Page 6

A Little Time Later…

A mama was tired as hell. I worked at Louie’s Sandwich Shop, which you would think was your run-of-the-mill eatery.

Nope. It was the place to be. It was the hood hangout, which was a fortunate but unfortunate situation.

The fortunate part was that I made amazing tips from simply making sandwiches.

I was a beautiful girl who had an innocent aura. Niggas loved the geeky looking bitches.

I made bomb sandwiches that were on and off the menu.

I’d worked here for almost three years. It was known in the hood that there was a secret menu of sandwiches that I made.

Louie told me that the secret menu items brought in the most money.

The unfortunate part was that some of the customers who came into the shop were ghetto as hell.

There was a big difference between ghetto and hood.

I could handle hood because I had a twinge of it in me but ghetto, I couldn’t deal with.

The dudes that came in were more hood than anything.

If you were in search of hood niggas, drug dealers, scammers, or robbing niggas, then Louie’s was where you would find them at any given time.

Because those were the types of men that frequented the shop, it drew the ghetto birds here.

It would be one thing if they came, ordered a sandwich, then left.

Nope. These bitches came in here like it was a coffee shop and posted up. It annoyed me to no end.

There was a gang of females that came in here that thought they were better than me because I worked here.

Yes, they had more money than me. To me, that didn’t mean anything because I knew that I was a better person than them.

I counted that as my riches. It was the dudes that gave me the big tips like one hundred dollars for making a twelve-dollar sandwich.

“I know this sandwich is about to hit. You make the best fucking sandwiches, ma,” Tyrus said as I wrapped the sandwich that I’d just finished making for him. He took a wad of cash out of his pocket when we got to the register.

I gave him my beautiful straight, pearly-white smile. “Thank you, Tyrus. Thank you again for letting us cater for your daughter’s sleepover. I hope she liked the cake pops I made for her.”

“Liked them? She loved those shits. I appreciate you doing that to make her feel special. My baby mama really loved them and your thoughtfulness to suggest the party. That was literally the first time that she’s smiled at me in almost a year.”

We both tittered. Tyrus’s daughter recently started her menstruation, and he almost lost his mind when he got the call.

He was in the shop and wanted to know what to do to help her with all of this.

The ghetto birds had suggestions like buy her a bag, shoes, or clothes.

Those were superficial ideas. I suggested that he talk to her mother about throwing a sleepover with her friends and the mothers.

The mothers would teach their daughters about topics surrounding menstruation such as cramping relief, proper hygiene, and most importantly, what this meant as far as pregnancy.

At the time that I suggested the party, I told him that we catered, which was crazy because we didn’t offer catering.

His daughter had a favorite sandwich that I made for her, so the offer felt right.

Since the catering was a success, we added it to an option on our services list. Louie loved that I always found new ways to bring money into the shop.

After Tyrus left, we got busy. There was another girl working, but she mainly ran the register.

When the door dinged to let us know that someone had entered, I lifted my head.

These bitches. In walked the mean girl crew.

The mean girl crew was a group of five girls who thought they were God’s gift to Jesus.

The group technically had six members, but GeGi wasn’t mean like them. I often wondered why she hung with them. When our eyes connected, she threw me a warm smile.

“Excuse me, can we get some service,” the lead mean girl, ghetto rat Alexi said.

I couldn’t stand this ho. She was literally a waste of air. I took a breath before I walked toward them.

“Hey, ladies, what can I get for y’all today?” I put on my fake smile.

Alexi rolled her eyes. “I hope you don’t have that attitude when you’re behind the bar at my man’s club. Trust me, I’ll have your dorky ass fired.”

I never understood why the term dorky was an insult.

I had a second job at this popular strip club, Glitter Girls, as a bartender.

I only worked there for three to four nights a week.

Alexi’s man AK owned the club. He was a big deal in the streets, although I’d never met him.

He never came into his establishment, but the other owner Sully did.

Alexi threatened to have me fired every time she came in here.

My dorky ass made great tips there because of my innocent, quiet demeanor with a sexy twist.

