Heart of the Hustle

by A'zayler

  Genesis looked from him to the highway in front of them. She wanted to say something, but the speed of the car had her scared to talk.

  “Oh, you quiet now? But you like nice things?” He turned his nose up toward her. “You don’t like shit.”

  “Angel, I’m sorry, baby. I’m just not ready.”

  “Yeah.” He chuckled. “I know. You show me that every time you say no.” After that he flipped his music up and kept his mouth shut the entire time they rode.

  Genesis didn’t know where they were going until she noticed the route toward his house. Well, his parents’ house. In her opinion, Angel was too old to still be living with his mama and daddy, which was why she pushed so hard for them to get their own house. Well, her a new house that he could live in with her.

  He hadn’t been too open to the idea at first, until she ran game on him about having a family. She knew Angel was the family type, so as soon as she mentioned something about having room for kids and a dog, he began contacting Realtors. True enough, it was wrong to play those kind of mind games. Genesis wanted what she wanted, and she’d do what she had to do to get it. She had a lot ahead of her, and she wanted to be ready for it.

  “Why are we here?” Genesis looked around at all the cars in the driveway of his parents’ home.

  “To celebrate,” he answered sharply.

  “Celebrate what?” She rolled her eyes.

  For the first time that day, Angel wasn’t frowning when he looked at her. Though his mad face was horrible, this one was worse. It was something along the lines of sadness, maybe disappointment even.

  “My birthday.”

  Damn. Genesis’s mouth fell open and she hurried to cover it with her open palm. She had been so busy cutting the fool all morning, she’d totally forgotten it was his birthday.

  “It’s cool. My birthday probably ain’t that serious either.” He threw her words back at her.

  Genesis instantly felt like the worst person on earth. How had she been so focused on herself that she’d forgotten it was his day? She scolded herself because she should have known. If only she’d paid more attention to what was going on with him, she would have known it had to be something special about that day for him to propose again.

  The other two times he’d proposed to her had been special as well. Once was on Christmas last year, and again on her birthday. She’d declined each time, giving them a bad memory for each of those days.

  “Don’t sweat it. If it mattered to you, you would have remembered.” He gave a weak smile. “Get out. My mama threw me a party.”

  Angel let himself out of the car and waited for her. Genesis felt so bad, she couldn’t even make eye contact with him as they headed up the walkway. She’d been so caught up in herself that she hadn’t even thought to get him a present. It wasn’t like she hadn’t known it was coming. As if things between them weren’t going bad enough, before they could even get to the front door, his mother had opened it.

  The royal blue dress flowed around Empress’s body, and a thin scarf, the same color as the dress, wrapped around her head and hung down her back beneath her long tresses. The jewelry she wore lit up the block as she smiled and waved at Angel.

  “My baby, happy birthday!” she screamed and rushed to him with open arms. “Look at you! You look just like today is your birthday.” She grabbed the bottom of his face and smiled. “Standing here looking all handsome and stuff.”

  Genesis wanted to roll her eyes at Empress but controlled herself only because she was telling the truth and because of how close to her she was. Angel was decked out in all black with labels dripping from head to toe. His dark hair was freshly cut and shining beneath the sun. Today he wore a little more jewelry than usual, and his cologne was smelling up the air around them. Genesis cowered inwardly from her carelessness and lack of concern for him.

  “Stop, Ma.” Angel laughed like a little boy, and again, Genesis found herself barely able to stop her eyes from rolling. “It ain’t that serious. I’m almost thirty.”

  Empress stepped away from him and placed her hands on her hips. “What do you mean it ain’t that serious? Why wouldn’t the day you came into this world be a big deal to the people that love you?” Empress sucked her teeth. “Boy, you must be crazy. This is one of the best days of my life. I’m going to celebrate it even if you don’t.”

  Angel was smiling so hard, Genesis could see the subtle shaking of his cheeks. “See, this is why you’re my girl.” He kissed her cheek and she smiled.

  As if on one cue, both of them turned toward Genesis. She was sure Angel had his own reason for looking at her, while it was written all over Empress’s face why she was looking at her.

  “Hi.” Empress spoke dryly.

  “Good afternoon, Mrs. Empress. How are you today?” Genesis faked excitement.

  Empress looked from Genesis’s feet to her hair before going back to her face and stopping. “Fine.” She looked from her to Angel, then back to Genesis. “I’m surprised I even get to see him today. I assumed you would have taken him on some expensive trip like he did for you for your birthday.” The disdain for Genesis was laced all through Empress’s words. “You know how y’all do. Spend money, spend money, spend money. As long as it’s Angel’s.”

  “Ma, stop that.” Angel grabbed her hand and gave it a light squeeze.

  “Yeah, Ma, stop that.” Genesis couldn’t help herself.

  Empress’s entire face changed in annoyance. “Little girl, don’t try to be funny. I already don’t like your ass.”

  Genesis heard something similar to a groan come from Angel’s throat as he leaned his head slightly to the side.

  “Y’all cut it out. Let’s just party and enjoy the day.” Angel looked from his mother back to Genesis. “I can’t have fun with my two favorite girls at each other’s throats.”

