A/N: Please comment & vote at the end of the chapter!
I opened my eyes to a loud ringing in my ear. Six o'clock came so fast. Grabbing the alarm clock I cut it off sinking my head back into the soft pillows as I slowly drifted back to sleep.
The next time I woke up it was eight o'clock. I jumped out of bed as my heart began to race. I was late for my first day and I knew Rio was going to be mad.
I swung open the glass double doors to the bedroom to find him sitting on the couch watching television.
"I'm so sorry." I said as I frowned and bit down on my nail.
Turning the TV off he stood to his feet glancing me up and down.
"You ready?"
He wore a fitted navy blue pullover with a pair of dark denim jeans and Timberlands.
"I just have to get in the shower."
He slowly shook his head in disappointment causing me to instantly feel guilty. "I'll be in the car." He said nonchalantly while leaving the room.
Glancing around I saw two of my boxes on the floor.
I smiled to myself as I walked over to them and peered inside. He'd gone to Tania's house to pick up my things.
Pulling out a light pair of jeans that had a distressed detail to it I paired it with a beige tank and sandals.
I rushed to the bathroom and started the shower bringing the water to a comforting temperature.
Stepping into the shower I let the water trickle from the top of my head down to my feet. The water felt so good as it hit my body I almost lost track of time.
Taking a ten minute shower, I hopped out drying off and using another three minutes to lotion up. Slipping on my clothes and shoes I rushed out of the front door deciding to wear my hair wet and wavy for the day.
As I approached the car in the driveway I quickly noticed it wasn't the same from the day before.
Opening the passenger's door, I slipped into the front seat of the Benz.
"That didn't take long." I said while putting on my seat belt.
Rio took in a deep breath and began backing out of the driveway.
"I'm sorry." I apologized again noticing his annoyed demeanor.
"I thought I set yo alarm." He finally said.
"You did."
"So what the fuck happened?" He snapped.
I sunk down into the cushioned seats. He was serious and wanted an answer.
"My intentions were to rest my eyes for five minutes." I said giving him the truth.
"But it turned into two hours?" He glanced from the road at me.
I decided to stop talking because I would just be digging a bigger ditch to be buried. He pulled in front of a house turning the engine off.
"I just gotta run in here real fast." He informed me stepping from the car and closing the door behind him.
He jogged up the walk way to the front door and I watched as he disappeared into the house.
I took a glance at the clock on the radio display and noticed it was fifteen minutes after nine.
As I looked back towards the house Rio disappeared into he was walking back to the car with a black duffle.
He made a stop at the trunk before walking to the driver's door and getting back into the car.
"What was that?" I asked.
He pulled from the curb and started in the direction of the shop never answering my question.
After pulling up to the barbershop Rio turned the engine off. Shifting in his seat he turned towards me.
"You wanted my help right?" He asked.
"I know." I said while sighing.
"It's two things we need to get clear." He said holding up his index and middle fingers to give me a visual. "Never ask me about what I do and two if I'm tryna help you, work wit me."
"I know and I'm sorry." I apologized again.
"Lets go." He said while opening the car door and stepping out.
I unhooked my seat belt and exited the car.
Why did I have to fall back to sleep? I questioned myself.
Rio and I walked into the barbershop and he dapped the barbers that were at their stations getting ready.
"Who is this fine piece of ass?"A dark skin man asked as he dusted off his styling chair.
I looked at him and frowned.
The man was the complexion of dark chocolate and stood as tall as five foot six with a nicely shaped goatee.
"Listen up." Rio announced. "This is Lauren. She gon be helpin' out fa a lil minute." Rio informed everybody while trying to hand me a broom.
"Well Lauren, since this rude mug won't introduce me, I'll introduce myself. I'm Black."
He held his hand out for me to place mine inside of his.
"Nice to meet you." I said giving him my hand.
He gently bought my hand to his lips and kissed the back of it.
"Ight, get back to work." Rio said causing him to let go of my hand.
"My fault bro. That's you?" Black asked.
I looked at Rio as he still held the broom in his hand passing it to me.
"What's this?" I asked pointing to the broom.
"You use it to sweep." He said nonchalantly.
The men in the shop started laughing and I slowly took the broom from his hand and began sweeping.
Rio began cleaning up his station area for his first customer that sat in front of the barbershop waiting.
"When will I be able to cut hair?" I asked while sweeping the loose hair on the floor into a pile.
Black started laughing out loud and Rio chuckled.
"I'm serious." I said stopping what I was doing and placing my hand on my hip.
"Cut it out." Rio said seriously. "Yo. You next." He said getting his client's attention.
The man quickly stood up and made his way to Rio's chair.
"What up man?" His client said to him while dapping him. "Just taper the sides, a lil off the top." He instructed him.