I didn’t necessarily care for the job, but it helped me keep my head above water to take care of my son Lucas.

My baby was my life. When Lucas was born, I did what I said and called his father to have him relinquish his rights.

He came and signed the papers as expected.

What I didn’t expect was him to give me an envelope with twelve thousand dollars.

He said that it should be enough to cover a year’s worth of rent or anything I wanted to use it for.

He never asked to see Lucas, but he did ask if he was healthy.

I haven’t seen him since that day. However, I do know that he lurks on my social media page because he accidentally liked an old picture once.

I thought smart and used the money to buy a car since I was approved for Section 8 housing.

I didn’t live in the best neighborhood, but my rent was right at eight hundred dollars for a two-bedroom, two full bathroom single family home.

I had a backyard for my baby to play in and a garage to put my car in.

I ended up dropping out of school. I meant to go back, but time got away from me.

Now, if I go back, I have to get financial aid instead of using the funds from being a ward of the state since I aged out.

“Alexi, I apologize if I’m being rude. Would you like your usual?” I asked her with the same damn fake smile.

I didn’t like to fight, but I could. I had taken some self-defense classes that were offered at Leota Fitness and Fight and been taught by some of the girls in the group home that I lived in as a teenager. One throat chop would drop that bitch.

Her face turned up. “Bitch, don’t say my usual like I’m in this hood ass place all the time!” She’s here at least four days out of the week. “I want the number four with all the toppings and toasted.”

Her usual.

Connie came over to help with the other orders.

After all of the ladies’ orders were fixed, they sat at the table that was closest to the counter.

I realized early on that this was strategic because they wanted me to hear about their fabulous lives.

Since they wanted me to hear, I would lean against the counter if I didn’t have any orders and listen.

If you wanted to tell your business, then I would oblige you to listen.

“Girl, I can’t believe your ass is not going to Paris with us,” Alexi said in GeGi’s direction.

Oh, Paris! That’s going to be nice.

GeGi took a sip of her drink. “Girl, I know. My babysitter backed out at the last minute, so you know being a mommy comes first. I thank God I was able to get some of my money back.”

“That’s exactly why I’m not trying to have any rugrats. The one time I was pregnant, I sent that lil fucka to the upper room so fast,” Alexi said callously.

All of the girls at the table chortled, except GeGi. If I had to read her face, she was offended. One of the girls pushed Alexi’s shoulder.

“Yeah, you didn’t want it, and that baby wasn’t AK’s. Don’t forget about that part.”

Say it ain’t so! AK’s girl was a cheater. I had never met the man, but from the way the streets buzzed about him, he didn’t seem like the type that would take kindly to his girl being a harlot.

“Even if it was AK’s, it would still have to go. I was not put on this Earth to be anyone’s mama. I’ll leave that for you basic bitches,” Alexi quipped.

Wow!

GeGi sucked her teeth. “You claim one abortion, but I know better. You’ve probably had too many abortions to hold a baby in there.”

Now, that is funny.

I didn’t mean to laugh as loud as I did. They definitely knew that I was listening now. Alexi’s head spun around so fast, I thought it would disconnect from her body.

“Bitch, don’t you have a counter to clean?”

“Alexi, you’re doing too much. All that shit isn’t necessary,” GeGi scolded. “Let’s just go.”

The other girls must have agreed with her because they didn’t argue as they stood up and gathered their things. It was actions like this that made me wonder why GeGi hung with Alexi. It was like they tolerated each other more than they liked each other.

With a tight face, Alexi stood, grabbed her purse from the table, and put the strap on her shoulder.

She hadn’t finished her sandwich, which was on top of the paper wrapping that I’d placed it in.

She looked dead in my eyes before she pushed the sandwich and drink onto the floor, which made a huge mess.

“Oops. Now, you have some work to do, stupid bitch.”

She strutted her ass toward the door. GeGi glanced at me with sympathetic eyes before she mouthed “sorry.”

After they left, Connie told me that she would clean up the mess while I helped the new customers with their orders. I was officially ready to carry my ass home.