If It Ain't About the Money

by Saundra

  Damn, we need Kirk is what I wanted to scream, but I chilled. “Real talk. Let’s get this money and soon.” I was hyped, but I calmed down quickly, because in reality I had no idea what we were going to do, where we were going to get a job making decent money. Racking my brain, I had a booming headache before I had an idea.

  Chapter 17

  Isis

  We had been all over Miami looking for jobs for two full weeks and still we had no luck. Even still I didn’t regret walking away from private dancing. And as mad as I had been at Secret for going behind my back doing the unthinkable, I was proud of her for walking away from all of it just to please me. But now I felt bad that she didn’t have a job at all now. She had been out every day pounding the pavement with me. Every door that closed in my face closed in hers. Not wanting to give up, we kept our heads up and a positive attitude. When we heard that Macy’s was hiring part-time starting out at thirteen dollars an hour, we scrambled our way down and put in applications. But after a week we hadn’t heard anything back. We made the temp agency our destination. We began to believe that if they couldn’t help us, then no one could.

  “I swear, Isis, if that bitch say one more sarcastic thing, I’m going to jump over that counter and choke her ass.” Secret referred to the girl whose name tag read “Tabitha” who stood behind the desk. Ever since we had walked through door she had had an attitude, and she showcased it as if she was getting paid for it.

  “Ignore her. She just mad her weave jacked up. That ho don’t bother me at all,” I said, hoping to calm Secret down.

  “That’s ’cause you too easygoing. But bitch got one more time to try it. And I’m gon’ snatch that matted rug off her damn head.” And she meant every word.

  “Are you done with your application? So we can get up out of here, Secret.” I glanced up at her, and she turned red in the face. Tabitha was really getting under her skin.

  “Yes, finally, all these unnecessary-ass questions; damn application look like the feds,” she joked. “Let’s turn this shit in and get outta here. It’s too damn stuffy and somebody borderline musty.” She tightened her nose and swatted at the air.

  I almost laughed my guts up. Secret was crazy, but she was honest. I tried to ignore the smell, but it was getting more complicated by the second. Getting back in the growing line, we waited our turn so that we could turn in our applications. When Tabitha reached Secret, Secret glanced at me and rolled her eyes. That meant she was not ready to deal with Tabitha. But she stepped forward and placed the application on the desk.

  For a moment everything appeared to be fine. I was glad we were almost finished and could leave. After watching Tabitha look over her application, Secret turned to walk away. But Tabitha said, “Umm, you need to sign the back of this application. We can only accept completed paperwork and this . . .” Tabitha held the application up with a look of sarcasm covering her face. “This has no signature, so it’s not complete.”

  Secret stepped back up to the desk. “Do you have a pen?” Secret sucked her teeth. It was clear she was annoyed.

  “The pens for clients are out in the lobby where you filled out the application. You will need this.” She dangled the paper in Secret’s face. “Once you are done, get back in line and wait your turn.”

  I swear Secret’s entire face turned bloodshot red on sight. It was about to get ugly and quick. “Bitch, who do you think you are?” Secret snatched the application out of Tabitha’s hand, then threw the application back at her, barely missing her face as she ducked. Secret attempted to jump across the counter. It took me and a man in line to pull her back just as she swung a blow toward Tabitha’s face. “Let me go, this bitch got me fucked up!” she barked and continued to tussle, attempting to break free of our hold.

  Finally able to pull her outside, I placed my now ruined application into my purse. There was no way I could turn it in. “Secret, calm your ass down. I told you not to let that ratchet girl upset you.” Now I was upset. Here I was, my clothes all jumbled up and trying to catch my breath, all because Tabitha didn’t have any customer service skills. At this point I could slap her myself.

  “Fuck that ho. Fuck her.” Secret was beyond pissed. I knew that in that moment she would not listen to me, so I let it go. She needed to vent her anger.

  “Well, I guess we won’t be getting hired up in there.” I reached back inside my purse, pulled out the application, and dumped in a nearby trash can.

