Page 25 of One Lonely Night In Dubai
“Did you see when Mauricio got here?” I cut her off and got straight to the point.
“Uhhh, yeah. He came in not too long after you left, and the new girl, Erica, took him to the back. I told her you weren’t in there, but she left them in there anyway.” She was speaking fast as I looked around for Erica.
Finding her over at the roulette table, I left Kya’s ass right there and headed shorty’s way. She either knew we were talking about her, or she knew she fucked up from the way her eyes widened.
“You’re Erica, right?” I quizzed, even though I knew exactly who she was.
“Yeah, I?”
“Go clean out your shit. You’re fired.”
I didn’t even wait around for her to reply before walking off. I was in a fucked-up mood, and having too many conversations with idiots was only going to make that shit worse. Disappearing back into my office, I spent the rest of my time there switching up the code on my safe and watching the floor. When Santana made it back, I got the fuck out of there.
The next morning, I woke up to Tray’s ass calling me with some bullshit. He’d insisted I turn on the news, and the story plastered across the screen had me standing there frozen. On every news station was pictures of the white ass family who I had him looking into after their boat was found abandoned in the ocean. The police were considering it foul play once they got to their house and found Bear’s body and a pain shot through my stomach at the news. I barely even had a chance to process that shit when my pop’s name came across my screen, and I knew he’d seen the same shit. His old ass watched the news every morning, so he was well aware of the situation and was already yelling when I answered the phone.
“Why the fuck didn’t you get rid of that garbage?” he shouted, using a code since we were on the phone, and my face instantly balled up.
“That shit wasn’t mine to get rid of!” His ass was crazy as hell if he thought I was about to be doing all the work to hide the next nigga’s crime. A nigga who had robbed us no less. Clearly in his old age he had lost his damn mind!
“Well, now it’syours. As soon as those folks make a connection to us, they’re gonna be sniffing around, and that’s the last fuckin’ thing we need right now!”
Sighing, I sat back on the couch and tried not to get even more pissed off than I already was, but he had me fucked up. Not only had I been in charge long enough to know what the fuck I was doing, but he’d been the one to teach me, so his doubt was misplaced as fuck. “I know what to do. Every record is legit, man. They won’t find shit?”
“They better fucking not, or else you’re gonna have to answer tome!” he barked before hanging up with his disrespectful ass.
CHAPTER 14
BLISS
“Bliss, girl, you okay? I been tryna get your attention for a minute.” My coworker Angie touched my arm and I pulled my airpod out so I could hear her.
“Sorry, girl, I’m tired. I didn’t get to sleep ’til late last night,” I lied.
The truth was my mind was on Sosa and why I hadn’t been able to get in touch with him for days. Going from talking to a nigga every day to straight radio silence had me reeling and trying to figure out if I’d done something wrong. I could admit that the last time we’d actually talked, he was a little pissed because I’d declined another date with him. It had only been a couple of weeks, and I felt like we were still getting to know each other, but he was clearly taking that shit to heart. I simply wanted to be sure of his intentions before I opened myself up to him any more, and he was already showing red flags. I’d let too many of them slide when it came to Jordan so I was trying to do shit different with Sosa, and now it was blowing up in my face. Despite trying to guard my heart, my feelings were still hurt by the possibility that he was ghosting me over something so trivial.
“Ooh, I know how that is! One minute you’re up watching Martin reruns and eating snacks, then the next thing you know,I’m on the next season, and the sun is coming up! Girl, I be so mad!” she cracked, making me laugh.
Angie was the only one of my coworkers that I actually keekee’d with, which was why she’d felt comfortable checking on me. In the years I’d worked there, she was the first person who didn’t immediately come in being all stiff and annoying. She was a few years older than Essence, and a divorced mother of two college students, so she didn’t have time to play the usual workplace games. She was no nonsense, and I loved that about her, so we got along just great.
“That was oddly specific, Ang. What the hell you be having going on?” I gave her a playful side eye, and she shrugged as she moved back over to her station.
“Hey, I’m a single woman of a certain age, so that’s how most of my nights end, unfortunately. Hell, I just found out I’m A-sexual!” She cackled. “I been feeling tired of niggas for years, and I’m just figuring out it’s a name for it!” She had me cracking up, and my vision got blurry.
“Oh, my God, Angie! Stop!”
“Shit, after so many years of messing around with ain’t shit niggas, I’m literally dried up! I ain’t got nothin’ for these niggas!”
“I know that’s right!” Nodding, I hit the ‘clock it’ finger tap in agreement.
The way the men in my life were acting was definitely, about to have me out here with a sewn-up pussy. The sight of our supervisor had us piping down. I put my AirPod back in and got back to work, filling prescriptions. Sosa had me at work listening to Kehlani and reevaluating life. My phone was burning a hole in my pocket, ready to check and see if he’d maybe messaged or called, but since I only had an hour left before break, I was fighting the urge to look until then.
“Umm, excuse me. Can I get some help, please!” Angie and I looked over at the same time, and she quickly snapped her headback to me with raised brows. I already knew that look meant she wanted me to take the customer.
Angie had already gotten in trouble a couple of times for matching energy with unruly customers, so any time somebody came in hot, me or one of the other techs would take over. I didn’t mind since I was much better with customer relations and was able to get them calm down.
Taking out my AirPod, I made my way over to the counter, instantly noting how pretty the woman was even though her face was screwed up. She gave me Instagram baddie vibes from her long wig and nails to her thick body and BBL booty, but her attitude was taking away from how pretty she was. Forcing a smile, I rested my hands on the counter and braced myself. “Hi, how may I help you?”
“I need a Plan B!” she said nastily like I should’ve known what she wanted without having to ask, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. There were plenty of women who came in for a Plan B, but it was rare that they were so fucking mad about it. I real life wanted to know if she was pissed because she was trying to trap a nigga and it didn’t work.
