“Really broke. I mean he couldn’t even take me to cheap-ass Olive Garden. The men I had dealt with before would fly me all over the world and we would do things, you know?”

  “Well, we got that in common cuz I can’t do broke either,” Jada said.

  “You look expensive.”

  “You’re calling me a gold digger?”

  “No, not at all.”

  “What do you mean by I look expensive?”

  “You have a full face of makeup on at the gym. Body enhancements. Not throwing shade. I just don’t think I can do surgery. I’m afraid of going to the hospital. I mean I had my teeth veneered, but that was it.”

  “I’ve heard I look expensive.”

  “Yes.”

  “You wanna hang out? Why?”

  “You just seem like you will be a lot of fun.”

  “Are you sure you’re not just looking for a man to take care of you?”

  Ava smiled. That smile was too damn perfect.

  “I mean, who don’t want to meet rich men. I met a rich man on one of those Sugar Daddy sites.”

  “Yes.”Jada had heard of the sites and had seen some of the members on the Steve Harvey show and decided there was no way in hell that she was going to sleep with some eighty-year-old man for a pair of Louboutins. She would use men, but with the exception of Big Poppa, she had to be attracted to the man. Even Big Poppa never got the kitty, although he did get to taste it.

  “Yeah, I met a man on there, old Australian guy, owns a slew of private medical clinics. I would see him twice a month and he would pay my rent and give me spending money.”

  “And what did you have to do for him?”

  “I’d fuck him a couple of times. He was a handsome man but then he wanted more and I couldn’t see myself being with him in the long term.”

  Jada stared at her. She was telling all of her business. What kind of woman just meets a person at the gym and divulges so much information?

  “Hey, Ava, I gotta go but follow me on Instagram. DM me and we can hang out.”Jada didn’t want to give Ava the number right now.

  “What’s your name?”

  “@JadaSimone404.”

  “Cool. Nice meeting you, Jada.”

  ***

  The last time Jada had seen TeTe was at Black’s funeral. TeTe greeted her with a hug and they went out to her patio and had Mojitos.

  Jada said, “I love your outfit, Ms. Lady.”

  TeTe was wearing a white Armani pantsuits with black Manolo Blahniks.

  “How are you feeling, lady?”Jada asked.

  “You know I have good days and bad days. Sometimes, I think of some of the things he would say or do and I just bust out laughing. Sometimes I cry. I don’t know if I will ever meet a man like that again.”

  “I know. He was special.”

  “I miss him so much, Jada.”TeTe’s eyes teared up and she thought about how life was going to be without Black and her sister Tessa. She hadn’t had a chance to mourn her sister properly and when she received the news that Black had gotten murdered, she was devastated.

  “It will take some time getting used to him not being here,” Jada said.

  “Right now, it hurts like hell.”She sipped her drink. “You know I have a big personality and there aren’t too many men that can take me.”

  Jada laughed and said, “Don’t we know that.”

  “Black was a man’s man. No woman could put him in place except his Nana. His Nana loved herself some Tyrann.”

  “I know.”

  TeTe disappeared into the house and returned with more drinks. She said to Jada, “I’ve never told anybody this but Black was working with the FBI.”

  Jada choked. “What do you mean, working?”

  “There was this rogue Fed agent that was taking dope from dealers and traffickers and giving it to him. He would sell it and they would split the money.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “Black told me everything.”

  Jada thought back to the day that Black had assured her that he didn’t rob Fresh’s connect. It must have been the FBI.

  “I think that man had Black killed.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. I just have a gut feeling that he wasn’t killed by a gangster. Black was always careful.”

  “So no revenge for you, huh?”

  “I didn’t say all of that. My man got murdered, and he had enemies so I have to take care of that for him.”

  “You know that Black had a lot of people after him. Cali dudes. Detroit dudes.”Jada then wondered if Fresh had something to do with it. He believed that Black had robbed his connect. Perhaps he knew about Black’s murder.

  “But I’m not understanding. If Black was getting product from the FBI dude, why would he want to kill Black?”

  “I don’t know. Perhaps Black wanted to stop being his partner. I don’t know. This is information that Black took to the grave with him.”

  CHAPTER 3

  Jada and Starr sipped champagne as they sat in salon chairs at Happy Nails. Their feet were soaking in pedicure bowls. Jada liked to come to this place and she had invited Starr to come along. And she was glad that she had because though she loved the place, Mai, a young Vietnamese girl, always got in her damn business asking what she did for a living. When was she going to get married? Did she want to have children? Why didn’t she have kids yet? She had answered the goddamned questions hundreds of times. Jada even stopped going but she could never quite arch her own eyebrows like Mai. The little Asian chick was placed on Earth to do eyebrows because every time Jada left, her brows were on fleek.

  Mai was scrubbing Jada’s feet and texting at the same time. Another girl, named Huang, was working on Starr’s feet. Huang was pleasant and nosey but not quite as nosey as Mai.

  “Q called today.”

  “What did he say?”

  “Not a damn thing. I hung up.”

  “The nerve of that motherfucka’.”

