Twenty

When Jasmine made it to the airport to head back to New York, she asked to see a JetBlue supervisor. She complained to the supervisor about how rude the JetBlue stewardess had been to her on her flight to Las Vegas, and asked if she could be upgraded to the front of the plane so she wouldn’t have to be subjected to the same ghetto treatment.

The white male supervisor looked like he could be a weatherman on the local TV news, with his blond hair, bright blue eyes, and perfectly tanned skin. He began furiously typing into his computer.

“Would you like a window seat or an aisle seat?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jasmine replied.

“Okay, just give me one more minute, and I should be—Oh, okay there we go. Would the third-row window seat be good?”

Jasmine smiled. “Perfect.”

“Sorry I couldn’t actually get you in the first or second row.”

“No, that’s fine. You helped me out a great deal.”

Jasmine smiled, took hold of her boarding pass, and thanked him again before going to sit down and wait for the plane to start boarding.

A little over an hour later, she found herself boarding the plane and sitting happily in her third-row seat. She had already put her carry-on bag in the overhead compartment and was reading the latest issue of Essence magazine while the other passengers boarded the plane. She began to flip through the magazine aimlessly before deciding to put it away.

She looked up and couldn’t believe her eyes. She saw Mia boarding the same plane and taking her aisle seat in row two just across the aisle from her. Jasmine’s heart started to beat rapidly because she was certain that Nico would be soon boarding the plane. Mia was wearing designer sunglasses that hid her face somewhat, but Jasmine was sure that it was her. She intently watched for Nico, but he never walked onto the plane.

Mia searched out one of the male flight attendants and asked him if he could put her carry-on bag in the overhead compartment for her. And as soon as the flight attendant took hold of her bag, she turned and saw Jasmine looking at her. Mia slightly slid her shades downward off her face, just to make sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her.

“Yeah, it’s me, bitch!” Jasmine shouted at Mia, to the shock and dismay of the older white lady sitting next to her.

Mia rolled her eyes and shook her head before putting her shades fully back on. “Thank you so much,” she said to the flight attendant. She went into her bag and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill and tried to hand it to the flight attendant who had just helped her. “Here, this is for you,” she said, purposely ignoring Jasmine.

“Oh, no. Thank you, but I can’t take that.”

“Just take it, buy coffee or something when we land in New York.”

“He said he can’t take it. Now sit your ass down, so we can take off! Bitch!”

Everybody seated in the front of the plane was shocked and surprised at Jasmine’s language, not to mention confused.

Mia smiled and calmly walked toward Jasmine and stood over the white lady sitting next to her. “You’re frustrated. I understand, sweetie. You’ll be okay,” she said in a soft, nonthreatening tone.

“If you were smart, you would sit your ass down in your seat.”

“Ladies, is everything okay?” a gay black male flight attendant walked up and asked both Mia and Jasmine.

“Everything is fine,” Mia replied right before taking her aisle seat. “She’s just going through a little of life’s frustrations.”

The flight attendants stood watch for about a minute, and then they realized that Jasmine’s emotions had subsided. They continued on with their duties, and the flight eventually took off.

For the remainder of the almost six-hour flight, Jasmine and Mia both ignored each other. Jasmine sat with more of a screw face, but that was because her prospects for the future didn’t seem as bright as Mia’s.

Mia sat through the entire flight knowing that within a matter of days, if not hours, she would have her hands on three hundred and fifty thousand dollars in cash, which would go a long way to helping her feel good, regardless of what Jasmine and Nico chose to do.

***

When the flight was approaching the airport, Jasmine sent Simone a text and asked her if she could pick her up in thirty minutes from LaGuardia Airport, which wasn’t too far from Simone, and Simone agreed.

So when the plane finally landed, Jasmine and Mia continued to ignore each other, and they both exited the plane, with Mia walking in front. Mia had luggage that she had checked in, so she had to go to the baggage area. When she went to the left, Jasmine went to the right toward the passenger pick-up area outside. She saw Simone and she walked toward her, pulling her carry-on bag behind her.

“Hey, girl.” Simone rolled down the passenger side window. She popped the trunk, so Jasmine could put her bag inside.

“Thank you so much. I flew out of Kennedy Airport, and I got my truck parked there. But there was so much drama, I ended up flying back in to LaGuardia,” Jasmine explained.

“Oh, okay. So you need me to shoot you over to Kennedy?”

“Yeah, if you can.”

Simone gave Jasmine a look. “If you didn’t have your car parked at Kennedy, then I would be driving you home. So what’s the difference?”

“No, I’m just saying I don’t want to be all rude and assuming, that’s all.” Jasmine smiled.

