Dollar Bill

by Joy

  “Pssttt, scared of what?”

  “You’re scared that you’re gonna fall in love with me.” Hennessey paused. “And that I’m gonna fall in love with you back. You don’t know how to act about that and it scares you to death. You’re scared to let me in there.” Hennessey pointed to Dollar’s head, mugging him with her index finger. “And there.”

  Pointing to his heart Hennessey continued. “You’re afraid of what I might find. So instead of facing your fears, you wanna try to run me off with words. How many other girls have you run off with your words, Dollar? Well, I’m grown and words don’t bother me. I ain’t going nowhere.”

  Hennessey walked over to Dollar and tried to run her hand down his bald head. Dollar pushed her hands away.

  “Don’t flatter yourself,” Dollar said, angry at the truth Hennessey had just spoken. “You think you the only skirt in town? You think you the first chick to ever fall in love with Dollar Bill? Plenty of bitches love me. Love don’t scare me. So why don’t you take your one-woman act and perform it for a brother who gives a damn.”

  Hennessey put her hands up in surrender. “You win. I’m not going to fight you, Dollar. My job is done here,” Hennessey said, walking away.

  “What the fuck do you mean your job is done?” Dollar said, running up behind her and grabbing her by the arm. “Was I just some charity case, some thug you bumped into on the streets and decided to be nice to? Is that why you ain’t never said, ‘Hey, Dollar, come over to my place so we can just kick it’? You afraid I’m gonna steal your silverware or something? You afraid I’m gon’ dirty up your couch if I sit on it?”

  Hennessey could see the hurt in Dollar’s eyes. There was still a chance that she could get to him, get inside him. She decided to be the bigger person. “I’m sorry,” Hennessey said as she was swallowed up by the look in Dollar’s eyes. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just want to help you. That’s all I’ve been trying to do. I wish you could see that.”

  Dollar released Hennessey’s arm and just stared off into space.

  “Look, I don’t know where we took a wrong turn, but can we just start over, please?” Hennessey asked.

  Dollar looked at Hennessey and sucked his teeth. After giving her the once-over he just walked away. Once again Dollar was running from emotions, not only his own, but the woman’s he cared about.

  If only these bitches would just let a nigga get money first, then everything would be cool, Dollar thought. He didn’t need all this drama. Not right now, not when he was trying to stay focused.

  “Excuse me, sir, but do you have the time?” Hennessey said tapping Dollar on his shoulder.

  “What are you doing, Hennessey?” Dollar asked.

  “I’m starting over,” she replied.

  “You’re oil and I’m water.”

  “Opposites attract.”

  “You’re not going to give up are you?”

  “Nuh huh,” Hennessey said, giving Dollar a sexy smile. “Dollar, you want to be saved. I don’t know all of the demons you’re running from, but let me be your savior.” Hennessey kissed Dollar on his lips and said, “Let me save you.”

  Dollar leaned closer into Hennessey and planted a kiss right on her lips. He allowed his hands to glide down to her butt and he pulled himself against her. Lost in the moment Hennessey began to kiss Dollar hard.

  “Let’s go to your place,” Dollar said, as he pulled a hand around to Hennessey’s breast.

  “Huh, what?” Hennessey said in a dazed like manner. “Wait a minute. We just met. We can’t do this on our first time meeting.”

  “Fuck this role-playing,” Dollar said. “I want you.”

  “Umm umm. I can’t,” Hennessey said, drifting back into reality.

  “Come on, Miss Lady. Stop playing,” Dollar said as he pulled Hennessey tighter into him and started kissing on her neck.

  Those heated kisses Dollar was branding on Hennessey’s neck were setting her pussy on fire. The loud, short, deep breaths she was taking let Dollar know that she was feeling him. As Dollar grabbed Hennessey’s crotch through her pants he could feel the warm moisture.

  “Dollar, stop. Don’t,” Hennessey whispered.

  “You know you don’t want me to stop,” Dollar continued.

  “Yes, I do,” Hennessey said, snapping fully back into reality.

  Dollar stopped and looked at a less passionate and more serious Hennessey. “Fuck it!” Dollar said under his breath. “I’m not playing this games.” He turned and walked away.

