"Who are you?"
"Shouldn't I be asking you that miss?"
I let myself into Jaquan's house with my keys finding a woman sitting there on my couch which was now draped with some sort of blanket like covering.
She was this odd looking tall sister with a face reminiscent of Chloe Bailey wearing a strapless ruffled tube top and some low rise leggings with a blue swirly print. Her feet were covered in open toes spiked heels. Before I could make a further assessment Jaquan's head appeared in the adjacent corridor. He was looking at me with a very familiar expression.
"HEY MAN, COME IN HERE FOR A MINUTE!!" Yeah, he was in full alpha male mode.
"Oh Jaquan, who is this; your brother?"
"Nah, he ain't nobody. GET IN HERE BRUH!!" There was no room for discussion, so I trudged across the living room in front of this new lady of my cousin Jaquan. She definitely fit his type but was nowhere near the best I'd seen with Jaquan.
"HEY MAN!!" Jaquan palmed the back of my head snatching me into his bedroom with a loud slam of the door.
"Look cuz, you gonna stay in here until I finish getting ready." He ordered in a semi-hushed tone hand still on the knob. He'd purposely ushered me inside so his body was between me and the door.
"Why?"
"You KNOW why!" He looked serious making me smirk as I got his meaning.
"Aw come on man; you know that wasn't my fault, and you fucked Yoli anyway." It was kind of funny getting used to my own rebranded reputation after all we'd been through together. I was reminded of Rashida's reaction when she thought I might be irritated at her.
"Just stay in here." Jaquan was shirtless rubbing his chiseled torso with some body oil which made things kind of weird.
"Are you at least gonna tell me her name?"
"NO!"
"Come on, you can't hold that shit against me; I got picked just to make you angry and I only fucked Akemi because she kept coming around here talking trash. I mean, uhm yeah she had a tight round bubble back there, but hell Jaquan you guys were broken up already man."
"We weren't broken up nothing negro, and she told me you got in her back door too."
"She TOLD ME to do that shit Jaquan; did she tell you she was trying to turn me out too, huh fool?"
"Man shut up."
"What's her name?"
"I-AIN'T TELLING-YOU CUZ!!" Jaquan blurted out making me snicker as his date suddenly knocked on the bedroom door. I had a funny idea attempting to take my shirt off too, but my cousins big ham sized fist convinced me otherwise about that potential prank. He opened the door finding his tall slim thick friend sort of leaning against the door.
"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, I'm just getting ready." Jaquan explained with a dumb look on his face while she gazed between him and my face respectively.
"What you guys having a secret meeting in here or something?" She questioned with a side eye that rested on me exclusively.
I waved at her smiling as Jaquan slapped that hand down like he was blocking a shot.
"I'll be right out, go sit on the couch." I couldn't believe it but my thirtysomething cousin blocked her view of me with his own body.
His date seemed to find this funny as well chuckling as he stole a wet kiss from her pressed against his bedroom door. I squatted down looking between his legs catching a fleeting glimpse of her turning and walking back into the living room. She had a nice longish spoon shaped butt.
"Don't keep me waiting." She replied playfully.
"WE WON'T!" I yelled out loud still squatting down on the floor.
"GET YOUR BUTT UP OFF THAT FLOOR!!" Before I could move, he reached down grabbing my armpits yanking me up into the air above him like I weighed little to nothing. My head nearly bumped the top of the ceiling. I was thankful the ceiling fan wasn't on looking down at my cousin's face.
"Are we really doing this bruh?" Jaquan remembered himself lowering me to the floor.
"Hey man, we cool, right?"
"Of course, we're family Jaquan."
"Then promise."
"Promise what?"
"Promise you ain't gonna fuck my "friend" out there; just promise you ain't gonna tap that, okay?" I started giggling not believing my ears.
"Are you serious?" I shrugged at the unbelievable request from my cousin, lifetime hall of famer ladies man and serial cheater. Jaquan looked deadly serious towering over me with arms folded across his chest.
"Yeah, just put your hand over your heart and say uh, "I promise I won't fuck your lady" okay cuz? I gotta be honest with you man; before we hung out together, I never knew how sneaky you were. Man you done ran up in a bunch of females on the sly; so just promise, okay?"
"Man, are you serious?!! Your rap sheet can go around the fucking block two times over!" Before I could say more, his hand covered my mouth until I quieted down. I took umbrage with the black ass pot calling my kettle black.
"Promise."
"Okay I promise I won't fuck your friend out there."
"Cool." I was further insulted as he took an audible deep breath.
"What's her name?" Jaquan raised a brow.
"I'm not telling you."
"Serious?"
"Yup, stay in here until we gone too, bruh." I nodded having a seat on his bed tired of the nonsense and his misplaced hypervigilance.
All of the instances of me sleeping with "his women" were incidental. I only made the promise to quell the bullshit remembering how his former girlfriend Akemi thought she was "turning me out" in order to get information she ultimately found out she didn't want.
I heard through Jaquan that she was now exclusively dating white guys after the experience. I heard the loud slamming of the heavy screen door meaning it was safe to come out. The mystery woman's perfume lingered in the air. I booted up my gaming PC settling down for a casual evening of bootleg Street Fighter.
It didn't take long for me to get into a groove again mentally multi-tasking as I played my game. Rashida Sikes was now gonna be making money hand over fist, but I wasn't satisfied. There was always the possibility that she would somehow self-sabotage the bag either directly or inadvertently.
I got out my phone looking up that job she was initially trying to get using the address finding something that piqued my interest. Ms. Sikes was going on a come up trip whether she liked it or not. She was already popular on my site and the original, but I wanted her to blow up.
"I'M HOME!!" Her ears must have been ringing as the heavy door slammed signaling her arrival home since we last saw one another. Rashida appeared at the top of the short stairwell bag hanging wearily from her shoulder.
"How'd it go; did you have fun? More importantly, are there any simps lurking around Jaquan's front yard?"
"No, and uh, no fool; man, I never stopped cutting hair even after you broke out on me." I wasn't looking at her as she trudged to the table putting her satchel bag on top of it.
"Well, I won the bet, didn't I?"
"Yeah daddy; you got me beat again despite myself. For your information I'm only using the front chair at the barber shop every other day like Monday, Wednesday, and fucking Friday. It was so crazy I needed an escort to my car and shit." She was fishing around in her bag tossing out various odds and ends as I glanced over chuckling.
"What?"
"Take three steps backward." She did as I said looking apprehensive then angry when I peeled a homemade decal off of her monster butt. It was bravely stuck to her skintight back pocket with the artist's name, email and number scribbled on it. Rashida snatched the decal out of my hand glaring at it.
"Little bitch; next time I see that boy, he's getting these hands!"
"Who?"
"Some punk brought in by this hood rat; told me he was a pimp when he slapped this thing on my butt. If I knew he was doing that shit, I would've tossed his monkey ass outta that front window."
"Now don't get fired after I went through all that shit getting you that job."
"What're you talking about? This got me the job, fool!" Rashida brought her hand down slapping the cheek closest to my head.
"But your skill is gonna keep that job until you're ready to blow up."
"Blow up?"
"Yeah, I'm just getting started baby; you're getting the whole glow up treatment."
"You serious, aren't you?"
"Maybe, if you uhm, get me some praline ice cream."
"OH, IS THAT ALL?!!" Rashida smirked leaning against the dining room table, then turned her back to me grumbling. My internal alarm went off as I dropped the controller to the hardwood floor sitting upright.