Page 23 of 10,000 Hours With A Rich Menace

That was pretty far from being cool, calm and collective. Skyler, if anyone, showed me how it was to be cool when it came to a man. She had Corleon head over heels for her, and the man would give her the world if she asked. Not that she acted unbothered, she also didn’t jump at his every move.

I drizzled the hotel bubble bath into the water, and lit a few candles I got from the gift shop on the way up to our suite as I listened to “Fire and Desire” by Rick James. I moved my hips as I listened to Rick talk his shit.

This was my favorite song in the entire world. I remember singing into a brush with my mother in our living room. We would sing this song at the top of our lungs, then bust out in a fit of giggles.

“Looooovveeeeeee!” I belted out as I did a fake strip tease, as if I was doing it for my man.

Wishful thinking.

I flung the shirt across the room while rocking my hips from side to side, then I dipped my toe into the water. The water wasthe perfect temperature as the rest of my body followed and I did a happy shiver, allowing the warm water to engulf my body.

With my eyes closed and the music blaring, I inhaled the sweet salty mix of the candle and felt more relaxed than I had in a long time. My body was literally loosening up by the seconds as I settled into this tub.

I wanted to feel this warm, this safe, and this relaxed for the rest of my life. The thought of returning home back to the hustle and bustle of my life made me cringe and my jaw clench. My life wasn’t all bad, I just didn’t know what was next for me.

Since I lost my mother, I had been trying to figure out what was next. What was Stevie Raye supposed to do? I had no sign from her, and at this point not even God could tell me what was next for me.

Nails paid the bills (barely) but that wasn’t my passion. It fell into my lap and aligned with the fact that I loved to create art. Painting had always been my first love, and I have loved it since I was a child. Except, being an artist didn’t pay the bills.

It was a nice hobby to have, however, I couldn’t feed myself on it. Especially since I could never finish a piece. There were so many unfinished pieces in the living room at home that drove Skyler crazy.

She hated that I clouded our living space with my unfinished canvases, and even tried to hold a intervention to get me to stop buying them. No matter how many times I put one to the side – unfinished, I found myself at the art store scanning my rewards card to get discounted canvases.

I held my breath and went under the water and remained under there for a few seconds before I came back up, opening my eyes and nearly stopping my heart at the same exact time.

“Ahhhh!” I screamed as I tried to gather the bubbles to cover my chest up. Between the music, my heart thumping in my ears,and the sound of my screams I was overstimulated, scared and on the verge of passing out.

The man standing in front of me was large. He had to weight over 350 pounds of muscle, and he was tall. Even though I was sitting in the tub, I’m sure if I stood next to him, he would tower over me.

His caramel complexion, thick beard, and freshly twisted locs were in rope twists, pushed back out of his face. His thick eyebrows, dark menacing eyes, and pink lips were just staring at me. His arms were covered in tattoos as he stood there looking at me like he wasn’t invading my privacy by not only being in my hotel suite, but my bathroom too.

It was then that I noticed he was holding something in his hand, and it was clothes.

My clothes.

“I’m gonna step out the bathroom so you can change into these… try something and I’ll make this TV fall in the water with you… got it?”

I swallowed a huge lump that was in my throat and slowly nodded my head. My hands were shaking, and my chest was tight. “Sir?”

He paused his stride and looked at me. “I really think I’m going to pass out.”

Why did I admit this to a strange man in the bathroom of my suite? I was scared and you often did things that you wouldn’t have done if you weren’t. Me and Skyler always used to play hypothetical games where we would predict how we would act if something happened.

A strange man in my suite on vacation wasn’t a scenario we ever practiced for. “He don’t pay me enough for this shit.”

“W…who doesn’t pay you?”

He snatched the towel from the heated towel rack, opened it up and walked toward the tub. “Step out slowly… hurry the fuckup,” he barked, as he held up the towel and looked the opposite direction.

My legs felt like rubber when I stepped out the tub, my breathing labored because I was calculating if I could bolt across this bathroom and get some help for myself. This was one of those moments I wished that I would have gone out with Priscilla and her boyfriend.

I quickly slipped on the clothes he had for me, and he snatched the towel down and went into his pocket. “Hold this,” his deep voice said, as he grabbed me up and put a cloth over my mouth and my eyes became blurry until everything eventually faded to black.

Menace

Duke pulledup to one of the warehouses I owned on South Avenue in Staten Island. I owned a bunch of warehouses all over the city. Some empty, and some functioning businesses. This one happened to be empty.

It had been a week since I had Duke go and snatch sticky fingers and her friends. He opened the door, and I hopped out, going around to open the door for Jeffie. “Maverick, you listen to me… keep a calm head. I already don’t like that she’s been here for a week, and I’ve been quiet to Skyler.”

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