Wifey (14 page)

Ricky ended up leaving the house after he threw the whole Footlocker bag into his big safe hidden under our bed and grabbed his car keys. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out he was on his way to this small apartment he’s renting, since he kept saying, “Time to make the donuts.”

He used that apartment to cook and stash his coke. The only three people who knew where it was, were me, Ricky and his aunt Sharon. And that’s because the lease was in Sharon’s name and she helped him cook and bag up his stuff.

Come to think about it, Ricky done had that hideout spot for about a year and a half now. Since then, they ain’t had no problems with niggas breaking into it. Which was kinda good for him, considering all the other problems he has had with the local stick-up kids.

I, on the other hand, settled down in my bedroom and watched some TV until I fell asleep.

Game Time

Around ten o’clock the very next morning, Mr. Shapiro called me on my cell phone to give me the heads up about when me and Nikki were supposed to be meeting the Feds. When the call came through, me and Ricky were sitting at the kitchen table eating a plate of eggs and corned

beef hash I had just picked up from the Denny’s restaurant up the street.

“Hello,” I said.

“Good morning Kira. This is Mr. Shapiro.”

“Good morning.”  

“I’ve got some information for you. Is this a good time?”

“No, not really,” I told him.

“Is your husband around?”

“Yeah,” I answered, trying not to change the tone of my voice.

“Okay. Well, I’ll tell you what. I’m about to go to court because I have a case scheduled at eleven o’clock. So if you like, I could either call you back when I get to the office, or you can call me after five.”

“It doesn’t matter. Either way is alright wit’ me.”

“Okay, then. I guess I’ll be calling you back after I get out of court.”

“That’s fine.”

“Okay. Talk to you then.”

“Alright. Bye.”

“Bye.”

After I pressed the end button on my phone and looked up, Ricky was looking straight in my face. “Who was that?” he asked in a serious tone.

“Oh, that wasn’t nobody but Nikki’s lawyer.”

“What he talking ’bout?” Ricky pressed the issue.

“Nothing. But he did say that things wit’ Nikki’s case is looking up. And that he sent me a copy of her motion. He wanted to know if I had gotten it yet and I told him, no.”

“When is her next court date?”

“He hasn’t set one yet.”

“Why not?”

“Because he said he wants Nikki to go in front of a certain judge.”

“Well, when you find out when her court date is, let me know so I can send one of my peoples down there witcha.”

“And what they gon’ do?” I asked.

“They ain’t gon’ do nothing.”

“So, why you gon’ send one of your flunkies wit’ me? I mean, I’ve been doing fine all this time.”

“Well, damn! All I want them to do is find out what’s going on, so I can be two steps ahead of them.”

“What you think I’ve been doing? Just sittin’ around not saying nothing to you? ‘Cause if I can recall, I’ve told you everything Nikki’s lawyer done told me,” I replied, sarcastically.

“Well, okay. You gotta point! So, don’t bite my head off.”

Instead of making a comment, I got up from the table to throw the rest of my food in the trashcan, since I suddenly lost my appetite. After that, I put my plate in the sink and turned to leave the kitchen.

“Now, I know you ain’t mad over that?” Ricky said.

“Boy, leave me alone,” I replied, and headed into the den. I just knew Ricky was going to get out of his chair and follow me, but this time he didn’t. I guess things do get old. Which made me wonder whether or not he was onto what was about to go down.

But then again, if he did know, then why was he acting so calm about it? It just didn’t make sense. And since I didn’t wanna press the issue, I didn’t say anything else about it.

***

Later on, around one p.m., was when I decided to leave the house for work. Ricky had already been gone for at least an hour or more. He hopped in the shower around eleven, got dressed, grabbed some dough out of his safe under our bed and left. He didn’t even mention to me where he was going, which was kind of unusual. It was all good, though. Trust me, I wasn’t going to sweat it.

Now when I got to the shop, it was as packed as I’d expected. Everybody said their normal greetings to me when I came through the door, which always lifted me up, especially if my mornings start off bad, which has been kind of often lately. It seemed like everybody I came into contact with thought I had it going on because of everything I had. And since I didn’t discuss my personal life with them, they automatically assumed everything was good. But, I am trying to tell them about how everything that glitters ain’t gold. They don’t hear me, though.

