The Conglomerate: A Luxorious Tale (4 page)

              “I’m Mika,” she replied using her favorite alias.

             
The bartender returned with their drinks. “That will be twenty-five dollars.”

             
Reza pulled a large wad of money out of his pocket. Evan checked it from the corner of her eye as he rifled through it. The roll of money consisted mostly of one hundred and fifty dollar bills. He found three twenties and tossed them on the bar.

             
“Hmm thirty-five dollar tips,” Evan remarked. “No wonder they think you’re such a nice guy.”

             
“That’s light money,” he said tooting his own horn. “My bad if I offended you by having my home boy stop you. I didn’t want to let you get away.”

             
“All is forgiven.”

             
“Are you here with your friends or your man?” Reza asked.

             
“Neither,” she replied.

             
“You’re alone?” he questioned with a raised eyebrow.

             
“Yes.”

             
“You wanna come chill in the VIP? It’s a little more comfortable in there.”

             
“Sure.”

             
All eyes were definitely on Evan now as she sat down next to Reza, almost every female in the club wanted to get with. Some of the girls that were already in the VIP were pissed that Evan was receiving all of Reza’s attention. They were sure to let her know with mean glares, eye rolls, and twisted lips. There was a tall, slim expensively dressed female that looked like she was about to burst in tears. She was the one throwing the most shade at Evan.

             
“I don’t think your little girlfriends appreciate me being here.” Evan told Reza.

             
“Pay those thirsty hoes no mind,” he said with a dismissive wave in their direction. “You want me to put them out Mika? ’Cause I will.”

             
“No you don’t have to do that. I like making people jealous,” she said then smiled at the slim girl.

             
Just then the DJ dropped Jay-Z’s
I Just Wanna Love You.
The club went crazy. Evan stood up and began dancing as if she were having the time of her life. And just to make the girls even madder she went over and did a seductive dance in front of Reza.

When she sat down Reza said, “
You do enjoy making people jealous with your fine ass. Aye how come I’ve never seen you around here before? You go to Norfolk State or Hampton?”

             
“No. I came up from Florida with my mom to visit my auntie in the hospital.”

             
“How long will you be here?”

             
“A week, my mom had to go home to take care of some things. I will be here until she gets back.”

             
“A week,” he downed his shot of Remy. “That gives us plenty of time.”

             
“Plenty of time for what?”

             
“To get to know one another.”

             
“You’re pretty confident that I want to get to know you,” Evan remarked.

             
“Everybody wants to get to know me.”

             
After having a few more Cosmos, Evan decided it was time for her leave.

             
“I’m out,” she notified Reza as she stood to leave.

             
“But I don’t want you to leave yet.”

             
“I have to leave now. Those Cosmos are starting to come down on me hard and the highways here are really confusing.”

             
“Where are you staying?”

             
“The Marriott, in Downtown Norfolk.”

             
“I can drop you off after we have breakfast.”

             
“Breakfast,” she exclaimed with a screw face. “What are we are supposed to do until breakfast? I don’t know you.”

             
Reza chuckled shaking his head. “I’m talking about going to breakfast now. It is one o’ clock in the morning.”

             
“Oh, my bad,” she smiled feeling a bit silly. “I’ll go to breakfast with you.”

             
Reza took a hold of her hand and led the way out. As they passed the two guys that came with him, he pointed towards the exit. The pair promptly walked away from the women that they were conversing with and followed Reza. Outside Reza made a very informal introduction.

              “These two lame ass niggas are Reggie and Stef.” he pulled Evan close to him by the waist, “This is Mika.” she greeted them with a quick tight lip smile. Evan recognized Stef as the guy that grabbed her earlier for Reza. Stef stared at her with a wide grin, displaying a mouth full of yellow gold.

             
“Damn nigga,” Reza said to Stef. “Stop staring at her like that before you scare her.

             
“My bad A,” Stef guffawed. “I was just admiring her beauty.”

             
“I don’t give a fuck why you were doing it! I told you stop eyeballing her.”

             
Stef lowered his eyes and looked the ground. Reza looked at Evan, “What you driving Mika?”

              “The silver Diamante over there,” she pointed.

             
“Let me get the keys.”

Evan retrieved the keys from her purse, and then placed them in Reza’s hand. He tossed them over to Reggie, “Y’all go by the spot. Get the Explorer, and then drop he
r whip off at that Marriott in Downtown Norfolk.”

             
Straight do boys,
Evan thought, watching them as they marched away with their orders.

Reza guided her to his burgundy Range Rover 4.6. Sitting on custom chrome twenty-two i
nch rims, it was the prettiest car in the lot. Smiling inwardly, Evan thought,
yes! I got the right one.
Out of nowhere, Evan heard a loud commotion. She turned around and saw the slim girl from inside the club charging towards her yelling.

             
“Reza who is this bitch?”

             
Evan dropped her purse and rapidly got into a fighters stance. Reza stepped in front of Evan blocking the girl’s access.

             
“What the fuck is up Reza?” the girl screamed. Her face was drenched with tears.

