Khalid
Something was off.
I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I knew it the second I woke up and it was pouring rain outside, making for a dark morning instead of the sunshine I expected to be coming through the window of the hotel I was staying in. And it wasn’t only the weather, but also the multiple missed calls and messages I had on my phone once I retrieved it; a few calls from my job, a few calls and voicemails from Jayla, and a text from Londyn asking what the move was for the night since her and Chance were planning on joining me at the club.
After shooting her a quick response with the only details I had from the club promoter, I listened to the voicemails Jayla had left me the night before that had come about an hour apart; the first one talking about her night being crazy, making me wonder what she had gotten into after I left town. And the second one was… all over the place, going from her being worried about me to her being upset with me about something to giving me extra details the promoter had left out because of course she was still on her business shit. But the fact that at least a quarter of her words were slurred told me the call had been less about actually getting in touch with me and more about whatever alcohol she had consumed.
At least that’s what I assumed once I gave her a call back, hardly expecting her to even be awake this early if she had drunk as much as it sounded like she did. But to my surprise, she ended up answering, her voice as sharp as usual when she said, “Hello.”
Just having her on the line was enough to bring a smile to my face as I told her, “Good morning, Sunshine. Heard you had a long night.”
“That’s really none of your business,” she replied, my eyebrow piquing as if she could see me since… Where the hell did that come from?
I didn’t get a chance to ask, Jayla jumping right to the final point in her voicemail once she continued, “Did you get my message about the club? What time you’re supposed to arrive, the expectations while you’re there, and all that?”
“Yes, boss lady. Heard that part right after you said you were mad at me for somethin’. What’d I do?” I questioned, wondering if the little attitude she had with me right now was somehow correlated.
Instead of answering my question, she only let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t really want to talk about it. I need you focused on tonight.”
“Seriously, Jayla. What is going on? What happened last night?” I asked again, sitting up in the bed now that the situation seemed a little more serious. But once again, instead of just coming out with it, she brushed me off.
“I don’t want to talk about that either. Now do you have any questions about the gig? Or are you good to go?”
Since she was trying to business her way around it, I used the same strategy when I replied, “No, I have a question. Why is the woman who booked this shit acting so weird this morning?”
I was being completely serious, but Jayla didn’t take it that way, letting out an annoyed grunt in response. “Ugh. Everything isn’t a joke, Khalid.”
“Well everything ain’t a damn press release either, Jay. Now are you gonna tell me what’s going on, or are you really gonna pretend like I can’t tell somethin’ is up with you?” I asked sternly, hoping that would make it clear that I wasn’t letting this go. But instead of just being honest and helping me understand, Jayla took the easy way out.
“I… have to go. Have fun tonight, okay?”
“Jayla, wait…” I started, met with the sound of my own phone beeping to signal the call had ended. And when I immediately called back, it didn’t ring at all, going straight to voicemail as if she had turned her phone off.
Wow.
It had been awhile since I’d been on the receiving end of a cold shoulder, and this one in particular didn’t really make any sense to me; especially considering how good of a time Jayla and I had experienced just yesterday. But instead of blowing her phone up with more calls that were sure to go unanswered like I wanted to, I decided to take a break from the situation, using my phone to call the last item on the priority list.
My job.
One of the guys who usually took over for me mid-morning, Zo, was the one to answer, using his tough guy, professional voice to say, “Security department. This is Lorenzo.”
“Zo, what’s good? It’s Khalid.”
His whole demeanor completely changed. “Oh, shit. What’s up, man? Saw you took the night off. Was the pussy that fire?”
I did my best to laugh him off, trying not to let thoughts of Jayla invade my mind when I replied, “I wasn’t even on that, bruh. Just got some other business I gotta handle in the city. But somebody from the office called me. You know who it was?”
“The only supervisor here is Mike, so it must’ve been him. You want me to forward you over?” he asked, speaking with cornball ass Mike not exactly how I wanted to start my Saturday morning.
Not that anything was wrong with him.
I mean, he was a decent boss and all that. But he was also the type that took his security without a gun job a little too seriously, acting like we had to go through the damn academy to be qualified when really we just had to be willing to sit there bored more often than not.
After dealing with everything Jayla had going on - or not dealing with it -, I figured talking to Mike couldn’t be much worse, allowing me to answer, “Not really. But yeah, go ahead.”
Since Zo knew exactly what I meant, he only started laughing before forwarding the call to Mike’s office. And once he picked up using that same tough guy, professional tone that Lorenzo had used, I replied, “Good morning, Mike. It’s Khalid.”
That broke his persona completely, the goofy meter turned all the way up when he said, “Khalid, hey. Good morning, bud. Did ya get my email?”
Shaking my head as if he could see me, I answered, “No, sir. Haven’t gotten that far yet. What’s going on?”
Somehow his tone still had that goofy twang even once it dropped an octave when he explained, “Well, I have a... bit of bad news for ya, bud. There was an incident on the property during the last shift you worked; vandalism, to be more specific. Since you were supposed to be on guard at the time and failed to file any report, we’ll have to place you on unpaid leave until we can further investigate the situation to figure out if you were intentionally negligent or was it more of an... accidental oversight.”
