Wifey: Part 1

Mia

It had been a little over a week since Bebo’s homecoming party, and during that week, nobody had heard from or seen Shabazz. We didn’t know if he had been murdered or if he had gotten locked up or what. I had met and exchanged numbers with Jasmine at Bebo’s party. Nico wanted me to reach out to her and try and feel her out to see what was going on with Shabazz, telling me not to make things seem obvious or make her suspicious, just in case her man was talking to the feds or something.

I dialed Jasmine’s number, and she picked up after the fourth ring.

“Hi, Jasmine. This is Mia,” I said, trying to sound as cheery as possible but still sound like my normal reserved self.

Jasmine paused for a second and didn’t say anything at first. I could hear music in the background. She turned the music down and then started to talk.

“Oh, Mia, what’s up? I’m sorry. I thought I had locked your number into my phone, but I must not have, ’cause I’m lookin’ at the number like, ‘Whose number is this?’” Jasmine said with a tone that sounded genuine.

“Mmm-hhhmm. Let me find out you screening calls,” I joked and said softly.

Jasmine laughed.

“Listen, I was calling you because I wanted to find out about the nursing program that you in. You was saying it’s only a fifteen-month program?” I asked.

“Yup, fifteen months, but it’s full-time though. Why you ask?”

“’Cause I need to get off my butt during the day. I mean, after I leave the gym in the morning, I’m home all day, and it’s not like I got kids or anything, so I was like, I should just look into it and start it and try to just knock it out.”

Jasmine seemed distracted and was quiet for a second before responding. “Yeah, you should. ’Cause if my non-studying-always-partying ass can pass these classes, you’ll be fine.”

“OK, so listen, you said you in SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn, right?”

“Yup.”

Jasmine put me on hold for about a minute because she had another call. And while I waited I started to fix myself something to eat.

“Mia, let me call you back in about an hour,” Jasmine said to me when she came back to the phone.

“All right, but real quick, do you have class today? Because I wanted to drive down there and speak to somebody in admissions or something, but I won’t have a clue where I’m going.”

“Wow! You really ain’t playing,” Jasmine said to me. “Yeah, actually I have a class that starts at eleven, and I’ll be out at twelve fifteen, so if you want us to link up, that would be the best time.”

“That’s perfect.” I told Jasmine I would get dressed and head to Brooklyn and hit her up when she got out of class.

After I hung up the phone, I ate and then got dressed. I chilled with Nico for about an hour before I hopped into my Range Rover and headed over to SUNY Downstate. I was coming from the North Shore of Long Island, so by the time I got to Brooklyn, it was just approaching twelve noon. When I got there, I sent Jasmine a text message, so she would know where I was at.

Jasmine sent me a text right back and told me to just chill in my car on Clarkson Avenue and that she would be there in ten minutes. So, to kill time, I went to Starbucks and got a caramel macchiato and some shortbread cookies, and then I headed back to Clarkson Avenue and waited for Jasmine.

After about five more minutes of waiting I saw Jasmine looking around, so I rolled down the passenger side window and tapped on my horn until I got her attention.

“Jasmine!” I shouted out the window.

Jasmine saw me and came over to my truck.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey,” Jasmine said, mockingly. “Do you always speak like that?”

“Like what?”

“So softly…almost like a baby. I gotta strain to hear ya ass.”

“Excuse me? Am I missing something?”

Jasmine gave me a half smile. I didn’t know what it was, but it was like I could sense some kind of mood change or some kind of hate on her part. I wasn’t sure what it was, but she definitely was coming across different than when we spoke on the phone earlier.