“I ain’t sayin’ shit. You the one tryin’ to make the comparison.”
“Come on, nigga. Let me show you how we roll,” Rain said and grabbed me by the hand.
Thank you, I thought as we fought our way through the crowded club. I was starting to think she wasn’t gonna take the bait.
Rain led me to her car and we drove off. She took me to around to four of their spots and bragged about having five more. “But they too far and I don’t feel like ridin’ out there,” Rain told me and took me back to JR’s. I really was impressed with what I saw.
The reception Rain got at the spots we went to was different than it was at JR’s. Everywhere we went, it was obvious that she was the queen and everybody bowed down to her. More importantly, every place we went was makin’ money.
When we got back to JR’s, Rain led me back to the offices. “This is Pops’ office.”
“Where’s yours?”
“I don’t have one. Don’t need one.”
JR wasn’t there that night, but she had a key to his office. We went in the office and Rain picked up the remote for the flat screen. “Pops is rarely here at night these days, so when he’s not here this is my spot.” She dropped the remote and headed for the bar. “Johnnie Black, right?”
“Right,” I said and looked at the flat screen. Porn star Lola Lane appeared on the screen, ridin’ some guy’s dick, talkin’ ’bout, ‘Yeah, Lola likes that. Fuck Lola’s pussy.’
I looked at Rain, she looked at me. “Ooops,” she said and pushed a button on the bar and the image on the screen changed. Now the screen displayed images from around the club. “Sorry about that.”
I sat down on whatever seat was closest to me without commenting on Lola or Rain’s apology. I looked around the office and my eyes stopped on a picture of a much younger JR and a very pretty woman.
Rain handed me my drink and sat down. “Is that your mother in that picture,” I said and pointed to it.
“Yup, that’s my mom, Barbara Robinson.”
“She’s very pretty,” I said and thought that Miles looked a lot like her.
“She was beautiful. She died when I was a baby, so I never really knew her.”
“For some reason I thought you were older than Miles.”
“Most people think that. But he’s older by eleven months.”
“You and him must be close.”
“We used to be.”
“What changed that?”
“Why you wanna know?”
I laughed. “Why you gettin’ defensive?”
“I’m not. We just ain’t close like we used to be.”
“That got anything to do with your sister-in-law?”
“You ask a lot of fuckin’ questions,” Rain said and finished her drink.
“I just noticed that you two didn’t really speak to each other.”
Rain got up and headed toward the bar. “I don’t like the bitch. Never have. I haven’t spoken to her since I was in the seventh grade. There. You happy now?”
“Why don’t you make me one too?” I said and finished my drink. “Why don’t you like her? She seems like a nice person.”
“Yeah, yeah, she’s real nice and whatever. I just don’t like her, and let’s leave it at that.” When Rain came back she had both bottles. Like she planned on us being there for a while. That was fine with me. I had a lot of questions for her; about her brother and their operation. Specifically; what else she had going on. If we do move on them, I wanted there to be as few surprises as possible.