Dope Boys and the Women that Love 'Em (7 page)

“
Uh yeah, I’m good.” she responded while watching him walk into the bathroom. Not wanting to think anymore about it, Chloe quickly found her purse and secretly called Georgia Power to clear the entire bill.

It
was now Saturday morning and Russell sat on the front porch catching the early morning breeze that seemed to ease his thoughts. He knew what he had to do, but still wasn’t too happy about it. He’d rather have his own connect and do his own thing than have to go through Malcolm.

It was a great feeling for them to both be doing the damn thing, pretty much on the same level, and having their own right hand men
and their own connects. It was even nicer to come together on a legitimate business deal with the lawn care service; each being able to put up half of their own money to get the equipment needed, as well as, being able to put a couple of guys on the payroll.

Each was the boss
in their click, and now his best friend of twenty-six years was now going to be his supplier if he didn’t think of something else quick. Things were going to change and he didn’t like it, but he was going to have to get used to it being that he had no other choice. Malcolm was the only one who could front him what he needed without hounding him and he knew that fucking with Malcolm would get him that uncut shit. Other fella’s in the streets were stretching the hell out of theirs to make more profit. He’d rather quality over quantity any day and that’s what he and Malcolm were known for.

The newspaper delivery boy r
ode by on his bike and threw the paper in the driveway. It distracted Russell from his thoughts as he got up to walk out in the yard and grab the paper. No sooner than he could stand up straight with the paper in his hand, Chloe hit the corner jogging. Russell felt himself gazing at her like she was running in slow motion. Her ponytail was blowing lightly in the wind and her thick thighs caught his attention as she made her way closer to him.

“Hey what’s up?” He spoke, not wanting to just walk off like he didn’t see her coming.

“Hey Russell,” she spoke in between heavy breathing then slowing her pace to stop.

“I see you’ve been jogging the block for the past couple of days.” He said making small talk.

“Yeah, I’ve actually been jogging for quite some time. I just started taking this route because of the hill.”

“Oh yeah,
” he said thinking about it. “That hill will wear your ass out.” He joked causing her to laugh.

She nodded in agreement. “Yes, it will. I’ve not trimmed these thighs like this just by speed walking a leveled road.”

“Yeah,” he commented, wanting to say
yeah I see
, but those thoughts stayed inside his head. She smiled at him, because it was funny to see how much he and Lance favored even though Russell had a bald head and Lance still had hair. With Russell’s bald head; his eyebrows, eyelashes, and mustache gave him this darker outline that certainly made him look very handsome. He and Lance was the same smooth, peanut butter color and they seemed to be of the same height to her.

“So where’s Tammy at? I’m surprised y’all are in town.” She teased, b
ut certainly envying how he had always taken good care of his woman and kids. For one, she can’t ever remember a time in six years of being with Lance that Tammy ever worked. All she had to do was take care of home and he would take care of her; along with other women too she’d heard.

“She drove over to her mama’s to drop off the girls. Every Saturday she gets her nails and toes done early in the morning
because she’s too impatient to get caught up in that afternoon crowd.”

Chloe smiled. “I feel her.”

“Where’s my brother at? I bet he’s probably still in bed.” He said, looking down at his expensive Marc Jacobs watch noticing that it was only a little after nine o’ clock.

“Yep, you obviously know him
very well. He’s like sort of like Tammy, he has a schedule too, but that of sleeping in late on his Saturdays.” Russell grinned. “I’ll get home and take a shower and eat a little breakfast before he gets up.”

“Oh trust me, I know him.” Russell commented
thinking that every since they were kids, Saturday was always the first day of the weekend for Lance and since he didn’t have to wake up early for school then he was going to always sleep in late on that morning.

“We
eeell,” she dragged, looking over his nice physic as he stood there in a pair of navy blue, plaid pajama polo pants, a white wife beater and a pair of navy blue suede polo night slippers. He looked like a very attractive, laid back dope boy.

“Yeah, you better get on about your way. You don’t wanna lose your momentum.” He said
feeling uneasy for admiring her beautiful dark complexion and cute face. Even though her English was clear he could still hear a bit of her Barbados accent and it was very sexy.

“You’re right, but i
t was good seeing you,” she said feeling like even though she was dating his brother they never hung out like that. Tammy wasn’t exactly her cup of tea. She didn’t know her too well, but what she did know about her seemed to be of a high class, stuck up bitch and she didn’t hang around women like that.

“You too,” Russell stated, heading back toward his porch, but
in his peripheral, he continued to watch her sexy figure as she jogged down the street.

Russell
could hear the booming speakers and loud pipes on Malcolm’s truck, causing him to turn around to see him coming down the street towards his house. He pulled up in the driveway and switched back the ignition, leaving Jay Z to wake up any neighbors who were planning on sleeping in late like Lance.

“Damn, are you tryna make a bitch call the law?” Russell asked over the music. Malcolm laughed then
turned down the music. Russell walked up on the porch and sat down. He knew his boy would follow suit. Even though he wasn’t prepared for what he was about to negotiate he pushed his pride aside because this was his only way of coming back up.

Malcolm stepped out of the truck and walked up on the porch. They
gave each other dap thenMalcolm sat down in one of the lounge chairs across from Russell.

“You up early playa,” Russell said. Malcolm smiled at him. “What’s going on with you this morning man? You act like you got some juicy shit on your mind.”

“You can say that.” Malcolm stated already having figured out how he was going to come at Russell to take the bait.

“It must be good how you over there cheesing like a chessy cat.
” He laughed.

“I got something huge for you that can more than help you get back on top of your game.”

