by Lucinda John
We were looking and smelling good as we walked inside Lava, which was a small strip club that stayed popping. After gaining entrance off our looks, we paid for our VIP table and started to pop bottles. A few guys stopped at our table calling themselves spitting game but got shut down quick. I was still wearing my wedding ring and La’Tissa had on her engagement ring so once they got whiff of the diamonds that cost more money than everything they owned they decided to save themselves from embarrassment.
“This my shit.” I bounced up bopping to Big Freedia “Y’all Get Back Now”.
“Let’s go fuck it up.” La’Tissa said pulling me to the dance floor.
We wasn’t from New Orleans but our bounce was on point. A few of the strippers joined us on the dance floor and we put on the show of a lifetime. I felt some strong arms wrap around my waist and from the way my dance partner smelled and the feeling of his python on my ass had me shaking my ass faster. I didn’t know this man from a can of paint but it felt good to be in his arms. When the song was over I turned around and got the shock of my life.
“Bryson!!!!” I yelled over the loud music jumping up and down.
“What’s good ma.” he whispered in my ear.
Bryson was a guy I was madly in love with growing up before there was Ronnie. No matter how hard I tried to get him he would put me down because I was too young for him. When I finally got of age and had blossomed into eye candy he went off to the army and I was building something with Ronnie. I still had those school girl crush feelings towards him, but Ronnie really grew on me grabbing all of my attention.
“It’s been a minute Bry.” I said as we sat down.
“I know little Tosha ain’t so lil’ no mo’.” he licked his lips.
“Look at you. You done got big on me.” I said looking him over.
Bryson was now built like a stallion. He had sexy muscles back in the days but now his body was more ripped and defined. His head was now bald complementing his sexy and neatly trimmed goatee. His full pink lips had me lusting something serious as I imagined them wrapped around my pearl tongue.
“Eight years of the army will do it to you.” he replied.
“Are you still in the army?” I asked.
“No, I’m a personal trainer. I own a few gyms back in Miami and I’m about to open one here hence why I’m in the club celebrating.” he smiled displaying a set of perfectly white teeth.
“Congratulations.” I smiled.
“No congratulations to you.” he said touching my wedding ring.
“Thank you but he passed before I could really enjoy being married.” I frowned.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It’s ok I’m dealing with it. What about you any wives, girlfriends, kids?” I asked.
“Nope just a few bad ass nephews.” he chuckled.
“What’s stopping you from settling down?” I asked.
“I haven’t found the right one yet.” he replied staring into my soul causing chills to run through my body.
“I’m sure you’ll find her.”
“I probably already did.” he said causing me to look down at my ring.
I though of Gunz and immediately started to feel guilty. Even though he was dead I still felt as if I owed him my loyalty, that’s why I never took my ring off. Me moving on would make me feel like I was betraying Gunz and I loved him too much to do that.
“Cute kids.” he said pointing to my phone which had lit up due to a text message.
“Thank you.” I replied looking at the picture Mama Rose sent me.
A smile spread across my face as I looked down at my babies. They were my pride and joy and I loved being a mother to them. When I felt as if life was too hard for me to bear they reminded me why I had to keep pushing through.
“Are they yours?” Bryson asked.
“Yup those are my precious little babies.”
“Wow you don’t look like you just had a baby.” he complemented me.
“Thank you.” I blushed.
“I think I want my friend back.” La’Tissa finally said finally joining us after sweating her hair out on the dance floor.
“Hey Tiss this is Bryson.” I introduced them. “Bry this is my best friend Tissa.”
“So you’re the famous Bry Bry that had Tosha going crazy.” she joked making me regret I ever told her about him.
“I plead the fifth.” he rose his right hand.
“Nice to finally meet you.”
“Likewise.” he replied.
For the rest of the night we enjoyed our night reminiscing about old times. The stories La’Tissa had for Bryson had my cheeks burning red. I couldn’t wait until we got home so I could fuck her big mouth ass up. As Bryson walked us to the car, we exchanged numbers with promises to link up again.
“Looks like you got you a new boo.” La’Tissa said as I drove us home.
“I’m not looking for a boo just a friend.” I replied.
“It’s ok to move on, it’s not cheating.” she said reading my thoughts.
Instead of replying I drove the rest of the way home in silence. When we made it there a very pissed off Khalil was sitting on my couch waiting for us. The look on Tissa’s face was priceless, I don’t know how she figured she was going to go out to the club without Khalil finding out about it.
“Who the fuck gave y’all permission to go out looking like y’all ain’t got kids at home.” Khalil asked with anger in his eyes.
“I’m going to bed I don’t have time for this.” Tissa rolled her eyes.
