“Oh, that’s so deep, Eric. That’s really thoughtful. You can tell you’re a great man. Great men think great things. I wanna be your sexy mama,” Josephine gushed, then gulped.
“No matter what, you just gotta be real. The world needs more real people, less unreal people.”
“I agree with you. You’re so beautiful when you smile. You should smile more often,” Josephine said, gulping more of her drink.
“Like you. You want to do breast augmentation, but do you really need it? You’re making the most of what you got. You walked in here and you can just see all the guys staring at you,” Eric said with a slur and Josephine winked.
“Thank you. I just wanna please you Eric.”
“It was so amazing how quickly you got here,” Eric said, downing another glass.
“I’ll do it for you. Go anywhere, do anything, if you ask.”
“See. I might need to take you up on that one day.”
“I’ll be there,” Josephine said and touched glasses.
About three in the morning, they had finally finished the bottle. Eric decided to leave and paid the tab. Both were drunk and Eric left the car in a parking lot. They caught a cab to his apartment. She struggled with him and they staggered into the building, hugging each other. Josephine couldn’t hold her liquor and threw up in the elevator. She continued vomiting inside the apartment.
“I didn’t eat anything,” she offered meekly when they were inside the apartment.
“You should’ve said sump’n earlier,” Eric said sleepily. “There should be food in the refrigerator.”
Eric was already half asleep before she went off to the bathroom to clean herself.
“Do you want coffee, tea or me?” Josephine said. A few minutes later, she returned to hear him snoring loudly. Eric was knocked out on the sofa. A smiling Josephine snuggled up next to him and joined him in slumber.
CHAPTER 14
He awoke with Josephine’s naked body glistening in sweat on top of him. She was riding his piss-hardened dick and grunting. Eric was still groggy from the alcohol. He checked the time on his watch. It was eleven in the morn and Eric was due in the studio. Josephine was moving her hips and having a love session all by herself. Her body was shiny from the sweat. Eric wanted to move but the back of her silhouette cast doubts in his mind. He smiled, shaking his head while admiring her rotating, round ass. Eric reached forward but changed his mind about touching her.
With her back to him, Josephine was unaware he was awake. He closed his eyes when she changed position and pretended he was asleep. Grinding and pulling at her hair, Josephine moved her body faster. Eric held his eyes closed as he heard her grunting. Josephine threw her head back as her body quivered.
“Oh… oh, oh my God!” she screamed with her eyes tightly closed and rubbing her thighs.
“Breakfast?”
“Oh snap! I didn’t know you were up,I mean awake, Daddy,” Josephine said while seductively biting her lips. “I would’ve done it slow motion for you.”
“No need for all that. I got to be in the studio. My arm hurts anyway,” Eric said.
“Your arm is hurting, Daddy?” Josephine asked while massaging his package.
Eric tried to push her off but was offering least resistance when she introduced her lips to his member. Josephine slid her tongue over the crown and Eric eased back down. She popped his head between her moistened lips and he was ready for an encore. He grabbed the back of her hair and she went downtown.
It was after one in the afternoon and Eric arrived with Josephine at the studio. He put the black Phantom in a parking lot and headed straight for the studio.
“Aren’t you gonna feed me?” Josephine asked.
“I don’t have time. I have to be on the grind.”
“Damn! Slap a bitch, why don’t you. Because of you, I need a new phone,” Josephine said, holding Eric’s hand. Eric gave her a puzzled look and shook her off. Josephine held onto his arm.
“Ouch! C’mon, girl it was only a knick but it hurts like hell when you do that to it. Stop grabbing up on my arm like you own me,” Eric said.
“I’m trying to put you in a sleeper hold, Daddy. I wish you could spend time with me. We could do sump’n together all day. We could go shopping and lay around like broccoli, all day,” Josephine said dreamily.
“I ain’t got time to waste with you like that.”
“I wish I could put you in a bottle. I’d keep you on my table until I’m ready to use you again,” Josephine said dreamily.
“No such luck, huh?”
“Can we get sump’n to eat at least. Please?”
Eric remained silent.
