LEANDRA
I >was waiting on my Pumpkin Spice Latte I had ordered at Starbucks when I heard my phone ring. When I pulled it out of my purse and saw that it was Taj calling me for the umpteenth time, I pressed ignore and dropped it back into the abyss of makeup, change, chewing gum wrappers, old receipts and crumpled wads of tissue. “Ain’t nobody got time for you,” I said to myself, letting the call go straight to voicemail. I wanted Taj to know just how livid I was for keeping me in the dark about his down-low lifestyle, and that I wasn’t trying to hear a damn thing he was trying to say. I’m too smart and too strong to continue to fall for a man’s bullshit. First it was Rick, then my own son, and now Taj. My days of being a fool were officially over. With the way I’d been feeling today, I was in no mood to hear more lies and apologies. The minute I finished my lunch at Popeyes, I ended up over the toilet throwing up red beans and rice.
“I knew it was something about that chicken that didn’t taste right. I should sue their asses,” Delora warned me not to go to the one on Tennessee Street. I figured my stomach was trying to get used to greasy food again after being off this rice cake and Naked juice diet I was on with Shariece. I couldn’t stand the taste of vomit in my mouth after throwing up. I only hoped I could keep this latte down long enough to get me through the rest of the day. Between being lied to and puking my guts out, drowning my sorrows in work was exactly what I needed.
I had a bone to pick with Sabrina about the less than impressive job she’d been doing running Radiance while I was gone. Nishelle was busy giving Mrs. Dorsey, one of our regulars, a wash while Javonte was giving Mrs. Maddox, the mayor’s wife, an eyebrow arch. I had Sabrina working the receptionist desk when she didn’t have any clients on the books, which she hated, but Nishelle loved every minute of watching Sabrina squirm. Nishelle was the only one in the salon who knew what was about to go down. When I returned from lunch, I could see through the window Sabrina sitting with her feet cocked up on the desk, filing her nails like she owned the place. You would think she would have taken her feet off the desk I’d bought and paid for when I walked in, but this bitch didn’t budge, and I was starting to see exactly what Nishelle was talking about. Sabrina had gotten complacent and it was time to put her nail filing-ass in check Leandra Fox style. “Sabrina, come on, I need to see you in my office for a minute.”
She placed the nail file on top of the appointment book and followed through the salon to my office. “Did I do something wrong?”
“I just want to talk to you, that’s all,” I said. I wanted to get her behind closed doors and out of sight of customers and my employees in case she made a scene. “Have a seat,” I said, as I closed the door behind her. I hooked the strap of my purse on the back of my desk chair and set my Pumpkin Spice Latte next to the phone on my desk. “It has come to my attention that while I was in the hospital, you were bringing friends of yours in the salon, who were not paying customers, but sitting in the shop being loud and harassing clients.”
“Who said that?”
“It doesn’t matter who told me.”
“’Cuz somebody’s lying on me then. My friends have never been in here sitting around.”
“You know that I have a zero tolerance for that kind of behavior in my salon. If they are not in here to get their hair done, to get a manicure or pedicure or a massage, I don’t want nobody hanging around in my shop wasting time. It makes not only me look bad, but it looks bad for the salon.”
“Leandra, I swear, I didn’t have nobody in here sitting around.” Here it was again, someone else lying to me.
“Okay, fine, whatever. I’m only letting you and everyone else know, which brings me to another matter. I was doing inventory on Tuesday and I noticed that some of the product has gone missing without properly being logged in.”
“I know you’re not accusing me of taking nothing out of the salon,” Sabrina said, as the bass in her voice rose.
“I’m not accusing you, but—”
“You must be accusing me of something since I’m the only one sitting in your office in front of you right now. I don’t see Javonte and Nishelle up in here.” I wondered who she was yelling at because I was the wrong bitch to get loud with.
“When I made you assistant manager of Radiance, it was understood that if I was on vacation, at a meeting or sick for any reason, that you were in charge of everything, that you were responsible for the day to day that goes on in the shop.”
“And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.”
“Then explain to me why there are thirty bottles of Pantene unaccounted for?”
“Leandra, I don’t know. Maybe they forgot to include the thirty bottles of shampoo in last week’s shipment. Look, I don’t know what happened to any shampoo. I don’t own this salon and I don’t write the checks. I don’t know anything about any inventory going missing. You might want to ask Javonte and Nishelle since they work here too. Hell, maybe Krista took the shampoo. Maybe that’s why she hasn’t shown up for work.”
“You are the only one with the keys to the inventory closet.”
“Man, if I was going to steal something, why would I take shampoo?” Sabrina sat in front of me mad with her arms crossed tightly at her chest. “So am I fired?”
“I’m going to have to let you go, yes.”
“What? Are you serious?” Sabrina asked, jumping up out of her seat.” I stood up in case she got the bad idea in her head to throw punches. “This is fucked up, Leandra. I told you I didn’t take no shampoo.”
“I’m going to need the keys to the store and the inventory closet.”
“They’re in my purse in the drawer of the desk out front.”
“I’ll follow you out to get them.” Nishelle and Javonte stared at us as we walked to the front of the salon.
Sabrina opened the bottom drawer, took out her purse and threw the keys on the table. I noticed as she cut a nasty glare at Nishelle. “It was that bitch, Nishelle, wasn’t it?”
“It doesn’t matter who told me.”
“She’s always bopping her boney ass around here like her shit don’t stink, kissing your ass at every turn.”
“You better watch your mouth.”
“No, that dizzy bitch lied on me and I’m about to settle this shit.”