“No your fast ass about to go get your shit and come home!” he spat.
“We’ll see.” La’Tissa rolled her eyes walking to the guest room she had been staying in.
“Tosha come on now ma you know better than that.” he snapped on me.
“Khalil I am a grown woman that has a life and if I want to step out with my friend to have some peace of mind then I should be able to. I know y’all mean well and want to look out for me for the sake of your boy but you have to understand that I can take care of myself too.” I vented.
“I hear you, but if you ever call yourself walking out the house looking like that again I’ma break your fucking neck.” he said before storming to the room La’Tissa was in.
They started arguing so I made my way in my room and got ready for bed. My phone started beeping with a text that was from Bryson.
Bry: I hope you made it home safely.
Me: Thank you I did.
Bry: Let me take you out for breakfast, not on a date, just two friends catching up on old times.
I sat back on my bed and re-read the text. Looking over on my night stand my eyes landed on a picture of me and Gunz. The day we took that picture was the day I finally stopped playing and decided to allow him to save me from my lifeless relationship from Ronnie. I loved Gunz so much that it pained me every time I had to wake up without his heavy arms draped across my waist snoring loudly in my ear. Reverting my attention back to the phone I agreed to meet Bryson for breakfast in the morning.
I got out of bed and walked in the kitchen to get something to drink only to hear La’Tissa loud moans. Khalil was beating the little kitty up while he demanded respect from Tissa. She begged pleaded and swore to God that she would act right as he continued to bang her so hard that the headboard was beating against the wall.
“Ok now get it in girlfriend.” I giggled taking a sip of my water and walking back to my room.
Chapter 11
Khalil
After bringing La’Tissa home and showing her ass who the fuck was running shit I was prepared for my meeting with Stacks and Thug. I understood Tissa was mad about finding the condom in my car but she had no reason to be because it didn’t belong to me. The only logic I could come up with is that it must have fallen out of Wanda’s purse but I wasn’t going to tell her that. If I told La’Tissa that I had another chick in my car then she would never believe that the condom belonged to her. She would have claimed that I wa
s fucking the chick in my car and forgot to get rid of the evidence.
“Daddy when are you coming back?” Liyah wined.
“In a few days.” I replied.
“Can you bring me a souvenir back please daddy?”
“No!” La’Tissa replied for me.
“Aww man.” Liyah frowned.
“Give daddy a hug and a kiss.” I bent down.
She wrapped her little arms around me and I kissed her on the cheeks.
“I’ll bring you something small back.” I whispered in her ear.
“Thank you daddy.” she smiled, skipping away.
“Come give daddy a kiss.” I said to Tissa who only rolled her eyes at me.
“Move Khalil I’m not fucking with you like that.” she snapped.
“You wasn’t saying that shit when I had my dick buried in them guts last night.”
“That’s only because I was horny.” she smirked.
“Yeah ok. I want your ass in the house and my kids here with you. I already told my mama and your mama not to watch the kids while I’m gone. Sit your ass home and do some mommy and me type shit.” I snapped smacking on her ass. “Don’t forget I run this city so you can’t do shit without me finding out.”
After kissing my boys, I went outside where Dre was already waiting for me. Stacks called a serious meeting and he didn’t sound too happy when I got off the phone with him. Everything with the connect went well so I wasn’t sure why we had to meet again so soon.
“Wifey good?” Dre asked me.
“She’ll be ok.” I replied.
“Why you ain’t just keep it one hundred with her?”
“When can you ever keep it one hundred with a woman without her chewing your head off for lying. I could have told the truth and Tissa would have been on my ass claiming I was fucking Wanda.” I sighed.
“That’s women for ya. What do you think this meeting could be about?” he asked changing the subject.
“Hell if I know, I thought shit was straight last time we left. Man I ain’t gon lie the way that nigga was sounding over the phone got a nigga feeling nervous and shit.” I said firing up a blunt.
“Shit. I’m ready to bust these guns if it come down to it.” Dre said. “I ain’t going down like a pussy.”
“I’m with you on that.” I agreed.
When we made it to the jet pad we boarded and headed to Miami both in our separate thoughts. There was a car waiting for us when we landed that took us away from civilization. The car came to a stop and we were in the middle of no where surrounded by a bunch of trees. Stacks and Thug stood side by side like some original gangsters while they waited for us to join them.
“What’s good?” I greeted the men.
“Our money is gone.” Stacks said with a cold look in his eyes.
“What do you mean your money is gone?” I asked looking at him sideways.
“Everything in the account that is set up for you to send us our cut is gone.” Stacks repeated looking from me to Dre.