Vandalism?
Negligence?
Trying my best to stay calm, I told him, “Mike, this is my first time hearing about this. And I did my usual, scheduled rounds when I was on the clock, so I’m not sure how I would’ve missed something like that.”
I was already playing back the highlights from that night in my head, including the little break I spent in Jayla’s office, when Mike released a nasally sigh straight into the phone. “Listen, bud. I understand we can’t catch it all, which is why we’re investigating to make sure we can still trust you in the position. But until we can confirm that, we can’t have you here on watch.”
Since it sounded like their minds were already made up, I figured there was no use arguing against it, instead asking Mike, “How long will the investigation take?”
With the money I had coming in from promotional ads and the check I’d get at the end of the night from the hosting gig, I wasn’t too worried about having to take a few days off from my regular job. But when I heard him flipping through the stack of files on his desk that never seemed to shrink - and imagined him adjusting the glasses on his nose - I became a little more concerned.
“Could be a week or two. Maybe more. Third-party companies love to take their time with these kinds of things.”
My first thought was, “Y’all are bringing in a third-party company over a missed vandalism case?” But my second, more important thought was, “A week or two? Unpaid? Nah, they’re gonna have to speed that up a little bit. I can’t miss an entire pay period just for them to figure out I did nothing wrong.”
“Sorry, bud. I’m not the one in charge here,” Mike offered with another nasally sigh, adding in a snort from his always stuffy-nose that made me cringe since I knew he was pulling that nasty ass handkerchief from his pocket to… yup, there’s the blow.
Now it was me sighing, resting my forehead in my hand as I told Mike, “Well, thanks for the heads-up. And if they have any questions about that night, please let them know I’ll be glad to answer them.”
“I’m assuming it’ll be a standard investigation. Thorough review of all the cameras, security logs, etc. etc. As long as you followed all of the other procedures during that shift, you have nothing to worry about,” he replied, bringing me a little relief since I felt like that was more true than not. But just when I was getting ready to find a way to end the call, Mike added, “Hey. While I have you on the line. I saw on your Insta-majigger that you’re working with that new cereal company now. Do they give you any, like, exclusive coupons? It’s already my wife’s favorite, but boy, does that organic tag make it expensive.”
“Did this fool really just...”
I wanted to respond, “No more expensive than that dozen of donuts you usually devour behind her back on a daily, Mike.” But I kept that to myself, instead telling him, “I might be able to work something out if you can get this little investigation expedited.”
“But I’m not the one in charge,” he immediately responded, something I was aware of but didn’t really care about since I knew he wasn’t completely powerless in the situation.
If he wanted the hook-up on the cereal, he’d figure it out.
“Well I’m not the one whose wife wants her favorite, expensive cereal, so…” I trailed, leaving the rest up to him.
I was hardly surprised when he let out another one of his nasally sighs before offering, “I’ll see what I can do, Khalid.”
“Appreciate it, Michael,” I replied with a hopeful grin, then ended the call for real this time. But even with Mike on my side, I knew getting back to work sooner than later was still a stretch, making my grin fall flat as I huffed, “Damn. When it rains, it pours.”
&
“Appreciate the touch-up, LoLo.”
After the trash ass morning I had, it felt good to at least have my hair on point for the first time in weeks, Londyn doing a quick retwist of my outer rows to make it all look fresher than it actually was. But it was enough to get the job done; something Londyn agreed with when she insisted, “It’s your first hosting gig. The least you could do is be photo-ready since that’s the only reason they’re paying you to come. Which… I still can’t believe is actually happening. I mean, who in their right mind would give your ugly ass money just to be somewhere?”
I knew she was only teasing, but I was still sure to give credit where it was due once I replied, “Shoutout to Jayla for that. I mean, the timing really couldn’t have been better now that I’m on leave from work.”
“I’m surprised she didn’t come too. You know, to keep all the little heffas away for her new boy toy,” she sang, making me roll my eyes for multiple reasons.
One, I wasn’t anybody’s damn boy toy. And two, “Nah, she didn’t seem very interested in anything “me” when I talked to her this morning. All about the business.”
Even with the time that had passed since that phone call, I still hadn’t been able to make sense of her attitude. But just because I couldn’t make sense of it, didn’t mean it wasn’t my fault according to Londyn’s question. “What’d you do?”
Shrugging, I defended, “I didn’t do anything. Matter of fact, listen to these messages she left me last night.”
One of the main perks of having a woman for a best friend was that she could decode shit I couldn’t. And if there was something I had missed, I knew Londyn would find it as I played the voicemails back for her.
With a little chuckle, she noted, “Sis was definitely faded in that second one. Did she ever tell you about her night though?”
“No. I kept asking her, but she just avoided the question over and over again.”
