Page 10

ONE WEEK LATER…

After over a month of a drought, I finally got booked for a makeup appointment. It wasn’t for a celebrity, though, but it was a normal client—a sweet woman named Amanda—who didn’t question my pricing for the first time in forever.

Because of that, I made sure to head out extra early this morning so that I could stop at a coffee shop and grab her something. I didn’t have money to do things like this anymore, but I recognized that all my clients in the past loved me not only for my skills but the little things like that.

She let me know a typical vanilla latte with almond milk was her preference, so I grabbed it from the café around the corner from the venue she wanted me to come to.

I was so excited when she booked me without any issues that I didn’t even ask what she wanted her makeup done for. I usually did so I could kind of prepare whatever look I wanted to do, but beating faces had become second nature, so I wasn’t worried about coming up with something on the spot.

I parked in the spacious lot, shut the engine down, then grabbed my makeup case that looked like a carryon roller bag to the naked eye. Once I grabbed the tray holding our drinks, I made my way to the entrance.

“Hi, I’m Kabrina.” I smiled, seeing the skinny brown-skinned girl wearing a bonnet.

She gave me a tight smile, giving off a vibe very different from the bubbly, easygoing one she had in our email exchanges.

“Hi, Kabrina.” She gestured to the table nearby for me to set our drinks on.

As I did, I took in the surroundings and saw a vanity for me to do her makeup, then a small setup as if she did YouTube videos.

“You do vlogs?” I smiled.

“No. I do sit-down videos. Those are two different things,” she kind of snapped.

“Right.” I nodded. “My bad. I don’t watch YouTube as much.” I chuckled off the awkwardness.

Had this not been a professional and paying job, I would’ve checked her, but I had to be humble right now.

“Anyway,” she sighed, picking up her coffee so abruptly she almost knocked my iced chai tea over, “I need a simple, natural looking makeup look. This video is a life update, and I don’t want my makeup to distract the viewers, but I do want them to kind of admire it. Also, I need a list of everything you’re using on my face so I can tell them when they ask what I use.”

“What you use?”

“Yes. I do makeup videos. Why would I admit to having a makeup artist doing my face?” She curled her lip as if I were dumb.

“Well, if you do makeup videos, why do you need a makeup artist to do anything?”

“Because I struggle with the natural look. If this is going to be a problem, let me know.” She folded her arms, and I had to remember the five hundred she agreed to pay me.

“Nope, it’s no problem at all.” I shook my head. I didn’t care enough about her bitchy ass attitude to lose a much-needed gig. “Are you ready to start, or should I give you some time?”

“I’m ready. We can handle it at the vanity.” She walked off before I could say anything.

I trailed her, and as she sat down, busying herself on her phone, I set up everything I would need for a natural look and for someone with her complexion. She had very nice skin, which I would usually tell a client, but judging from our previous interactions, I didn’t feel like she’d take it well, so I kept it to myself.

It was clear she was one of those clients who found an issue with everything you said or did, no matter how complimentary.

By the time I had everything out, she was finished with her latte, which was perfect. I stayed quiet, listening to the music she had playing low as I began to prep her face. Most people closed their eyes when it was just the two of us, but I noticed she kept surveying me like she knew something about me. I figured she’d recognized me from the debacle with AJ and Zosia, so I brushed it off.

“My name isn’t Amanda,” she blurted for no reason as I started to put on the concealer.

“Oh… okay. Is there a reason you gave a fake name?” I truly didn’t care, but if she wanted to make conversation, I would talk.

“Yeah, because I didn’t know if you knew my name already, and I wanted to be sure you came to this appointment.”

That comment made me stop working, straighten my posture, and look her in the eyes as she sat in the elevated chair.

“You know me or something?” I frowned, reading her face.

“Not really, but you know Unique, and I’m his girlfriend, Aurora.” She hiked a brow as realization settled in.

“Oh.” I put the makeup brush down, not knowing how to move.

“What’s going on with you two?”

“There is nothing going on. He is a friend, not a close one, and he helped me with some things. That is all,” I spoke truthfully.