  “Don’t ever equate me with her.” Empress rolled her eyes and walked away. As she was still holding Angel’s hand, she pulled him along with her.

  Genesis stood in the same spot, giving herself a pep talk before following them into the house. Angel knew his mother hated her, with Genesis’s feelings toward his mother just as hostile. She had no idea why he continued to bring them around each other.

  “Just ignore her ass, Genny. Ignore her or slap her. One of the two will make her old ass act right,” Genesis told herself over and over as she entered the already crowded house.

  She searched the room for Angel, who was standing near the window talking to his father. Genesis could already tell this was about to be a long day.

  Chapter Five

  All grown up

  “I don’t even know why he brought the little tramp.” Empress’s voice carried over Angel’s shoulder as he stood with his back to his mother and godmother, Zulema.

  “It’s his birthday, Empress, and that’s his girlfriend. Give my baby a break,” Zulema told her best friend.

  Empress and Zulema had been best friends since the third grade and had remained loyal to one another since. They’d been through everything together; marriage, childbirth, and drugs. Just like Vinny and Empress, Zulema and Mack had been in the drug game for years.

  With Mack being Vinny’s right-hand man, the majority of the things they’d done in the streets had been with each other. Like the riders that they were, Empress and Zulema went with the flow. From California to the Southern states, they ran drugs alongside their men. Though Angel didn’t like it, he had no other choice but to respect it. His mother and Zulema were some of the most thorough women he’d ever seen do it. Black queens who had proven plenty of times that they were down to ride with their men no matter what.

  They’d dealt with fiends and cocaine bosses with smiles on their faces, never flinching in the face of danger, nor folding when times got hard. Angel had been given an unwanted front seat to it all, and he had nothing but the utmost respect for both women, which was why he was trying his hardest to ignore the way they were speaking on Genesis.

  �
�Come on now, Zulema. You know just like I know, all that trick wants is my baby’s money. If Angel went broke today, she’d be gone.”

  “I know, but that’s up to him to see, not us.”

  Empress sucked her teeth. “You make me sick. You’re always taking up for him.”

  The women’s laughter flowed to Angel’s ears and he smiled.

  “That’s my baby. He means well. He can’t help that he doesn’t have good taste in women,” Empress said.

  Their laughter brought about his own this time. Angel spun around and looked at them both. “Y’all do know I can’ hear y’all, right?”

  Zulema smiled while Empress shrugged.

  “I don’t care if you hear us,” Empress said. “You ain’t gon’ do nothing about it. You gon’ keep right on being with that little troll like you’ve been doing.”

  Angel wasn’t the least bit deterred by his mother’s smart mouth. It was what she was famous for. Vinny had her spoiled, but she was still a black woman with a mouth that could get down with the best of them.

  “I keep trying to tell your mama that you’ll learn your lesson once you go broke.” Zulema high-fived Empress as they both fell out in laughter again.

  “Let me get away from y’all two.” Angel chuckled and headed to find Genesis.

  She’d walked away from him the moment his mother and Zulema had stood behind them, and he hadn’t seen her since. He scanned the room for her and stopped when he spotted her in the corner on her phone. She was pecking away so intently that it almost made him want to check her and see who she was talking to, but he’d never been that dude.

  “Go ’head on over there, you know you want to.” A sultry voice came from beside him.

  A smile a mile wide spread across Angel’s face when he turned to the side and saw her. Angel grabbed the center of his chest when he felt it tightening. Damn, she was beautiful. Emelia, the secret love of his young life, standing there. Her chocolate-colored face and big beautiful smile were a sight for sore eyes. The loose curls in her shiny black hair cascaded around her face and rested on her shoulders every time she moved.

  The brightness from her big round eyes seemed to glow as her skin glistened sexily. Her lips were painted a dark burgundy color, with a small mole denting her cheek just above the dimple on the left side. Angel’s eyes roamed over her face before venturing down over her full breasts, small waist, and wide hips.

  Her curvaceous body had him captivated, and it was like no matter how hard he tried to push them away, sinful thoughts of her womanly essence continuously circulated through his mind. Before he could stop himself, Angel spoke without thinking.

  “Damn, Emelia, when you get thick like this?” he asked with a lust-filled smile on his face.

  She looked down at herself before pushing his chest lightly and giggling. “Boy, hush.”

  Angel grabbed her hand and leaned his head to the side, trying to observe the back of her. “I’m for real. Last time I saw you, you were skin and bones.”

  “Well, I’m eating good these days, unlike somebody I know.” She side-eyed him and rested her other small hand on her hip.

  After releasing her hand, Angel looked off and ran his hand over his face quickly. He already knew what she was talking about. Emelia, affectionately named Snow by the streets, was the queen to see these days. Being that she had been placed in a front seat to drugs right next to him, it was no surprise to him that she dove into it headfirst. Totally different from Angel, Snow had been working with the cartel since they’d graduated from high school.

  Unlike Angel, Snow was Mack’s only child, and the only person to take over all of his hard work. She’d paid attention and learned everything she could about the drug game. She was in so deep now, she practically owned Mack’s share of it all. Being the daughter of one of the originators of their cartel, her respect came without question, not to mention the work she’d put in to be the boss.