“So it must’ve been serious,” Londyn concluded, putting her hand to her chin as she guessed, “Maybe she saw something wild about you on social media, or ran into one of your old things at the hair shop, or…”
“Or her mother came to town,” I finished for her the second I saw the picture Mila had posted of her and her mom on Instagram, meaning Jayla had surely come in contact with her too.
Of course, that made no sense to Londyn, her face scrunched when she asked, “Why would that be an issue?”
Though I didn’t have all the fine details, I felt like I knew enough to answer, “They don’t… have the best relationship. So I’m sure her dropping into town put her in a mood, probably induced the drinking. But that still doesn’t make sense of why she would be mad at me.”
“If that put her in a mood, you essentially caught a stray bullet, homie,” Londyn explained before giving me a little pat to the shoulder to insist, “It’ll pass, though. Don’t worry.”
“I wish your moods passed that easily,” Chance added the second he showed up in the living room to join us, somehow being the last one of us to finish getting dressed.
He was already bending over the back of the couch to plant a kiss on Londyn’s forehead when she squealed, “What? Come on, babe. I’m like, an angel.”
“Yeah, the one who turned into the devil,” he teased with a little laugh as he rounded the couch then plopped down in the spot next to Londyn, putting me in perfect third wheel position. And you would’ve thought Londyn was intentionally rubbing it in when she leaned into him to reply, “Not my fault you love it when I wear that red lingerie…”
Before anything could pop off, I hopped up from the couch. “Aight, enough of that shit. Y’all ready to go? Our ride should be pulling up now.”
It took a second for them to peel away from each other and stand up. But once they did, they didn’t get more than a step toward the door before Chance asked, “That’s what you’re wearing?”
After taking a quick glance down at her dress, Londyn peeked up to sarcastically reply, “Nah. It’s just what I happen to have on seconds before I walk out of the door. Yes, this is what I’m wearing, babe. Shit, if Khalid is catching stray bullets, I might be able to catch a stray contract like his. Host me a few parties on the side for some extra cash, or at least get a deal with one of those clothing companies who falsely advertise their cheaply-made outfits.”
The question in my head was, “Why in the world would you wanna work with them?” But Chance’s question out loud was, “What do you need extra cash for? Ain’t like you ever spend your own money anyway.”
Knowing how fiscally-responsible Londyn was and knowing how Chance loved to spoil her ass, I was hardly surprised to hear it. And I also wasn’t really surprised to her Londyn respond, “Just because I don’t spend my own money doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have a healthy emergency fund ready just in case I ever have to flee to Mexico after murdering you and your mistress.”
“Damn. Will you relax, crazy?” Chance asked with a laugh that was half-amused, half-shook cause he knew Londyn was dead serious.
She only shrugged as we finally made our way out to the all-black truck that was waiting on us, tossing over her shoulder, “I’m just sayin’. Consider it a fair warning.”
“Y’all are wild, man,” I added, shaking my head as Chance helped Londyn inside and I climbed in after the both of them. And once we were settled in for the ride, I decided to shoot Jayla a text.
“Headed to the venue. Thanks again for the plug, boss lady.” - Khalid
The message was plain enough, keeping things as business-related as I could just in case she still wasn’t really feeling me. And that seemed to be the case according to the tone of her response.
“Just doing my job. Have fun.” - Jayla
Gnawing on my lip, I considered responding with something random just to see if I could get her to crack. But when Londyn leaned over to remind me, “Give her some time. It’ll pass,” I slipped my phone back into my pocket instead, doing my best to get my head in the game for the gig.
Of course that was a lot easier said than done, especially since it was my first time doing something like this. But eventually, I got used to being the center of attention; not that I really had a choice since the DJ kept reminding people that LadiesLoveKoolK was in the building.
Not Khalid.
But my damn Instagram name.
Acting as annoyed as I felt wouldn’t have been good for the brand, so I did my best to mask it, playing it cool and nursing one drink for as long as I could until I found myself chewing ice. But just when I was getting ready to motion for the bartender to pour me up something new, I heard Londyn squeal, “My favorite bad bitch!”
My eyes flew in her direction and were incredibly pleased with the sight of Jayla who was definitely on her bad bitch shit. I mean… gotdamn, the woman was fine as hell, half of her hair pulled up into a ponytail while the rest fell against her shoulders, her makeup on point like she had gotten it done by a professional, and her slinky silver dress with matching jewelry making her glow like a damn superstar.
She was a damn superstar. And I was proudly on some groupie shit when I rolled up on her and asked, “Boss lady, what are you doin’ here?”
“Can’t surprise my client at his first hosting gig?” she asked with a smirk that seemed especially sexy with everything else she had going on. But even with her appearance, I was still a little confused when I thought back on the attitude she had with me just this morning; something I was getting ready to ask her about until she put a finger to my lips to say, “We can talk about it later, okay? Let’s just have fun tonight.”
It sounded simple enough, but something in my gut told me it wouldn’t all curl over that easily. But considering how foolish it would’ve been for me to start some shit now that she finally seemed ready to let it go - had shown up here on a mission to smooth things over and show love - I decided it was best for me to just go with the flow.