Lemon Cake

Chapter Two

In the plaza near the mall was a stand-alone building by a line of high-end storefronts. Italicized in bold black letters over the tinted glass doors were the words Diamond Glitter. It was the pride of Tulip's heart. A physical representation of all her hard work and perseverance over the last seven years. She was no longer that little eighteen-year-old country girl that flew into Bush Intercontinental from Biloxi, Mississippi with a full scholarship to Prairie View A&M. She was fully integrated into Houston city life.

She stepped out of her Bronco, the only relic, and memento from her old life but who can blame her for keeping it. A free car is always a good thing even if it was lemon yellow. She lived in Mercedes and Tesla land but never felt the pressure to upgrade her wheels. She knew better ways to spend seventy grand and it wasn't on something that would depreciate once it rolled off the lot.

The Spring breeze toyed with the hem of her lime shift dress but she paid it no mind as she strutted to the door, which she knew was already unlocked. Niesha's on time wasn't everyone else's early as hell.

Tulip's navy pumps clicked on the polished concrete floor. Crisp white walls, eggshell furniture greeted her as the door swung close behind her.

She didn't cover her mouth as a yawn ripped it wide. There was no need for manners around her best friend and business partner. Niesha knew everything about her from how she liked her coffee to her period symptoms.

They met a year after Tulip graduated during a chance encounter at a free pilates class. She exercise class had shown her exactly how her muscles had relaxed during her office job of selling insurance and the curvy beauty took pity on her and invited her to a smoothie afterward. Tulip never frowned at sweet concoctions so she accepted. Between sips of her mango delight, she told the limber woman about her side hustle of throwing parties and discovered she was a web designer that had an entrepreneurial itch that needed scratching. They had been close ever since.  It was the last time Tulip did pilates, too.  

"Late night," Niesha asked with her iPad in hand standing beside the boutique's statement piece—a reclaimed wood table that was really a door they discovered at a garage sale near Katy. "Had a playdate." She joked.

"I really wish you wouldn't call it that." Tulip sat her purse on her pristine desk. Keeping it organized was a chore she executed every day. Her closet may be in disarray her office space never would.

Customers loved an organized planner. That was also why the cute modern boutique went through a deep clean after hours. Everything had to be on point come early in the morning. She hated having to hustle around the store to get things ready before it was time to open. She didn't need the added stress. People always came in looking for a Puffy party on a Pop-Tart budget before noon.

"Would you rather I say booty call?"

"That would be incorrect since it was a text." She flashed her grin fixing the scarf that kept her box braids in one uniformed place, down her back and out of the way.

"See." Neisha pouted, dropping the device to her chest. "You bending dudes to your will via text and I kept catching duds with that app."She sighed like a wounded puppy. "I'm tired of having first dates with every Tom, Dick, and Daequan."

"Harry." Tulip corrected. "It's Tom, Dick, and Harry."

"I don't know any Harry's." The device pinged and it garnered Neisha's focus instantly; she almost missed Tulip's head shake. "Exactly but I know three Daequan's."

Tulip chuckled starting up her laptop. "And they all spell their names differently."

"You gotta love our creativity. We'll do wonders with the twenty-six letters in the alphabet."