  Pretty, but cold. That was Snow. And though Angel hated to love it, he did. It was something about the roughness of her that turned him on differently from the girls he normally encountered. Not to mention the old feelings he could feel stirring in the pit of his stomach.

  “Man, go ahead with that.” Angel smiled and waved her off.

  “I’m for real. Mrs. Empress told me you ain’t trying to have no part in the good life.”

  “If that’s what you want to call it.”

  “I do.” Snow’s voice grew serious. “How could you say no to something like this?” She raised her arms and then allowed them to fall to her side. “This is our life.”

  Angel looked at her. “Nah, that’s their life. It doesn’t have to be ours.” He gave her the once-over. How could something so gorgeous be so tainted? “I don’t even see how you live in that shit.”

  “I don’t see how you don’t,” she snapped at him with attitude.

  “What I don’t understand is why everybody continues to try and force it on me. Why not train D’Angelo’s ass?” Angel fumed.

  Snow’s face soured, and she rolled her eyes. “You know damn well D’Angelo would fuck shit up.” She scoffed. “I wouldn’t trust that nigga to take my dog out for a piss, let alone run an entire drug empire . . . his stupid ass, and you’re stupid for suggesting it.”

  Although Angel wasn’t too fond of her snappy response and wanted to correct her for it, she was right. D’Angelo may have been old enough to take over, but he still wasn’t ready. An immature and irresponsible delinquent who kept shit started was D’Angelo.

  He’d been in and out of jail pretty much their entire life, which justified Snow’s opinion of him. However, as right as she was about him, right then wasn’t the time or the place to discuss it. It was Angel’s birthday, and he had no interest in ruining it by entering a debate that would never meet in agreement. To lighten the mood, he gave Snow his full attention.

  “I see why they call you Snow.” He grabbed her in a hug. “Calm your li’l mean ass down. You can’t beat my ass, so you’d might as well chill out.”

  Snow’s laughter showed her acceptance of his peacemaking. “You know I don’t fucking play.”

  “I heard. I ain’t seen your ass in so long, though, I had to see for myself.” He touched her hair and looked into her eyes, remembering the old days when she stepped closer to him. “How long you gon’ be here?” he whispered as he surveyed her face.

  Snow lived in Southern California and rarely ever came to South Carolina. She spent so much time out there working and running the streets that it was rare she got free time to vacation. From what Vinny and Empress had told him about her, she was the truth. She didn’t render any free passes.

  Niggas and bitches were getting dealt with on the regular if shit wasn’t adding up right. Her numbers and suppliers had increased in the past few months, and to say she was making boss moves would have been an understatement.

  She was doing so good, there was talk about handing her the control in Georgia as well. Snow wasn’t fucking around. Just like he wasn’t when it came to his mother and Zulema. Angel may not have agreed with her lifestyle, but he respected it. She was handling shit, and he wouldn’t hate on her for it.

  “A few days, why? You trying to go back with me?” She raised her eyebrow in question.

  Angel’s laughter meshed with hers as he shook his head. “Nah, I’m staying my ass right here until I finish school.”

  “Oh, that’s right. This is your last year, ain’t it?”

  Angel nodded.

  “I don’t know why you trip so hard on me. We’ll both be pushing drugs.” Her smile was infectious, and so damn pretty.

  Angel found himself smiling again. “Well, the kind of drugs I push help people and won’t have me either dead or in jail.”

  “It’s life.” Her tone was back cold.

  The tone of her voice did things to Angel that he couldn’t explain. It was like the seriousness made him feel disloyal, or something frowned upon like that. To hear how seriously she
took their families’ choice of business made him feel small. Almost fake. It was weird, and he didn’t like it. He knew Snow and had been tight with her since they’d been born, so he knew she wasn’t judging him, but it didn’t stop him from feeling like she was.

  “You have to make time to come kick it with your boy more often. I be missing you.”

  She blushed before her smile reappeared. “What you call this?” She looked around the room. “You think I came all this way to hang out with myself?”

  It wasn’t until then that Angel realized she was there for his birthday. His chest swelled in happiness, as he grabbed her into his arms. He held on to her tightly and allowed her smell to suffocate him. She was soft and smelled better than anything he’d smelled all day. Her scent was strong, yet faint and so intoxicating.

  “Damn, I ain’t even think about that.”

  “Clearly.” She snickered into his chest.

  She too was a shorty. Not as short as Genesis, but shorter than him, so he towered over her pretty much the same. Her arms were around his waist as her fingers tapped his back lightly.

  “I couldn’t let my first love’s birthday pass me by. I had to come see how much you’ve grown.” She laughed again as she allowed her hand to slide down the center of his chest. The air between them grew thick for only a moment before she lightened it back up. “For real, though, I’m proud of you, Angel. You’re doing big things, baby boy.”

  For reasons no one would ever understand, her approval meant the world to him. To have someone as powerful, feared, and respected as Snow express her gratitude for him made his day. Her respect wasn’t given lightly, so he was honored. He may have known her since she was just a kid, but she was no longer that. She was a queenpin, and her admiration wasn’t to be taken casually.