Chapter 24: SHAMEEK - A Street King's Widow

Ididn’t do what I told Kyenna I was going to do when it came to Nikki. It was easy for me to say I would handle the shit. Nikki had given me years of her life with no commitment, and to cut that off cold turkey wasn’t going to be easy. I thought of how I was going to do it every day and still hadn’t got the courage to tell her we got to chill. She was a woman, and the first thing she was going to think was it was another woman. Since I had been under Kyenna a few days, I decided to give her a break and come and see how Nikki was doing. We had only texted here and there since our last disagreement. Since I had been here, Nikki had been acting too normal. I mean, that is what I asked for. She always complained that I never made time for her. I had been missing for days, and when she opened the door for me, she didn’t complain once. She had dinner cooked and kissed me. I stood in the kitchen eating straight from the pot while she wiped down the counters. Something was off.

“You ain’t gon’ fuss at me ‘bout eatin’ out the pot?”

“What’s the point? You’re grown. If you want to stand over there and eat like somebody never taught you table manners, that’s on you.”

“See, that’s what I’m talking ‘bout. You been calm lately and I’m used to the bullshit.” I laughed and kept eating.

“Maybe I got tired of arguing with somebody that does whatever the hell he wants anyway. At some point, I had to decide if I was going to spend all my energy being mad or just let you be who you are.”

I stopped chewing for a second. The way she said it was calm, and it concerned me.

“Nikki, don’t start the passive-aggressive shit. If you got somethin’ to say, say it. I don’t do good wit’ all that readin’ between the lines.”

She tossed the rag into the sink and leaned against the counter. “There’s nothing to read between. You told me exactly who you were, and I kept trying to convince myself that eventually you would want something different. That part is on me. I’m not about to spend every night asking what warehouse you were at, who called you, or why you came through the door at whatever time you decide to show up. It gets exhausting and I need to stop acting shocked by shit I already know.”

“So, you good?”

“Overly.”

Maybe I was overthinking it. Truth is, I had enough on my mind without trying to figure Nikki out, too. I ended up acting like I had some sense and fixed myself and Nikki a plate so we could sit down and eat. We were able to have a normal conversation without me thinking about my phone or what the fuck was going on with Kyenna or any of my warehouses. We showered and fucked like we usually would. We were back to our regular shit without the nagging.

The next morning, I got up and went to my main warehouse. The changes that I had made a few weeks ago were working out great, and things were back running smoothly. Once I put my eyes on everything and did all my checks, I was heading out but was stopped when I saw a text from Kyenna.

Kyenna: You left your watch over here.

Me: Put it in yo nightstand

Kyenna: Why the hell would I do that

Me: Cause that’s where I’m going to come get it from

The three bubbles appeared and then disappeared. Then reappeared again.

Kyenna: Not tonight you won’t

Me: We’ll see

Kyenna: No. We won’t.

As I was heading back to Nikki’s, Pops called and told me to stop by Royal Flush. Kyenna asked him to go over the new security for the back entrance with Grif. Why he was sending me when she asked him, I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t going to complain about too much security around Kyenna. This was my chance to convince her ass to let me come over tonight to grab my watch. I walked through the employee entrance and headed towards the back. Grif met me halfway.

“You want me to show you the camera placement first or the new door access?”

“Door first. If somebody can get through the damn door, the camera just records us gettin’ robbed,” I told him.

We spent twenty minutes going over the changes before Grif signed off on what needed to be ordered. I was about to leave and just talk to Kyenna later because Nikki had called twice, when I heard Jaharee’s laugh coming from Kyenna’s office. Then I heard another voice. A voice that irritated my fucking soul. I took the steps two at a time and the door was already open, which is I why I could hear them so clearly. Kyenna was sitting behind her desk with papers spread out in front of her. Jaharee was stretched out across the sofa scrolling on her phone, and Lloyd was standing beside Kyenna pointing at something on the paperwork. Too muthafuckin’ close for my liking.

“Damn, Lloyd, you got an employee badge now?” I busted in.

All three of them looked up at me.

“Nah, Kyenna’s benefit package isn’t competitive enough.” He laughed.

Kyenna’s ass laughed right along with him, and she even gave that nigga a light tap on his arm. I, on the other hand, didn’t find shit funny.

“Seems to me she pays you enough already.”

“Umm, are you in our business?” Kyenna asked.

“I’m just sayin’.”

My sister’s eyes moved between us before she went back to her phone. At least I thought she did. Lloyd gathered the papers and handed them to Kyenna.

“I’ll have the final copy to you by lunch tomorrow. And I’ll see you Wednesday.”

Fuck he mean, Wednesday?

