Street Chronicles Girls in the Game (33 page)

Tahj once again grinned. “But, oh, my friend, I got a feeling it ain't gon’ cost me a dime.”

“Oh, Lord,” Shea said with a sigh. “She's at it again.”

“You know how I do. Home, James,” Tahj said, pointing, ordering Shea to drive home. “By the way, it's canary.”

“Huh?” Shea said with a puzzled look on her face.

“It's the cat who swallowed the canary, not bird,” Tahj said. “And let's just say that come Tuesday morning, while I'm sitting in the chair at the shop getting my new attitude, I'm going to be coughing up feathers.”

The girls giggled as they drove off.

C
ome Monday, Tahj called Shondell on her cell to set up an appointment for Tuesday. Shondell sounded more than excited to give Tahj a complete makeover. All she could think about when Tahj gave her a list of all the services she wanted done was,
Ching-chingl
Tahj even asked Shondell if she would go get the hair weave for her, because she had never shopped for one before. Shondell agreed, assuming Tahj was going to pay her back for it. Bright and early on Tuesday morning, Tahj showed up at Cute Cutz.

“Hey, girl,” Shondell said to Tahj upon her entrance into the shop. Tahj could tell already that Shondell was about to lay out the red carpet for her. Shondell even came over and gave her a hug.

Damn, did this bitch see me spot her at Red Lobster and now she trying to play up to me?
Tahj thought. She couldn't quite read Shondell yet. She didn't know if she was excited about the gig or if she was trying to play nice in order for Tahj to keep her mouth shut about her and Kel.
But I know she didn't see me,
Tahj thought.
Fuck it. Let me just play this bitch close and roll wit’ it and see how this here plays out.

“Can I get you something to drink?” Shondell asked. “Coffee, water, soda, or something?”

“I'll take a soda,” Tahj said, heading for Shondell's chair. “Hey, Lisa,” she said, passing her along the way. “What's up, Tah-Tah?” she said to another stylist.

“Did you have a good weekend?” Lisa asked her, being personable and making conversation. Lisa was genuinely nice, just stupid as hell, in Tahj's opinion.
Hell, you ought to be able to smell your best friend's pussy on your man's breath,
Tahj thought.

“Here you go, ma,” Shondell said, handing Tahj a can of soda. Shondell was your typical Shanaynay-lookin’ stylist. She had braided extensions in her hair, long-ass acrylic nails, and wore stacks or stilettos to do hair in. Bitch was paid, though. ”Now, you know I ain't gon’ perm
and
color your hair. Honey child, I'd be sweeping your shit up off the floor. But what I did do was buy you some weave with blond streaks in it.”

“Okay,” Tahj said, positioning herself in the chair as Shondell started to put a plastic cap on her.

Six hours later, Tahj didn't even look like the same girl who had walked through the shop's door. Shondell had relaxed and deep-conditioned her hair. She clipped her ends and braided strands around her head so that she could sew the weave to it. Lastly, she sewed in the weave, cut it, and styled it.

“Oh, my God,” Tahj said, spinning the chair around to look at herself in the mirror. “Shondell. Oh, my God. It looks great.”

“Thank you, darling,” she said, proud of her skills as she removed the smock from Tahj. “I'm glad you like it. Now you won't mind paying me the three hundred dollars.”

Tahj started laughing. “Girl, you so crazy,” Tahj said, getting up from the chair. “Remember, I already paid you.”

There were no words to describe the look that came across Shondell's face. She put her hands on her hips and was getting ready to say something before Tahj jumped in.

“Remember? I gave you the money Saturday at Red Lobster,” Tahj said, just as serious as a heart attack. “Saturday at Red Lobster, when I saw you there with your date.”

By now Tahj was giving her the look, and it didn't take long for Shondell to understand the words behind it.

“Oh, yeah,” Shondell said in a faded tone. “Saturday.” She swallowed. “Red Lobster. Me and my date.”

“Yeah, you and your date,” Tahj reiterated.

“I almost forgot that I even saw you there,” Shondell said, trying to maintain her composure. She damn sure hadn't prepared herself for this.

“Well, I'll never forget,” Tahj said, glaring into Shondell's eyes.

“I'm sure you won't,” Shondell said, now pissed that she had just laid Tahj's shit out, half doing her other customer's hair in between doing Tahj's, and now wasn't getting paid one red cent. But what could she do? Tahj had her right where she wanted her—on the bottom with her foot on Shondell's neck.

