In Houston everything is fast, from the money to the driving. And I was driving down the highway, speeding to pick up my sister. I wanted to stay at home and get some sleep, after fucking for the last few hours and dancing all night, my body craved the rest but there was no sleeping for a hustler like me.
Pulling up to the baggage claim pick-up area I saw her ass sticking out like a sore thumb.
“Fendi!!” I yelled, letting the top down on the Porsche. Don told me to drive it today and who was I to say no.
“Gotta drive the pussy grabbers to pick up the new employees.” But he didn’t know that there would be no pussy grabbing going on with Fendi, or at least I didn’t think so, unless she’s changed it all like she’s always wanted.
“Girl, this shit is fly.” She was throwing her bag in the backseat and reaching in to give me a hug. Even up close I couldn’t tell, she had come a long way from trying to hide that stubbled chin under bad makeup.
“Bitch you look like a Barbie doll.”
“Bitch I look like Little Kim back in 97.” She laughed and I did too. She really did look natural but I could tell she was worried.
“So bitch, what is going on?” She jumped in and I let the Porsche whisk us away from the airport while she explained.
“I’m fucking with this guy...or used to because I’m done with that.”
"Girl I know. Nick right?”
“Yeah...Nick. We been laying low key. He even got us this small apartment and shit, and I’ve been staying there. So I hear banging on the door and it’s his wife.” I wanted to laugh. I was glad I didn’t have those problems. No matter how much he rubbed their relationship in my face, there was no way in hell I was ever going to see Don’s wife, or hear from her.
“So then what happened?”
“Girl she was banging on the door outside my apartment. His ass calls me and says that the bitch is a cop and she found out about everything when he got shot last night, and now I need to leave before she shoots me.” I wanted to laugh so hard I almost swerved into the next lane.
“Bitch, you lying.” I couldn’t help but laugh.
“I swear. I was running outta there with the shit you see me with now hunny, that was it. Shit, it's hot out here.” She pulled off her jacket revealing some perkies under her tight ass shirt.
“Damn you got your titties done.”
“Girl I had all kinds of work done. That’s why my ass is in debt now. My ass, titties, shaved down my Adam’s apple, got my jaw and nose done. Shit, I’ve gotten everything fixed except…” She pointed down.
“Damn… I thought you had that done too.” She laughed at me as I switched lanes.
“Why?”
“Because bitch, part of the reason that Don paid for you to come down here was to get this money.”
“I know. Scam these niggas like we used to do back in the day.” She didn’t know the whole truth. This was way beyond what we used to do back in the day.
“I mean it might be a little more than that.”
“What the fuck...he wants me to fuck somebody?” She laughed so hard her voice echoed off the palm trees that we drove past. “Girl what he got you out here doing?”
“Look, I’m out here making money. You see this car? You see this ride?”
“I see this Gucci bag in the back. What’s that?” She reached for the bag but I stopped her, it wasn’t mine to be touching on.
“Don’t touch it. It’s some shoes I gotta take that back to the store. It's the wrong size.”
“Oh, what size is it? I’ll squeeze my feet up in there.” She laughed but this shit wasn’t a joke.
“No, leave it alone. That’s his shit.” She kept reaching anyway.
“NO!”
“Damn...what’s wrong with you?”
“You don’t understand. That’s his wife’s shit. I just want to take it back to the store and get the replacement. Don’t want shit being wrong.”
“His wife?” I forgot that she didn’t know anything. I only told Fendi bits and pieces, along with the shit she saw on Instagram, but none of that was my real life.
“Yeah, Don is married. And he’s not leaving his wife until the kids are grown, so let’s just drop it okay.” I told her merging onto the 610. The heavy traffic forced me to put the top back up and turn on the air conditioning. Thankfully it helped me change the subject. I turned up the radio, my new beat that Don produced was on constant repeat in the car.
“Damn that’s a hot beat. What’s that?”
“It’s for me. I’m rapping now.”
“Whattt bitch! You started back?”
“Yeah. I had to. I just need to get a good hook for this song through.”
“Okay...what you got so far?” She asked as we inched along in traffic.
“I’ll fuck ya nigga, take his cash, give him back but that shit won’t last…” I flowed for her, giving her bar after bar, but when I got to the hook I was stuck in my tracks.
“What...why you stop?”
“I can’t figure out the hook. You know I’m bad with coming up with hooks.”
“Hmm…Play it back again.” I played it another time, bobbing our heads, it took me back to old times. When Fendi was my brother Fennis and we sat at the kitchen table listening to cd’s and pretending to be rappers. I saw that same look in his eye back then that I see now.