I stood in the middle of the floor mugging him while he turned on the clippers and began cutting hair.
"It's not gon sweep itself." He said glancing up at me and smirking.
I rolled my eyes and went back to sweeping.
"Don't do that, it's not cute."
I smiled to myself as I kept doing my new job.
*
*
I survived my first day at Kutz Barbershop. Rio kept sending me on runs to the corner store to get him and the fellas snacks. By the end of the day I was exhausted.
"You hungry?" He asked pulling from the parking lot.
All I could think about was laying in the bed but my stomach had other plans.
"Yeah."
His phone began ringing and he peered at the display screen before ignoring it. I looked out the window to see I had no clue as to where we were going.
Resting my head on the head rest I started falling asleep.
"You worked that hard today?"
"Walking back and forth from the corner store ain't no joke."
He smiled. "You know why I did that to you, right?"
"Yea, yeah." I sighed.
"Tomorrow have yo ass up on time and ready for work."
Pulling into the parking lot of Outback Steakhouse. We rode through the parking lot a couple of times as he had a hard time finding a parking space.
We lucked up on a space and exited the car walking inside the restaurant. The hostess sat us down while handing us the menus.
"Enjoy." She smiled before walking away.
Rio sat his keys and phone on top of the table before opening his menu.
"So--when's pay day?" I asked out of curiosity.
Rio glanced from his menu at me.
The light from the chandelier above us complimented his light brown eyes perfectly.
The waitress brought the bread and butter to the table and pulled her notepad from her apron.
"We need more time." He informed her.
"Thats fine, take your time." She said as she walked off.
Rio sat his menu down onto the table and reached into his left pocket pulling out a rack of hundreds. He counted out four hundred dollars passing it to me.
"You happy?" He asked while putting the rest of his money away.
I flashed him a forced smile and he laughed before taking a sip from his water.
"Once again I want to apologize for being late this morning."
"You don't have to keep apologizing, just don't let it happen again."
Flipping through my menu I smiled.
"What you smiling for?"
"Your quite demanding." I informed him.
"Nah." He said shaking his head in disagreement.
I could feel his eyes on me.
I didn't bother looking up from my menu because I knew he would see me turning red.
"So, tell me about Lauren." He said randomly.
I chuckled as I finally built up enough courage to look at him.
"You don't wanna know that." I said slightly embarrassed.
The waitress walked back to our table to take the orders.
"Y'all ready?" She asked smiling at Rio.
"The outbacker burger. No onions or pickles."
He handed the menu to her.
"Ma'am?"
"I'll have the filet & grilled shrimp on the barbie."
"I'll be back with your orders." She smiled as she took my menu and left the table.
"Why you say that?" Rio asked.
"Lets talk about Mario." I said dodging his question.
"I'm sure it's nothin you haven't heard already."
His phone began ringing again and he pressed the side button to ignore it.
"I see your a busy person."
"You can say that." He said while taking a slice of bread.
"What's the story wit you and Megan?"
He sighed while rubbing his hands together to get rid of the bread crumbs.
"She really wasn't anything to me. I met her through her mom actually."
I gave him a confusing look. Hinting him to elaborate.
"Her mom was one of my frequent clients--."
"At the barbershop?" I asked cutting him off.
He chuckled. "You know betta than that. Do she look like she come to get her hair cut?" He laughed and shook his head. "Long story short, she sent Megan to me one time to pay off her debts."
"I bet you slept wit her too."
"You mad?" He asked smirking.
I couldn't resist rolling my eyes at him.
Picking up my glass of water, I used the straw to stir the lemon wedge around. I heard a familiar voice causing me to glance around the Resturant.
"Let's sit over here." Janet said.
My father and Janet began walking in the direction of our table with the hostess. My breathing started to quicken as I sat the cup of water back onto the table.
"You ight?" Rio asked.
I began panicking. Picking up my napkin and knocking the silverware onto the floor, I bent over to grab it hoping they would pass by and not notice me.
"Lauren?" My father asked stopping at our table.
I slowly sat up and my eyes met his. Rio stared at my father as he spoke.
"I thought you'd been killed yourself by now." He said.
His cold words stuck through my heart like a knife and my eyes began to water.
"A, you should keep it movin'." Rio spoke up.
"And what you gon do boy?"
Tears began falling down my cheeks.
"You don't wanna see that." Rio informed him calmly.
Standing up from the table I made my way towards the exit. When I got outside I walked towards the car and Rio came out the Resturant after me.
"Can we just go?" I asked wiping my tears away.
Opening the passenger's door for me I slipped into the seat before he closed the door behind me.
The waitress came out of the Resturant doors holding two white plastic bags with to go boxes in them.
Rio grabbed the bags and placed them into the backseat of the car before getting into the driver's seat and pulling off.
"You Ight?" He asked approaching a stop sign and glancing over to me.
