeth. The other girl was short and had skin the color of toffee. She was flat chested with wide eyes and a wide nose, but her teeth were straight. She wasn’t that cute in the face, but her ass was fat and jiggled at any slight movement she made.
“Who the fuck are they?” Strawberry demanded when they took their positions in the large kitchen of the apartment.
“I’m Sugar,” the light-skinned one replied.
“And I’m Spice,” the other followed.
“I’m not asking you, hoes,” Strawberry barked and turned back to Sir. “I’m talking to him.”
“‘Him’ couldn’t certainly be me,” Sir said calmly placing his Glock 9 mm on the wooden tabletop. “Nah, there ain’t no way you’re talking to me like that. Like I won’t repaint these walls with your blood? Nah, can’t be talking to me.”
Seeing the gun made Strawberry quickly change her approach, but there was still a hint of salt in her voice.
“I’m just trying to figure out who these girls are in our home, that’s all, Daddy.”
“These are my new employees,” Sir told her like it was nothing. He finished his burger and tossed his trash in the waste bin next to the kitchen counter. “They’ll be living here now.”
“Living h-here?” Strawberry pointed her fingers to the ground for emphasis. “And what do you mean new employees?”
“If you ’sposed to be the bottom bitch, you a little slow,” Spice said with a chuckle. “We all finna get this money together, baby.”
“Exactly.” Sir stood up and went to stand behind the girls. He put a palm on each one of their asses and sque
ezed. “Mmm. I can’t just have you out there working them streets alone, Strawberry. There is only so much you can do in a day. I need more hoes in more places.”
Strawberry was appalled, and she now knew why Sir didn’t want her to walk to the back room when they’d first got home. She felt tears well up in her eyes so quickly and glared at Sir. Sir had never referred to her as his “ho.” He always called her his “business partner.” On top of that, she couldn’t believe that he was really in front of her fondling Sugar and Spice like that.
“This isn’t . . .” Strawberry stood up and shook her head feverishly. “This wasn’t the plan. You said that this would only be temporary, not forever! Now, you’ve quit your job and are trying to bring in more girls.”
“Plans change,” Sir told her. “And this is the change, and you’re going to be OK with it.”
“But I’m not OK with it,” Strawberry told him with tears falling from her eyes. “I don’t want them here in the home that I built!”
“Sugar, take Spice back in the room y’all will be staying in,” Sir instructed.
His tone was low and deadly. Neither woman opposed. As they walked by Strawberry, she caught their pitiful looks and wanted nothing more than to fire off at them. She glared at them until they were in the room down the hall and the door was shut.
“Are you fucking them?” Strawberry asked.
“I would be a horrible pimp if I didn’t test my product.”
“Oh my God,” Strawberry sobbed. “I hate you! How could you do this to me?”
“Do what to you? Fuck another bitch? Strawberry, you let niggas run up in you all day. How could you really expect me to stay faithful to you? I mean, look at you, plus that pussy lost its grip a long time ago.”
“I fuck other people because you ask me to! I don’t do it because I want to! I do it because I love you!”
“And I love and appreciate you for that,” Sir shrugged her tears off. “But it’s time for new blood, Strawberry, so you’re either in or out.”
“Are you going to fuck them again?”
“Yes.” He didn’t even think about what she asked. “Whenever I want.”
“Then I’m out.” Strawberry turned her lip up and tried to storm past him. “I should have left a long time ago! I hate you!”
She opened her mouth to scream at him again, but she didn’t get the chance. Sir’s hand was wrapped tightly around her throat, and he pushed her until her back was against the front door. He choked her and watched her struggle for a few moments before he spat in her face.
“I own you. I could kill you right now and bury your body, do you know that? Who would come looking for you?”
Strawberry couldn’t answer. Her hands clawed away at his because he’d completely cut off her ability to intake oxygen. She tried to focus on something to keep her from blacking out, but the only thing that caught her attention was his baritone voice in her ear.
“That’s right. Nobody. You are my property. I own you until I say you can leave. But you know what? You can go. Get the fuck out and don’t come back, bitch.”
Sir released her, and she dropped to the floor coughing, holding her neck. Strawberry put her forehead on the floor sobbing through her coughs. She waited for the dizziness to leave her head before standing up and heading to her bedroom to pack her things.
“Nah,” Sir grabbed her by the arm and threw her back toward the door. “You ain’t taking shit. Everything in this mothafucka is mine. Including those two bitches in the other room. They’re in, you’re out.”
“Noo!” Strawberry tried to dive toward the hallway, but he caught her.
“Strawberry, you’re embarrassin’ yourself,” Sir told her, dragging her to the front door. “You just said you hated me and that you weren’t rocking with me anymore. That’s cool, but you gotta go. I’m sure it’s a whole bunch of niggas out there who would house you, if you ain’t fucked ’em already, that is. Get out.”
