“Fruck all of y’all!” Nuri said, being careful not to curse in front of the customers.
We all laughed. We teased Nuri about her ghetto married status all the time. Dennis seemed to be a good dude, but we were all convinced that he never planned on asking Nuri to marry him or giving her any babies even though they’d been together for years.
“I ain’t married, and I ain’t blind, I still look. Don’t act like you haven’t noticed how well Morris dresses, smells, and looks,” Nuri returned.
“Oh! That one that wears the hats?” Cindy asked.
“Baseball caps?” Leesa, Macy’s client, asked.
“No, those old school gentlemen hats with the brim and ribbon around it,” Cindy answered.
“Yeah, that’s him. He makes those hats look good,” Tweet answered.
“You don’t see men wearing those hats very much anymore,” Leesa said.
“He’s classy,” Nuri added.
“Anyway, if you thirst buckets will let me finish my story,” I interrupted.
“My bad,” Tweet said and gave me another look.
I rolled my eyes and continued, “I used to see his daughters’ hair done all the time. Fee, the youngest one told me that their mother did their hair, but it hasn’t been done in a while.”
“Him and his baby momma still together?” Nuri asked.
“No, they are co-parenting,” I answered.
“So why you think she hasn’t done the girls' hair?” Tweet asked.
“I don’t know. I wanted to ask, but I didn’t want to be all in his business like that.”
“Y’all friends, though, right?” Macy asked.
I felt Tweet looking at me, waiting on a response. When Morris and I first met at a party my friend Keeva had invited me to, I was attracted to him right away. He was over six feet tall with a beefy physique, large body, and strong muscles. He wore a short-sleeved denim shirt tucked into his dark wash jeans with a Gucci belt. His wrist was adorned with a large faced gold watch and matching beaded bracelets. His thick, waved hair and full dark beard were groomed to perfection. He was charismatic and charming. His dry sense of humor kept me chuckling throughout the evening.
After the party, I didn’t think I would see him again, but he ended up moving into my apartment complex, in my building, across the hall from me. Once he moved in, we developed a friendly, flirty relationship. We kept each other at a distance because he was in a relationship. After his relationship was over, he invited me over to his place for dinner. The dinner was excellent, the conversation was great and the sex…amazing. Actually, it was the best sex I’d ever had. His firm yet gentle touch, the way he commanded my body like he’d known it for years, and the way he made sure I was pleasured and satisfied was something I’d never experienced. I’d never had a lover who came anywhere close to Morris. The chemistry between us was palpable and worthy of us giving a relationship a chance.
After our night together, we’d planned to go on a date before I left for a tour with Lyrica. I was excited because I’d had a crush on Morris since the day we met. Then when he became my neighbor, the crush intensified. I liked him and hoped we could build a relationship.
The day we were scheduled to go out, I saw him and Angel, the woman that he told me he’d broken up with, together. They were talking to each other in the parking lot of our complex. I figured there wasn’t anything wrong with them still being friendly but, then they kissed. I turned around and quickly walked the other direction and didn’t look back.
Morris told me that he and Angel had broken up, which was why I’d had sex with him. Seeing them together took me back to Orlando, a guy that I’d dated for eight months before I found out he was married. Orlando lied and told me that he’d been married before, but they weren’t together anymore. I found out that not only were they still together, but she was very pregnant. I didn’t know if she ever found out about me, but when I found out about her, I tried to murder his ass. I waited outside his job with the intention of running his ass over when he crossed the street. Of course, I came to my senses before I committed vehicular homicide, but I did confront his ass in front of his colleagues and made sure to embarrass him. How dare he put me in such a horrible situation! I was hurt. I’d really started developing feelings for him. I also felt dirty. I never wanted to be the side chick. I respected family and never wanted to be the person who caused a family to fail or have hard times.
After seeing Morris with Angel, I started to think that maybe something was wrong with me. I’d been approached more than once by a man wearing a whole wedding band. Perhaps I had put something in the atmosphere that attracted men who were already in committed relationships.
I canceled my date with Morris for that evening and left for tour with Lyrica without saying goodbye. He contacted me a couple of times while I was on tour, but I ignored him. I was angry and embarrassed. After being on tour for six months, I arrived back home and ran into him in the hallway. I’d had time to heal and realized that Morris was a great guy even though he was someone else’s. I didn’t want to lose him as a friend, so I told him that I wanted us to be friends. He agreed to the friendship, and that was what we’d been since then.
Tweet knew the whole story because I’d cried to her about it. She’d encouraged me to talk to Morris about what I’d seen. She argued that it could have been something else, but I knew what I saw. It didn’t need an explanation.
“Yeah,” I answered Macy. “We are friends, but if he doesn’t volunteer information about his baby momma, then I don’t ask. Anyway, I told him I would do the girls' hair on Sunday.”
“Sunday? That’s your sacred inventory and cleaning day,” Tweet quipped.
“I know, but I remember what it felt like not to have anyone to do my hair, which is why I got into cosmetology. I don’t mind helping.”
“I know who y’all talking about. I thought somebody said he was married,” Cindy added.
It was always ‘somebody said’ with Cindy. She could never tell you who that someone was if you paid her.