“I got it.” She said, starting the beat over and turning up the volume. “Yo Husband, my Trick, make yo nigga suck my dick.” It was so hot over the beat I almost hit the car in front of me.
“BITCH!!!!” I screamed ready to jump out the car and do a cartwheel.
“That’s that old Lil Kim shit.”
“And if I was a dude I’d tell y’all to suck my dick.” I remembered those words and how when I heard them for the first time it transformed my life.
“Yep you just roll with that.”
“And you think it will work.”
“Hell yeah girl. That’s gold right there. That is a hit.” She told me bobbing her head like the true hip hop fanatic she was. I missed these days being with Fen. I thought it would be all bad, but maybe it wouldn’t be bad having her around.
“You got any shorts?”
“Yeah I got a little something. But the rest is mostly winter stuff.”
“Oh no hunny, that’s not going to work. You’ll be too hot here. Especially trying to work.”
“Work...where? Doing what?” It was my job to tell her all of this stuff. It would be better coming from me now rather than later.
“Since you got your situation going on, we’ll have to be delicate.”
“Oh you talking about my dick. Girl please. There’s more people that are gay than you fucking realize.”
“Girl I’m serious, these niggas down here don’t play.”
“And I’m serious. It don’t matter who you get me with, I bet you I can turn they ass gay. They’ll be sucking my dick in no time.” I laughed but Fendi was dead serious and a part of me was glad she said that. I know if Fendi says that she can do something, she damn well means it.
“And you sure nobody would know. Because I haven’t told Don, and if I could keep from telling him, that would be great.” If Don knew that Fendi had a dick he would throw my ass to the curb, take the songs that I’ve already recorded and maybe even worse.
“All you probably gonna owe him is a few thousand dollars anyway.”
“A few...how much was the damn plane ticket?”
“Girl, between the plane ticket and shopping, we’re gonna rack up a little bit.”
“But where is your money? You couldn’t loan it to me instead of me dealing with this nigga I’ve never met?”
“Girl…I’m kind of strained. I got my money wrapped up in some shit.” She rolled her eyes at that.
“Shopping...where?” I didn’t say a word. Instead I turned up the radio and put my foot on the gas. Getting off the 610 and going west towards the Galleria, I saw Fendi’s eyes darting all around at the buildings.
“Oh shit...They got that big ass Louis V store in here don’t they?” All I did was smile, pulling into the valet line at the Houston Galleria parking lot.
“Don told me to take you shopping. So you just gotta pay him all this money back. Now look…” As I pulled into the valet car booth I turned to her and made her look me in the eyes.
“The longer you take to pay him back, the longer you will have to work for him.”
“Ohhh Kay…” She didn’t get it. I could tell by her voice that she didn’t quite understand.
“And the longer you go without paying things off, the more the interest adds up.”
“Aight, it’s cool. I mean I’m not new to hustling. You know this is how I survive right?”
“Yeah...right.” We got out and I took the blue ticket from the valet. Grabbing the Gucci bag she looked at me but she didn’t say a word.
“So I’ll stay with you?”
“Yeah, I got a house not far from here in Bellaire.”
“Damn I feel like the fresh princess.” I rolled my eyes at that.
“Bitch you better watch that shit. Stop with all the jokes.”
“Okay...damn. You got me down here and you want me to be on my p’s and q’s.” Fendi said walking ahead of me into the mall.
“I just want you to act grateful for what I did, because I could have left your ass where you were.” It was always like this. Me saving Fendi from one bad situation to the next. She always got back on her feet but this would be the last damn time I was helping.
“Yeah you could have, and I’m grateful for that.” That was good to hear. Because all my life my granny used to tell us to watch out for Fennis. “She’s different than y’all. She’s been through a lot. The least you can do is watch out for your sister.” My granny was all about us staying together, and when she passed away ten years ago I tried to keep my promise to the woman that raised me, but taking care of Fendi was a full time job. Every few months it was something different. Money for this or that, a connection to whatever dope or pills she was pushing, or help to pay a lawyer to get her out of some shit she shouldn't’ have been in. Now for the first time I helped her and I actually needed her to help me in return.
“I gotta go return these shoes, then we can get to shopping.”
“Damn, so you gotta go return the wife’s shit? That’s a hell of a side chick.” I could have killed her with my glare. I stared a hole through her forehead until she started apologizing.
“My bad. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.” She gave me a half hug. “Now let’s go over this shit again. Yo Husband...My Trick...make yo nigga suck my dick.” It was catchy, I couldn’t get it out of my head.
“Wait till I get in the studio and put that down.” I was excited, I felt a new energy with my sister here.
