Still Wifey Material (2 page)

I took a look at him from head to toe and when I tell you that homeboy looked good enough to eat, believe me, he did. He had to be every bit of 215 pounds and about six feet three. He was stacked up in all the right places, and was kind of handsome. He reminded me of the NBA basketball player Carmelo Anthony with his long cornrows. The guy wore a dark blue, button-down shirt with a small RocaWear logo stitched over his heart and a dark blue pair of RocaWear jeans. The crisp white Air Forces he had on his feet made him look like a young boy with new money.

“Eating alone gives us time to catch up on some girl talk,” I finally answered.

He smiled. “Well, that’s all good, and I’m gon’ give you your space so you can do that. But, can y’all beautiful ladies please tell me your names?”

I smiled back and then Nikki and I both introduced ourselves. He told us his name was Jamal and that he and his other friends lived in the area, so they decided to come out and get a few drinks.

“What are y’all drinking?” Nikki interjected.

“Well, I was drinking on a couple of beers. But my homeboys are sipping on some harder shit.”

While Nikki and Jamal carried on their conversation, our waitress came over and took our order. As soon as she left, another one of Jamal’s friends came to our table. I was really not in the mood to entertain anyone at that point. All I wanted to do was sit down and eat in peace, especially after the day I had. It didn’t matter how I felt, though, because Jamal’s friend was coming over, and from the look on his face, he was confident that no one was going to stop him. I took a deep breath and exhaled.
Be nice
, I told myself.

“How y’all ladies doing?” Jamal’s friend asked as he extended his hand first to me, then to Nikki.

“We’re doing fine,” Nikki and I said in unison.

“Is Jamal over here bothering y’all?”

“No, he’s fine,” I said. Jamal was talking to Nikki, not me, so I was fine with it.

“What’s your name?”

“Kira,” I replied with disinterest, but he didn’t get the hint because he took a seat in the booth next to me. I immediately buried my head in my hands.

“Hi, Kira, I’m Dexter. Are you all right?” He looked concerned.

I lifted my head. “No, I think I’m coming down with a headache,” I lied.

“Oh, I’m sorry! Would you like for me to massage your temples?” He reached for my head.

I was utterly appalled, and my expression showed it. “No, I’ll be fine. Thank you.” I looked over at Nikki, who looked like she was about to burst into laughter.

Dexter gazed back and forth between me and Nikki. “Did I miss something?”

I tried to keep a straight face as I replied, “Sweetie, please don’t get offended, but I am not in the mood for a lot of chit-chat tonight. I am tired, and all I want to do is relax and eat my food in peace, if you don’t mind.”

Dexter slid out of the booth and stood. “Damn, it’s like that?” he snapped.

I shook my head in disbelief and turned my attention to Nikki and Jamal.

“Fuck you, bitch! You ain’t all that, anyway,” Dexter said and stormed off.

Shocked by his outburst, I turned back around and watched him as he headed back over to the bar. Nikki looked at me and said, “Did that whack-ass nigga just call you a bitch?”

I chuckled a bit, just to keep from going off. “Yes, he did.” I was still looking in his direction.

“Don’t pay him no mind,” Jamal interjected. “He’s drunk.”

“He just disrespected my cousin, so do you think we care about that nigga being drunk?” Nikki snapped.

“It’s OK, Nikki. Don’t get all worked up behind that loser! I mean, look at him, and look at how he’s dressed. Who wears tight-ass Levi jeans with a pair of Timbs and a white T?”

Nikki burst into laughter, but Jamal didn’t think it was funny.

“Come on, now, don’t diss my homeboy like that,” he begged.

“Fuck your homeboy!” Nikki told him.

Taken aback, Jamal got up from the booth and said, “Let me get away from over here before I curse your stupid ass out.”

“Yeah, please carry your dumb ass away because if you think you gon’ curse me out, and I’m just gonna sit here and take it, you got another thing coming!” Nikki roared at him, rolling her eyes and giving him much attitude.

“Yeah, whatever!” Jamal replied and walked off.

“Whatever, my ass! Got the nerve to be walking around here, wearing a knock-off Movado watch like you paid a lot of money for it.”