“So you went to Vegas and didn’t even tell me?”

“Drama, drama, drama—I can’t even begin to tell you!”

“In Vegas? What happened?”

“So I go out there with this dude named Derek McGee. He plays football for the Green Bay Packers—twenty-million-dollar contract, fine as hell, muscles, all that. So . . .”

“And when were you going to tell me about him? Hook a sister up with one of his friends!”

“No, just listen. So me and Derek are at the Wynn Resort. We chillin’, smoking good weed, good sex, eating good and all that. So we at brunch at this restaurant, and who the fuck walks in? Nico!”

“How did he know you were there?”

“I got no idea. So Nico comes to the table beefing, like, ‘who the fuck is this nigga?’ Yadda yadda yadda. So Derek stands up from the table, and he ain’t a street dude, and inside I’m saying to myself, ‘Derek, I know you got muscles and all, but I hope your ass knows how to use your hands.’”

Simone chuckled. “Nico ended up knocking his ass out, right?”

“No. So I stand up and I step in between them. But Derek starts talking shit, so next thing I know, I see Nico reaching for his gun.”

“Jasmine, no.” Simone held her hand over her mouth.

“So I screamed, ‘Nico, no!’ and I rushed him and held him so he wouldn’t do nothing crazy. So Nico is going crazy like, ‘What the fuck are you doing out here?’ and he’s snatching me up, like, ‘Come on, let’s go.’”

“And what was Derek doing?”

“He was just standing there, asking me if I was all right, so I ended up telling him that I would be right back and I was sorry and all that. And Nico marches me out of the restaurant, and it was just crazy!”

“So what else happened?”

“It’s too much to tell, but I wasn’t trying to have Nico murder my ass.”

“So you just left Derek out there?”

“Well, his punk ass ended up texting me, talking about my pussy was good and all that but for me to lose his number because he don’t need the drama. Look.” Jasmine handed Simone her phone to look at the text Derek had sent to her.

“Wow! But, Jasmine, that’s twenty million you leaving on the table.”

“I know, I know. Don’t even remind me. I am so through right now.”

Jasmine shook her head and slumped in her seat and kept quiet before turning up the volume on the radio.

“So where’s Nico?”

“He’s still out there. He had some business to take care of. And you know what? I’m glad you asked me that, because you need to come chill with me in Long Island until he gets back in a few days.”

Simone looked at Jasmine but didn’t say anything. She was well aware of what happened the last time one of her friends went to her and Nico’s house, and she wasn’t trying to end up dead.

“Okay, well, at least chill with me for the rest of the day, and then let’s hang out later tonight or tomorrow, or something.”

Simone agreed.

The two of them ended up driving to Simone’s house, where Simone parked her car and got into Jasmine’s truck, and they headed out to Bell Boulevard, in Bayside, Queens.

On the plane Jasmine had made up her mind to get a tattoo, and she wanted to do it right at that moment so she wouldn’t change her mind.

“You have got to be the wildest chick I know. You just barely healed up good and you getting a tattoo?”

Jasmine smiled and nodded, maneuvering her truck on the Cross Island Parkway toward the Bell Boulevard exit, and before long the two of them were at a tattoo shop called Murder Inc. Jasmine felt her government-issued phone vibrate, and she looked down and realized it was a text from Agent Gosling that said, That was quick.

It instantly filled Jasmine with anxiety. She knew that the clock was ticking, in terms of how much time she had to come up with the information they needed, or else her ass was going back to jail. And, to make matters worse, she had to figure out how to delete some of the conversation that she and Nico had, when he basically put Shabazz’s murder squarely on her.

She responded, Yeah, we’ll talk. Working on something

She had to quickly make a move and get her ass in the streets, so she could at least give the FBI some of what they wanted.

Jasmine put her phone away, blew out some air from her lungs, and turned off the ignition. “Let’s go do this,” she said to Simone, even though Simone wasn’t getting a tattoo.

“You are crazy. On your neck? Jasmine, you sure you want to do this?”

“Positive!” Jasmine shot back as they walked toward the shop. “On my neck I am going to get a tattoo in cursive letters that says LOVE IS CURSED. And on my hand I’m going to get a cobra tattoo.”

“And you thought about this already?”

“Yup.”

***

Jasmine was excited by how her tattoos turned out. Her excitement didn’t last too long, though, because Agent Gosling was texting her again and asking when could they meet.

Jasmine sent back Soon. Just give me a little more time. You’ll be happy.

And before should could look at her tattoos for a full five minutes, she began plotting and scheming about how she could quickly get close to Black Justice.