Page 47

"Right! And the deejay only played it to stop y'all from complaining," Chosyn tossed out.

"That was my cue to sit down. Don't even know who shawty is." I laughed, slapping hands with Honey and Chosyn while the twins turned their lips up.

"This is why we gotta get friends our age because what you mean you don't know Ms. I love dealing with a rich nigga ," Kysre rapped.

Honey, Chosyn, and I all made about faces that made the twins roll their eyes even harder.

"Twin, what my girl say?" Kyree asked, tossing her sister locs over her shoulder.

Clearing her throat, Kysre stood up. "I love dealing with a rich nigga."

"Why?" Kyree hyped her.

"'Cause he gon' trick and I'ma trick but he gon' trick bigger!"

Together, the twins scrunched their faces up as if that were the hardest bar they've ever heard. The rest of us fell out laughing.

"What? Y'all got something better?" Kysre challenged. The girls and I all looked at each other. "Uh-huh, don't get quiet now. Y'all forty-year-olds kill me with that back in my day?—"

"Forty!" The three of us blurted.

"What? Did I say something wrong?" The way Kysre's brows pulled together, her ass was really confused.

"What about us makes y'all think we're in our forties?"

"Honestly," Kysre cautioned, catching eyes with all of us, "it's how mature and successful each of you are. Chosyn, you own a dispensary, and you grow your own weed."

"Let's not forget Wolfe promised to help me with getting a building to grow my weed out here instead of in Brooklyn with Nazari. I appreciate everything he's done for me, but I want to be more hands-on."

"See, even that shows you're business savvy.

River, look at all the things you do. Briar Beauties is a street racing team and a foundation that helps girls like us and grown ass women.

You work a full-time job, own a pool hall, and date Crown Gravehart.

That's a job by itself, from what I hear.

Y'all are real grown ass woman. I like to think that strong-willed mentality came with age. "

"Aww, thank you." Chosyn cheesed, never being one to shy away from a compliment.

"Don't fucking awww them because we're not in our forties! We’re not even close!" Honey spat, narrowing her eyes. "What about me? Y'all said all that nice shit about these two but what about me?"

"Honey, you're just as childish as we are," Kyree answered.

Chosyn and I both grabbed our drinks as a distraction.

"Wow!" Honey whistled.

"What she means is, you're on the same bullshit we're on. We get money the same way you do." Kysre tried her best to smooth over what Kyree said, but she ultimately said the same thing.

"Y'all wouldn't be getting money if it wasn't for me. I put y'all on!"

"And we're thankful for that but robbing niggas isn't a forever thing." Kysre shrugged.

"I guess I'm just old by association," Honey gritted.

"Yeah, I think I'm going to get out of here. This was fun, though, and happy early birthday, River," Kyree said, standing up from the plush couch.

She and I interlocked b's and kissed our fingers, then she went down the line doing the same with Chosyn and a reluctant Honey.

Kysre followed behind her sister, doing the same.

The twins left and Honey flagged over the server and ordered a pitcher of the mimosas they were serving, saying these small ass glasses weren't enough.

Chosyn and I shared a look, then quickly put in a food order to help soak up some of the liquor we'd already drunk on empty stomachs.

The server read back everything before walking away, leaving us to ourselves.

"Chosyn, I thought you said it was a 2000s event," I stated, noticing that no one besides us was here.

"It was but once Crown found out where I was taking you, he did what he does best and took over. Now we have the whole spot to ourselves to sing and eat whatever," she answered.

"Oh, okay." I nodded those same anxious nerves I walked in with, settling in.

Until this point, Chosyn and I hadn't said too much to each other. I hopped on stage and we ran through songs, laughing and trying to remember some of our teenage choreography for the next hour. Now that all the fun was over, the elephant and all the awkwardness it carried were in the room.

"Do y'all think I'm childish?" Honey tossed out. I ran my tongue over my teeth as a stall while Chosyn shifted her gaze elsewhere.

"Not y'all too! If I'm so childish, why did no one say anything?"

"I'm not one to give my opinion on how someone moves unless it's asked for. I give people the same courtesy I want others to give me about my childish decisions," Chosyn answered.

"Yeah, but you're also business savvy if you let the twins tell it," Honey sighed.

"What the twins admire about me came from a man who saw me as a piece on his chessboard.

I was taught to think how I do, to lash out in ways that make other women question my sanity.

I'm abnormal, Honey. A lot about me doesn't even come from me.

In a way, I'm who my father pushed me to be, and the woman Wolfe's love transformed me into. "

"I guess. What do you have to say, Four ?"

"Lose that bark on my name because I've always been honest with you. Honey, you are sitting on close to a million dollars that you can pull out of your account and do whatever you want with. Instead of finding a passion, you'd rather travel out of state for weeks at a time and set up licks."

"I just don't know what else I would do.

I don't have a college degree like you, and I'm not business savvy like Chosyn.

All I know is how to use my body to get what I want out of men.

I watched my mother do it, then I started doing it when I turned eighteen.