  “Isis, that application can kiss my ass. Why the hell y’all grab me? Damn, I wanted to hit that bitch at least once.” She stomped her left foot. “I swear if I ever see her again, I’ll bury her and put two bricks on top.”

  That was funny; I couldn’t help but laugh. And it felt good: I needed laughter in my life. “Aye, don’t worry about a job. We can always go down to JCPenney and get hired on the spot.”

  “Get the fuck outta here.” Secret giggled. But it faded as she looked at the caller ID on her ringing cell phone.

  “Who is it?” I asked.

  “It’s Kirk ass. I don’t even know if I should answer. What you think?”

  That explained the grim look on her face. “You might as well,” I replied, but not certain it was the best idea.

  “What’s up?” She answered the call with a dry tone. I sat and waited to see what her next facial expression would be. “Yeah, but what’s up?” she asked, then silence filled the air again. “That’s cool. We are together right now anyway. Go ahead and text me the address.” She looked at me.

  “What?” I mouthed quietly so that he couldn’t hear me over the phone.

  The beep on her phone signaled a text. “A’ight, I got it.” She ended the call.

  “What’d he say?” I was anxious.

  “He wants us to come out to his crib. Say we need to talk.”

  “About what, though?” I was curious.

  “Guess we’ll find out when we get there. Let’s ride.”

  Thirty minutes later we had arrived at Kirk’s house and boy, were we both wowed. He was living like a boss. I’m talking about a mansion compared to where we had come from. All of my life I had heard about gated communities—I had even seen them on television—but nothing compared to seeing it in real life. Pulling around the circular driveway, we stopped in front of the two grand double doors.

  “This nigga out here living like Nino Brown,” Secret joked, but it was the truth.

  “Ain’t that truth,” I agreed. Climbing out of the car, we slowly made our way up to the door. “Aye, you sure you got the right address? I ain’t tryin’ to scare no white folks.”

  “Shi’d, this the address he text me.” Secret quickly rechecked her text, but Kirk opened the door before she could locate the text.

  “I was beginning to think y’all got lost.” He chuckled.

  “No, we found it fine, but we wanted to be sure this was it. We ain’t tryin’ to go to jail way out here. You may never find out what happened to us.” Secret made her way to the door. I followed. I noticed she didn’t even worry about locking her car door. I guess out here no one would steal it. In the hood she hit the locks before the car doors were shut good.

  “Don’t even play me. You know I wouldn’t send you to the wrong address. Come on up in here.” He motioned us forward with a hand gesture.

  “What’s good, Isis?” He spoke as I stepped past him in inside. My mouth all but flew open. His home was beautiful. The hallway was so wide and the ceilings so high, it was like something out of a magazine.

  Secret’s mouth was wide from astonishment just like mine. “Damn, nigga, I see who cashin’ out.” Her eyes had a gleam in them; I was certain mine did also.

  “I swear,” I concurred, shaking my head in agreement. Living lavish was the best way to describe it.

  “It’s cool. A nigga need a getaway. You know?” He played at being modest, because this was a far cry from the three-bedroom shack he and his host of brothers and sisters grew up in.

  “Well, I want to see ev
ery inch of it.” I was excited.

  After taking us on a tour of the six-bedroom, seven-and-a-half-bathroom, four-car garage home, Kirk led us outside to his massive pool. We sat at a poolside table where he had a fruit tray set up. I was still in awe. But I was also ready to get down to business.

  “Can I get y’all something to drink?” he asked. He treaded over to his outside bar and poured himself a drink. “And just help yourself to the fruit tray.”

  Secret looked at me, and my facial expression must have been what she felt. The generosity was nice, but business first. “Nah, we cool. What we want to know is why you called us way out here to Beverly Hills for?” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

  He downed his drink quickly, poured another, then returned to his seat at the table. “I brought you out here because I wanted to tell you about a new play I have for you. Now I know you still upset wit’ Secret, because when you came to me a few weeks back I was onto something different. But like I told you, I have other ventures.”