I couldn’t believe I’d gotten myself into another situation like the one with AJ. Though this time Unique wasn’t my man, it was aggravating and embarrassing all the same.

Because I’d realized no matter what the truth was, people would always gather their own perception of you and the situation. I’d also learned that the woman was always to blame, no matter what. Just like me with AJ and my mother before me. The men were always blameless.

Aurora nodded with a gentle smirk like she thought I was funny or something.

“Well, I hope you are being honest. He said the same thing, but I wasn’t sure if it was true.” She cleared her throat, then added, “I love Unique. Before Daisy and especially before you, I was there.” She clenched her jaw a bit, and all I could think was that she was doing the most. She spoke as if she’d been Unique’s longtime girlfriend, but from being around him due to AJ, I was sure she’d only been dealing with him for a total of about eight or nine months. “And because of that, I won’t allow some random chick to come in and snatch him from me, especially when I’ve already agreed to a relationship dynamic I never saw myself in.”

“I don’t want Unique, but word of advice—a grown ass man cannot be stolen. He is always going to go where he wants, no matter how many plots, ploys, and schemes you come up with.”

“Thank you, but I don’t really need advice from a professional side chick.” She scoffed.

“It’s one thing to be unknowingly used or cheated on, but for the life of me, I cannot understand how you allow a man to dog you out and play with you right in your damn face.” I giggled, packing my shit up since I knew this appointment was over. I was furious that I’d wasted my time coming here, gotten my hopes up, and that I was even in this shit with a man who wasn’t even mine, really, but was still my fucking husband. I almost told Aurora that last tidbit, but I didn’t want that information getting out. “I mean, what is the point in allowing a man to have you and another woman at the same time if you still have to go out of your way to stop him from skirt chasing?” I cocked my head after locking up my makeup case.

“He has to learn, and he will. I’ll teach him that.”

“Baby girl, Unique doesn’t need to be taught shit. He may joke a lot, but the nigga isn’t dumb. And to me, there is nothing worse than a man who knows better but chooses not to be better. Have a good one.” I snatched my roller bag’s handle and trotted off.

“Can you at least finish my face?” She called after me, sort of delayed.

“Nope!” I shouted back, continuing on.

“Bitch,” she mumbled, and boy did it take a lot for me not to turn back around and hit her.

I was so irritated that I almost sent Unique a very ugly text, but I opted out. Instead, I started my car and headed in the direction of my aunt’s home. I was going to talk to her about possibly allowing me to move in, because I didn’t want to live in the studio Unique provided me.

Whether he intended to or not, he was putting me in the same situation as AJ, and as long as I entertained him, I was allowing the shit. It didn’t matter how platonic it was, and with me being as attracted to him as I was, I didn’t want to even put myself in a position to be the side chick people assumed I was.

“Fuck.” I grumbled when I pulled up to my aunt Bell’s house to see her car was gone. Seemed like she was always doing something with her best friend these days, and it annoyed me.

I exited the car to go double-check because sometimes she would let the little nigga she dated use her car on occasions, which was insane, and actually would be inside. But as I neared the home and saw her lights were completely off, I knew that wasn’t the case.

“Are you Kabrina Kenneth?” A female’s voice spoke from behind me.

“Who is—” Before I could say a word, she sent a fist to my stomach.

The impact was strong, but I was also caught off guard, causing me to fold in half. Two other women who looked just as rough and burly as her, joined in with one punching me in the jaw while another kicked me in the stomach. When I gathered my bearings, I started throwing punches at one of the girls, focusing on her solely and making her back away.

I’d always been taught that if you got jumped, beat the brakes off at least one of them, and that would surely lessen the bragging the jumpers could do if their counterpart was sporting injuries.

She tried her best to hit me back, but due to her shorter stature, her arms weren’t as long as mine, so I was able to dodge her hits while simultaneously punching her repeatedly in the face. I didn’t slow up once in my rhythm, pounding her face back-to-back. She tried to hug me in order to avoid the hits, but I just banged on her fucking head, making her free me.

Her eyes widened in horror when she realized she was on the losing end, her nose leaking. I could feel how hard I was hitting her because with every punch, my knuckles rattled while she cried out.