After I placed my coat and handbag in my back office, Rhonda popped in to have a chat.

“What took you so long to come to work?” She began to question me. “Oh, don’t tell me. I know what it was.” She started smiling. “You gotcha self a hot plate of dick this morning, huh?”

“Nope,” I replied, and smiled.

“Why you lying? I see it all over your face.”

“Girl, trust me, I wasn’t in no mood for dick this morning.”

“So, what’s up? You a’ight?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

“You sho’? I mean, you know you can talk to me.”

“Yeah, I know. But right now ain’t the time. I’ll keep that in mind, though.”

“A’ight,” Rhonda said and then we both hugged each other. “Oh yeah, let me tell you what happened early this morning?” Rhonda continued.

“What happened?”

“Gurrrl….” Rhonda started, but I cut her off.

“Wait. Close the door first,” I told her.

After Rhonda closed my office door, she went on to tell me what had happened. Come to find out, Sunshine almost got her tail kicked by the baby mama of this cat she was messing with named Kenny. Kenny was a known hustler from the Berkeley section of Norfolk. Hoes were on him like flies on shit, but Sunshine couldn’t care less about them. Her main objective was to get whatever she could and go.

That’s probably why Kenny’s baby mama wanted to slap Sunshine around a little bit. Luckily somebody called the police and nobody got hurt.

“Well, what was Sunshine saying while all this was going on?” I asked.

“You know she was talking shit! But, she not once carried her ass outside them doors when the girl invited her out there.”

“So, how did the baby mama look?”

“She was real cute. She was a little bit on the chunky side, though. It looked like she just had a baby.”

“Oh, so I see why Sunshine didn’t carry her ass outside. Shit, she probably would’ve gotten her ass kicked.”

“I think so, too.”

“So, what did the police say?”

“He just told that chick to leave and if she came back, she could get a trespassing charge.”

“Anything else happen ’round here?”

“Nope. Not really.”

“Well, let me get to my clients, then. ‘Cause I know they are tired of waiting for my ass.”

Both Rhonda and I got up from the chairs in my office. But before she opened the door to leave, she stopped and turned around to look at me. “Don’t tell Sunshine I told you what happened today.”

“You know I ain’t gon’ say nothing!” I assured Rhonda.

As I walked over to my booth, I noticed Sunshine gritting at me from the corner of my eye. I brushed it off because I knew she was trying to feel me out and see if Rhonda done already told me what happened to her. But, I was going to be cool and act like ain’t nothing been said because, whether she knew it or not, I had better things to be worrying about. And Sunshine wasn’t on that list.

“Kira you got some of them white strips?” she asked, boldly.

“Yeah. Why? You need some?” I replied just as nice as I knew how.

“Yeah.” Sunshine started walking in my direction. I reached in my drawer and pulled out a handful of them strips and handed them to her. Sunshine came closer and leaned her head over to mine.

“I know Rhonda done told you about that episode of drama I had earlier,” she mumbled into my ears.

Instead of putting Rhonda in the spotlight, I acted like I didn’t know what Sunshine was talking about. “Drama!” I said, dumbfounded. “What was Rhonda supposed to tell me?”

“It was about this nigga I be getting wit’ from time to time. But, I’m just so surprised that she ain’t told you about it since she was in your office for quite a bit of time.”

“Nah. She ain’t told me nothing.”

“Well, I’ll get witcha later and let you know what went down.”

“A’ight,” I said in my most sincere tone.

Sunshine walked back over to her booth. From time to time, I noticed that she would glance over in my direction like she was searching for something. And quiet as kept, she wasn’t stupid. She knew dag-on well that Rhonda had already done ran everything down to me. If she was to ever find out that was really the case, I believed Sunshine would run up on Rhonda and try to whip her ass, too. Knowing that, I was going to try my best to keep that on the hush-hush!

The crowd started dying out around seven o’clock that evening. Rhonda and two other of my stylists got out of dodge around six. So, it was just me and Sunshine left. She had two people under the dryer and I only had one sitting in my chair. It was kind of quiet, even though we had the radio playing and the TV going strong.