  Secret gazed at me, and I looked at Kirk. I had had no idea she was upset with him, but who knew what that was all about. What I needed to know more about was the situation at hand. I was not up to the bullshit, and I was ready to make that clear. “What is it?” I asked. He wasn’t saying anything fast enough for me.

  “Well, it works a li’l some like this.” I didn’t like the way he said “li’l.” That meant the shit was not legit. “You will go on dates that I will set up with professional athletes, on the rise rappers, or even successful businessmen. Pretty much anyone who pocket is laced.”

  “What the fuck, man. What is you talkin’ about, Kirk? Dates and what not,” Secret questioned. Like me, she was confused.

  “Just like I said, you will go on dates. The only thing is all dates will be set up out of state. So you will have to travel, probably several times a week. But I promise you the money will be worth it. And I ain’t talking no chump change; I’m talking fourteen to fifteen thousand a job.”

  That got my attention full speed ahead. Secret and I both looked at each other, grins spread across our faces as we looked at Kirk. But suddenly I could feel my own grin flatten. “Wait, what will we be doing?” I asked. I was no fool, and that much money came with a price. That much I knew for sure.

  Kirk looked at Secret first then at me, and all I saw was seriousness. “The thing is you and Secret will be setting them up.”

  “Setting them up? Setting them up how?” I sat on the edge of my chair.

  “They are going to get robbed.” The words slid off his tongue like a bullet and me the target.

  “Oh, hell no.” I all but jumped up out of my seat. “Kirk, that’s some bullshit that could get somebody killed up, and I ain’t gettin’ involved. Do you understand what position you puttin’ us in?” I looked at Secret, but her expression was blank. “Don’t tell me you down for this, Secret?” Her eyes scrolled from Kirk back to me. She dropped her head but lifted it promptly. I knew then the only thing on her mind was the money. But I couldn’t lie, as I declared I couldn’t do it. The money was still heavy on my mind.

  “Listen, y’all both know I would never put you in danger. Believe me when I tell you there is nothin’ for you to worry about.” He looked directly at me because he knew I was the one he had to convince. “The way the whole thing is set up, they won’t even recognize they’re being set up. Trust me, it will never cross their minds that either of you were involved.”

  “And all the jobs will be out of state?” Secret asked as if she was trying to clear things up, when in fact I think she was trying to convince me we were not in any danger, by clarifying Kirk’s theory. He took the bait.

  “Yeah, you will also be using fake names. Your appearance will be different. I’m going to have some real expensive wigs special made for both of you.”

  Secret stared at me, but my hesitation was still clear. She asked Kirk to leave us alone for a minute. As soon as he disappeared inside the house, she tried to reason. “Isis, I know this seem crazy—”

  “Crazy . . .” I cut her off. “This is risky as fuck. This type of shit can get us fucked up, or worse, killed.” I wanted to drive my point home. “Private dancing is one thing, hell, even having sex for money is different . . . but stealing from people. Now that’s a whole other type of betrayal. Hell, all three of us are from the hood, so we should know better.”

  “And I know all of this. But Kirk will protect us. He has our back. Like he said, our names and appearances will be different. We will be safe, Isis. You just gotta trust. I know we can do this. Besides, the money is too good to just turn down. Shit, I don’t know about you, but I want a taste of the good life. Just take a look around you.” She referred to Kirk’s house. “This is it. I don’t know about you, but I can wake up to this type of living every day. And Kirk tryin’ to lead us to it. All we gotta do is drink.”

  As much as I wanted to denounce her words, some of them for us rang true. And this was the only way that we might ever see that type of cash. It wouldn’t hurt to at least give it a try. Or would it? Reluctantly I agreed.

  Chapter 18

  Isis

  It had been three days since we had accepted our new gig from Kirk. For two of those days I watched a lot of movies to try to keep my mind off what I had agreed to do. I thought about going down to visit Felicia, because normally, when I saw her, it reminded me of the stupid mistakes in life that I should never make. For the life of me I couldn’t drag myself from the television to do it. But today Kirk of all people dragged me away when he stopped by the house and dropped five thousand dollars apiece on Secret and me and told us to go shopping. We needed a new wardrobe to hit the ground running with our new gig.

