Wifey: Part 1

“You a fuckin’ federal agent or something, my nigga? You interrogating me?”

“Nah, I ain’t no fed, but I’m just saying.”

“You saying what?” I looked right at him and waited for his response.

Bebo was quiet, so I kept talking.

“If we got some bricks, then let’s talk about chopping that shit up, and if not, then what the hell we really here for?” I said. “Shabazz was in the street just like all of us, so he knew what came with that. He got caught out there, and we’ll deal with that. He was family. I’ll make sure that his family is good. I already been on that from this morning,” I said.

Bebo walked over to me and gave me a pound and a ghetto embrace. “We good. I just wanted to speak to you straight up. You know how I do,” Bebo said.

“And you know I respect that. Now let’s talk abo

ut who is knocking off our crew one-by-one,” I said.

At that point in the meeting, everybody else in the room all got involved in the conversation, and I played everything cool but inside I was heated. What the fuck was taking BJ so long to dead that snitch muthafucka? Now that Shabazz got hit I was sure the alphabet boys were putting pressure on Bebo to set up the drug transaction with all the major players.

When I left that meeting I asked BJ what the hold up was.

“I’m on it, Nico, that’s my word,” BJ said reassuringly. “But I gotta do this shit right. You said make him disappear. Each time that nigga leaves his house he’s either with Earl, or Corey, or both them niggas. I gotta catch him slippin’, alone. If I fuck this up my life is at stake in more than one way. You feel me?”

I nodded. I knew BJ was right. We had to be smart about putting Bebo six feet under, or all of us would be spending the rest of our lives in a 6 x 6 jail cell.

CHAPTER 21

Mia

Friday afternoon me and Sharmel had returned home from our Miami getaway. Sharmel went home to her house, and I went home to mine. When I was down in Miami, I had felt totally free and liberated, but now that I was back in New York, the realities of things were starting to set in.

I had the biggest regrets for what I’d done with Kelvin, and I felt like the biggest slut in the world. But there was nothing I could do to change the past. I didn’t feel too bad because although I had fucked Kelvin, I was at least smart enough to make sure I deleted his number from my phone. And I also made sure that he had deleted my number from his phone. This way there would be no way we could stay in contact with each other.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to get to know Kelvin better. But the best thing was to keep that little tryst of mine buried in the past. Sharmel was my girl for life, so I didn’t have to ever worry about her running her mouth to anyone about what I had done.

When I came home, Nico wasn’t there, which gave me some time to clean the house, do laundry, and cook, so that when he did come home he would at least come home to a pleasant environment. And I cooked his favorite meal of collard greens, cornbread, black-eyed peas, and barbecue ribs.

***

My timing was perfect because almost as soon as I took the ribs out of the oven, Nico walked in the house. I had no idea what his reaction or response to me would be and I was prepared for anything.

Nico walked into the kitchen and didn’t come up to me and give me a hug and a kiss like he usually did when he saw me.

“So you think you can just run off to Miami, not say shit to nobody and then come home and cook, and that’s supposed to just smooth everything over?”

“Baby, I’m sorry but—”

“But nothing!” Nico said, cutting me off. “I don’t wanna hear your shit right now!”

I shook my head, trying to stay calm, but all those feelings that I had before I went to Miami all instantly came back, but I held them in check.

“I cooked you some ribs and cornbread, if you wanna eat.”

Nico walked out of the kitchen and went upstairs to our bedroom. I didn’t know what to say, but I didn’t want to have tons of tension in the house. So I waited a few minutes, and then I went upstairs to talk to him.

Nico was in the bathroom, and the water was running in the shower.

“You going out?” I asked.

“Yeah.”