Lovin' Harlem

Ch. 18

The best part about having Nicki around with me and Harlem was how clean she kept things. She cooked almost every night except when we went to Applebee's last week and skipped her grieving counseling. Harlem couldn't decide who she wanted to show the most attention to between me and Nicki. She wanted to go to work with both of us but didn't understand she couldn't be two places at once. All week I dropped Nicki and Harlem off at her salon and then went to work. She kept the salon open until 7pm which actually benefited her. The guilt of killing Lewis was eating at her though. Every day she came home, she withdrew a little. I could tell it was breaking her slowly but by the time I figured out how to get her to talk about it, she'd build a wall after I just got over the last one.

"You opening late today?" Nicki asked as she came from the bathroom with a hair brush in her left hand as her right hand held her ponytail on the side of her head. I chuckled at the frown on her face. She was wearing dark blue jeans and a pink tank top that showed a little more cleavage than I wanted her to reveal to anyone other than me. I tried to ignore it as I looked at how good she looked after she fixed her ponytail. She put on a medium pair of gold hoops and then turned to face me again. Last night she stayed up all night plucking her eyebrows after she braided Harlem's hair in thick corn rolls.

"Why you muggin' me?" Nicki asked and raised an eyebrow.

"I don't want you to wear that shirt. But I wasn't trynna come off as controllin' cause it ain't like that I just..." I stopped talking when her mouth opened slightly just for her to close it again. She smiled lightly and filled my stomach with butterflies.

"Tell me," she whispered as she held my gaze. My skin tingled the longer her eyes were on me. How can someone's eyes be that easy to look into? I didn't want to tell her just how jealous I really am but she knew how to pull it out just by blinking.

"I wantchu to change yo shirt," I said bluntly. She smirked but didn't tear her eyes away from me. When she bit her lip, I forgot to take a breath of air.

"Tell me why," she let her eyes linger down my body before her cheeks turned red.

"Cause I don't want nobody else lookin' at what's mine. A little is fine but that tank top look like you chillin' at home around yo nigga. Not goin' to work,"

"Okay papi, I'll change it. I need you to go somewhere for me today. Oh and did you want to take Harlem today or?" Nicki asked as she pulled the tank top off and put it on the bed. She walked into the closet and picked thru a few outfits she brought from her place. If things kept going the way they were going, minus the killing, I really wouldn't mind Nicki moving in but she never brought it up. As if hearing her name, Harlem bounced in the room with a banana in her hand and a fountain of tight spiral curls spilling over her shoulders. She had on small denim shorts and a halter top that made my skin burn with an unreal amount of anger. Nicki laughed so hard she had to sit on the bed and wipe tears from her eyes.

"Your dad's gon' make you change, might as well turn around babe," Nicki finished laughing and stood up.

"Hell no, after you take it off, throw it in the trash. And all the other hooker clothes Eva had her wearing. She's 4 not a goddamn prostitute," I said and turned my back to them both. Nicki laughed and took Harlem out of the room and then I glanced at the clock. It was almost 9am already and even though Monday's were typically slow, I had to do a few things from yesterday's work. Depending on where Nicki wanted me to go, I thought about taking Harlem to get breakfast if she came with me. It felt wrong going to the diner since Nicki and her sister stored Kat in a shed. Marisol was watching her until Kat decided she had enough torture but the last time Nicki talked to Marisol, she told her how Kat said as soon as she got free she was going to the police to press charges. She was making it impossible to keep Nicki too busy to be able to drive to Asheville just to catch another body.