Page 23 of ‘Til I Say When

I was going to talk to him about taking some of the cars to Wonder, so she could wrap them instead of him painting them.

That was just me trying to put some money in her pocket because I respected her hustle.

I still flipped Pierre the bird every time he mentioned me liking her, but I couldn’t lie to myself any longer.

I had to be feeling shorty if I stayed at her crib while she went through the process of getting that codeine out of her system.

I was with a chick one time when she got a call that her granny died.

Shorty was hysterical, and I didn’t even give her my condolences, let alone hug her ass.

But I was caked up with Wonder while she sweated and trembled. Ain’t that some shit?

Gordo might have been a finesser, but he was a man about his business.

The moment I got out of the car, he was ready to inspect the vehicle.

When he was done, he nodded his head at his side kick, who promptly grabbed a stack of bills and put them in a money counting machine, so I could see the money was all there.

The money was placed in an envelope, and I slapped palms with Gordo.

“Nice doing business with you.” I exited the garage and got into Pierre’s car. I wasn’t a nosey nigga at all, but he had his phone on speaker, and I could hear that he was talking to KoKo. She was still around. They conversed for about five minutes before he ended the call.

“I’m ‘bout to hit that one more time and dead the situation,” he volunteered.

All I could do was shake my head. “It’s a must that you hit it one more time? You know every time you put pipe to her is going to be another time that she gets hopeful about where y’all are going.”

“KoKo is cool and that’s why I’m deading it.

She claims she isn’t looking for anything serious, but I can tell that’s a lie.

She also wants kids later, and I’m good on that.

Nina doesn’t want any more kids and neither do I.

Me and shorty get on each other’s nerves, but I love her. I’m ‘bout to get my shit together.”

I didn’t say anything because there wasn’t anything for me to say. I had heard this spiel before, but Pierre would change when he was ready, and I couldn’t tell him if he was ready or not. I knew he loved Nina. For whatever reason, being faithful was just hard for him.

“You think I’m full of shit, huh?” he glanced over at me, and I chortled.

“I didn’t say that. You know when and if you’re ready to change. I can’t call it. You don’t have to convince me, you have to convince Nina.”

“You’re right,” he bobbed his head.

“I do want to talk more about us going in together and starting like a handy man type of business. We can buy a truck and help people move, do junk removal, mount televisions, put furniture together, all that.”

Pierre nodded. “You ready to go the straight and narrow route?”

“Yeah, it’s about time. A nigga getting too old to be running from the police.”

“Feel you.”

“Be safe, G.” I extended my fist for Pierre to bump before getting out of the car.

In my car, I looked at the time on the dash and saw that it was three in the morning.

I wondered if it would be rude to call Wonder.

I didn’t know how early she had to be up for work.

I decided against calling and that only lasted for ten seconds before I was grabbing my phone from the cup holder.

The fact that I had only had sex with Wonder since the first time we fucked was wild to me.

I hadn’t done it on purpose; it was just since I hit that, I hadn’t wanted anybody else. That was a first.

Wonder answered on the third ring, and she sounded wide awake. “You not sleep?”

She sighed into the phone. “Since I stopped drinking lean, my sleep pattern is fucked up. I sleep for a few hours then wake up.”

I didn’t know of a lot of people that sold cough syrup, but it couldn’t be impossible to get. I commended Wonder for sticking it out and not attempting to find any. She hadn’t even tried to get me to give her any. I was proud of her.

“You need me to come put you to sleep?”

“Confident, are we?”

“Hell yeah. You know I’ll have you snoring and drooling on the pillow two seconds after we’re done. Please don’t front, G.”

“Yeah yeah I hear you talking. Sure. I have to pee, so I’ll go ahead and unlock the door. You can just come in.”

“Cool.”

When I walked into Wonder’s bedroom, she was sitting up with her back against two pillows, scrolling on her phone.

Her gaze lifted as I stood at the foot of the bed and pulled my shirt over my head.

We stared at one another as I took off my shoes, then my jeans, and my boxer briefs.

I walked over to the bed and took Wonder’s phone out of her hand before crawling between her legs.

“Who else you been fucking?” I asked, my face so close to hers that our noses were almost touching.

“Nobody. Where is the condom?”

I didn’t answer her with words. I snaked my tongue into her mouth, and we kissed as I pressed my tip into her opening.

I wanted that pussy raw. She didn’t protest, so I pushed myself inside of her, and she locked her legs around my waist. I knew I was clean, and my pull out game was going to be strong.

I definitely wasn’t trying to get her pregnant.

I sexed Wonder to sleep just like I told her I was going to.

I spent the morning looking at trucks. I was serious about starting a business.

So serious that I paid Nina to make a website and some business cards for us.

She was still mad at Pierre, but she wouldn’t hesitate to help us because he was the father of her kids, so why wouldn’t she want him making legal money?

We were going to get Nina to be the face of the company for various reasons, but one of them was because Pierre and I were two black men.

He was dark as hell, and I was tatted up.

We knew we might come across as intimidating to some people off the rip.

We needed to come across as professional as possible, so people wouldn’t be hesitant to let us in their homes.

Nina could switch her tone up and go from hood to corporate just like that.

Pierre had a white homeboy that he was going to hire part-time.

He was going to take a picture with us that was going on the website.

Maybe people would feel a little better reaching out to us if we had a blonde-hair, blue-eyed white boy with us.

I had even been watching YouTube videos to learn the correct way to wrap and move people’s furniture without scratching and damaging it.

When I was done, I pulled up at Pierre’s new trap spot.

Since the situation with Eric, he moved locations.

I was meeting a female that I was cool with that worked at a pharmaceutical company.

She was my connect with the cough syrup.

She’d been working there for two years and in an effort to keep the job, she didn’t do too much with the stealing.

