4. Asif

WEEK AND A HALF LATER…

As soon as I saw Anastazia pull up to the warehouse, I shoved my phone down into my pocket. Exiting, I made my way over, tugging on the door handle of her vehicle to open it. She was caught off guard by the gesture, which in turn caught me off guard.

“You not used to niggas opening doors for you?” I asked.

“No, I am. I just didn’t think you’d do it right now.” She chuckled a bit, and I could tell she was lying which was a fucking shame.

Shutting the door once she was out, I said, “Yeah, I don’t want you walking in by yaself. Come with me, and watch ya step.” I took her hand to help her bypass the rocky ground, trying to keep my focus on anything but her and how pretty she looked despite being dressed down in a T-shirt, leggings, a crew neck fastened around her waist—covering the ass I knew she had and couldn’t stop picturing from our last meeting—and sneakers. Her warm brown skin looked so pliable, perfect, and smooth, making a nigga wanna bite it.

She smelled good as hell, some sweet and soft shit. It didn’t give a nigga perfume vibes, more like a good ass soap, but whatever the fuck it was, I hoped she kept it up, even though it distracted the fuck out of me.

As soon as we stepped inside of the vast, dark warehouse, she pushed her curly hair behind her ears, exposing the small heart-shaped earrings pushed through them. Everything about this girl got my dick hard, making me place my hands strategically in front of my shit.

“Wow, this place is huge.” She smiled softly as she followed behind me to the back area I’d had niggas working overtime in.

Once we got to the work area, I hit the lights and stepped off to the side so she could take it all in. She was thorough, checking all the drawers, reading labels, and mumbling medical shit and terms I wouldn’t understand if you put a gun to my fucking head. It was all impressive as fuck, how smart she was and truly about her shit.

“You really got this looking like a hospital. If it wasn’t for the horrible lighting, I wouldn’t know the difference.” She shot me a sidelong glance with a smirk lingering on her soft lips.

Tucking mine in as I thought about kissing her, I moved closer, saying, “If you need anything else, just let me know, and I’ll have it to you as soon as possible. The next room over is where you can take naps, shower, whatever. It’s a whole suite for you to do you, and yes it has a lock on it. As far as the pay, it’s weekly and all cash.”

“I will take it, but I think just until the trial is over. I’m hoping my license gets reinstated, but also, I may not be able to work for you if I’m convicted and have to serve time.” She sighed a bit, running her fingers over the packages of gauze before her.

“Nah, you ain’t gotta worry ’bout that shit. Big bro a beast. And people ain’t stupid enough to believe you did all that shit to yaself.” I leaned against the metal counter.

“You saw the photos?”

“I did.”

“I don’t even know why I asked when they’ve plastered them everywhere. I thought it would help, but all I hear is people saying that I’m lying or did it to myself.”

“Some of the injuries and angles of certain bruises, one can’t do to themselves. But we do got some dumb muthafuckas in the world, love.”

“True.” She nodded, glancing around. “I have to say I am a bit excited to be doing what I love again.” She beamed.

Pretty as shit. Didn’t make no fucking sense.

“Niggas gon’ love having something pretty to look at while they healing.”

Laughing, she replied, “You let them know it will not be that type of party.”

“Nah, them niggas know you off-limits.”

She stared up at me, supple lips parted before pushing her hair back behind her ears again.

“Oh shit! This is fly!” Grady walked in, fist to his mouth. “But you…” He zoned in on Anastazia, “are even flyer.” Sticking his hand out, he said, “Grady.”

I could see hearts, stars, and every fucking thing else in this nigga’s eyes, and while it was no surprise, since Anastazia was every nigga’s dream physically, I still didn’t like the shit, for more reason than one.

“Anastazia, but people call me Stazi.” She shook his hand, grinning, and Grady was giving the shit right back.

“I have to say, baby, you are beautiful.” Grady licked his lips.

“Aye, chill out.” I finally spoke up, forming fists with my hands as they rested in the pockets of these Nike track pants.

Snickering slightly, humorlessly, Grady said, “I am chill. All I did was say she was pretty, cuz.”

“Well don’t,” I somewhat snapped shortly.

Those two words and in the tone I’d used astonished both Anastazia and Grady as they looked me over, both of their eyebrows kissing a bit.