Strawberry yanked away from him and stood to her feet. She was broken, and her pretty braid had come unraveled. She knew she looked like shit, and that’s not how she wanted to go into the world. She didn’t have anywhere to go. She’d lost all her friends years ago. Plus, all she had on her was the fifty dollars she had hidden in her bra. Sir was growing impatient and knowing him, he would lift her up and throw her out any second. She didn’t have a choice. She had to stay.
“Fine,” she told him. “I’ll get with the program.”
“I thought you would change your mind.” Sir closed the front door and locked it. “Go in the back and get ready. You look like half a penny. You and the girls have a big party this evening.”
Chapter 2
Strawberry sat in front of the vanity mirror in her room and studied her reflection. She was what most called “drop-dead gorgeous,” and there was a time that she too believed that. Men and women used to admire her when she walked by them and give her nice compliments. Now, the men just asked how much twenty dollars could buy them, while the women looked down their noses at her. East Memphis was big, but not that big. Everybody knew who she was and what she was about . . . except they were wrong. She was still a woman with goals and dreams. She just didn’t know how to get to them anymore. She dropped out of college in the middle of her junior year, so she never got her degree. All she ever wanted to be when she was younger was an elementary school teacher, but that got cut short the moment she laid up with Sir.
Most days, Strawberry was happy. She lived comfortably and always had everything she needed at her fingertips. However, whenever bad things happened, she was reminded the cost she paid to have all that she desired. Like right then, she was staring into her own eyes wondering if it was ever even worth it at all. No matter how pretty she was on the outside, Strawberry felt like trash on the inside. She was used goods, and Sir never let her forget it.
Strawberry finished applying her last layer of lip gloss, grabbed a black clutch from her side of the closet, and left the room to show Sir that she was ready. She wore a black velvet strapless dress that embraced every curve on her body. The high bun on her head and the four-inch open toe ankle strap heels set off her entire look. Strawberry’s edges were slicked to the gods with a curly q on each temple.
“Sir,” she said as she walked down the hall, “I’m re—”
She expected to find him sitting in the living room waiting for the girls. Instead, she saw him when she stopped in the doorway of the second bedroom. She was frozen at the scene she was watching. He was perched at the foot of the bed and Spice was on her knees in front of him, sucking his long, hard dick. Bent over on the side of them was Sugar, with her dress hiked up and shaking her ass like he was throwing dollar bills. Sir had his arm outstretched so he could play in her pink opening while Spice pleased him. He finally took notice of Strawberry standing there and grinned at her.
“You ready, Strawberry Shortcake? Let me bust this nut, and we can be out.”
Strawberry turned around before he could see the look of disgust on her face. Biting back her tears, she sat in the living room like an obedient pet waiting for her master. It took almost five minutes to hear Sir’s low grunt that signified he’d reached his climax and another five for the three of them to come from the back.
“Let’s go get this money!” Sir was smiling like a new man when he tucked his gun and grabbed his car keys. “I got some ballers lined up for you hoes tonight!”
He wore a True Religion outfit, black jeans and a white shirt with a black emblem. On his feet were a pair of all-black Nike Air Max Classics, and in his pocket there was a wad of cash. His gold chain was what set all of his outfits off. It was something Strawberry bought him long before she was doing what she was doing. She’d used her entire school refund check to buy it for him, and he always rocked it proudly. At that time, Strawberry wanted nothing more than to rip it from around his neck, but she followed him out the door instead. She was the first one in line. She wanted Sugar and Spice to understand that their
place was always beneath hers.
Sir was taking them to a newly built nightclub not too far away from the house called Cold Diamonds. It was opening night, and all the ballers and shot callers would be in the mix. When he pulled into the parking lot, it was so deep that he almost wasn’t even able to drop them off at the front. The line was out the door, and the music was bumping so hard that the windows in the Cadillac vibrated.
“Listen, this shit is serious. Now that it’s four of us, we’re gon’ need a bigger spot. I need each of you to bring me at least a stack tonight, and I don’t care if you gotta work all night to do it, understand?” Sir looked all the girls square in the eyes and waited for them to nod their heads. “If he don’t look like he’s working with at least five stacks, don’t waste your time. Call me if you need me to come get you in the morning. If you come home without my money, I’ma hurt you. Bad. Now get out.”
With that, he unlocked the doors to the car, and that was their cue to get going. Strawberry got out of the car first and didn’t wait for the other girls. She skipped the long line and ignored all the catcalls she was getting. The bouncer of the club was one she knew well. She’d never slept with him, but he knew what she was about.
“Wassup, Clay!” Strawberry said smiling big at him.
When he heard his name get called, the big man turned around to see who had said it. When he saw Strawberry standing there, he playfully clutched his chest and gave a playful gasp.
“Mmm mmm mm! Strawberry!” he said smiling and making his thick mustache turn upright. “You look better every time I see you!”
“Thank you, baby!” she replied. “You gon’ let me in this bitch or what?”
“You already know ain’t no party unless you add some strawberry in the mix! You still fucking with that lame-ass nigga you always with?”
Strawberry’s smile wavered slightly, giving him his answer. He looked over her shoulder, and sure enough, Sir was still parked, watching Strawberry like a hawk.
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