She might get me two cases then not get me anymore for three months.

I was in the car rolling a blunt when she pulled up.

Sabrina got in my car and passed me the box. “This might be the last one. They’re really cracking down, and I can’t afford to lose my job. I just bought a house.”

I opened my console and removed the money I owed her. “You good, G. I’m ‘bout ready to sit my ass down somewhere and stop taking penitentiary chances.”

Sabrina took the money from me. “Thank you. I’m gon’ miss this money, but I’m not trying to be greedy. I got my house and a little cushion, so I’m good. You still single?”

When I first started getting the cough medicine from Sabrina, she was engaged, so she kept things professional, and I did, too.

She wasn’t ugly, but she just wasn’t someone that I felt the urge to holla at.

She had light skin, freckles, and reddish-brown hair that was in locs that hung past her shoulder.

About five months after we started doing business, her and her man broke up, and she called off the engagement.

That was when the subtle flirting started, but I used to ignore it.

After being apart for four months, they got back together, but the flirting hadn’t stopped.

Her question made me chuckle. “When yo’ ass getting married, G? You stay trying to push up on a nigga. I’ll ruin your life,” I winked at her. “Stay with yo’ nigga where it’s safe.” That was the nicest way for me to shoot her down. I could be a dog ass nigga, but I did let some women get past me.

“I hear you.” She got out of the car.

As I was walking into the house, Jermaine pulled up.

He was more than likely coming to buy weed from Pierre.

I hadn’t spoken to Jermaine since he did what he did at Eric’s funeral.

I hadn’t lost any sleep from not talking to him.

If he wanted to go out sad behind a female that got passed around like a blunt, that was on him.

He could be a simp in peace. Walking in the house, I spoke to everyone present, which was Pierre, Jamal, and a guy by the name of Dennis.

Pierre was sitting at the dining table bagging up weed, and Jamal and Dennis were playing the PS5.

I sat down at the table, so I could talk to Pierre about the trucks I looked at. Jermaine walked in the house and greeted everyone. I chose not to say anything. “Damn what up, Wilde? I haven’t heard from you.”

“And you probably won’t,” I stated truthfully before hitting the blunt I was holding. “You approached me after my people’s funeral to ask me about a hoe that begged to suck my dick. I don’t really have anything to say.”

Jermaine kissed his teeth. “You really on that shit, man? I asked you a simple question. We’ve gone behind each other in the past, but we had no problem stating when a female was off limits. And it was always respected. You think I don’t know Nina is off limits?”

“Nina?!” I snorted. “Pierre has been with Nina for years, and they have two kids together. I know you didn’t compare a dick-sucking pass around to that man’s baby mama. That’s the most absurd thing I’ve heard all day.”

“What the fuck?” Dennis called out as the front door swung open, and three masked men barged in the house with guns.

I had been caught slipping. My gun was in the car. “Don’t fucking move!” The first man yelled as he aimed an assault rifle at Dennis and Jamal.

The other two men ran over to the table where we were seated, and I heard the rapid succession of gunfire behind me.

I didn’t know who it was, but someone had come from the back of the house and laid one of the gun men down.

A shootout ensued and before I could duck and get on the floor, I felt a searing pain in my shoulder.

I gritted my teeth together as another bullet penetrated my arm on the same side.

The gunfire lasted for about thirty seconds before it abruptly stopped.

I was flat on my back, and my eyes darted over to Pierre and Jermaine.

Jermaine was curled up in a fetal position, while Pierre was on his side.

The white shirt that he wore had turned crimson at the bottom indicating that he’d been shot.

“That nigga dead. Come the fuck on!”

I heard someone run through the door, so I got up off the floor as Pierre did the same. “Where you hit at, G?” I asked him as my eyes darted around the room. Dennis was gone, and Jamal had been shot in the neck. “Fuck!” I shouted as I grabbed my phone to call for help.

Jermaine peeled himself up off the floor, and it appeared that he hadn’t been hit.

Pierre had been shot in the side, and he was applying pressure to the wound with a strained look on his face.

Jermaine’s ass was shook as he looked around the room.

I conversed with the dispatcher who was asking one too many questions while I walked over to the man laid out on the floor and snatched the mask off his face.

I gritted my teeth together and looked over at Pierre.

Bitch ass Drew had come for us, and it didn’t end in his favor.

Sirens wailed in the distance, and I was glad because my entire left side was numb.

“Man, if you aren’t hit, take this weed and shit and get the fuck out of here,” Pierre barked at Jermaine. “I don’t need a drug charge because niggas tried to come for me.”

Jermaine grabbed a duffel bag off the floor and began nervously tossing in bags of weed along with some money that was on the table. I had syrup in my car, and I knew the police would probably be searching any car that was in the yard. I tossed him my key fob.

“Get that case of syrup out of mine, too.”

Jermaine’s eyes bulged out of the sockets, but he didn’t protest. His pussy ass had the nerve to act like he didn’t want to be the one holding the drugs, when he sold crack for a living.

Jermaine moved anxiously towards the door, and I heard sirens getting closer.

I was numb from my shoulder to my hand, and I was starting to get lightheaded.

Pierre had sat down at the table, and he was starting to look weak himself. Jamal kept saying “Fuck, man.”

I had never been shot before, and I could officially say it hurt like hell.

I heard Jermaine’s car pulling off and sighed with relief as the sirens got closer and closer.

I wasn’t trying to bleed out. I kept glancing over at Pierre to see if he was still conscious.

My aunt couldn’t lose him, too. Thinking about her and all she’d been through, I began doing something I rarely ever did.

I prayed, and I wasn’t even praying for myself.

I was praying for Pierre. He had to make it.

I refused to believe that life would be that cruel to my aunt. There was no way.