  “Dollar, wait,” Hennessey said, doing a light jog after him.

  “I don’t have time for your good girl/bad boy games. I’m not a fuckin’ toy, Hennessey. Why don’t you go find some suit you work with and pull this act on him?”

  “Dollar, wait!” Hennessey called. “You don’t understand. Please don’t take this personal. It’s not that I don’t want to, I just can’t right now.”

  “No, you don’t understand,” Dollar shouted as he proceeded to the hotel and signaled the valet driver to retrieve his car.

  Once the driver brought Dollar’s car around, Dollar gave him a twenty dollar bill and got inside and drove off, leaving Hennessey standing behind, alone.

  CHAPTER 27

  Get Money

  Dollar stood outside of the salon watching Mya do some woman’s nails for a half hour before going in. He hadn’t talked to her since he had the fight about the baby with her. He knew he needed to holler at her to see where her head was at, but more importantly, he wanted to make sure her tummy hadn’t grown any.

  When Dollar walked inside the salon there was immediate dead silence and all eyes were on him. It did not take a rocket scientist to realize Mya had been telling their business. Bitches always runnin’ they mouth, black or white, Dollar thought as eyes rolled at him and necks snapped.

  “Mya, hey,” Dollar said.

  Mya pretended as though he wasn’t even there and continued putting the finishing touches, a coat of clear nail polish, on the woman’s hands she was working on.

  “Can I talk to you outside for a minute?” Dollar asked.

  “She no talk to you,” the little Asian woman hurried over to intercede. “You hurt feelings. You go away.”

  “It’s okay, Leila,” Mya said to the Asian woman. She looked to Dollar. “Give me a second. I’ll meet you outside.”

  Dollar headed back outside the shop and waited for Mya. She met him a couple minutes later. She was wearing a tight-fitting dress. No baby bump.

  “So you doing okay?” Dollar asked her.

  “I am now. It would have been nice of you to ask me that a few weeks ago. You didn’t even call to make sure I was okay.” Mya started to become emotional. “Anyway, I’m good. I need to get back inside. I have another customer waiting. Besides, I told Leila if I wasn’t back in there in five minutes to call 911.” Then she added before Dollar could respond, “Just joking.”

  Dollar smiled at her.

  “I do have to go though.”

  “It’s cool,” Dollar said as he watched Mya head back inside. Relief overtook Dollar. He’d gone to visit Mya to perhaps right a wrong. Seeing she’d gone ahead with the abortion, there was no wrong to right. He had made it up in his mind, though, that had she still been with child, he would have had no choice but to step up to the plate and be Daddy. He didn’t have to be her man, but he had to be a man for his child, if there was to be one. He’d dodged a bullet, or, who knew, maybe Mya was the one who had dodged the bullet.

  After leaving the salon, Dollar stopped off and grabbed him a submarine sandwich from a deli before going home. He pulled into his space in the apartment parking garage, turned the car off and then pulled out his cell phone to make a call. This was the hundredth time Dollar had tried getting in touch with Tommy. Her phone either rang and rang and rang until voicemail picked up, or whoever answered the phone at the club said she was busy. This time wasn’t any different.

  “Fuck!” Dollar spat upon hanging up his cell phone, t
hen getting out of his car. Not being able to get in touch with Tommy was just one more thing weighing heavy on him. He turned on his car alarm, then headed into his apartment building. As he walked down the hall he noticed a figure standing against his door waiting on him.

  Once Dollar realized it was Hennessey he proceeded to take out his keys and unlock his apartment door. Dollar had never seen Hennessey in a casual getup, but tonight she was in a nice pair of indigo Guess jeans with a matching jacket. The jeans flared at the bottom where the heel of her three-inch black ankle boots could be seen. She was tight to death, which made it extra hard for Dollar to ignore her presence.

  “So you don’t see me standing here?” Hennessey said. “So it’s like that? That’s the game we’re going to play with each other?”

  “As far as I can tell, you like playing games,” Dollar said, opening his door.

  “Come out with me,” Hennessey said. “Kind of like a makeup date. I’ve missed you.”