“All right, then, girl,” Tahj said as she tapped Shondell on the shoulder. “I'll call you in a couple weeks. I don't know how long I'm going to be able to stand all this hair,” Tahj said, running her fingers through her straight, mid-back-length hair. “I might have to have you take it out.”

Shondell's eyes watered. She could have spit fire, she was so heated. Instead, she took a deep breath, swallowed, and said, “Okay, then, girl. You have a good one.”

Tahj winked at her and headed out of the shop. Once she got into her car, she couldn't help but laugh. After laughing so hard that tears filled her eyes, she started up her engine. As she pulled off, she thought,
That was too damn funny. Bet that ho will think twice before she lets somebody else's man wine and dine her ass.

But being the true hustla she was, Tahj had already started
thinking up ways to get back at Shondell's accomplice. Kel wasn't getting off that easy. One day Tahj would figure out a way to hustle his ass, too.

I
n just a matter of months, Tahj was going through men like Jennifer Lopez. Unlike Jennifer, though, who was seeking the fairytale, happily-ever-after relationship, Tahj was seeking a nest egg. All she needed to get by was a couple of sugar daddies to cure her sweet tooth. She was young and had her whole life ahead of her. She knew her lifestyle wasn't a moral one and that it wasn't something she could do forever—nor did she want to—but like the stripper who was only going to slide her pussy down the pole just long enough to pay her way through college, it was a profitable one.

“Come on, baby, just let me eat your pussy,” Leonard begged Tahj as they parked in front of her house. Lee was out of town. He had been gone for three days and was due back that night. Tahj knew he had probably been craving her while he was gone, so she had to keep it fresh and tight for him.

So when Leonard called her the night before on her cell phone to let her know that he would be in town the next day, she knew it wasn't going to be a big payday, since she wasn't going to fuck him.

Tahj had hooked up with Leonard once before. He lived in Dayton, Ohio, but had people in Cleveland, so he shot through town here and there. A month earlier Tahj had met him at a gas station. He was pushin’ a bumblebee-yellow-and-black, tricked-out Hummer H2. The nigga had more gems in his mouth than Mike Jones. Tahj knew off the bat that he wasn't no bailer, that he was a man about business who just liked to come out and play
every now and then. He didn't have that
it
factor that a bailer had. He didn't have the stance or swagger that Tahj could now detect a mile away.

It turned out that Leonard owned a graphics design company. He had started the business by himself right after he graduated college, and now he had a partner and seven permanent full-time employees. He also had three college interns working for him. He was a different class of man, and Tahj liked that about him. She found herself hanging on to his every word. Most niggas only talked about weight they had moved or niggas they had put to sleep, but Leonard actually had interesting conversation. But no matter what a nigga had to say during dinner, at the end of the night they all ending up saying the same thing, begging for some pussy.

Tonight Tahj had enjoyed dinner with Leonard, where she let her mouthpiece get a couple grand out of him. She told him that she was interested in what he did for a living and wanted to start taking classes at the local community college to learn how to do what he did. After several drinks and several bats of Tahj's eyes, he was forking over the money to the girl sitting across the table from him who he thought would become his prodigy.

After dinner Leonard offered to get a suite so that the two of them could chill, but Tahj declined. But that didn't keep him from begging her the entire ride to her house. Once he realized that taking Tahj back to a hotel for a heated night of sexual pleasure wasn't on the menu, he resorted to begging her to allow him to eat her out. He knew he gave good head. He had made many a woman quiver. He felt that getting Tahj all hot and bothered with his tongue action would land him some pussy in the end.

“Come on, baby,” Leonard begged one final time as they pulled up in front of Tahj's house. “Just let me taste you.”

“No, no, my brotha,” Tahj said. ”I know how that goes. If I let
you eat my pussy, then you gonna expect me to suck your dick or let you fuck me. Thanks, but no thanks. I'm straight on that shit.”

Tahj grabbed the handle to open the car door. Leonard snatched her arm.

“Muthafucka, if you don't get your hands off of me …” Tahj said through gritted teeth as her heart began to race. She didn't know what this nigga was about to try to do, but damn, he could have his money back. Two thousand dollars wasn't worth getting her pussy stole on.

Leonard apologetically released her arm. “I'm sorry, baby. But I'm serious. Just let me taste you. That's all I want. You won't regret it.”