Still and all, I was ready to get out of there but by the same token, I was not ready to go home. And since I had not talked to Mr. Shapiro yet, that only made things worse. Especially when I felt like I was in the dark about something and it was concerning my husband. After I finished styling my last clients hair, I got my things and headed outside behind her. As soon as I got on the road, I pulled out my cell phone and dialed up Mr. Shapiro.

He finally answered his cell phone after I let it ring about ten times.

“Hello,” he said.

“Mr. Shapiro this is Kira. I thought you were gon’ call me?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. But, I’ve been really busy working on this other case I have.”

“So, did you speak to the lady prosecutor yet?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I have.”

“What did she say?”

“Well, first of all, I got her to give you and Nicole immunity. But, she wants to know everything you know.”

“So, when is this meeting supposed to take place?”

“Early Friday morning, at nine thirty.”

“But, that’s the day after tomorrow!”

“Yes. I know that. So, you know what you need to do is get yourself together mentally. Because they are going to have a lot of questions for you. Do you understand?”

“Yeah. I understand.”

“So, will you be ready?”

“Yeah. I guess.”

“No. You can’t guess. I need you to be sure.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be ready.”

“Okay. So, I’ll see you on Friday.”

“Yep.” I pressed the end button on my phone.

Thinking about meeting with the federal prosecutor on Friday gave me the chills. Then I realized I was doing all of this for my family. Plus, it was a way for me to finally get away from the selfish bastard I was married to.

***

When I pulled up to the house, Ricky’s Benz was parked in the driveway, along with a very small rental car. I had to end up parking my whip on the street.

“Ricky, whose car is that taking up my space in the driveway?” I yelled as I walked through the front door.

Before Ricky answered me, I heard footsteps walking from the kitchen in my direction.

“It’s my rental car,” he replied, once we were face to face.

“What you need a rental car for?” I wanted to know.

“Because, I’m getting ready to make a trip.”

“Where you going now?” I snapped.

“Me and Russ getting ready to run up to D.C.”

“You just love riding to D.C., don’t you?”

“Look, it’s only a business trip. And not only that, if these niggas bite on this bait we ‘bout to throw at them, we gon’ be some rich muthafuckas real soon.”

“When you leaving?”

“As soon as Russ gets here.”

“So, he supposed to be leaving his car here?”

“Nah, he said he was gon’ catch a cab over here.”

“Well, how long ya’ll gon’ be?”

“We’ll be back tomorrow.”

Instead of commenting, I looked Ricky up and down, then shook my head in disgust as I walked away from him.

“What was that for?” he asked me.

As I began to answer him, the doorbell rang. “Who is it?” Ricky yelled.

“It’s Russ,” I clearly heard Ricky’s friend say.

Ricky opened the door and greeted him. “What’s up?!” Ricky said happily.

“Nuthin’. Just trying to maintain,” Russ replied in his thick accent.

I was in the kitchen getting some juice out of the refrigerator by the time Russ came in. Ricky escorted him into the den and told him to chill until he was ready to leave. On his way, Russ peeped his head into the kitchen and said hello. I spoke back as he walked by. Then I just stood there with my back up against the kitchen sink, waiting patiently for Ricky to go upstairs and finish getting dressed; that way, I could slide on into the den and get more acquainted with this Russ cat.

I noticed the minute I walked into the den that Ricky had him watching the sports channel. It was obvious Russ wasn’t that tuned in because the second I walked into the room, all eyes were on me. And all he could do was smile.

“Are you okay? I mean, can I get you something?”

“Nah. I’m good.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I’m sure.”

After he gave me the okay that he was fine, I took a seat on the other sofa, which was only a few feet away from him. “Are you watching this?” I asked him.

“Nah. Not really. You can turn it.”

“Your accent is really thick. Where are you from?”

“I’m from Trinidad.”

“How long you been living in the states?”

“For about five years now.”

“Do you like it?”

“Yeah. It’s cool.”

“Do you go back home to visit sometime?”

“Yeah. Sometimes.”