Sabrina stormed back into the salon area filled with customers. Nishelle was busy hot-curling Mrs. Dorsey’s hair when Sabrina made a beeline toward her. Javonte sandwiched himself between them knowing something was about to pop off.
“Sabrina, you need to leave,” I said, but she ignored me.
“What the fuck did you tell Leandra, Nishelle?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, looking cool and collected.
“Bitch, don’t play dumb. I know it was your ass that told her I was stealing when you know good and goddamn well I didn’t steal shit.” All eyes in the shop were on Sabrina and Nishelle, gawking at them like they were prize chickens in a cockfight.
“I didn’t tell Leandra nothing, first of all, bitch; and second of all, you better be glad Javonte holding your stank breath-ass back, ’cause you ’bout to get a beat down.” Nishelle wasn’t playing, armed with the set of hot curlers.
“What’s up then? High-yellow, cornbread-ass bitch. Whatchu gon’ do?”
“Ya’ll need to chill with this shit. Ya’ll our friends,” Javonte said.
“Fuck that ho,” Sabrina yelled. “I’ve never liked your prissy ass no way.”
“Leandra, you better get her out of here or somebody’s going to jail today,” Nishelle said.
“Fuck you, ho’, you ain’t saying shit,” Sabrina said.
“Sabrina, I’m not going to tell you again,” I said.
“I ain’t leaving until I get my last check from this sorry-ass salon.” As much as I wanted to take Sabrina and drag her by her two-tone weave, I knew if I put my hands on her, she would call the cops and have me arrested for assault. “By Florida law, you have to write me my last check if you terminate me from employment.”
I didn’t know dick about any Florida law that stated that. All I wanted was Sabrina out of the salon and away from my clients. I wrote her a check for $400. “I will mail the rest of your money to you next week.”
“If anybody’s stealing, it’s that bitch,” Sabrina said, jabbing her finger in the air in Nishelle’s direction.
“Whatever, bitch. Bye, so long, see ya.”
“Nishelle, don’t let me see your ass on the street. I’mma fuck you up.”
“Get the fuck outta my salon, Sabrina,” I said.
“Fuck you, Leandra. This place has gone to shit anyway. I’m going over to Super Cuts to help put you out of business. I hope you don’t make a penny in this motherfucker.” Sabrina grabbed her purse and stormed out, pushing the door open like she wanted to break it off the hinges. “Fuck all ya’ll bitches!”
Clients were gossiping like a bunch of hens as they sat under blow-dryers.
“Nishelle, are you okay?” I asked. She went back to curling Mrs. Dorsey’s hair like nothing happened.
“Oh, I’m Gucchi. Ain’t nobody scared of Sabrina. Big ain’t bad.”
“Girl, I saw you with those hot curlers in your hand and knew I had to get between ya’ll before it got real messy,” Javonte said.
“I was going to burn her ass too.” Javonte and Mrs. Dorsey chuckled.
“Thank you, Javonte, for stepping in,” I said. “I was about to call the cops.”
“You would have had to call them on Sabrina. Them, or the ambulance, because I don’t fight bitches; I kill bitches,” Nishelle said.
“Nishelle, watch your language and ya’ll get back to what you were doing. I will talk to ya’ll after business hours.”
I felt that I needed to apologize to my clients for the scene that they had just witnessed.
“I want to say that I’m sorry, ladies, for what ya’ll just witnessed. It wasn’t classy nor professional, so my deepest apologies. I will take five dollars off your cuts today for having to witness that.”
It was a little after seven when we closed. Javonte was sweeping up loose pieces of hair while Nishelle and I counted out for the evening. My feet were killing me and all I wanted to do was go home and veg out in front of my fifty-inch flat-screen TV. “Ms. Leandra, I didn’t want to say anything with all that mess that was going on earlier, but I saw Sabrina on a couple of occasions take hair grease and shampoo from inventory and not pay for them,” Javonte said.
“And why in the hell are you just telling me this now?”
“I don’t know. I wanted to stay out of it and figured you would find out about it sooner or later.”
“Now see, I should fire your ass for that, Javonte, because you should have opened your mouth and said something.”
“I will for now on. If I see anything strange going on or any inventory missing, I will let you know.”
“Oh, I’ve decided that it’s not going to be up to you or nobody else because I’m going to have some cameras installed in here.”
“Damn, for real?” Nishelle asked.
“I should have done it when I opened the salon. Stealing from me is unacceptable. Ya’ll should understand that when stuff like product goes missing and unaccounted for, that’s money out of your pocket.”
“So am I fired?” Javonte said.
“I’ve already fired one person today, so no, but if you see something, say something. It hurts me that someone ran my place and was stealing from me all the while. And I’m going to tell ya’ll what I told Sabrina. I’m fine with you having friends to stop by, but don’t let it interfere with your work and don’t have them hanging around in the shop if they’re not going to get a manicure, an eyebrow arch, something. This is my business, not a nightclub. If I don’t have loyal and honest stylists working for me, there’s no point in having you two here.”
“Well, you already know how much I love working here,” Javonte said, “so I am letting you know that I’m loyal to you from here on out.”
“Me too,” Nishelle said, “and I want to apologize for cursing and stuff in the salon. You know that ain’t me.”
“I know, and thank you for your apology.”
After all the earnings for that day had been counted and the salon cleaned to my satisfaction, I switched off the lights in my office, the break room and the main part of the salon.
“All right, I will see ya’ll tomorrow morning.”
“Bye, Leandra,” Nishelle said.
“Bye, Ms. Leandra,” Javonte said.
Just as I was locking up, Taj walked up on me. “Damn, you scared the hell out of me,” I said, holding my hand up to my heart that had skipped a couple of beats.