Wifey: Part 2

“No, I’m just saying.”

“You just saying what?” Jasmine braced herself to hear the latest rumor about her. Jasmine hadn’t told her anything about Homicide because she couldn’t trust that she wouldn’t say anything to Ish.

“I’m just saying I don’t know how you go for so long.”

Simone was still the dark-skinned, round-faced girl with the pig nose who only recently started looking decent when she had the money to make herself look better. But the way she was speaking, she was trying to make it like, for all her life, dudes were in bidding wars over her pussy and she always had her pick of dicks.

“It ain’t that hard, Simone. And you act like Nico is doing time in prison or something. He’ll be back.”

“I hear you. But just as long as you know, after we finish partying or whatever, my black ass is going home to Ish for some dick. So don’t be looking for me to come back to chill with you in Long Island.”

“Whatever, Simone.”

Jasmine literally couldn’t take anymore of Simone, so she ended the call with all of the info she needed to relay back to Homicide.

***

With Jasmine’s urging, she and Simone made plans to hang out at Sway, a white trendy bar lounge in SoHo. Sway was in walking distance from Jasmine’s apartment, but Simone was under the impression that she and Jasmine would both be driving in separately to Manhattan to meet up at the lounge.

“Who told you about this place?” Simone asked Jasmine after she entered Sway and found Jasmine seated at a table by herself. Simone had a stink look on her face.

“I been here before.”

“Here?”

“Girl, sit your ass down and let me order you a drink. It’ll be poppin’ in about a hour.”

“I hope so. All these white people . . . I don’t party with white people.”

Jasmine shook her head, annoyed with Simone already. She managed to get the waitress’s attention and ordered two apple martinis.

“None of these white boys better try to talk to me.”

“Simone, trust me, these white people in here be on a completely different vibe. They all about having fun and a good time when they go out. Watch how many celebs stroll up in here within the next two hours or so.”

“In here?”

“Yes, in here.”

Simone rolled her eyes.

The waitress came back with the drinks, and Simone took her drink off of the tray without even waiting for the waitress. She crossed her legs, put the tiny red straw to her mouth, and started to sip on her drink.

“Thank you.” Jasmine handed the waitress forty dollars.

“So what’s up with school?”

“It’s kicking my ass.” Jasmine didn’t want to tell Simone that she had withdrawn from school for this semester.

“That’s cool.”

Simone was clearly distracted. She put her drink down and was responding to a text message. After a moment she started to smile, and she texted something.

“Ish said to tell you what’s up. And he said he’s been to Sway before, and it’s a cool spot.”

Jasmine looked at Simone and just shook her head. Suddenly Simone had loosened up and was ready to let her hair down after Ish validated the spot.

“So what was you saying about school?” Simone asked.