Russell sat up straight. “Shit I’m all ears,” he stated feeling like he may not have to ask Malcolm to supply him if he had a better plan.

“You know I went and hollered at my connect on Thursday right?”

“Right.”

“Well, she lost
a key player a few months ago and needs a permanent replacement.”

“Oh yeah,” Russell spoke with interest.

“So you know I spoke highly of you in hopes that she’d wanna give you a chance to work with her too. See, what I was thinking is that you would still have your own supplier and still get the same grade of blow that you’re used to getting. Plus, there should never be any conflict between us. You’ll deal with my connect, hopefully soon to be our connect, on the terms she set for you and I’ll continue to deal with her on the terms that’s set for me.” Russell nodded his head like he was agreeing that it didn’t sound like a bad idea.

“Think about it. You wouldn’t have to make any more trips to Florida crossing state lines. You’ll be n
o more than three hours away or closer to home.”

“Sounds good,” Russell said already sold, but wanting to play his part like he was still thinking about it.

“Plus, you’ve been doing this shit for six years and I must say that you’ve kept your nose clean, but with my connect, she’ll make sure that you never get in trouble. How do think I’m always able to alert you of certain things like the folks being in town or who not to fuck with.”

“Yeah, I know. I’ve always said that she was serious.” Russell commented.

“So what you wanna do fam? I need an answer soon. If you say yes then she is meeting us in two weeks.”

“When in two weeks?”

“Friday, May 1
st
.” Malcolm confirmed.

“Oh okay, I wanted to make sur
e that it wasn’t on my daughters’ birthday. So, that’ll be perfect timing because it’ll be the day before their party.” He smiled feeling relieved. “I can make some things happen now.”

“So is that your way of telling me that you’re in?” Malcolm asked.

“Yeah buddy.” Russell said causing Malcolm to share the big smile.

“I’m telling you fam. We’re still gonna run our own blocks and
we’ll still be partners in business. There should be no reason for us ever falling out. We know our boundaries and what lines not to cross.”

“You’re right about that. I’m excited about this new venture.” Russell informed his best friend.

“Me, too,” Malcolm stated. “Well, I feel pretty good now. Le’me make my way back to the house. I’m taking Diamond and Amber out for the day. We’re going to Atlanta.”

“Oh you’re riding out to the
A, huh?”

“Yeah, I’m stopping by and pick up my son while I’m up there. We’re gonna hit up the Aquarium followed by a few games and good eating at Dave and Busters.”

“Ain’t nothing wrong with that. I think it’s great you’re spending time with your family. I need to do something with Tammy and real quick because she’s still upset with me about what happened in Florida. You know anytime she’s pissed about anything new it always brings out everything old; especially the women I used to fuck.”

“Shit, I can imagine.”
Malcolm said knowing that his best used to be the biggest player in Augusta to be a married man.

“
I’ll have something nicely planned by the time that she returns from over her mama’s house.”

“Yeah, you have to keep your house in order Russ. No matter what you do in the streets; make sure that wifey is taken care of first.”

“You know I don’t do it any other way. I just would get caught up with them simple minded bitches calling my phone in the wee hours of the morning and shit; then having her ass checking my phone bill wasn’t helping. That’s why I decided to start paying all the bills myself. Now, all she has to do is keep the house in order.”

Malcolm smiled. “You know the ropes and honestly it cost to be the boss. If you wanna run your house then you need to be the provider in everything. Yeah, they can talk shit about things they don’t like but nine times out of ten they already know that they won’t get taken care of like that from nobody else.”

“You’re right,” Russell agreed. “Aye man, before you leave I need another favor. Call it a loan or whatever; I’ll make sure you get it back.”

“What’s that fam?” Malcolm asked.

“You know Tammy is hounding me about this trip that we planned two years ago and you know I don’t have it like that right now. She wants the money in her bank by today and I need an extra two thousand because she went shopping on my ass the other day.”

“Oh she was blowing off some steam, huh?” Malcolm asked already knowing Tammy very well. They all went to school together and since Tammy stayed stuck to Russell for so many years she became like a sister to him.

“Yep, she got me.” He confessed.

“Say no more. I’ll stop back by on our way out. I got you.” He said giving
Russell dap.

“Preciate that Bro,” Russell said, already knowing that Malcolm had his back no matter what and vice versa.

Malcolm walked out to his truck and got inside. He turned his music back up with his system thumping at full volume as he backed out of the driveway. The loud noise from his exhaust pipes sounded off as he took off around the block. Russell grinned to himself because that was always his signature. A nigga could hear him coming a mile away most times.

__________

Chloe walked inside the house. She was dripping sweat from her
forehead and the fitted tank she was wearing was wet. She walked through the nice sized remodeled kitchen and straight down the hallway. Sure enough, Lance was still sleeping like a baby.

She went inside her dresser drawers and pulled out a nice comfortable strapless cotton dress. It was her Saturday and she was going to relax a little. She looked over at Lance and smiled. She was happy to have him in her life. She just wished that he’d be more upfront about telling her that he couldn’t handle everything right now. His problem was that he hadn’t ever been in a relationship with a woman that made him want to take care of her, because all of his past women took care of him. Now that he was with her and could see himself staying there, he wanted better. He wanted to be a better person for her. After idly sitting back
while serving his time, he watched his brother handle himself like a man while taking care of his household; it started making him want to do the same.

Chloe knew he had good intentions and she wanted so desperately to allow him to be that man, but if he needed help she
didn’t mind stepping in to support him. That’s what real women did for the love of their man. She sighed then dug down inside her drawer and grabbed her birth control pills. She took one, quickly swallowing it and headed inside the bathroom to take a nice hot bath.