  Jada sipped her champagne and said to Mai, “Would you pay attention to what you are doing and quit ear hustling? You’re hurting my damn feet.”

  The woman looked confused. “Ear hustling? What you mean, Ms. Jada? Ear hustling?”

  “Listening to some shit that ain’t your damn business.”

  “Oh, ear hustling.”She smiled, revealing huge, corn-colored teeth. “I like that word. I use it.”

  “Pay attention to my feet.”

  Jada turned back to Starr and said, “I can’t believe he had the nerve to try to call you.”

  “I know.”

  Jada said, “Wait a minute. Is he out?”

  “No. He’s on Wright Street.”

  “Is he going to be extradited sending him to Houston?”

  “No, his trial is going to be in Georgia.”

  “I haven’t heard from Fresh in a few months,” Jada said.

  “Damn.”

  “I don’t care about him. I think I’m over him. I think I’m over dudes. I’m just trying to get myself together, you know?”

  “What about the dude from Miami?”

  Mai, still scrubbing Jada’s feet, said to Starr. “I tell Ms. Jada that she need to get marry, settle down, have kids.”

  Jada wanted to do use her nosey ass with the champagne.

  “Mai? What was the word we learned today?”

  “Ear hustle.”

  “No, its ear hustling and you are doing it again.”

  “I sorry, Ms. Jada.”

  “Dude from Miami? Tank is his name. He got mad because one day he came over and Black was there and he accused me of fucking with Black.”

  Starr said, “Please! God bless the dead but I know there was no way in hell that you would fuck with Black.”

  Jada thought about the last time that she had seen Black. He had fucked her really good. Nobody would ever know that.

  “Tank was married.”

  “And he’s trying to tell you what to do?”

  “That’s men for you.”

  “Did you like him?”

  “I did. I liked him a lot. I liked Fresh a lot, too. I like Shamari a lot.”

  “Out of the three. Who would you like to have been with the most?”

  “Tough question, but I would say Fresh because even though me and Mari were together for a long time, there was just something missing. I still love him though. Tank is married so it would really be hard for me to trust him.”

  Jada received a call from an unrecognizable number. She answered the phone.

  “Hello, Jada, it’s Fresh. Can you meet me somewhere? It’s important. I really need to see you.”

  She turned to Starr and said, “You have talked Fresh up.”

  ***

  Brooke entered Starr’s office and said, “There is a man out there to see you.”

  “Did he tell you his name?”

  “No. I asked but he wouldn’t give it.”

  “How does he look?”

  “Tall, dark, and handsome. Your type.”

  “What are you talking about, Brooke?”

  “I know how you like them.”She winked.

  “Did he ask to see the manager?”

  “No. He said that he wanted to see Starr.”

  Starr entered the showroom. A tall man wearing Tom Ford Aviators was there, dressed in brown Timberland wingtips, jeans and a designer T-shirt. His wavy hair was pulled into a ponytail. She didn’t recognize him.

  He said, “Damn, Starr. You are still the finest woman in any room,” The man smiled revealing a bottom row of gold fronts.

  “Do I know you?”

  He removed his glasses and she realized that she did know him. His name was Alan Green, aka Stunna. She’d known him since she was a kid. Before she started dating Trey, they had gone out a few times. He was from a family of gangsters, even his grandma had been a gangster. About twenty of them had gotten indicted by the Feds. They had all done time and gotten out and then got right back to dealing. Stunna had a sister named Micky—a hard-core dyke that dressed like a man. She and Starr were the same age and had gone to elementary school together. They had been on the same cheerleading squad and then around thirteen, she started acting and dressing like a boy. By high school, she was completely dyke. Micky and Stunna both dealt drugs as far back as she could remember.

  She came out from behind the counter and hugged Stunna.

  He stepped back and said, “Damn! You are so fine.”He looked around the place and then asked, “Is this yours?”

  “Yeah,” she said proudly.

  “You made it out of the hood.”

  “I did.”

  “Looks like you’re doing well for yourself.”

  “It could be better, but business is doing well.”Her cheekbones raised and laugh lines emerged. She hadn’t felt this good in a very long time. Stunna’s Bleu De Chanel cologne smelled tempting. A good-smelling, dark man would get her every time.

  “What brings you here and how did you know I was here?”

  “I saw you at Black’s funeral.”

  “Why didn’t you speak?”

  “There were so many people there I couldn’t make my way through the crowd. I tried to get your attention.”

  “I didn’t know you knew Black.”

  “You know everybody in Atlanta knew Black.”

  “You’re right.”

  “How did you know him?”Stunna asked.

  “He used to talk to one of my girlfriends.”

  “Lani?”

  “Yeah,” Starr said.

  “I knew Lani and I know Jada. As a matter of fact, Jada told me how to find you.”

  Starr looked surprised. “I would have never known.”

  “I mean, we weren’t besties, but we crossed paths in the clubs a time or two, you know? Damn! This place is crazy. This is like shit I’ve only seen on HGTV.”

  “I’m sure you could afford this. Don’t be so amazed.”

  “It’s not a matter of being able to afford something. It’s a matter of having good taste and you have good taste, Starr. This is what I always admired about you. You came from the same place as we did, but you always wanted more. Even more than your sister. No offense, but Meeka is just like me with that hood mentality.”