They entered the elevator and got off on the twelfth floor. Josephine lagged as Eric walked quickly to the recording studio. The team of Showbiz, Silky Black and Lord Finesse was already there with the studio engineer, Reggie. The musicians were being entertained by two young women who Eric had never seen before. The smell of weed lingered in the lounge area. He walked over and greeted the group sitting in the sofas.
“What up? Everyone’s good?” Eric asked.
“Yeah, no doubt,” Showbiz answered.
“What up E.?” Silky Black greeted Eric with a handshake and hug. “Good to see you, my brother.”
“E., what’s poppin?” Lord Finesse greeted.
“Big things, big things. Sorry I’m so late,” Eric apologized.
“It’s all good. We already laid down some tracks for you to listen to,” Showbiz said. “Plus we got a text apologizing already.”
“I didn’t text you,” Eric said, glancing quickly at Josephine. “I look forward to previewing those tracks,” he added. He made a note to himself to talk to Josephine about sending messages from his cellphone.
“Your girls, Tina and ah…” Showbiz started but couldn’t remember both names.
“Kim,” Kim said.
“Yeah, Kim. They’re funny as hell,” Showbiz continued.
“Your girls?” Josephine asked Eric.
“My girls?” Eric said, confusion written all over his face.
“I’m Tina Torres and this is Kimberly Jones. We’re the girls referred by Max Soto. We were supposed to meet with Eric Ascot here at ten this morning.”
Josephine cautiously eyed Tina and Kim. Both were dressed in short skirts and blouses revealing way too much cleavage. She tried to remember where she had encountered their faces and listened carefully.
“We didn’t get a text,” Kim smiled.
“I’m so sorry. Why didn’t you tell me this from the jump, Reggie?” Eric asked.
“I was about to tell you but you never gave me a chance,” Reggie said with a shrug.
“C’mon man, you’ve got to be sharp instead of trying to get high. Josephine, come here a second. Please take our guests to the lounge area. Did you have lunch yet? Good. Take them both to lunch, alright?” Eric said, giving Josephine a couple hundred dollar bills.
“Sure. Get rid of Josephine, why don’t you? Hang with your boys. Can I have the money for the cellphone?”
“Don’t you have insurance for it?”
“It’s on my mother’s plan and I don’t feel like fucking with her right about now. She’s gotten on my last nerve,” Josephine said. Eric quickly handed her another C-note.
“It’s three-fifty,” Josephine said with a coy smile. Eric counted then handed her the money.
“Do you want me to bring you back sump’n Daddy?” she smiled.
“No, I’m good. Actually, wait a sec,” he said, walking back to where the music industry’s top artists had gathered. “Anyone need anything from outside?”
“We were eating just before you came in,” Showbiz said.
“Ahight then, time’s a wasting. Let’s get busy,” Eric said, waving at Josephine. “Ringtones are the move. The future is all about learning how to capitalize on the internet. I want to produce some songs that are catchy and download friendly.”
“Once you do, it’s chi-ching, money
in the bank,” Lord Finesse agreed, giving Eric dap.
“Yeah, I hear you, I’m already down with that move,” Silky Black said.
“Sales can be just as good as album sales,” Eric said and paused as a buzzer went off. “Reggie, I told you before, turn the volume down, then load the disc,” Eric added, shaking his head, seemingly lost in his thoughts. “My fucking intern!”
Josephine walked back over to him and pulled Eric by his arm. Eric resisted but then went off with her. When they were out of earshot, she spoke in a low voice.
“You can’t hire them two. They were down with the girls who jumped me,” Josephine said in a hurry.
“What do you mean?”
“Last year, them two bitches were down with a crew of other girls who jumped me.”
“I don’t understand,” Eric said. “Do you know them?”
“I was with a cousin of theirs and…”
“I got it. You stole one of their mans and they—”
“I ain’t steal nobody’s man. Don’t hire them,” Josephine said. “They’re too ghetto, Eric.”
Eric grabbed Josephine by the arm and they walked to the lounge. Kim and Tina sat waiting.
“Ah, Josephine here told me that there’s some kind of friction…”
“We don’t have any problems with her,” Tina said. “She asked me a question and I gave her an answer and she ran off to see you.”