  The way he put it was we would be dating ballers, so we needed to dress the part. After we both took hot showers we got dressed and hit up Macy’s. One thing was for sure: I had no second thoughts about shopping. I had a special love for new clothes and shoes. So did Secret, so spending money would not be a problem for us.

  “OMG, I swear, I could never leave this store and be happy.” Secret beamed while picking up piece after piece of clothing. I could relate. Everything was nice; it was hard to decide on any one thing.

  “Me either,” I agreed while thumbing through some cute rompers by Calvin Klein. I loved them and the way they fit my slim body. “So have you thought about what we gon’ tell Penny while we’re away on these trips? I mean some nights we’ll have to stay overnight and sometimes two days depending on the gig. We are gon’ have to tell her something.”

  “I know, and I have been racking my brain for a solution. But the only thing I could come up with was to tell her that we were still we dancing, and that the job is out of town. That should work, seeing as how we never really told her that we quit. Besides, she’ll be starting school soon, so she’ll be busy. She might not notice.”

  “This alibi sounds good. But what about the money? We won’t be able to hide the cash for long. Penny is smart. She’ll figure something’s going on.”

  “This is true.” Secret smiled. “Can’t get much past that girl.” She shook her head. “I say we just cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, let’s focus on getting this money.”

  “Yeah, speaking of that, my first gig tonight is in Cincinnati, Ohio,” I said, clueless. “Where the fuck is that anyway? It sounds like KKK central. I ain’t got time for that.” I laughed.

  “Girl, stop, ain’t nobody down there wearing no white sheets. Calm down.” She laughed. “I feel you, but you gon’ be good, it’s up north. What are the details, though?”

  “Some dude, he’s a ball player.” I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly. “Kirk said he’ll have more on him when we catch our flight tonight. It leaves at eight, so he gon’ pick me around six thirty.” I was glad when Kirk told me he was flying out with me for the trip. He wanted me to see that I would always be safe.

  “That’s what’s up. I’m glad he decided to go along with you.”
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br />   “Yeah,” I said as I gripped the overflow of clothes in my forearm and headed toward the dressing room to try them on. I had to get a move on, because time was flying by.

  Kirk and I checked into the Hilton around nine thirty; our flight had been a little over two hours; a personal driver was at the airport waiting on us when we arrived.

  “You don’t have much time, so get dressed. A limo will be picking you up in an hour. It will deliver you to the restaurant where your date will be waiting.” Kirk gave me the run-down as the elevator stopped on the fifth floor, where my room was located.

  “Dang, Kirk, a girl needs time to pamper.” I smiled, rolling my suitcase off the elevator.

  “Aye, take five minutes to pamper yourself.” He chuckled. “For real, though, you got this. I’ll be close by, so don’t worry. Remember, be cool, calm, and collected. Everything will be fine.” He looked me in the eye as the elevator door shut; his mouth was still moving but that was all I heard.

  Wasting no more time, I dragged myself down to my room and damn near picked up my cell to call Kirk and tell him to change the time. The room was insane: plush carpet, new furniture, and a glimpse of the Jacuzzi really had me hyped. Kirk did not tell me he had rented me a master suite. All I wanted to do was get naked, jump inside, and soak. It was nothing less than a shame that I didn’t have time to chill. Pouting, I undressed and slid into the shower. The Jacuzzi would have to wait.

  Thank God the limo had a mini bar, because once I stepped inside I think I almost had a panic attack. When the driver shut the door, I almost felt like I had a date with doom. But the bar saved me, and thankfully it only took two shots of cognac to calm my nerves. Pulling up to the restaurant, I felt sure of myself and ready to do it. The six-foot-tall, medium build ball player seemed to be mesmerized by my appearance. But that was the goal: I was dressed in a black fitted crepe T-back dress, and it gripped all my assets. My feet were even pleasing in a pair of dusty rose colored two-piece heels. There was no doubt that I came to get the job done.