Tears still fell from my eyes.
"No." I said shaking my head.
Rio inhaled a deep breath before he continued driving.
"You can talk to me." He said placing his hand on my thigh.
It was nice knowing that someone cared.
Soon we were pulling into the driveway of his mother's house. I didn't wait for him to open the door for me. I stepped out of the car and walked towards the front door. Rio wasn't far behind.
He held the food in his hand while unlocking the door and stepping into the house. Neither of spoke a word to each other and I started towards the guest room while he took the food in the kitchen. I couldn't wait to get in bed.
Slipping out of my sandals, I pulled back the covers and climbed into the bed.
Rio knocked on the glass door but I didn't respond. I wanted to be alone.
"I put your food up for you." He said through the door. "Goodnight." He added before walking away.
I cried until I drifted off to sleep.
The next morning I woke up to the alarm going off again. I showered putting on a pair of leggings and cropped top. I brushed my hair into a high ponytail and wore studded cross earrings.
Walking out of the bedroom I found Rio sitting in the living room eating breakfast.
"I brought you somethin too." He said reaching into the bag pulling out a platter. "I figured you'll be hungry since you didn't get a chance to eat last night."
"Thank you." I said while taking the food and sitting next to him. "I'm sorry about last night."
"It's cool. I understand you wanted to be alone."
He bit into his breakfast sandwich. I opened the platter to see sausages, bacon, eggs and grits.
"That was your father?" He asked.
I sighed while sprinkling pepper onto the grits to give it more flavor and bringing a spoonful to my mouth. "Unfortunately."
Rio shook his head in disappointment.
"What happened?" He asked.
The subject was very touchy for me but for some reason I felt I could trust him.
I didn't hold back and I told Rio everything. From the molesting to the pregnancy.
He was the second person to know what I went through.
It felt as if a weight was lifted off of my shoulders. By the end of the story I was in tears and Rio was speechless.
I could sense he was bothered by the story.
"Its the past. I'm happy I'm not in that situation anymore." I said trying to lighten up the mood.
Standing up from the couch a mad Rio tossed his garbage into the trash can and grabbed his car keys off the table.
"You can eat on the way." He said making his way towards the door.
I packed the food and followed him outside to the car.
Rio pulled from the driveway and started down the street. Sitting his phone in the cup holder it began vibrating.
He picked the phone up and ignored the call tossing the phone back into the cup holder.
"Why you never answer yo phone?" I asked out of curiosity.
"I answer when it's someone I want to talk to." He simply said.
Opening my breakfast plate and digging my fork into the eggs I began eating.
By time he pulled in front of the shop I was finish.
Slipping out of the seat belt I emerged from the car following him into the shop.
Black sat in his barber chair finishing his breakfast.
"I see someone learned their lesson." He joked.
Cracking a smile I gave him the middle finger.
Rio chuckled and turned the projector on flipping to the ESPN channel.
Black tossed his garbage into the trash can and wiped his mouth from the crumbs.
"Bro, can I talk to fa a minute?" He asked.
Rio took a seat in his barber chair giving Black his undivided attention. "What up?"
"So--you know Ant was released this morning--." Black started to say before Rio interrupted him by holding up his index finger.
"Wait a minute." He assured Black. "Lauren, would you grab me a bottle of water?"
"Sure." I said making my way towards the back of the barbershop.
I knew Rio was just trying to buy time so he could speak to Black in private.
As I walked to the refrigerator I heard someone walk through the front door of the shop. I grabbed three bottles of water just in case Black wanted one.
Walking from the back of the shop I noticed Rio had a client sitting in his chair. I handed a bottle to Rio and the man.
"Damn, where you find this one at?" Rio's client asked. "Thanks beautiful." He added.
Rio smiled and tossed the coat over the man's shoulders.
"Lauren, this my boy Ant. Ant that's Lauren." Rio introduced us.
I politely smiled and handed Black his water.
Walking towards the front door I sat in a chair picking up a XXL magazine making sure I sat close enough to hear Rio and Ant talking but far enough to remain unnoticed.
"You hittin that?" Ant asked.
"Nah, man you know betta than that. I never mix business wit pleasure."
Rio began cutting off Anthony's facial hair.
"You not tryna at least taste?"
A grim look appeared on my face the more I heard Anthony speak.
"Shorty not my type. She got too much shit goin on."
"So you don't mind me shootin my shot?" He asked.
Rio shrugged his shoulders.
"What the fuck that mean?" Ant chuckled.
"If you can handle her by any means but she's damaged goods bruh."
Ant laughed. "Ain't shit I can't fix." He assured Rio. "Did you talk to shorty?" Ant asked changing the subject.
Taking a step back Rio examined the hair on Anthony's chin before returning the clippers to his face.
