LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

Would you like something to drink?”

      “Nah,” the king of cuties said. “Your number will do.”

      “973—” I said almost immediately without thinking. What the heck was I doing? Usually, I had more control then this. But damn, he was soooooo fine. And not that Chris Brown, pretty boy fine, but that rough rugged, 50 Cent fine, the kind of fine your mama doesn’t want anywhere near your house, but you can’t seem to do without. That kinda fine was right here in the flesh. He was like Juelz Santana…but finer. Six-two, tattoo on the side of his neck and a few sprinkled across his forearms, slanted eyes and thousands of spinning waves.

      “What’s good ma?” he asked. “You gon’ finish hooking me up with the number or what?”

      “Boy, please. I ain’t thinking about you.” I did all I could to suppress my blush. “You want something to drink or what?”

      “Damn ma, you feeling me like that?”

      “Yes—no….” Why was I stuttering?

      He stroked my hair away from my face and pushed it over my left shoulder, “You real pretty. You know that?”

      I took a step back. This whole deal was a hot mess. I sucked my teeth. “Coke or Sprite?”

      “Coke.”

      I wrote his order down and before I could get to his pot’nah, he said, “I’m Harlem. So what’s your name?”

      I ignored the question. “You wanna order your food now?”

      He looked at my tag. “Toi. I like that.”

      “Me too.”

      One of the dudes sitting with him said, “Can I play with you?”

      “Whatever.” I blushed. “Are you ready to order or you still hooked on phonics?”

      Harlem laughed, and oh what a cute laugh.

      There were about three girls at the booth behind them who started snickering.

      Harlem gave me a one-sided smile. “You wanna take this outside?”

      “You threatening me?” I said jokingly.

      “You want me to threaten you?”

      “I do. You can threaten me.”

      Tay, who was standing behind me, turned away from her customer and said, “And you can threaten me.” She started pointing around the table, “and you, and you, oh, and definitely you. You can threaten me any way you want.”

      “Tay,” I said, tight-lipped. “Stop it.”

      “Oh.” She smiled and turned back toward her customer. “Hollah.”

      “Ai’ight, ma,” Harlem said. “Ask my boy what he orderin’. I ain’t sure yet.”

      I looked at him out the corner of my eye. “Whatever.” Was I still blushing? I looked at the dude sitting next to him. “What you orderin’?”

      He pointed to Harlem, “The same thing he is, but if I can’t get that, I’ll take one of your friends on the side.”

      “Somebody call me?” Tay practically tripped over to the table. “I mean,” she said, straightening her apron out, “I’m here…” She stared at one of Harlem’s friends. “Dang boy, is Idris Elba yo’ daddy? ’Cause you fine as hell.”

      “Thank you.” The guy blushed. “But my name is Ibn.”

      “Heyyyy,” Tay said with a twang. “You like the moon—the stars—and all that shit put together. You so fine, I know yo’ daddy pretty.”

      “Tay,” I said again, still tight-lipped.

      “I’m just sayin’.” She smiled. “Just keepin’ it real—hollah!”

      “Why don’t you keep this real?” Sounded over my shoulders. Instantly, my heart started thundering in my chest. I turned around and Quamir was standing there. Immediately, I took a step back.

      Quamir looked Harlem dead in the face. “Listen, li’l dude. Unless you looking to get hurt, you’ll back away from my girl. ’Cause trust and believe, you don’t want none of me.”

      Harlem laughed as he looked at Quamir. “Is this the part where you want me to be scared or what?”

      “What you say, pot’nah?” Quamir snapped, obviously caught off-guard. “’Cause I will put a cap right in your ass. Try me. I ain’t nothin’ to play with.”

      Harlem looked at Quamir like he was stupid. “Whatever, man.”

      “I got your whatever, man. You better relax and step away from my girl.”

      Harlem frowned. “‘Let me kick this to you real quick. Unless you gon’ take her out of here now and have her follow you around, telling me you’re her man doesn’t mean shit to me, ’cause everywhere and every time I see her I’ma kick it to her and that very day she’s missing and you’re wondering where she is,” Harlem slipped the pen out my hand and wrote a phone number down on a napkin, “call me and I’ll be sure to let you hollah at her for a minute.”

      “Oh damn,” Tay said. “What’s really good?”

      “Shut up.” I looked at her.

      “You talkin’ all that,” Quamir spat, “but I betchu he won’t take it outside.”

      “Not right now,” Harlem said, “’cause I’m ’bout to order my food. But when I step out that door and you bring it outside, then it’s whatever.” He looked at me. “Now, can I place my order?”

      “Yes,” I looked down at my order pad, hoping Quamir would get the hint to leave. “What would you like?”

      “Oh, you just gon’ take his order right in front of me?”

      I’m a waitress. What does he expect me to do? Usually I would’ve taken this on, but this time I ignored him. I couldn’t lose my job because I had to take care of my son. It was a rare occasion that anybody besides my mother helped me do that.

      “Oh ai’ight, Toi. This how we rollin’?” Quamir asked in disbelief.

      I turned to him. “Baby,” I said as soft as I could, “please let me work. Give me five minutes and I’ll meet you outside.”

      “Five minutes? Oh, I ain’t good enough for right now? I got to wait five minutes to be somethin’ around here?”

      He was embarrassing the heck outta me. “Sweetie, please,” I said as nice as I could, doing everything in my power not to cause a scene.

      “That’s all you gettin’ too is five minutes.” And he stormed out.

      I didn’t even turn to look at him. I guess he expected me to drop everything and run behind him. Well, how was I gon’ do that when I needed my job? I mean, yeah I loved him, and yeah I’ll go hard for him, but I need my money—especially since he stopped giving me any a long time ago. Besides, why was he at my job anyway? Last I checked, he was playing me to the left in the middle of Rector Street.

      Once I served Harlem and his friends their orders, I asked my manager if I could get a break and he said no, I had to wait for my scheduled time, which was forty-five minutes later.

      Between serving my customers and looking outside, I could see Quamir watching me from the parking lot. I glanced at the clock and my break was coming up soon. I picked up a few tips from the empty tables and checked on several of my customers before I was finally able to step outside.

      I took a deep breath as I headed over to Quamir’s truck.

      “You a comedian now, huh?” he said, sounding ridiculous. “Don’t you ever have me waitin’ like this again!” He grabbed me by my collar.

      I

Скачать книгу