angry, so there was no telling when he’d return. Bria was the only associate I had outside of Bishop so I utilized every waking moment she gave me.
Upon my arrival to the shop she worked at, I didn’t see Bria’s car parked outside. So I called her cell phone to see where she was but to no avail. I disconnected the call on the fifth ring. I sat there in my car for a few minutes and then I tried to call her a second time. Still, no answer. I debated whether I should go inside the salon to see if anyone knew where Bria was. But as fate had it, I didn’t have to. Sarah, Bria’s boss and the owner of the salon came outside and headed towards her car.
“Hey, excuse me Sarah, is Bria in the shop?” I yelled from inside my car.
She stopped in her tracks after I got her attention. Sarah was a very attractive Dominican chick. She sort of reminded me of Jennifer Lopez with the body and all. She was a few years older than I was but she didn’t look it. “No, she’s not here. And I haven’t seen her in two days.”
“Really,” I said. “Well, if she happens to come in or call, let her know I came by.”
“Okay. But if you talk to her before I do, tell her to call me,” Sarah insisted.
“Alright,” I replied and then I pulled off.
A couple of minutes into my drive away from the salon made me wish I’d taken Sean up on his offer to go with him to the movies. In a perfect world, things would go the way I wanted them to, but for some reason my luck superseded anything I put my heart and mind to. Karma was a bitch when it came to me. So I had learned to play the cards I was dealt.
I went back to my apartment, hoping I’d catch Sean so I could take him up on his movie date. To my surprise, he wasn’t there. I was so devastated when I pulled up and didn’t see his truck, I let out a long sigh and shook my head.
“Dammit!” I shouted as I punched the steering wheel with my fist.
I sat in the car for a few minutes, trying to figure out what to do. When I couldn’t think of anywhere to go, I turned off the ignition and went into the apartment. I tossed my handbag and keys onto the coffee table and sat down on the sofa. Minutes after I laid my head back on the headrest, I grabbed the remote from the coffee table and turned on the TV. Nothing was playing that I was interested in watching, so I casually surfed through the channels and stumbled across my favorite music video on Black Entertainment Television.
I rocked my head back and forth to Jay Z and Kanye West’s song Niggas in Paris. I didn’t know the words to the song but acted as if I did. I became so engrossed in the song that I didn’t hear the front door when it opened. I only realized Bishop had walked into the apartment after he closed the front door shut. He literally scared the hell out of me.
“Woooo, you scared me,” I commented as I looked directly at him.
I noticed he wasn’t wearing the same clothes he had on when he left the apartment this morning. I knew he had gone to the house he shared with Keisha and changed clothes. I started to make mention of it, but I changed my mind. I was too tired to go through another one of his screaming matches. I just wanted to relax and think about Sean.
“How long you been home?” he wanted to know.
“I just got back a few minutes ago,” I told him while searching his face to see where this conversation was going. I also listened intently to the tone of his voice to determine what mood he was in.
He stood about three feet away from me and started asking me a series of questions. “Have you talked to Bria today?” he began.
“Nah, I haven’t. I went by the salon to see her but Sarah said she hasn’t been to work in two days.”
“Oh, that ain’t unusual. Sometimes Bria won’t go to work for days at a time,” Bishop explained. “She’s probably running behind that nigga she just started fucking with.”
I started to comment, but I didn’t. Bishop knew his sister better than I did.
Rebecca Hamilton, Conner Kressley