"I'm already on it. She stoppin by to drop the work off in a minute." Rio assured him.
"Good. Her timing couldn't be better." Ant said.
"Damaged goods"? His words replayed in my head. Standing up from the chair I walked out of the barbershop. Earlier I'd broke down and told him my entire life story because I thought I could trust him. Taking a deep breath and inhaling the fresh air I tried shaking the thought from my mind.
Before returning back into the shop I contained my emotions. Rio was taking the coat off of Ant when I walked in taking a seat by the door.
Ant stood from his chair reaching into his pocket. He passed Rio the money before walking towards a mirror to examine his fresh line up.
"Lauren, will you get this up?" Rio asked referring to the hair on the floor.
"Ima call you lata about that move." Anthony said while dusting off his shirt and dapping Rio.
As I made my way over to Rio's station with the broom I began sweeping.
"Ight Black." Anthony said dapping him. "I'll see you later cutie." He said to me while walking off.
Rio took a seat in his chair and began scrolling through his phone occasionally looking up at me.
"Thanks." He said.
I rolled my eyes and tossed the dirt in the trash can.
"What's yo problem?"
"Don't worry about it." I snapped.
Black stared at us with confusion.
Rio pulled his phone up to his ear. "Aye, where you at?" He asked into the phone.
The door to the barbershop opened and in walked a beautiful woman and a little boy that looked to be about two years old.
"I'm here." She said hanging up the phone.
Her Malaysian weave flowed down to her waist and her makeup was flawless.
Strutting her way towards Rio while the little boy ran up to him. Rio stood up from his chair lifting the little boy into the air.
"What up lil dude?" He asked while putting him back onto the floor and dapping him.
"Hey daddy." He said smiling from ear to ear.
"Hey." The woman said pulling Rio into a hug. "When you gon cut his hair?" She asked.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I didn't know he had a son.
"Alaina this is Lauren." He said interrupting my thoughts and introducing us. "Lauren, this is Alaina."
I put on a fake smile but deep down I was salty as hell.
"Black--?" Rio asked motioning towards the little boy. "You'll take CJ outside?"
Sitting down his clippers Black grabbed the small boy's hand and took him outside.
"What have I told you about bringin CJ wit you when you makin moves?" Rio snapped.
"I couldn't leave him at home." She frowned.
Rio rubbed his temples and gritted his teeth.
"Where it's at?" He asked.
"What about her?" Alaina asked referencing to me.
"She's good. You worried bout the wrong shit." He said.
Reaching into her clutch, she pulled out a plastic bag filled with white powder handing it to him.
I took in everything as they did the exchange in front of me.
"This it?" Rio asked holding the bag up to the light.
She nodded her head confirming it was all she was carrying.
Opening the cabinet to his station Rio bent down and pulled out the black duffle bag.
Handing it to her no more words were exchanged.
She closed her clutch and took the bag strutting towards the exit.
Rio watched her as she walked.
"Have a good day." She smiled as she walked out of the door and another customer walked in.
"That's your girlfriend?" I asked. "She's pretty." I said sarcastically.
Rio smirked.
"Got damn." Black joked as he walked back into the shop.
I rolled my eyes and went back to sweeping.
"She bad as hell bro." He continued complimenting her. "How the hell you let her get away?"
"She wasn't the one." He said trying to dismiss the conversation.
"Then hook a nigga up." Black joked.
Black's client greeted everyone and took a seat in his chair.
Grabbing his merch Rio walked towards the back of the barbershop.
"Was that Rio's girlfriend?" I asked Black once Rio was out of sight.
"Just CJ's mom. Rio don't fuck wit her." He assured me.
I looked at him sideways.
"Why? You care?" He smirked.
"No." I lied. "I'll be back." I said to him while following after Rio.
"Where you goin?" He asked raising his eyebrow.
Ignoring him I walked towards the back room.
I knew Rio was in the drug game but I had no idea it was this deep.
Before walking into the room I eavesdropped on his conversation.
He held his phone to his ear while pacing the floor. "She just bought it to me." He informed the person on the other end. "Ant, this shit betta be legit." He went on to say.
He paused and waited for a reply. "I been stayin at Alaina's house since my shit bein remodeled." He rubbed his eyes. "Hit my line when you on yo way over there." He added.
I slowly walked into the room.
When he noticed my presence he quickly ended the call putting his phone in his pocket.
"Where you goin?"
"I'm leaving." I said with attitude as I picked up my wallet and headed towards the door.
"Hold up. You been throwin shade since earlier. You good?"
"I'm fine." I snapped as I walked out of the room.
Walking pass Black's station I headed towards the front door.
"Yo Lauren, you good?" Black asked.
"Yeah." I assured him before exiting the shop.
I needed to get my mind off of Rio.
Q&A
• What are your thoughts on Rio so far??