Page 5 of Don Caselli

Now she had me out here curious because what the fuck was wrong with my watch? Like she had done twice before, she went back to reading, this time switching to the next page.

“How you figure?”

I guess she figured I wasn’t about to let her read in peace, which was damn near impossible in the environment we were in. Placing her kindle on her lap, she turned slightly to face me.

“I can bet she didn’t go to Canal Street to get this bag and talk him down to forty dollars.” She waited for my response, and I connected what she meant.

She was wearing a replica bag and had haggled the Chinese sellers down to her price. “Looks good.”

“I like to think so.”

“Why are you reading in the middle of a dinner party, anyway?” Since I had her attention, and Beans was over there talking with Greene, it couldn’t hurt to hold a conversation to pass time.

“Is it a crime to enjoy reading?”

“Nah… wondering how you can even focus with all this shit going on. I can never study when too much is going on around me.”

“In college?”

“Used to be.”

She nodded her head. “I tune people out and have been doing it since I was a child. It has always been easy for me to become lost in a book, especially when it’s a good book.”

“What you reading?”

“Block Wives of Atlantaby Sevyn McCray.”

I nodded my head. “Good?”

“Too good, which is why I’m reading in the middle of this dinner… well, trying to.” She removed the loose strand that fell in her face and looked around.

“Why did you come if you were going to read the whole time?”

The question seemed to be a loaded one with the way she huffed and fixed herself on the chair she occupied. I watched her as she continued to scan the crowds of people enjoying a night out. Kennedy was talking to one of her friends and checking a new watch, something she probably got from one of the men she had as a client.

She claimed she wasn’t taking any clients, but that never stopped them from sending her shit to convince her to take them as clients. Shorty checked her phone and then sat it next to her purse before looking over at me.

“My cousin dragged me here because she said the birthday girl invited her and she didn’t want to say no, or come alone, so I was pulled into sitting at this table acting like I know these people.”

A chick in a gold dress walked up to the table and stood there with a smile on her face. “Hey, Navy, do you think I can get a quick selfie? I love you.”

She switched out of her slump and smiled, waving for the girl to come around to our side. I watched as she took hold of the girl’s phone. “We need to get these angles right… you ready?”

“Yes, girl,” the chick was almost too excited to be close to her and get a picture with her. She took a few pictures and then handed the phone back to her. “Thanks so much, girl.”

“Don’t even mention it,” she waved it off like someone didn’t just ask for her picture and fan girl’d right in front of us. “Don’t tell me you wanna picture, too,” she joked.

“Shit might need one. Why she wanted your picture?”

“I’m a content creator and she’s a supporter.” She downplayed it, and then her eyes lit up when Greene made her way over with Beans behind her.

“You invite me out and then ditch me to drink and take selfies with these bitches,” she started in on her the moment Greene put her clutch on the table.

I looked from Greene and then back to shorty and was trying to figure out their connection. “My cousin… her name is Greene.”

“He knows me, Navy. This is my boss’s brother, Don Caselli.”

Not that I wanted her to, but I expected her to act differently and get excited. “Hey Don.”

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