My mother or her boyfriend, hell maybe even both noticed how good I was at finessing these niggas and decided to put me to work.

I went from getting dumb shit out of men like clothes, sneakers and jewelry to robbing them or setting them up to die.

I built a name for myself doing this shit to the point people stopped contacting my mother and her boyfriend for my services and came straight to me.

River, you see how much money I pull in doing this shit?

I accept the jobs I want and decline those I don't."

"Bitch, you are the business!" Chosyn shouted over the music the deejay had playing in the background.

"Huh?"

"Honey, don't be dense. Everything you're saying you don't have, you do. Whatever you do when it comes to these niggas is a business. Take what you learned doing it, and slap that shit on an LLC. Stop acting like you're not her because I don't consider anything less a friend."

"River, you hear that? Chosyn just said I'm her friend!" Honey squealed, grabbing Chosyn into a hug.

"Stop because I'm not that bad."

"River." Honey giggled.

"What?" Chosyn frowned.

"Chosyn, you fucked with Honey, but she wasn't your friend," I said.

"Why not? I hung out with her."

"You did whenever I was around. You hang with Navy when none of us are around because she's your friend." I shrugged.

The server came back with our pitcher and fruit platter, which I had ordered. Honey wasted no time filling our glasses.

"Navy is my friend, just like Honey. Don't try to throw slick shots 'cause you think she's stealing your spot." Chosyn smirked.

Rolling my eyes, I spooned a few blueberries and chewed over the thought of hashing out our differences.

"Am I sensing some tension between the besties?" Honey giggled.

"Tension... no. I would never have tension with River, but my feelings are hurt."

Honey's dramatic gasp got another eye roll out of me. "What happened?"

"Well, while I was doing the mature thing of working on what my husband calls anger issues. River let Leah beat her ass."

"What? Fuck this brunch! We can go rag her ass right now!"

"Honey, relax," I scoffed.

"See, I was feeling the same way, especially after seeing River's face." Chosyn's eyes cut toward me. "Nice to see the bruises didn't last long."

"She fucked you up like that?" Honey gawked in disbelief. "We gotta get you some boxing classes. We can't have our lead, Briar Beauty, getting beat up."

"Leah's ass tackled me before that I was whooping her ass."

"So, she says, but anyway, I was going to kill Leah, but River begged me not to. I left it alone because what I wouldn't do, Crown would. Long story short, we got into it because River said?—"

"I apologize. It doesn't matter what I said because I was wrong. I love you too much to let being in my feelings about a million things cost me our friendship."

"I accept, and I apologize, too. I shouldn't have thrown in your face that you were dragging Crown along," Chosyn expressed with soft eyes.

"Damn y'all got into it like that," Honey smacked.

"You were right, though. I almost told Crown about Sincere, but he wanted to tell me about Emily first."

"Oh, did he say if he choked her with his dick?"

"Wait, what?" Honey coughed out.

"Yeah, he told me. He caught her cheating. He killed the guy, then made her suck his dick. He blacked out, and when he came to, she was dead."

"Damn, that nigga's dick must be crazy," Honey mumbled.

"Don't worry about my man's dick. You have Lynx for that."

"Please. Lynx couldn't fuck me with another nigga's dick. I'm so off him," she huffed.

"Why? Y'all were cute."

"We were, but he's just been moving funny.

Asking if I'm setting him up like he wasn't the one who came on to me.

I don't have time to pacify a nigga's trust issues so.

.." Honey tossed her hand in the air, nixing the thought of them being anything more than what they were. "So did you tell Crown about Sincere?"

"No, the conversation about Emily was emotional, and then Wolfe showed up."

Chosyn started laughing hard as hell.

"What's funny?" Honey asked.

"Crown was pissed at River so he told Wolfe to buy all the padlocks he could find for them to lock up all the extra pairs of glasses Crown brought for her."

"I don't know how you deal with that nigga." Honey laughed.

"Me either, but I love him."

"Aww my bestie all in love and shit," Chosyn squealed.

"Fuck love," Honey groaned. "Wassup with Leah tho'? Did Crown—" the rest of her question hung in the air.

"Nope," I answered.

"So, she went untouched?"

"Yup."

"Hell no! Crown got Kysre and Kyree to run down on her." Chosyn smiled.

"What?" That was news to me.

"Crown wasn't going to let what Leah did go unanswered, and don't be mad because you love him, remember?"

Honey laughed at Chosyn while I let out a small groan. I grabbed my purse that Crown doubled back to drop off while we were on stage and retrieved my phone.

Me:

You had the twins jump, Leah?

Crown :

Yeah. Be lucky Wolfe didn't bury her ass where... well you know. Enjoy brunch 'cause I'm shooting shit up later. Might fuck 'round and give you sextuplets.

Shaking my head, I backed out of the thread and locked my phone.

"What he say?" Chosyn asked.

"That he's trying to add three more babies to the three we made the other night."

"Well, alright then, Crown. I guess with a dick big enough to choke a bitch, anything is possible." Honey nodded, and I fell out laughing.