“Yeah, aight, my bad.” Grady nodded.

“Let me walk you out.” I gestured for the door and followed after Anastazia as she swayed out with her fine ass.

“I know you need my help, Asif, but I appreciate you giving me this job. It really means a lot,” she said as I held her car door open for her.

“Of course.” I smirked, and she did the same. “I’ll be in touch soon.” I shut the door once she was inside, and stayed out there until she was bending the block.

Going back in, I saw Grady sending a text or some shit on his phone.

“What was that, my nigga? She yours?” he questioned immediately.

“Nah, she not, but that’s not what the fuck she here for. She here to work, and I don’t want her feeling uncomfortable like she being preyed on by you niggas. Can’t have her thinking muthafuckas is plotting on her body while she working.”

“I feel you. I just had to ask ’cause you came off a little territorial back in there. You not usually jealous or the type to give a fuck about a bitch, though, so I don’t know why I asked.” He chuckled as I walked by him.

Placing my hand on his shoulder, I said, “Watch who you call a bitch, aight?”

Grady simply nodded obediently as I continued my stride.

After finishing up the work I had to handle, I decided to stop by my parents’ spot since my pops let me know a few of my brothers were there. With all of us having different and time-consuming lives, it was a rarity that we could kick it like we used to. By saying that, I always took the opportunity to shoot the shit with them when I could.

“Let’s play again, nigga. You ain’t gon’ win this time,” Unique said, having forced Shakur and me into several card games, all of which he’d lost at this point.

“Nah, I’m out. I’m tired of whupping yo’ ass,” I replied.

“Lequay, come on, nigga.” Unique started dealing the cards.

“Don’t nobody wanna play no more, muthafucka,” Shakur told him, causing us to laugh because he wasn’t catching on. Nigga couldn’t take that he was losing to everybody.

“And you definitely not about to win with me, nigga.” Lequay ate some of his chips, as Unique sized him up from across the table.

“Before rumors start percolating and shit, ’cause you know how y’all niggas get, I wanna tell you I hired Leeci’s sister to work for me,” I said.

I loved my brothers, but them niggas would come up with some shit and run with it if you let them. If I didn’t say shit, by next week, my pops would be asking me if I was fucking Anastazia. I wanted to, but I wasn’t and wouldn’t.

“Aww shit.” Lequay grinned, making me shoot him a look.

“Nigga, it’s just a job, I promise you,” I said. “A very professional ass job at that. Her fixing up bullet wounds and shit ain’t the time for me to walk in there with my dick out.”

They cracked up before Unique said, “Yeah, well you see what happened when her sister got a job with one of you niggas. She started off as the nanny, and next thing you know, she was pregnant by that nigga.”

We laughed at Unique and the way he made Analicia and Bashar’s relationship sound as if it was some freaky one-night stand shit.

“No, I just needed someone with her expertise and fast. It just happened to be perfect timing for both of us.”

“Just like with Bashar.” Lequay supported Unique’s previous statement, making me shake my head.

“I swear it ain’t like that. I ain’t got no room for a relationship. I’m still building my empire, and my focus is on making money and laying low. Women require too much attention and dedication, even when you just fucking ’em, and I’m not in the mood to be questioned about my day when I just got home from a muthafuckin’ shoot-out.”

My brothers roared with laughter, especially Lequay because he understood that life.

“Real shit. Sometimes I just need you to walk up to me, smile but don’t speak, then get on your knees so I can relax,” Shakur said, and I reached across to slap his hand in agreement as Lequay and Unique chuckled and nodded.

“That’s why when I get in a relationship, I’m just gon’ walk up and poke her in the eye, gently. Shut her ass up and get some head at the same time,” Unique said, causing us to guffaw.

“Yeah, nigga, you won’t be with her ass long, and she most likely taking yo’ dick as a parting gift,” Lequay assured him.

As our laughter ceased, I said, “But on some real shit, it’s not like that with me and Anastazia. Plus, she got a lot going on, and I doubt she got room for anything else, just like me. So, for now, I’ll keep up with the few I got until I’m ready for all that shit.”

“Milan think she yo’ girl though.” Unique sipped from his red cup.

“What she think and what we are, are two different things, bruh.”

