SHE

|twenty-eight|

"Come on baby, wake up" Mercy shook her daughter awake. Zion was already in her hands, but he had fallen back asleep with his head on her shoulder.

"Mommy, I'm tired" Mercy sighed and picked up Marjae in her other arm. "Sometimes I wish King were here with me" All three of them went into the bathroom. She placed the kids on the counter and they all began their hygiene routine.

After about fifteen minutes of washing up in the bathroom, everyone was ready to get dressed. Mercy always sets out the kid's outfits the night before, so there are no hassles in the morning. The entire week, the temperature has been rocking mid-80s.

Marjae was wearing a jean short overalls with a white and blue horizontal striped shirt and a pair of blue high top Converse sneakers. Zion was wearing camo shorts that went past his knees, a red onesie and a pair of black high top converse. She likes to coordinate everyone's outfits together so they look like a team.

Mercy rocked a similar outfit. She wore distressed jean Bermuda shorts with jean suspenders, a a white tank and a pair of pink high top Converse sneakers. She quickly did her hair and began to get everything ready for the kids. She got Zion's diaper bag ready, then she got Marjae's bag ready.

Once all of that was done, she got the kids a simple breakfast and they were out the door. Zion went to daycare and Marjae went to a summer camp.

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"Ladies, this is the new nail tech, Luna. Luna this is Mercy, Selena, Trinity, Yasmin, Ramona and Hermonie. I'm off today but I stopped by to introduce you to the rest of the team. I'll see all of you tomorrow"

Ann Marie left and Luna walked over to Queenie's old station. "So the total adds up to an even $135! I told y'all she was going to get fired. Ann has a lot of patience, unlike I, but she was bound to let that patience go. Only Mercy, Yasmin and I voted that she would get fired" Ramona did quick math in her head and split the $135 between 3. "$45 each. We need to break this twenty though, Mercy can you go over to the barbershop and have one of them break this twenty?"

Mercy nodded and grabbed the twenty out of Ramona's hand and walked over to the barbershop. Before she walked into the barbershop, Mercy looked in through the window and saw Anthony standing closely behind a woman. He was holding her waist with his left hand and his right hand was on hers while he showed her how to do something with the clippers.

Selena came outside to tell Mercy that Luna had money to break the twenty, but stopped when she saw Mercy peering into the shop. Mercy continued to look and was unaware of Selena near her. She waited until the girl turned around and realized that was Leilani, Journey's little friend from the Festival.

"Who is she?"

"That's Journey's little friend. We met at the African American Festival on Saturday. I didn't know she was interested in hair like that"

Leilani was aware of Mercy watching her and Anthony interact through the window. She decided to up the ante by leaning her back into him and looking up at him with a smile. He smiled back at her and they continued to cut the man's hair.

"What y'all looking at?" King said as he came up behind them, scaring them and causing them to screech out. Apparently, they were very loud which caused everyone in the shop to look at them. Anthony looked at Leilani and removed his hands from around her.