Tahj sat and thought for a minute, trying to come up with a lie. “Naw, it's late, and I gotta go to work tomorrow.”

“Fuck work! What they pay you? I got you,” Leonard said as he pulled out a wad of cash and started peeling bills off into Tahj's lap. Tahj felt like she was in Vegas and had just hit the jackpot.

This desperate prick,
Tahj thought as she stared at Leonard, and couldn't help but laugh at how much he reminded her of the big, black, buff, desperate dude in the movie
White Chicks.

Tahj contemplated as bills filled her lap. She waited until it looked as though Leonard had reached his spending limit before giving in.

“You really wanna taste me that much?” Tahj said seductively.

“Damn, skippy,” he said, leaning in, licking his lips.

Tahj thought for another moment as she collected the money from her lap. “Okay, then,” she said, shoving the money down into her Prada bag, which she thought was ugly, but had bought for the name. “Eat up!”

Leonard groaned as he roughly grabbed Tahj's knees and turned her toward him. She leaned her back against the door
as Leonard yanked off her hot-pink thong, put her legs over his shoulders, and immediately went to work. Right off the bat Tahj began squirming. Leonard's tongue skills were unbelievable. His tongue felt as long as a dick thrashing in and out of her pussy. After only seconds of Leonard's hot, steamy breath and soft tongue plucking at Tahj's clit, causing her head to fall back against the window, she spurted down his throat. That made Leonard go to work even more. Tahj was all caught up in the feeling until her cell phone started ringing. She reached for her purse.

“Baby, fuck that phone,” Leonard pleaded, still licking.

“Umm, I gotta answer it,” Tahj moaned. “It might be my dude.”

No, this ho didn't,
Leonard thought. He wanted to pause and let her words register, but he didn't want her to think he was some rudy-poo Negro sprung over no young chick.

“Hello,” Tahj said into the phone, her voice dragging, as she was in complete feel-good mode, high off of Leonard's flickering tongue against her clit.

“What's up, li'l mama?” Lee said into the phone.

“Oh, hey, baby,” Tahj said slowly.

Leonard knew that she was talking to a dude, but that only motivated him to go to work even harder.

“Was you asleep?” Lee asked, noticing Tahj's moaning slur.

“No, I'm fine. What's up?”

“I'm heading back to the city,” Lee said. “It's gon’ be a couple hours, but I wanted to know if you needed anything. You want me to stop and get you something to eat?”

“No, I'm good,” Tahj replied. That was just like Lee. He never walked through the door without checking first to see if his woman needed anything. “Yeah, as a matter of fact. Stop and get me some White Castles. I want four cheese Castles, an onion chip, and red pop. Can you do that for me, baby?”

“Anything for you,” Lee said sincerely.

“All right then. I'll see you later on,” Tahj said, jerking as Leonard hit that spot. “I'll be waiting on you.”

Lee smiled, ‘cause he knew what time it was. His baby knew how to take care of him. She never made excuses about headaches, that time of the month, or that she was tired. She treated loving from her man as if wasn't nothing better in the world than his lovin'. “I love you,” Lee said.

“I love you, too,” Tahj said as Leonard sucked on her clit like he was trying to inhale it.

“By the way, why you ain't answer the home phone?”

Tahj's eyes got wide. She had to be quick on her feet. “ ‘Cause I left the cordless off the charger downstairs and I didn't feel like running down there when I heard it ringing.” Quickly changing the subject, Tahj said, “Baby, wait till you see what I bought you when I went shopping. I bought me some of the cutest stuff, too, but you are going to absolutely love what I bought you.” Tahj knew damn well she had taken the three thousand dollars Lee had given her to go shopping, spent a hundred on a pair of pajamas for him, and had deposited the rest into her bank account.

“That's my baby,” Lee said. “Always looking out for me.”

“You know it,” Tahj said, thrusting her pussy into Leonard's mouth.

“Well, I'll see you in a bit. Peace out.”

“Peace,” Tahj said, hanging up the phone and turning her attention back to Leonard, who was looking up at her as he plunged his tongue in and out of her.

“You love that nigga, huh?” he asked. “But do he make you feel like this? Can he do this shit right here?”

Leonard cupped Tahj's ass cheeks in the palm of his hands and pulled her to his face as he went crazy in her stuff. He acted as if he were at a watermelon-eating contest with Tahj's pussy. Tahj
couldn't even control herself as she started to explode. She didn't know if she was cummin’ or pissin'.