Page 45 of Another Constant

“Why did you get quiet? What’s wrong, mama?”

“Nothing. Just got tired out of nowhere.” I dropped my phone in my lap and closed my eyes. We were six hours into a style I’d let her talk me into allowing her to try on my head. She was doing faux locs with barrels at the end. They’d stop a little past my shoulder.

“I’m almost done. Shit, finishing up now. See that’s why I don’t let you sit in front of the mir—” she started, but a knock at the door stole both of our attention.

“Come in,” Caya called out, both of our eyes on the door.

“The fuck y’all ain’t got this door locked for?” I could hear him fussing before the door opened. He turned the corner, and immediately, his eyes were on me. He’d gone from fussing to licking those thick lips. “You tryna be like me, baby?”

I cackled, nervous as hell under his eyes. “Nah, I got my own motion. I didn’t know you we?—”

“Ahem.” Caya cleared her throat.

“Kinga, this is my best friend Caya. Cay, this is Kinga.”

He nodded in her direction. “What’s up, shorty?”

“Apparently you. Got my girl’s nose wide open. Don’t be on no slick shit, ’cause I’ll leg your big ass for her.”

“Caya.”

“What? I’m just saying. As long as you’re happy, so am I.”

Kinga laughed. “Then we got an understanding.” He held his hand out to shake hers.

She nodded. “Good. I hope so ’cause your big ass is cute and she actually likes you. I’m almost done though, so I’ma let you take my girl from me this time, but you gotta get off that hogging shit.”

Of course, this fool laughed. “You gonnaletme take her? Aight, sweetheart.” He put the emphasis on the let.

“Don’t aight sweetheart me. I mean it, Kinga.”

He laughed, then focused his attention on me. “You only ate a piece of fucking cake this morning.”

I giggled. “I told you that was all I wanted.”

“A piece of cake. Is that code for something?” Judging from the fact that she was greasing my scalp and running her hands through my hair as well I could tell we were done.

“No it isn’t. You’re the only person whose mind stays in the gutter.” I didn’t know if I was lying or telling the truth because the way I felt under his gaze had my mind buried deep.

“So you actually ate cake for breakfast?”

“Yes, and before you go judging, it was the moistest caramel cake I ever had in my life. I had some after dinner and this morning.”

“Oh, where did you get it?” she asked, now moving toward the sink to wash the excess grease from her hands.

“Somebody made it for me.” I smiled hard, looking at Kinga.

“Yup. That’s some type of innuendo, inside joke type shit. Just forget I asked.”

I laughed even harder, rising to my feet. “It’s not like that.” I moved to the mirror, taking myself in with a smile. I usually didn’t do braids or anything remotely close to this type of style to my hair, but damn. I loved this, even though I loathed the time spent getting it done.

“Mhmm. What do you think?”

“I like it, soo much.”

“Yeah, I’m glad, even though you’ll have me taking them down by next week.” She left the immediate front, going toward the back, leaving me and Kinga alone.

“Yo, I brought both of y’all some food,” he called out to her, stepping up behind me.

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