I crept down Anastazia’s mama’s street in this four door Lexus, feeling like I was too low to the fucking ground. Finally making it to the home, I parked and hopped out, needing to let Anastazia know I had her company car with me. I didn’t want her wasting her own gas and putting miles on her shit due to the fact that the warehouse was quite some ways out of the city.

Ringing the doorbell, I stepped back once I heard the locks being unlatched.

“Hey.” Anastazia peeked her head out, brows furrowed. “Did you call? I didn’t?—”

“Nah, you good. I just came to drop off the company car for you to use.” I gestured toward it parked along the curb.

She kept the door cracked, only allowing me to see her head as if I hadn’t been inside her mama’s house before. My jealous ass mind immediately went to wondering if she was hiding a nigga in there, and I knew right then me continuing to pretend I didn’t wanna be Anastazia’s second baby daddy wasn’t gon’ fucking last.

I could barely control my fucking temper when I saw a nigga clocking her, like Grady, and even now, I found myself about to interrogate the fuck out of her as to why she was whispering and keeping the door in my view.

“Oh.” She opened it fully and stepped outside of the screen door, and I felt myself physically relax.

You tripping, nigga… I thought to myself as I ran my hand down my face.

“Use this whenever you working and nothing else,” I explained, greedily taking in her body, face, hair, and even her toes in some furry ass slippers that were open along the front.

She reminded me of the pretty ass girls a nigga crushed on when he was a kid, starring either in the movies like Friday or Higher Learning , or just from around the way. From the brown skin to the natural, sexy shape, pretty smile, infectious laugh, the natural switch of her hips when she walked, and the subtle but intoxicating ass scent she wore.

“Nothing else?” She folded her arms. “Why you say it like that?”

“In case you got some bum nigga wanting you to pick his ass up, I’m telling you, you’d better use yo’ own shit.” I started toward the car as she chuckled, making a nigga smile.

“You sound jealous, Mr. St. Thomas.” She looked over the Lexus LS and nodded.

“What if I was?” I handed her the keys, making sure I stood as close as I could to her, while peering down into her pretty brown eyes.

She paused then cleared her throat, distancing herself from me a bit and unlocking the car. I chuckled at her nervousness and the way she quickly backed the fuck down from all that big shit she was talking seconds ago.

“I’d tell you no need to because getting a nigga, especially a bum one, is not on my to-do list.” She talked as she scoured the vehicle with her eyes. Coming back out, she asked, “Is this brand new?”

“It is.” I nodded. “Is it cool?”

“It definitely is. Thank you.” She shut the door.

“I need a ride back though.”

“Where are your homeboys?” she quizzed.

“Damn, I don’ brought this fucking car all the way out here, and a nigga can’t get a ride?”

Her frown dissipated as she laughed a bit, folding her arms.

“Um, alright, but I have to get my daughter. She’s napping, and my mama isn’t home.”

“Aight, let me put the car seat in this car for you,” I offered.

She hesitated for a second, then asked, “You have kids?”

“You know damn well I don’t.”

“I don’t be paying attention like that. It’s too many of you brothers, and every time I look up, a new baby is coming,” She snickered, then laughed even harder when I gave her a look.

“You may not pay attention to them, but you pay enough attention to a nigga to know I’m childless. However, my mama made sure I helped her a lot, me and Unique, when Banks was a baby, so I’m a professional at putting in car seats, warming breast milk, all that shit,” I admitted.

“Damn, seems like I should be hiring your ass to babysit.”

“You funny,” I said as she giggled, rushing off to get her car keys, and yeah, I looked at the way them thermal pants hugged her round ass.

She returned quickly, handing them to me, then she went to retrieve Sophie. By the time I had the seat installed, she was walking over with her, so I gently took a still sleeping Sophie and buckled her in. Anastazia watched the whole time, and when I looked over my shoulder at her, she smiled uncomfortably like she was embarrassed to have still been standing there.

I opened the passenger side door for her, and once she was in, I made my way around to the driver’s side.

“You weren’t joking. You do know this baby shit. Lisara wasn’t playing with you, huh?” She smiled.

“Nah, she wasn’t.” I reversed. “But I fucked with it though. It felt good having a real mother and shit,” I said, hoping she didn’t pry any further because a nigga had definitely said too much.