“Wednesday?” I asked.

“Yes. Wednesday,” Kyenna said with a straight face.

“For what?”

“Why?” Kyenna leaned back in her chair.

“Ain’t you got a meetin’ Wednesday?”

“What meeting?” She challenged.

“I thought you said you had a meeting with a new vendor,” I lied.

“I think I know my own schedule better than you. Lloyd and I have a lunch date.”

Jaharee shot back up from her phone. Lloyd looked between the two of us but was smart enough not to say anything.

“Lunch, huh?”

“Is there anything else you need?” she asked, staring at me.

She had me so heated I wanted to pull my gun and spray the whole muthfuckin’ office, but my sister was in here, and she was staring me right in the damn face.

“You good?” Kyenna looked up at Lloyd.

“I’m great.”

“Good, I’ll be waiting on your email tomorrow.”

Lloyd gathered his shit and left. Kyenna got up and walked into her private bathroom and closed the door. That left Jaharee and me in the office. She couldn’t wait for Kyenna to close that door so she could bust out laughing.

“What the fuck is so funny?”

“You, nigga. Every time that man comes around Kyenna, you start glitching out. Nigga, are you cool?”

“I’m straight.”

“Meek, you’ve never acted this way. You don’t have access to that girl’s schedule but you stood your ass here and invented a make believe meeting trying to stop her from having lunch with Lloyd.”

“I don’t trust a nigga up under her,” I said, giving the same answer I had been giving everybody.

“Why?”

“’Cause Rah trusted him, and now he’s always in her face. That shit ain’t weird to you?”

“I can say the same about you. You’re always in her face now, too. Kyenna is grown and can make her own decisions. She can pick and choose who she wants around her. Grow the fuck up and learn the difference between protecting and possession.”

Kyenna came out of the bathroom drying her hands.

“I’m going downstairs to get me a damn drink. Y’all can finish whatever weird sibling-in-law argument y’all got going on.” Jaharee grabbed her purse and walked out.

I closed and locked the door behind her and looked dead at Kyenna.

“Did you tell my sister somethin’ that I should kno’ ‘bout?”

“No, I didn’t tell her anything because I’m not trying to blow up this family. But if you keep acting like a jealous boyfriend every time that man is around, I’m not going to tell her shit. She has eyes. And I told you that if you played the back-and-forth game between Nikki and me, I was going to embarrass you,” she said.

“That’s what this is ‘bout?”

“No, it’s not actually. You brought your ass into my office with the bullshit. I was letting you spend your time with your girlfriend.”

“She has never been my girlfriend.”

“Whatever she is, Meek.” She rolled her eyes.

I moved closer to her, and she put her hand up.

“Why you gotta go have lunch wit’ that nigga though? Y’all talk enough. What else is there to talk ‘bout?”

“Because I want to have lunch with him and I enjoy his company.”

“What you enjoy is pissin’ me the fuck off,” I said, pulling her up from her chair. “Give me a kiss.”

“I’m not giving you shit. As good as you eat my pussy, I’m sure you had your face in hers last night.”

All I could do was smile. “The last pussy I ate was yours. I’ll do it now if my nosy ass sister wasn’t in the building.”

“Bye, Shameek.”

I kissed her lips anyway and left before I did something that would get us caught. By the time I made it back to Nikki’s, I had told myself I was going to stay off my phone. That lasted maybe a few minutes. While she fixed dinner, I was sending text messages back and forth. Catching myself smiling before Nikki could catch me. As we ate, my phone kept going off, but I ignored it, trying to give Nikki her time.

“You came in smelling like perfume. I thought you were at the warehouses all day.”

“I was, and then Jaharee and I went to grab some food.”

“Are you staying tonight?”

“Yeah, I ain’t got nothin’ goin’ on too early tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

As she got the dishwasher set up, I went to shower. I left my phone on the couch. Normally, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. Nikki had never been the type to go through my phone. She had asked questions, complained, accused me of being distant, but never crossed that line. After my shower, I threw on some sweats and went back to the living room where Nikki was sitting on the sofa. I patted the sofa down, searching for my phone.

“You move my phone?”

“It’s on the table,” she said, getting up to fold the blanket she was under.

As soon as I picked it up, the screen lit up. I had no new notifications.

“Did you look through it?”

“Shameek, if I wanted to go through your phone, I wouldn’t need to sneak and do it. I moved it because I sat on it. If there’s something on there you’re worried about me seeing, that sounds more like something you need to deal with than something I did.”

I was acting paranoid, and I just knew she picked up on it. She knew my ass well. Hell, I had enough secrets to make anyone paranoid.