Still Candy Shopping (16 page)

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Authors: Kiki Swinson

Tags: #Fiction, #African American, #Urban

BOOK: Still Candy Shopping
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After about five minutes of complete silence between Tacora and me, a car pulled up. She insisted that I take the first customer, so I didn’t argue with her and accepted the offer. Her generosity took me aback for a minute, but I bounced back quickly.

After I hopped into the car with my customer, I did my regular routine of giving out the prices of my services and waited for him to tell me what he wanted. I knew I was supposed to ask the customer whether he was a police officer, because Slim had drilled it into our heads all last night and the entire walk over here, but I didn’t care. I wanted to run into a cop so he could take me away from this mess. And if it meant I had to get a prostitution charge to be free of that maniac, then so be it.

“I think I’d just like to get my dick sucked,” my customer said. So I took his money and assumed the position. It took me no time to make him cum. He was definitely what one would call a minuteman. I was in his car and done with serving him in less than seven minutes flat. I was literally fifty dollars richer for doing a seven-minute job. Shit, if I could perform six blow jobs an hour and keep going for eight hours straight, I would make more money than I did as an assistant principal, and I didn’t need a fucking six-year degree to do it.

Immediately after I finished my job, I used one of the tissues I had stuffed in my purse to wipe my mouth, and then I grabbed the door handle to open the passenger door. The moment I put one foot outside the car, I saw another car pull up behind the car I was in. Tacora didn’t hesitate to approach the next customer. By the time I removed myself from the car and closed the door, Tacora had already said a few words and was in the passenger seat ready to handle her business. I stepped away from the curb in order to give them some privacy. The last thing I wanted to do was watch them fuck, so I made sure I backed away enough to give them all the space they needed.

As I waited for another car to pull up, suddenly the car Tacora was in took off at full speed. I couldn’t believe my fucking eyes. Slim couldn’t believe it either. It definitely caught him off guard, because he had a delayed reaction. He didn’t start running behind the car until the car was already halfway down the block. By then it was too late.

I just stood there and watched the whole thing unfold. Slim cursed out the driver of that car out like he knew him personally. It was funny seeing him run down behind a car driving at forty miles per hour. When the car drove up to the traffic light, it made a sharp right turn onto Tidewater Drive and kept going. After Slim saw that happen, he’d just stood there in amazement.

Jennifer rushed across the street to where I was standing. Her mouth was wide open. “Oh my God! What the fuck just happened?” she asked and then burst into laughter.

I was still in shock and didn’t know how to answer her question. I stood there and watched Slim as his face turned red. “I can’t believe that bitch had the balls to hop in a car and leave just like that,” Jennifer said.

“Me either. I mean she had just told me that she was going to dip on him, but I didn’t know she was going to do it so soon.”

“Get the fuck out of here! She told you that?” Jennifer whispered.

“Yeah. She and I were just standing here and she told me that she was tired of Slim’s shit and that she wasn’t taking it no more, especially since he let Sabrina stay in jail.”

“Girl, Slim is going to hit the motherfucking ceiling when he finds out this shit!” she said, and then when she noticed he had started walking towards us, she said, “Oh, shit! Look at his face. He looks mad as hell! And it looks like he’s coming over to you, so let me carry my ass back on the other side of the street.” And then Jennifer left me standing there alone.

As soon as he got within arm’s reach of me, he lunged back and punched the shit out of my face. I never saw that one coming. He didn’t give me any warning that he was going to hit me.

“Why the fuck did you let that bitch get away from me like that?” he screamed. Spit flew out of his mouth with every word he uttered.

“I didn’t know she was gonna get in that man’s car and get him to pull off,” I finally said as I pressed my left hand against the left side of my face.

“I don’t give a fuck if you didn’t know. When you saw him drive off, you were supposed to stop them.” He continued yelling as he got closer to my face. Spit continued to fly out of his mouth with every word.

“Stop them how? You saw how fast that car sped off,” I pointed out.

I guess that was the wrong thing to say, because Slim lunged back and hit me two more times. I saw stars when the first blow hit me. By the time the second blow hit me, the impact of it caught me off guard and I fell to the ground. Before I could gather my thoughts, he started kicking me. I knew all this aggression he was taking out on me wasn’t all about Tacora leaving.

Thank God a car started rolling our way, because if it hadn’t, Slim would still be kicking me while I was down on the ground. As the car drove by, the driver slowed down, I guess to see if I was all right. Slim noticed and demanded that I get up from the ground. While I tried to gain the strength to get back on my feet, something told me to look up, and when I did my heart dropped.

Riding by in a gray Nissan Altima was Denise. She was the driver of this car. I couldn’t believe it. She was approximately six to seven feet away from, and when our eyes connected, she chuckled as if she was laughing at me.

By the time I picked myself up from the ground and brushed myself off, Denise was long gone. She got her chance to see me reap what I had sown, so I figured she was satisfied.

 

 

The Candy Shop part 2 Kiki Swinson

 

Easy Come Easy Go

 

Whoever said that life was what you made it, lied. I knew that I had made a lot of wrong choices in my life, but I had also made some good ones and still came out on the losing end. I literally sucked dick and allowed men to either fuck me in my pussy or my ass for money that I didn’t get to spend. Not only that, I had a fucking dope habit and Slim refused to give me part of the money I made to support my addiction. Was he fucking nuts or what?

Back at the apartment I thought about how Denise had seen me at my worst point. I was relieved that she had not said anything to me, but the fact that she smiled at me spoke volumes.

While I lay there in my bed and replayed the whole scene in my mind, Stacy knocked on my slightly opened bedroom door and asked me if she could come in.