“There’s no problem with us. She had problems with Tina’s cousin but that was last year,” Kim said.
Eric looked back and forth at the girls, then Josephine.
“See, it’s all good,” he said, raising his eyebrow in a sarcastic sneer.
“Okay, I’ll do it but it’s only for you, Eric,” she said and touched his face. Then she walked away with the girls.
He quickly made his way to where the other producers and rappers sat in the listening room. Eric sighed loudly when he got back.
“I see you’ve been going through some shit,” Lord Finesse remarked, showing Eric the morning news.
Eric glanced at the headline from the city’s daily. It showed a photo of an angry Eric Ascot sitting with his niece, both handcuffed in the backseat of a squad car. MUSIC IMPRESARIO Ascot Hit with Stolen Vehicle Rap…Shocking DUI and Reckless Driving Charges: Full story pages 6-7…
Ascot threw the newspaper in the wastebasket. Then he retrieved it, ripped it to shreds and left it on the floor.
“The media only want to take potshots at Black people. America wants to keep us where they want us and when we show balls and rise, they send their best snipers to assassinate us. You know me I ain’t sitting around waiting for them to get me,. I’m making real moves. I’m international, influential. They can’t stop me.”
“Hold your head, E.,” Silky Black said, giving Eric a pound. “All da bullshit the law’s putting you through will soon be in your rearview.”
“I’m not stressing that. I just wanna put it behind me,” Eric said. “They be coming at me from all angles. Feel me?”
“You know I already went through da bullshit with them trying to pin a body on me,” Showbiz said.
“I’m telling you, I’m gonna fire this fucking intern and get a real engineer. Reggie is there anyway you’re gonna find the right tracks, and load them for me today or should I come back tomorrow…”
“Give me a sec…”
“Load the fucking disc and stop wasting my time!” Eric bellowed.
“What happened to the Chinese wiz kid you had up in here?”
“He’s Japanese. He started dating the receptionist, they got married and broke out to Jamaica and started their own studio.”
“Word? No wonder I ain’t seen honey the last time I was here. She had the nasty phatty.”
“Yeah as soon as she gave him some, he jumped the broom. They had a real African wedding,” Eric said to Showbiz. “Get those tracks loaded today!” he shouted.
“You sounding stressed out, dogs,” Showbiz noted. “Black, you gonna have to roll some o’ the same shit up for E., the same thing you gave to his studio engineer. I think E. needs sump’n to take the edge off,” he shouted to Silky Black.
“I brought a special sizzyrup,” Lord Finesse said, raising a jug filled with purple liquid. “A few drops will do you good, man.”
They all took a shot, except Silky Black. He pulled out a phat ounce and began rolling up.
“You know I don’t drink,” Silky Black said, twisting the bud.
“Ah nig, please stop lying. It was just the other night we were at the club and you were drinking Moe. I saw you nigga,” Showbiz said.
“Ahight, that’s Moe in da club. I ain’t no syrup supping nigga. Y’all can keep that. That shit be too strong. Made me forget my lyrics and all that.”
“Oh yeah, like the time at a certain club down in Memphis club. I know you’re trying to forget that. You only had like three shots, right?” Showbiz laughed.
“Only? My tongue got tied and my whole face went numb. I couldn’t remember the lyrics to my songs or where the fuck I was.” Silky Black shook his head and Showbiz continued laughing. Then the others joined in.
“That was some funny-ass shit,” Lord Finesse said. “You can’t handle this but that’s no problem,” he said, pointing at the godfather size blunt Silky Black rolled.
“This is all natural,” Silky Black said as he lit and puffed.
“Man, I told myself I wasn’t going to do this anymore but this shit got me going nuts right now,” Eric said, sipping. “Silky Black, pass me some so I can ease my mind.”
“Here you go, my brother,” Silky Black said.
Eric accepted the phat blunt and pulled so hard, he started to choke.
“This some good shit,” he noted.
“Black always have da good shit. I don’t normally do this but let me get a hit, E.,” Showbiz said. “So they locked you up for driving your own whip?”