“Oh right,” she replied, letting me know she knew the gist of my situation.

“So how did someone as pretty and smart as you end up with a nigga like yo’ ex?”

“He wasn’t always like that.” She stared out of the window. “He used to be nice, ambitious, and he was possessive, but in the good way us women find sexy.” She pondered for a moment. “It wasn’t until I started to kind of come into my own and get more successful in work and my life that he began to switch up. He would get mad and say I was purposely emasculating him over the smallest things. Then it went from yelling at me to a slap here and there.” She shifted in her seat a bit, and her body language went from relaxed and playful to tense as fuck.

Noticing, I said, “You scared about that nigga waking up from that coma?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I am because I know he could and will track me down. And he doesn’t give a fuck about the law and this court case, that’s the thing about Cedric; he has nothing to lose if he doesn’t have me.”

“Don’t trip on that nigga waking up. Now you got protection,” I let her know.

I felt her look at me, so I glanced from the road momentarily.

“I appreciate all that you’re doing to help me, but it’s not necessary for you to get in the way of Cedric. When I say that man has nothing to lose, I mean it. This is someone who choked me in front of a police station when I tried to go in and report him.”

Nodding, I said, “I get you, but I wasn’t asking for permission or approval. I was letting you know. If that nigga wakes up and come knocking, it’s gon’ be the last time he knock on any fucking thing.”

I wanted to murk that nigga now, have one of my niggas creep into that hospital and inject some shit into his IV, but Bashar let me know that would put Anastazia in a worse position, causing her charges to graduate to murder instead of attempted murder. Therefore, I didn’t wanna turn her blessing of not killing him into some way worse shit.

“Hmm, well, how will your funny looking little girlfriend feel about that?”

I laughed, not expecting that shit to be her response.

“Don’t matter, and she not my girl. She the homie. Remember?”

“Let me guess, Asif. You take her out, sleep with her, probably raw?—”

“You a muthafuckin’ lie.” I interjected, making her snicker. “If you think I’m going naked head in a bitch I won’t even kiss in the mouth, you crazy.” I switched lanes as she doubled over in laughter.

“Well anyway, what else? Oh yeah, and you probably allow her to claim you. So, mix sex, buying her meals, and letting her tell people or act like you’re hers, and I’m sorry to say, but you have a girlfriend. You niggas do all that then get confused when she becomes attached.”

“I’m a gentleman, what you expect?” I chuckled as she sucked her teeth. “If a woman is kind enough to let a nigga hit, I can at least buy her a meal.” I glanced her way to see her shaking her head as she watched the road. “Whether it’s a jump off or a good girl, I try to treat women with a certain level of respect. Same time, I’m honest, and I tell Milan, as well as other women, what the deal is, explicitly, so if they choose to run around acting like my fucking missus, then that’s on them.

“I’m a simple nigga. What I say is what I mean; ain’t no underlying shit to it. By saying that, when I pop out with my wife, she can’t say shit.”

“Niggas.” She giggled. “If you wanna keep fucking her, you may want to dial it back on being my protector, because she hates me already.”

“I don’t give a fuck what Milan hates, same way I don’t give a fuck about getting permission to body yo’ funny looking ass baby daddy.”

Anastazia erupted in laughter, making me snicker a bit as I pulled up to my whip.

“See, you do like her because you’re defending me calling her funny looking.” She beamed… beautiful as hell.

“Nah, only woman I’m worried about defending, outside of family, is you.” I brushed my finger under her chin, making her lips part, but no sound came out. “Come on.”

We both hopped out, me holding the door open for her to get in on the driver’s side. Once I shut the door, she rolled the window down.

“What are my hours?”

“You’ll be on call, love.”

“Oh.” She gripped the wheel, turning away from me for a second before regaining eye contact. “That will be kind of hard with a toddler.”

“Work with me, and I’ll work with you, aight?”

“Alright.” She nodded. We exchanged smiles before she quickly turned away from me. “Okay. Bye, Asif.”

“Bye, beautiful.”

She rolled her eyes but was unable to hide her smile or the slight red tint to her cheeks as she pulled off.

Anastazia might not have been in the mood for a new nigga, but she was about to get one.