  She laughed and said, “So what are you doing with yourself nowadays?”

  He laughed and said, “You know me, Starr.”

  “Well, let me tell you this, my friend. That life is not going to last always.”

  He smiled and there were butterflies in her stomach.

  Stunna avoided her eyes and said, “Look, I am who I am. I don’t plan on changing for nobody.”He paused.“I play the hand I was dealt.”

  “There is so much more to life than hood shit.”

  His eyebrow’s raised “Is there really?”

  “I know you made your money.”

  “You know that?”

  “The last time I saw you in front of Lennox a few years ago, you were driving a yellow Lamborghini.”

  He looked confused, like he was trying to remember the day.

  “How is your sister?”

  “You mean my brother?”

  “That’s not nice.”She laughed.

  “I love that girl to death. Still trying to sleep with every woman in the A.”

  “Just like her big brother.”

  He grinned and said, “What do I have to do with this?”

  “You know I’ve heard that you’re a ladies man.”

  “If I can find the right one.”

  “I’ve heard that before.”

  “Can we hang out sometime?”

  “I have to tell you something,” Starr said.

  “What?”

  “I have a son.”

  “What? How old?”

  “He’s about to be seven. He’s not my biological son. My ex-boyfriend Trey got killed and I adopted his son.”

  “Oh, I don’t care if he was your biological son or not. I’ll take the whole package.”His eyes did a once-over her body. “Goddamn! You look fucking amazing.”

  Those smile lines remerged.

  “Do you work out?”he asked.

  “I hate exercise.”

  “And you don’t need to start. My Gawd!”

  “Boy, would you stop looking at my body like a creep,” she laughed.

  He licked his lips then he said, “My bad.”He turned his gaze “So how is business?”

  “It’s good right now.”

  A long pause. He tried his best not to look at her in a creepy way.

  “How many kids do you have?”

  “Three in all but my oldest is seventeen.”

  “Are the two youngest by the same woman.”

  “Different baby mamas.”

  “Yeah.”He removed a phone and presented her with a photo of a little boy and a girl sitting on a wagon. They resembled each other and were almost the same size. “My heart. I love them so much. This why I do what I do.”

  Starr shot him a condescending smile. “Really? Is that why you do what you do?”

  “Well, part of the reason I do what I do.”

  Starr kept staring at the picture. “I thought you said the two youngest had different mothers?”

  “I do, I wanted them to take pictures together. I think it is important for them to know each other.”

  “They look like twins. What are their ages?”

  “Three.”

  “Who is three?”

  “Both of them. They were born a month a part.”

  “What the hell? You had two women pregnant at the same time?”

  “I didn’t mean it to happen.”

  Starr passed him the phone and said, “That is just trifling behavior.”

  “I didn’t mean for it to happen like that.”

  “But it did.”

  “You need to get one of your own,” he said. “You know, a biological one?”He smiled and said, “I can help you with that.”

  “Whoa. Slow down, man. I’m not looking for a sperm donor. I need a man. Well, let me rephrase that. I want a man. And I resent that biological statement. I love my son just as much or more than you love your kids.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “I know.”

  “You don’t need a man, but you want a man?”

  “Yes.”

  “So, here I am.”

  “Slow down.”

  “So you haven’t been with anyone since Trey?”

  “I have.”

  “Do I know him?”

  “No, you don’t know him. I don’t even want to talk about him.”

  “I’d rather talk about you and me.”

  “Stunna, you’re in the drug game.”

  “I am. Is that a problem?”

  “It is.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s selfish. What about your children? If you get killed, what will happen to them?”

  “They’ll be good.”

  “What do you mean, they will be good? You think Black’s kids are good? Two of them got murdered and the rest of them are left without a father.”

  Stunna licked his lips and this sent chills down Starr’s body. She wanted him physically.

  “Look, Starr, I know you think I’m some uneducated hood dude that don’t think, but actually, I’m pretty smart. I have a trust fund for my kids. I have bought land down in Newnan, Georgia. Lots of land. So if I get murdered. They’ll be good.”

  “Monetarily maybe, but there are some things money can’t buy.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like your life back. Look at Black and all the kids he left behind.”

  Stunna wasn’t trying to hear all that preaching. He loved the game and he had no plans to get out.

  “Well, just let me take you out—me, you, and the kids. Your son and my kids.”

  “You trying to get at me through my son?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Smart man.”

  “Beautiful woman.”

  She blushed.

  “So are we going out?”

  “When?”

  “You tell me.”

  “Next weekend.”

  “We can take the kids out. Get some ice cream or something.”

  There was a long pause before she finally said, “I’d like that.”

  ***

  Jada and Shantelle sat on her balcony, drinking peach smoothies when Jada’s doorbell rang. Jada sprang from her seat and bee lined to the door. She looked through the peephole and saw Fresh. She invited him in. He didn’t look the same. His clothes were dingy and his long, wavy hair was unkempt. Beard stubble blanketed his face. He was still a very gorgeous man, but she wasn’t used to this cave man presentation.