Page 97 of Quasim: King Inferno

“The right woman will.” I assured him.

He looked past me into the studio as Synthia was dancing, as she often did when cleaning mats. We both would put on bounce music and knock out cleaning the studio in record time.

“We gonna see.”

“As much as I appreciate the extra business… stop buying classes. Just talk to her, she’s a cool person.”

“What you know about her? Aimee acting all quiet like she don’t know much.” Aimee had met her when she started coming around the studio more, trying to get me to rent her the apartment across the hall from me.

Syn was around my age, and she was so cool to hang around. It made having someone working in the studio that much easier. Especially because she cared about it like it was her own baby.Our clients adored her, and even Aimee had taken a liking to her, grabbing dinner with her from time to time.

Not to mention, Syn also lived a few blocks from the studio. She usually rode her electric bike to work and parked it in the break room.

Synthia was unique in every way. Her warm ivory skin was covered in tattoos, and she wore a ring on nearly every finger. Her straight black hair fell down her back and was usually down, or on the rare occasion, pulled up into a bun.

She had the cutest button nose that was littered with freckles, and a heart nose ring. It wasn’t Syn if her pouty pink lips weren’t lathered in coconut oil. When I asked her why she didn’t buy lip balm, she laughed and broke down all the chemicals that were in those products. So, you had to be prepared for her to pull out a small little oval container that was jam packed with coconut oil that she would use her finger to slide all over her lips.

On her knuckles, she had ‘men suck’ tattooed across them, which intrigued me when she came to the studio for the first time. Aside from her tattoos, she was very much a girly girl and loved the color lavender.

Even her electric bike was lavender, and every time she got a fresh set of nails, you could bet the color lavender was incorporated into whatever design that she got. Havoc’s height and body build would swallow her petite 5’4 frame.

We really bonded over the fact that she drank ensure shakes, too. She shared that she had always had trouble gaining weight since she was a child, so she drank two a day, along with having a high protein diet.

“I know that she is single, and she rides her bike home from here.”

“Oh, word… she ride bikes.” He got excited on something that they could possibly bond over.

“An electric bike, Havoc.” I laughed.

“Single?”

“Yes.”

He stroked his beard while looking into the studio at Syn doing the absolute most while mopping the floors. “Hmm.”

“Just go and speak to her… you may have a lot in common. You’re a great guy, Havoc.” I nudged him a bit, and he didn’t move at all. “She likes tattoos… don’t you co-own the tattoo shop with Meer and Quasim?”

“Yeah.”

“So, bring it up in conversation. Invite her to the shop… something, dammit. I cannot be telling you and your brother how to approach women.”

Havoc chuckled. “You sis now… ain’t got no choice.”

I shook my head and went back inside while Synthia was finishing up and continued to close out everything before going home for the day. As I was confirming clients for tomorrow’s classes, I saw Aimee and Capella pull up, bringing some boxes to move in.

Zay: When you have time, I wanna take you out.

I looked at his message and silenced my phone, choosing to ignore him and continue confirming clients for class. It wasn’t that I was angry with him, I was just annoyed that he was playing both sides. In reality, I didn’t know the truth because the media often lied, and I really couldn’t be mad, because I was doing the same.

Shit.

Relationships were so damn complicated.

Quasimmy: miss you, my love.

Me: miss you more.

Quasim

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