“I’m telling you sis, this shit is going to be a hit.”
“Watch all that shit a’ight. I respect you with your decisions. I call you Fendi not Fennis, and I referred to you as a she before anyone else didn’t I…” My words were barely above a whisper but I could tell they slapped her in the face.
“Yeah...yeah you did.”
“Then I need the same fucking respect a’ight. I got some things going on, but just follow my lead.” Without another word I walked into the Gucci store.
“How may we help you ma’am?” The man said, his black suit was impeccable. All the workers at Gucci looked like they were torn out of a magazine.
“Yes, I need to exchange these shoes for a different size.”
“Oh...really? I believe these are…” He took the bag ruffling through the shoes and the receipt. “These are for Mrs. Woods.” The gelled, mohawk cashier was cheesing as he said the name. “You are her assistant right?” He said to me like I was nothing.
“No, I am her husband’s assistant.” I wanted to laugh and tell him more about how I was assisting Don, but I kept that to myself.
“Oh okay. He is a big shot music producer or something right?” I only smiled. It wasn’t my place to tell their business, especially not to this man.
“I think she wants a size 41 now.” Was my only reply.
“No problem. I know we have that size. I’ll go get it. Is there anything else your employer wants?” He was being annoying now. Using buzzwords like employer and other shit to rub in the fact that I was working for Don, but luckily Lark gave me a distraction.
“Hey Lark. What about this girl? Can I get it?” Fendi held up a cute pair of Gucci shoes.
“Yeah, that’s cool. As a matter of fact, can you set up a dressing area for us? I would also like a sprite with lots of ice, please.” I smiled, knowing the drill. In the back area Gucci had a special room for VIP clients, and before he asked me for my VIP card I slide it out of my purse and across the glass display case.
“We’ll need the set up immediately please. We have other shopping to do so chop, chop.” A smile and a snap of my fingers and his ass was moving.
The place came alive within minutes. We were shown to the back to the exclusive dressing lounge. My ice and sprite was brought in, I played the beat on my phone and we were given our own personal concierge to retrieve items and sizes as Fendi shopped.
“What’s my limit?” After the way I was treated I didn’t feel like we deserved a limit.
“Girl, get what you want.”
“A’ight then...Oooh I gotta pace myself. This is just the first store. Give me those two black dresses and those sandals up in the front to try on first.” The gelled haired associate did as he was told, as Fendi disappeared into the dressing room. That left me all alone with my sprite and the music. Taking advantage, I slide the medicine bottle out of my purse. The purple liquid was thick in the bottle, barely moving as I tried to swirl it around. Opening it up the strong smell of cough syrup came out as I poured the lean in the cup. I only poured out a little bit and mixed it with the sprite, but it was just enough to tint the contents of the cup in a light purple.
“Girl I’m so glad I came here. I needed some new clothes, bad.” Taking a swig of my drank I felt all my worries slip away.
“Alright ma’am. I have the new size seven up front for you.” Gone was his smirk.
“Great. Can you give me back my VIP card now, please?” I held out my hand, waiting for the thick gold Gucci card to be placed in my hand.
“Certainly. I see William is out getting sizes. Is there anything else I can do?”
“No, that is all.” I shoo-ed him away, dismissing his ass. And he scurried off without saying a word.
“Alright girl. How does this look?” Fendi came out of the dressing room looking like a model. She had a dick yet she looked way better than me in her clothes.
“Damn girl...you look so good.” I said standing up and getting closer.
“So you think we are gonna be able to trick these motherfuckers in Houston or what?”
“Hell yeah.” I told her giving her a five. “I think we are back, like old times baby.”
“Old times…” Fendi laughed but I wasn’t joking.
“It’s back to us getting this paper.”
Picking up her own champagne glass from the table, she held it up to give me a toast.
“A toast to us getting this paper, and setting this motherfucking city on fire.” She drank the champagne and I sipped my lean. I was about to say some things my damn self, until my phone buzzed. A text message from Don brought me back to reality.
“Don’t forget, my wife wants a size 7. Make sure you do what the family needs.” He told me again for the millionth time. I had never met this bitch before but he demanded that I think of her like family. My wife is a part of me, and if you love me you gotta love her. He said and I did, but one day I was going to be the wife. I was tired of playing second fiddle, and right now was when my domination began.
“Earth to Lark.” Fendi said laughing. “You okay?”
“Hell yeah…” As the personal concierge came back with more clothes. “Try all that on. We gotta get you right. We’re about to take this city by storm.” It was a perfect match, and H-Town didn’t know what was about to hit it.