“The muthafucking police rolled on me and arrested me. Worse of all, my niece was in the car.”
“Yeah, that’s fucked up,” Silky Black said. “I got a daughter and I’d hate for her going through all that fuckries for nada.”
“You ain’t heard nothing yet. After they released us, I drove out to the Hamptons to chill with her and Sophia—”
“Say word. She’s back in the picture?” Showbiz asked.
“Some kind a way. You know how women are. So we chilling and fucking last night, and some fools pop off shots through the windows.”
“Get da fuck outta here!” Silky Black shouted.
“No shit, man. They shot up the whole fucking place!”
Eric paused to toke. With the blunt gripped between his fingers, he nodded while looking on it. Eric inhaled and held the smoke deep inside his chest. He exhaled and felt the marijuana smoke relaxing him. But it did nothing to hide the emotional strain in Eric’s voice.
“Did anyone get hit?” Showbiz asked.
“No, everybody is alright. I think they wanted to send a message. I gotta be more careful. Plus it’s gonna cost about couple hundred G’s to fix all that fucking shit.”
“Word? They caused much damage, huh E.?”
“What? And I just finished fixing the apartment after that stupid-ass-nigga ran up in there and shot up the place.”
“Damn!” Silky Black said, twisting another blunt.
“I don’t know where the fuck to hide.”
“It’s your celebrity status. Ain’t too many places to hide,” Lord Finesse said.
“Fuck it. Right now all I can do is strap up and wait. The muthafucka put a price tag on my head. I’m just gonna be strapped, waiting. The problem is I’m running out of places to go.”
“Shit, you should do like Saddam use to,” Lord Finesse suggested.
“What?” Eric asked.
“You know da nigga be having mad problems, cuz he was a dictator, right? Even his best friends and family be trying to assassinate him. He be throwing them off by having doubles, muthafuckas wh
o look just like him posted up everywhere he be at. You don’t know who da real muthafucka is,” Lord Finesse laughed.
“He’s living like that?” Showbiz asked.
“Man, I’m telling you there be so many attempts on that nigga’s life, he just be having other muthafuckas tasting everything he eat and his look-a-likes be making appearances all over the place. They be fucking his many wives…” Lord Finesse laughed.
“Fucking his wives? Goddamn!” Eric exclaimed, laughing.
“That’s bananas,” Showbiz said.
“What the beat or that shit about Saddam?” Lord Finesse asked.
“The beat is crazy.”
“Yeah, it is real tight,” Silky Black said.
“I like the way you slid the guitar in. You definitely bringing it right. Whose track is this?” Eric asked, nodding to the rhythm.
“That’s one of Finesse’s joints,” Showbiz said.
“Give me some more mid-range, Reggie,” Eric shouted. “Ah yes, it just needs a little bit more bass under it. Yeah, yeah, just like that. Ah yeah.”
Music thundered through the heavy Altec speakers of the studio and for the next four hours the producers concentrated their collective thoughts on the task at hand. The beat drowned the laughter but not Eric’s thoughts. He was contemplating the hiring of models to be used to easily pass as him. Track after track continued to bang loud in his ears. The ideas about security measures influenced by Saddam’s story swirled in his head.
CHAPTER 15
It was way past six when Eric shook hands with the other producers and the studio engineers. He sat alone in a remote office at the back of the studio talking on the phone.
“Right about six-two, two-hundred and fifty pounds, brown skinned and good looking. I’ll send you photos. Get me two if you can. Money is not a problem,” Eric said. He hung up and dialed Sophia’s number. It rang through to the outgoing message. “Please hit me back as soon as you can,” he said. His cellphone was ringing and he put the landline down and answered the cellie. It was Deedee.
“Are you okay? Oh, you and Sophia are visiting Coco at the hospital... Alright hon, I’m in the studio… Love you too. Give the phone to Sophia before you hang up,” Eric requested. He patiently waited for the transfer to take place. After a few nervous heartbeats, Eric heard Sophia’s voice. “Listen,” he began, “I know you’re mad at me, but I think we should talk.”
Ghetto Girls IV Page 10