“Get this bitch!” she shouted, teeth bloody as I knocked her ass around, causing her to drop.

As I was about to wail on that bitch some more, another kick hit my abdomen, then another, causing me to fall and yelp. For the next few minutes, all three ladies, including the bloodied one I’d been fucking up, began kicking me in the stomach until the girl who first approached me yelled for them to the stop.

“I don’t see no blood or nothing,” another asked. “That rich bitch said she gotta be bleeding for us to get paid.”

“Maybe it’ll come. I don’t know, but let’s go. That bitch got my face ringing,” another said, and I surmised that it was the one I was whupping on.

I groaned, unable to stand without feeling like I would throw up as them hood bitches ran off, hopping into an old ass Honda Civic before peeling off.

My aunt’s neighbor from across the street, an older man, rushed over after a while, yelling for his wife to call an ambulance. He smelled like whiskey, cigarettes, and motor oil, but I didn’t mind it because he was getting me some much-needed help.

The ambulance arrived within what felt like five minutes, and the EMTs rushed over to place me on the gurney, asking the old man what happened, but he couldn’t explain.

“I just stepped outside to smoke and saw her in the grass, moaning, groaning.” He coughed.

The ambulance took me to the hospital, and after calming down some, I was able to tell them what happened and that I didn’t want to press any charges or anything. After that, I took some medicine and passed out.

* * *

“Miss Kenneth?” A soft but unfamiliar voice woke me from my sleep. I was partially up but not fully.

“Yes?” I answered groggily.

“You have a visitor,” she said, making my eyes fly open just as she left the room. AJ was standing there looking like my grief-stricken husband.

“Nurse! Hey! Excuse me!” I yelled out, but the bitch was long gone. “You need to go!” I bellowed.

“What happened? How is the baby?” He neared me, and I laughed at his stupid ass.

“There is no baby, nigga. Your wife did all of this for nothing,” I said. I’d realized it was her ass behind that mess when those girls were focusing so much on my abdomen.

When I told that weird bitch I was pregnant, it was like letting the air out of a tire. I figured she’d gone on about her business, but that wasn’t the case. Not to mention, I had beef with no one else, so getting jumped was highly unlikely. Additionally, one of the girls mentioning a rich bitch sealed the deal. She was the only rich bitch who didn’t like me, because Unique’s girlfriends weren’t even close.

“My wife?” AJ frowned.

“Yeah, nigga. She called me, which you probably already knew, and I told her I asked you for abortion money. Since I didn’t get it from you, I guess the ho assumed I was still pregnant and sent some rough looking females to jump me at my aunt’s house.” I shook my head. Zosia was doing the most for a nigga like AJ.

Why, for the life of me, did women fight so hard to hold on to trash niggas? If my nigga got another bitch pregnant, he’d be the one getting jumped. But again, men are blameless.

“Assumed you were still pregnant? How are you not if you didn’t get the money from me? You haven’t been working, right? Also, your people are broke. You used to have to loan or give them money.” His brows furrowed deeper and deeper as he talked. “Where are you living, Kabrina?” He moved closer to the bed, and I smirked, keeping my lips sealed. “How the hell are you even getting by?”

“Nigga, that’s none of your business. In fact, how the hell did you know I was here?”

“I’m still your emergency contact.”

“Yeah, let me take care of that right now.” I whipped my head around the room for my iPhone but saw my purse was locked up in a clear cabinet, so I settled for doing it later.

“Who is helping you—Unique.” AJ froze. “That nigga been helping you and he… he helped kill my baby.”

“It wasn’t a fucking baby yet, chill out. And like I said, who helped me is none of your business. You’re wrong, by the way.” I tried to throw him off Unique’s scent. “I met a rich man. I think he deals drugs, who knows? But he said he’s gon’ kill you if he sees you around me so…” I waved for him to leave.

“Unique’s brother? The one who helped him steal the lead role from me.” He paced, angrily shaking his head.

Throwing him off Unique was backfiring, so I decided to stop the bullshit.

“Helped him steal the lead role?”