“Yeah, come on,” I replied. It totally shocked me that she wanted to come into my bedroom, so I was curious to know what she had on her mind. Jennifer was in the shower at the time, and I heard Slim go outside right before Stacy knocked on my door, so she and I were alone.

“Can I sit down?” she asked.
I was lying on my side in the fetal position, so I slid backward so she could sit on the edge of my bed.
“Thank you,” she said, and then she sat down.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“I just came in here to see if you were all right,” she replied
“My knees are pretty scraped up, but I’m cool,” I assured her. “And thanks for asking.”
“Oh, you’re welcome.” She smiled and I smiled back.

“You know what?” she asked. “After I saw Slim hit you all those times, I got really scared. I mean, I didn’t think that he was the type of guy who’d hit a woman.”

“What made you think that?”
“When I met him yesterday he was so nice.”
“Where did you meet him?”
“He was standing outside talking to two other guys and saw me walking by and stopped me.”
“You from Huntersville?”

“No, I’m from Portsmouth. But I got a friend who lives on Bower Street. I was staying there with her and her mama, but her mama got tired of me living there and told her to tell me I had to go. So I packed up my stuff and left.”

“Do you have any children?”
“Nope. I don’t want any rug rats.” She smiled. “Do you?”
“Yes, I have a daughter.”
“How old?”
“She just started grade school.”
“Oh, wow! That’s cool.”

Before I could throw another question at her, Jennifer walked into the room wrapped up in a bath towel. I could tell she was shocked to see me talking with Stacy.

“Excuse me,” she said, and then she slid by us and stepped into the closet.
“Oh, you’re fine,” Stacy assured her.
“Oh, yeah, we weren’t talking about much,” I added.

While in the closet, Jennifer peeped her head around the door and said, “Don’t let Slim see y’all talking. You know he’s paranoid and will probably think that you’re trying to corrupt her.”

“She ain’t got to worry about it. If it got to that point, I’d straighten it out,” Stacy responded.
Jennifer burst into laughter. “Faith, she sounds like she has it all under control, huh?”
I chuckled. “Yeah, she does.”
“Can I ask y’all something?” Stacy asked.
“Yeah, go ahead.” I encouraged her.
“Why did that other girl get in that man’s car and leave?”

Jennifer and I looked at each other to see who would answer the question. And since Jennifer acted a little hesitant, I asked, “What would you do if you didn’t want to stay around any longer?”

“I’d leave,” she answered.
“Well there’s your answer.”
“Well, if she didn’t want to be around anymore, then why did Slim beat you up for it?”

Jennifer stood there by the closet, facing Stacy and me, and waited for me to answer. Now I wanted to tell her how much of a women-beating asshole he was, but I couldn’t chance her repeating what I said to him. So to play it safe, I was vague with my answer.

“I’m not sure, Stacy,” I said. “But when I figure it out, you’ll be the first to know.”

While we were talking Slim came back to the apartment. I thought he would come in the back to check up on us, but it sounded like he went into the kitchen for something, and then he went right back outside.

Stacy chilled in the room with Jennifer and I for another twenty minutes or so and then she expressed how tired she was and retired to the other room. After she left, Jennifer and I got into our little huddle to express a few things of our own.

“What do you think about her?” Jennifer whispered.
“She seems like she’s cool, but I still don’t trust her.”
“Yeah, me either. There’s just something about her that doesn’t sit right with me.”
“I sensed that too,” I agreed.
“Well you know what that means?” Jennifer asked.
“Yep. That means we gotta keep our eyes on her.”

Jennifer nodded. We wanted to give Stacy the benefit of the doubt, but we lived with a crazed maniac, so we couldn’t take any chances.

 

 

The Candy Shop part 2 Kiki Swinson

 

A Couple Days Later

 

Things around the apartment calmed down after Tacora’s unexpected departure. But just as I suspected, very little time passed before Slim returned to his psycho ways. One morning, Jennifer and I were awakened to noises from the other bedroom.

What’s that sound?” Jennifer asked, her voice still groggy from sleep.
“That’s Slim in there banging the hell out of Stacy,” I told her.
“Do they have to be so loud?” Jennifer asked, and then she turned over on her stomach and buried her face underneath her pillow.
“It’s that old ass mattress they’re on, that’s making all that noise.” I replied.

Slim banged Stacy’s brains out for at least twenty minutes straight. I had no idea he had that much stamina. When I first came to the apartment, he didn’t have any desire to fuck me, so I didn’t have the slightest idea about how much of a champion he was in bed. Sabrina and Tacora knew what he was made of, though. And now that I thought about it, I was sure Paris and Jennifer knew as well.

After their little rendezvous, Slim and Stacy went into the bathroom and took a shower together. They acted like they were newlyweds. The sound of their voices literally got on my nerves. And when I felt like I heard enough, I got up and went into the kitchen to get a bowl of cereal. I needed something on my stomach before I got my early morning fix. While I was minding my business, someone knocked on the front door. Usually no one was allowed to open the front door, but Slim was in the shower with Stacy, probably going for round two, so I didn’t want to disturb him. He’d probably bite off my fucking head if I interrupted him while he was trying to bust another nut.

Whoever was knocking on the door had to be one of Slim’s lookout buddies, because they were the only ones who ever knocked on the door. I took the liberty to make sure that was who it was by looking through the peephole. When I saw that it was indeed one of his flunkies, I yelled through the door and asked him what he wanted.

“Where’s Slim?” he yelled back.
“He’s in the shower,” I said.
“Tell ’im Big Rob needs to holler at him when he gets out.”

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