“How the fuck did that happen?”
“That’s what the fuck I want to know.” Thug finally said. The look in his eyes told me he wasn’t fucking around about his money.
“Y’all know this ain’t how we operate we’ve been doing business for a minute now and your money always been on point. I’ma get to the bottom of this for real.” I said meaning every word.
“Good. We still want our money shit we got mouth to feeds.” Stacks said.
“I will personally wire you the money from my offshore account.” I reassured him.
“Until y’all find the snake in y’all operation and behead that motherfucker we good in doing business with y’all.” Thug spat.
“Come on man y’all know we good to handle this shit.”
“We ain’t fucking with y’all until it’s handled, matter of fact send me the motherfucker who fucked with my money head in the mail then we can go back to handling business.” Stacks said before him and Thug walked off.
Their driver opened the door to the Mercedes Maybach S600 and waited for them to get in before pulling off.
“How the fuck did this happen?” I asked Dre.
“I don’t know, I personally sent them the money myself this shit ain’t adding up.”
“What about BG you still fucking with that nigga?” I asked him.
“Nah I been fired his ass. Since that little slip up the first time I decided to go back to handling the numbers myself. I put it on everything I love that money was in that account. I know better than to fuck up like that.” he defended himself.
“I believe you bruh, now we gotta figure out who is bold enough to fuck with us.” I said before being rudely interrupted by my phone.
“What man!” I snapped at the caller.
“Code red.” the caller said before hanging up the phone.
“What’s wrong?” Dre asked looking down at his phone that was now beeping.
“A motherfucker just signed the death sentence to their whole family!”
By now Dre was yelling in his phone trying to figure out who was bold enough to hit us. Today was turning out to be the worse day of my life. First somebody was stealing from our connects, then we lose our connects, and now we got hit for the only piece of work we had left. Whoever was behind this shit took the time out to carefully plan this shit out. If me and Dre didn’t hurry and get to the bottom of this shit the streets was going to be dry and folks was bound to go hungry.
Chapter 12
Bryson
I just had a great time with Tosha only to come home to my nagging ass bitch. I couldn’t stand the fact that I was stuck being with Sabrina but I couldn’t bring myself to divorce her. Although the love was clearly gone I felt obligated to her because of everything she’s done for me. If it wasn’t for her taking a drug charge for me back in the day then I wouldn’t have been able to go to the Army. Sabrina did three years in jail for me for drugs that didn’t belong to her and I felt that I owed her some normalcy.
“You just left the house only for you to walk your black ass in here to tell me you about to leave again?” she snapped.
“Come on Sabrina man chill out you know I’m only out here making moves for us baby.” I replied removing my clothes.
“Oh so coming home spelling like the next bitch’s perfume is making moves for us? At least you’re fucking with a bitch that can afford to wear Dolce & Gabbana Velvet instead of that cheap ass thot spray.”
“You do know I train women too.” I said
“Miss me with the bullshit, you and I know that those gyms ain’t shit but a cover up. You back in the game cleaning up money I’m not stupid. You barely train folks and when you do I don’t think a bitch coming to the gym smelling like a four hundred bottle of perfume!” she spat.
Sometimes I hated how much Sabrina knew. She was the big sister of my partner in crime therefore I couldn’t get anything past her. A long time ago when I decided to leave the game and go legit by joining the Army I ended up getting a dishonorable discharge for fucking my boss’s wife. Hell if the hoe wanted to go around giving up free pussy who was I to pass it up. When I came back home I had a few things lined up like my gyms, but the money wasn’t enough. I was able to get up with BG who promised me we could come up off his cousin. When I learned his cousin was fucking with Stacks and Thugs and they were seeing big faces, I was down.
“Bryson I’m pregnant, did you hear that?” she said causing me to turn around and look at her sideways.
“What the fuck did you just say?” I asked her.
“I said I’m pregnant. You are about to be a fucking father now so it’s time to get your shit together.” she said causing me to bite the side of my lips in anger.
“I thought your bitch ass was on the pill!” I yelled.
“I am, but shit happens.” she shrugged as if she purposely tried to trap me.
“You stupid bitch.” I yelled grabbing her by the throat. “You did this shit on purpose! Didn’t you?”
I screamed lifting her off the ground and shaking her.
When I felt myself crushing her wind pipe I threw her on the floor and walked over her. I no longer wanted to be in the same room as her conniving ass. She knew that we were in a terrible place in our marriage so I don’t understand how she could think bringing a baby into this world while we were barely holding on by a thread was wise. Grabbing my Nike duffle bag I packed a few things and threw on a pair of sweats and a tank top.