“Yeah! That nigga can’t act!” AJ talked shit on Unique, like always, while sizing me up as if I’d insulted him by asking a question. “He just watches his fucking dope boy brother and uses it on the show! I have talent!”

This nigga was doing too much, and honestly, I was no longer his woman, so I didn’t care about his woes, insecurities, and whatever else, so when a nurse bypassed my room, I hollered for her.

“Hi, is everything okay, Miss Kenneth?” She entered.

“No. I need this man to be escorted out. I also need him to be removed from my emergency contacts and my purse.” I pointed to the cabinet.

“Absolutely. Come with me, sir.” She waved for AJ to go, and he hesitated, mouth twisted in anger before stepping out. “Someone will be in shortly to have you put down a new emergency contact. Please change it in your phone as well.” She handed me my purse, then left the room to finish escorting AJ out.

I was seeing that if it wasn’t for bad luck, I would have no luck at all.

* * *

The hospital released me the very next morning since my injuries weren’t too severe. I did have some bruising still, and I just hoped that one of these days, I ran into Zosia Jared because I was going to beat her ass for sure.

My ringing phone pulled me from my thoughts as I lay in my bed, thinking, plotting, and planning, like always, on what I wanted to do. My aunt claimed she didn’t have room to house me, and therefore, I was stuck in this studio Unique had given me.

I didn’t want to seem ungrateful, because I was the complete opposite, but I was seeing that dealing with Unique in any capacity, even in a friendly manner, was going to bring me problems.

“Hello?” I answered after seeing his name on my screen. It was like I thought him up.

“Aye, how you doing? Haven’t heard from yo’ ass in a while.”

Sitting up, I sighed. “Yeah, I’ve been busy. I’m glad you called, though, because your girlfriend, Aurora, booked me to do her face all so she could tell me to leave your ass alone.”

“Kab—”

“I need you to tell your women that I’m not in your life in that way. I just dealt with a situation like this and don’t want to do the shit again. But at least that time, I was unaware of what AJ had going on.”

“I did tell her. I explained we was cool and that I fucked with you because there wasn’t shit between us,” he said. Why did that bother me? “But I apologize for that shit. Regardless, that shouldn’t have happened, and she shouldn’t have been messing with yo’ business in that way.”

I should’ve been happy to hear him say that, but to know he felt nothing, as he should, had me losing a little bit of confidence in myself.

“Right. So make it clear we are not even friends, just acquaintances.”

“Damn, just acquaintances?” I could hear him frowning.

“Exactly. As much as I’d like to be friends, Unique, that’s not possible nor is it appropriate when you’re in a relationship. We can be cordial with one another, but nothing else. I have enough drama in my life and don’t want to add more for a nigga I’m not even fucking.”

“So you don’t wanna talk no more or do nothing with a nigga, huh?” His gravelly voice sounded disappointed, but I couldn’t care about that.

“Nope. I think it’s best we only talk when Mack has something for us. I appreciate all you’ve helped me with, I do. But this is too much and too soon. If you’d like, I can pay you back for it all once I get things moving. I have no issue with that and will even sign a contract saying so.”

He laughed.

“Any nigga pressed over a few hundred dollars didn’t have it to begin with, love. So you good. I ain’t give you that with the intention of getting the shit back. I was raised to never loan money you would be fucked without getting back.”

I nodded as if he could see me, agreeing that that was a good rule of thumb.

“Okay, cool. Speaking of Mack, has he said anything? It’s been a while.”

He hesitated for a quick second then replied, “Nah. I just talked to him and asked the same shit. He said it can take a while but give him a few weeks.”

“Damn, okay. But, like you always say, we got four years to figure it out.” I tried to chuckle.

I’d been doing my own research, though, and read a few threads where people said the longer you took, the less likely your case would be accepted. But I trusted Unique in this aspect and was sure he wanted an annulment just as much as I did. I mean, he said himself there was nothing between us. And as much as that was a slap to my pride and self-esteem, it was for the best.

“Exactly.” He chuckled a bit in that deep voice of his.

“Good night, Unique.” I hung up quickly.

I didn’t know why I felt weird cutting him off and ceasing casual contact, but I would just deal and get over it like I did with every fucking thing else in my life.