I grabbed Nikki by her arm. “Girl, don’t stoop to his level.”

“I’m not, but can you believe those fools? Coming over here, invading our space like they got it like that. What’s wrong with those idiots?”

“Nikki, let’s just drop it. They’re back at the bar now, so let’s just enjoy our meal so we can get out of here.”

“I don’t even want to eat here anymore.” She looked around for the waitress.

“Whatcha trying to do, get our food to go?”

“Yep. I am not trying to be in this place any longer than I have to.”

I totally agreed with her. We finally got our waitress’s attention and told her we wanted our meals to go. She had our food packaged up and our check on the table in less than five minutes flat. Nikki and I were very pleased, pleased to the point that we tipped her ten dollars each before we left the restaurant. On our way out, Jamal gritted on us like a little bitch, but we ignored his silly ass and kept it moving. Niggas like him and that other clown Dexter were the type of cats that couldn’t take it when a chick dissed them and told them to beat it. They ran up on the right two chicks tonight, though. Fuck ’em both.

On our way home, I stopped by the Texaco service station so I could pick up a couple packs of Tylenol to stop this headache I had coming on. Nikki stayed in the car while I went into the little convenience store. It only took me about three minutes flat to get in the store and out, so I was happy about that. Time was of the essence, and I was ready to go home and relax.

When I walked back to my car, I noticed Nikki leaning out of the passenger window, grinning all up in this guy’s face. He was pumping gas only two feet away from her. He was tall and dark-skinned with high cheekbones. His features were very distinguished, and his accent immediately led me to believe that he couldn’t be from any other continent but Africa. Where in Africa, I couldn’t tell you, but I was sure Nikki knew.

I settled into the driver’s seat. Nikki looked back at me and smiled, and then she took the liberty to introduce me to Bintu, her new foreign friend. I politely smiled at him and said hello. Bintu returned the greeting and stepped aside so that he could introduce me to his brother Fatu, who was in the passenger seat of Bintu’s car. Even though I couldn’t quite make out how he looked, I did notice that Fatu was extremely dark-skinned, even darker than Bintu with a set of white teeth, so I smiled at him too and said hi. Then I turned back around in my seat so that Nikki could continue her conversation with Bintu.

Two minutes later, I nudged her in her arm, letting her know to wrap up her conversation because I was ready to go. Fortunately for me, she took heed and we were out of there before I could count to ten. She did exchange numbers with Bintu, and on the way home, Nikki filled my head up with everything she learned about the man.

“I’m definitely calling him,” Nikki didn’t hesitate to say. “Did you see his 2008 S-Class Benz he was driving?” she asked in amazement.

I chuckled. “Yes, Nikki, I did.”

“Do you think it’s paid for?”

“Probably not.”

“Well, did you see his brother Fatu?”

“No, I couldn’t see him.”

“Too bad, because he was handsome as shit, and he had a nice body.”

“Now how did you see all that while he was sitting in the car?”

“He got out of the car to put some garbage in the trash can while you were in the store.”

“Well, if he was all that, then why didn’t you talk to him?”

“You know what? I started to, but when I thought about it, I decided that my best bet would be to try to hook up with the driver, since he was more likely to be the one with the most money.”

“That isn’t always true,” I interjected.

“Well, it doesn’t matter because Bintu told me him and Fatu own a nightclub downtown.”

“Oh really?” A light bulb went off in my head, and all I could see was dollar signs. “What else did he tell you?” I continued.

“Well, he told me a lot of stuff. But what stuck out more than anything was the fact that he said he was thirty-five. He’s single, and he lives in an apartment not too far from his nightclub.”

“Where is he from?”

“Nigeria.” She smiled.

“I see you over there grinning. You like these Nigerian niggas running ’round here, huh?”

“They a’ight.”

“Yeah, tell me anything. But, you better be careful because those men are very dominating and controlling. And not only that, their culture is different than ours. They believe in having three and four wives, and they treat them like second-class citizens.”

“I know, I heard about that. But Bintu doesn’t strike me as being that type.”

“Don’t let his look fool you.”