  “Not in the mood; got a lot of shit on my mind,” Dollar said, with his back still to Hennessey.

  Hennessey looked at Dollar and for some reason the sight of him just broke her heart. He was a big man, but there just seemed to be this little, hurt boy inside of him. That little, hurt boy was calling for her to rescue him.

  “Look, baby,” Hennessey said walking up behind Dollar, placing her head on his back. He smelled of the scent Domain. It made her want to stay there forever, or at least long enough for the scent to rub off on her so that she could go home smelling like him. “Let me take you out for a drink. No place loud, just this mellow joint I know. Please,” Hennessey said, pouting her bottom lip.

  How could any man turn down such a plea? Dollar stood there for a moment taking in Hennessey’s heart beating against his back. Her heartbeat was calm and tranquil, just the opposite of his, which was rowdy and turbulent. Before obliging to Hennessey’s request, Dollar turned around and looked into her eyes, eyes that perhaps belonged to the one person who could tame his heart.

  “I be trying to keep my shit straight. I be trying to keep my shit straight, but the world be going ’round. I said the world be going ’round, y’all,” the poet spoke as the audience was mesmerized by his every word.

  Dollar sat at the half-empty poetry spot drinking one shot of Henney after the next.

  “Slow down,” Hennessey, who had pulled her chair up next to Dollar, said to him. “You putting them drinks away tonight. You sure you’re all right? Do you wanna talk to me about anything?”

  It was almost as if Hennessey was trying too hard to get into Dollar’s head. Dollar wished he had never agreed to go out on the makeup date with her.

  “I’m good,” Dollar replied, focusing on the poet’s words, but not listening to them. His mind was off in a thousand places; those same places it had been for a while now, with a few other pit stops along the way. Removing Kera, Mya, and even Tommy from the equation, Hennessey, the woman he thought he could settle down with, even seemed to be playing games. Perhaps it was karma. The same way he’d asked himself not too long ago whether he’d played Kera and Mya or if they’d played themselves, in the back of his mind he couldn’t help but wonder if Hennessey was playing him, or if he’d played himself.

  “Sometimes I fall and I be going ’round. I said I be going ’round, y’all, ’round with the world, y’all. And I get dizzy. I said I be gettin’ dizzy and I get off track. And I be callin’ y’all, but y’all don’t answer. Where y’all at? Where my niggaz is at? I’m callin’ y’all. Answer me back like y’all be answering the wax. Where my niggaz is at?” the poet continued.

  “I’m ready to dip,” Dollar said to Hennessey, who was enjoying the poetry.

  “You sure?” Hennessey asked.

  “Did I stu . . . stu . . . stutter?” Dollar replied.

  Hennessey looked at Dollar as if he was crazy. She could tell his mind was a million miles away, so instead of lashing back at him, she decided to try to comfort him. “Baby, let’s go somewhere and talk. Wanna go to the fountain?” Hennessey asked.

  “I don’t want to talk,” Dollar replied. “I got some shit I have to do.”

  Dollar needed to get home, sober up, and start going over his plan again as his big moment, the moment that would define him as a man of the streets, was only a couple days away. This was his meal ticket to easy street for life. With this transaction pending, he couldn’t possibly give Hennessey the attention she deserved. He was liable to say some shit that would fuck up any chance of starting something real with her. He needed to take a break from her and then start fresh once his mind was back on track.

  Robbing a bank was a major step up from sticking up people. He was taking on a franchise. A franchise that was always prepared for people such as himself. There wasn’t no catching a bank slippin’. You just had to go in and set it off.

  “What is it you have to do?” Hennessey inquired.

  “What the fuck is it with all the questions?” Dollar said loudly, which made the poet forget his words. “I said I’m ready to go, so let’s go!” Dollar quickly exited the club with Hennessey right behind him.

  “You go ahead. I’m gonna catch a cab home,” Dollar said to Hennessey.

  “I drove you here so I’ll drive you back home. You’re in no condition to be trying to get home by yourself.”

  “I want to be alone,” Dollar said.

  “But I don’t,” Hennessey said, grabbing Dollar by the arm.