Calmly Reza told her.

             
“Tam, you’re drunk. You need to go home before you play yourself out here.”

             
“I’ve already played myself by allowing you to play me in front of my friends with this bitch!” She swung her fist at him.

             
Reza caught her by the arm while it was in the air. Squeezing it tightly he told her. “Hoe don’t you ever raise your hand to me. I didn’t play you! You played yourself, out frontin’ like you my girl when you not even my number two bitch.” He flung her violently to the ground. Reza picked up Evan’s purse and handed it to her. “Let’s go.”

             
“Are all your nights always this eventful?” Evan asked Reza sitting across from him at IHOP.

             
“That was nothing.”

             
“Oh really? I’ve never had to fight over a nigga that I just met,” she laughed. “So where are you from?”

             
“Hartford, Connecticut,” he replied.

             
“What brought you to Virginia?”



            
 
“A better life for my kids.”

            
 
“So what do you do?”

              “I’m an independent entrepreneur,” he smiled coyly. Evan burst out laughing
.

“What’s so funny?
”



             
“Your answer, but I’m going to leave it alone.”

             
“So what’s your story Mika?”

             
“I’m from Miami. I go to FAMU, but I sat out this semester to help my mom with our family’s manufacturing business. Since my auntie got diagnosed with cancer my mom has been running it by herself.”

             
“Your aunt is not from Virginia?”

             
“No.”

             
“How did she end up in the hospital here?”

             
“Sentara is the only hospital on the east coast with a special program for the type of cancer that she has.”

             
They continued to talk during and long after their meal. The more Reza learned about the girl that he knew as Mika, the more he liked her.

             
“What time will you be back from seeing your aunt?” Reza asked Evan when he pulled in front of the Marriott.

             
“I usually drop in on her about twelve-thirty and stay about an hour. So I guess like one-thirty.”

             
“How about doing some shopping with me when you’re done? I wanna check out that new McArthur Mall then swing up to the outlets in Williamsburg.”

             
“Sure, I’ll be ready at two.”              Reza bought whatever Evan wanted. At the end of their shopping date, the back of his Range was filled with bags from the floor to the ceiling. The majority of the bags belonged to Evan. Over the next few days, they were inseparable. Reza even convinced her to check out of the hotel and spend the remainder of her trip at his townhome in the historic Ghent section of Norfolk. His home was beautifully furnished and decorated. However, it paled in comparison to his mini mansion in Chesapeake. Evan caught a quick glimpse of the house by accident. Reza’s mother had locked her keys in the house while she took his kids to the park. He didn’t have time to drop Evan off before going to let them in. It would’ve taken too long.

             
“Nice digs,” she told Reza when they pulled away from the house. “That must be where wifey lives.”

             
“No that’s where my mother and my kids live.”

             
“If you say so,” she replied with full knowledge that his mother was there watching the kids because his children’s mother was out of town. That bit of information came from ear hustling while she pretended to be asleep.

             
Evan also knew that the townhouse was actually Reza’s stash house for his drugs and money. One of the bedrooms had a steel door and three deadbolt locks. Reza kept it locked, but one day he slipped up. While rushing out to meet someone that owed him a large sum of money, Reza left the door wide open. During the time he was out Evan went in and looked around. There were two wide black chest height safes against the back of the wall. A large trunk sat in the middle of the room. When Evan looked inside the trunk, she was speechless at the sight of at least thirty kilograms of cocaine. She closed the trunk and ran out of the room. Evan never said a word about what she saw to Reza.

             
In the meantime, Reza was falling hard for Evan. He hadn’t even had sex with her and he found himself contemplating leaving his baby mother and giving up his side chicks for Evan. To him she was worldly, classy, book smart, and street smart. Evan could fit in anywhere, unlike his children’s mother, Ladon. She was loud and ghetto. Reza kept Ladon laced in the best designer labels. He moved her from the projects of Hartford into a six hundred thousand dollar home, and put her behind the wheel of a 600 Benz. None of those things mattered to Ladon. She frequently made trips to Hartford to hang with friends from her old neighborhood against Reza’s approval. He was growing tired of Ladon long before he met Evan, but Evan was just the right motivation Reza needed to throw the towel in on their relationship. On the night before Evan was set to leave, Reza took her out to a five star restaurant on Norfolk’s Waterside Drive

             
“Mika, I don’t want you to leave me,” he told her over a candlelit dinner.

             
“I don’t want to leave you either. I’ll be back next week, before you even have a chance to miss me.”

             
“You’ll be back to visit your aunt. That doesn’t mean you’ll come back to me.” He sat a little red velvet box on the table. “Hopefully these will be a little incentive for you to come back to me.”

             
Evan picked up the box. “What are these?”

             
“A gift for you, go ahead open it.”

             
Evan popped the box open and her eyes lit up. Inside was a beautiful pair of two-karat brilliant cut solitaries set in platinum.
Lord I swear this nigga gon’ make me fall in love with him.
She quickly reminded herself,
ain’t no money in love though.