“I’m not. But I am going to find out what he’s working with so I can get him to spend some of that money he got on me.”

I laughed. “Getcha own damn money, will ya?”

“Oh, I am. But I want to get in his pockets too.”

“What if he’s the stingy type?”

“Then I’ma cut off his ass.”

“Well, please don’t give him any coochie until he invests some major dough in it.”

“Come on, Kira, you know I’m hip to the game. And I’ma prove it to you, because he invited us to come to his white party at his nightclub tomorrow night, and we’re going.”

“How you gon’ tell me where I’m going tomorrow night?” I asked. “And you know I don’t do the nightclub scene anyway.”

“Yeah, I know. But what else we got to do? We don’t do shit but get up every morning, go to work, and come back home.”

“Nikki, what are you talking about? We go places.”

“Kira, the only places we ever go are to the mall and out to eat. That’s it. And I’m tired of doing the same ol’ things. I want to get out and do more things. Meet more people. I mean, look at us, we are some pretty-ass women, and we are not getting any younger. So instead of letting the grass grow underneath our feet, we need to get out and see the world.”

“I am fine living my life the way it is right now.”

“Come on now, Kira! We’ve been in Houston for almost four months now, and we haven’t done anything new and exciting.”

“Believe me, we done enough exciting shit back in Virginia to last us a lifetime,” I replied sarcastically.

“You need to lighten up and go out with me just this one time,” she begged.

“I don’t know, Nikki.”

“Come on, Kira, it’s just a white party. And besides, Bintu said that the only people who are coming are the ones he invited.”

Not at all moved by the excitement in Nikki’s voice, I shook my head with uncertainty. “I still don’t know,” I said, because in all actuality I wasn’t in the mood to be around a whole lot of people I didn’t know. I was still dealing with the issues I left back in Virginia, which were going to take me some time to get over. In addition, I didn’t know how these guys were. For all we knew, they could be a couple of psychos. And since I’d exhausted all my energy from dealing with those types of niggas in my past, I refused to entertain another one at this time in my life. Now don’t get me wrong, I still craved the idea of being one with a man who respected and loved me, but the way my luck was, it seemed that there wasn’t a man out there who fit that bill. So in the meantime, I would just lay low and keep my eyes opened.

“All right, I’ll tell you what,” Nikki continued. “Let’s just go out and check out the atmosphere of the party. If you don’t like the vibe, then we can leave right back out. But if you feel comfortable, then we can stay as long as you like. It’s your call.”

I hesitated for a moment and then said, “What time does it start?”

“It’s from ten to three.”

“All right. I’ll go this time, but if we go there and these people make me feel out of place, or start playing that whack-ass African drumbeat music and all the women start dancing in the middle of the floor like they’re performing an African ritual, I am going to get right up and leave.”

Nikki burst into laughter. “I don’t think it’s going to be that type of party.”

“I hope not.” I pulled into the driveway of my home.

Once we were inside, I settled down on the living room sofa and watched
American Idol
. Nikki took her food into the kitchen so she wouldn’t disturb me while she was talking to her new friend Bintu on her Blackberry. I told her not to call him until tomorrow, so it wouldn’t seem like she was sweating him, but she wouldn’t listen. I threw up my hands and said, “Whatever!”

I
could tell Kira was hating on me for leaving her silly ass in the living room while I took my food and my conversation to the kitchen. Shit, I was trying to get to know my new friend without any distractions. I picked at my food and had myself a nice little chat with Bintu. His accent was really cute. What was even more appealing about him was that he was a business owner with a ninety-thousand-dollar whip, so I knew he was caked up with a lot of dough. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on some of it. I was well aware that in order for me to tap into his pockets I was going to have to play my cards right, and that was what I intended to do.

“So how long have you been living in Houston?” I asked him.

“Five years now.”

“How long have you been in America?”

“Since I was nineteen.”

“Well, what made you want to come here, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“My parents sent me here to further my education, so I went to Columbia University in New York, and after I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, I worked for my uncle in his restaurant for three years so I could save enough money to open my own business. Once I accomplished that, I followed my brother out here to Houston, and we got the ball rolling.”

“What’s the name of your nightclub?”