  He stopped and looked into her passionate eyes. Before Dollar could reject her, she began to French kiss him. Dollar was beginning to get into it before he managed to push Hennessey away.

  “Naw, I know what this is about. You just trying to cuddle and shit. You want to kiss all on me and get me all worked up and leave me hangin’. I’m straight on that bullshit.”

  “No, you’re wrong. Not tonight. I’m ready,” Hennessey said, as she grabbed Dollar by the back of his head and pulled him into her. She kissed him hard, tongue all down his throat. She pressed her breasts up against him and began to moan. She could feel Dollar’s manhood getting hard. After a couple of minutes of kissing, Hennessey stepped back with her hands inside Dollar’s and stared into his eyes.

  “So what do you say?” Hennessey asked. “You wanna go to my place?”

  “Yeah, but just to talk,” Dollar said with a mischievous grin.

  Back at Hennessey’s condo she lit incense and candles. She fixed her and Dollar a glass of wine and excused herself into her bedroom to go get out of her street clothes.

  When Hennessey returned, she was wearing a powder blue lace two-piece boy leg lingerie set. She walked into the kitchen and did a shot of vodka. She then strutted over to the Oriental rug in front of her fireplace and stretched across it. She signaled for Dollar, who was sitting on the couch, to come lie next to her by patting the floor with her hand.

  Dollar, still buzzing from the Henney he had drunk earlier in the night and the glass of wine, made his way next to her. “You sure you wanna—” Dollar said as Hennessey cut him off.

  “Shhhhhh,” Hennessey said, putting her index finger over Dollar’s lips. She showed him the condom in her hand. “I’m sure I wanna.” She then put her lips against his and began to kiss him. She sucked the taste of the liquor off of Dollar’s tongue. She slowly pushed Dollar down and climbed on top of him and began to aid him in the removal of his clothing.

  Softly Hennessey kissed Dollar, first on the forehead and then on each eyelid. Once Dollar was fully undressed they each worked on getting Hennessey out of her lingerie.

  Buck naked the two lay there on the floor caressing one another. They would hold one another for a while before Dollar would find himself below Hennessey’s belly button. Dollar did not think about it twice, nor did he hesitate before lashing his tongue out at Hennessey’s private spot.

  Hennessey laid there moaning a silent shout before finding herself in a quiver. If she wasn’t mistaken, Dollar had spelled out her full name with his tongue on her
lips. His first time going down low was undetectable by Hennessey who produced gushes of sweet juices down Dollar’s throat.

  Looking up at the high beam ceiling as Dollar caressed her, Hennessey knew it was time to give herself completely to Dollar. She had fought it off for some time, but tonight, she would throw in the towel. There was no turning back. Now, she was in too deep. She closed her eyes and allowed him to enter her world.

  Dollar had never been so nervous with a woman in his life when it came to laying the pipe, not even with Pam during his first time ever having sex. He’d been nervous with Hennessey though, up until he entered her special place. All his fears vanished. It was just something about Hennessey that made him feel faultless, that he couldn’t touch her the wrong way, caress her the wrong way. He felt like he had already made love to her a thousand times before. She was a perfect fit.

  “There’s something about you, baby,” Dollar whispered in Hennessey’s ear as he slowly dipped in and out of her, mesmerized by the sound of her wetness.

  “Talk to me,” Hennessey whispered. “Tell me what that something is. I like to talk and fuck at the same time.”

  “Oh shit,” Dollar said, turned on by Hennessey’s words.

  “What is it about me?”

  Dollar continued to stroke in and out of Hennessey while looking into her eyes and talking to her. She wanted to fuck and talk, then he’d give her just what she wanted. “That something about you is everything that you are.” Dollar plunged deep inside of her. Dollar passionately stroked his body against Hennessey’s as the muscles in his arms flexed. It was as if he was doing push-ups over her body.

  Tears began to flow down Hennessey’s face. She had fought engaging into the act of giving her body to Dollar for so long, and now it was too late to turn things around. She hated the fact that he felt so good inside of her. She hated it because it made her want him. Hennessey let herself go.

  She wasn’t afraid to hump with Dollar as she rocked her hips back and forth, forth and back. The faster Dollar went, the more determined she was to keep up with him.