A Dollar And Dream. Carl Weber

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СКАЧАТЬ I heard, but I ain’t givin’ you shit.” I stepped out of my car.

      “Come on, Paul,” he whined, “with the numbers I got, I can’t miss. Matter of fact, if I win I’ll split it with you.” He spread his hands apart as if to say, How can you beat that?

      “Yeah, right.” I laughed at him pityingly.

      “What? Don’t you trust me?”

      “Hell no, I don’t trust your drunk ass! Only thing I trust you to do is go down to the Quick-Mart and buy a forty so your drunk ass can get drunker.”

      “Damn, Paul, why you bein’ so cheap? All I wanna do is buy a couple’a lottery tickets. If I wanted money for a forty, I woulda told you it was for a forty.” He had the nerve to have an attitude.

      “Well, why don’t you get a job? Then you won’t have to ask me for shit.” I hit the alarm on my Maxima and headed towards my building.

      “Fuck you, Paul, you cheap bastard. I should fuck up your car.”

      I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around. He was mumbling and probably didn’t think I’d heard him, but I did.

      “What’d you say?”

      “Nothin’.” He tried to look innocent.

      “Fuck with my car if you want to, Freddie. But I’ma tell you what. If you do, you better hit that damn lottery. ’Cause after the ass-whipping I’m gonna give you, you’re gonna need every dime to pay for your hospital bills. Now get away from my fucking car.”

      “Man, fuck you and your car,” he muttered as he walked off.

      Any other time I probably would’ve given Freddie the two dollars, but I was still pissed off about spending my money on this sister Jade I’d gone out with last night.

      I’d taken her to Red Lobster and a movie, which was not my norm. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a pretty boy or anything. Shit, matter of fact some might call me a little overweight. But in a town that’s got a ratio of ten women to every one man, a brother with a good job and his own place has got it made, and I was that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. At least I was to everyone but Kerri.

      I opened the main door to my building, noticing the 987 and shaking my head. We live at 5987 Easy Street, but the 5 had fallen off before I moved in and none of my fellow tenants or my landlord had found the need to fix it. Our landlord, well, she didn’t fix nothin’, ’cause she was in financial straits. Funny thing was that for the most part it was a fairly decent spot to live. Not located in the best neighborhood, but it was clean and the rent was cheap. The building had four apartments. Kerri and I lived in the second-floor apartments, and Rodney, this thug-ass brother I suspected of selling drugs, lived under Kerri. My landlord Katrice and her husband Jordan lived in the apartment on the bottom floor under me.

      As I walked into the building Rodney was walking in also. He was probably coming home from a long day at the corner selling drugs. We exchanged pleasantries and I eyed the dude as he walked into his apartment. He acted tough, but the truth was he was soft as butter and one of these days I was gonna turn him in to the police.

      I could smell the strong scent of incense coming from Kerri’s apartment, which basically told me she had company. I’d been seeing her with this older dude for the past couple of months. I guess he’d spent enough so that she felt obligated to finally give the old bastard some. Lucky for him. At least somebody was getting some tonight, ’cause I sure as hell wasn’t.

      3

      Kerri

      I walked into the bathroom and the first thing I heard was some fool yelling outside my window like it was twelve in the afternoon, instead of twelve midnight. I peeked out my window and no surprise, it was Paul, yelling at poor Freddie the wino. Paul had been trying to get in my drawers ever since I moved in. Up ’til now I hadn’t even given him a sniff. But as broke as I was, it might just be worth giving him some if I could get him to pay some of my back rent—so Katrice would get off my back.

      Jesus Christ, what the hell was I thinking about? I couldn’t believe I actually gave that shit some thought. It wasn’t like I didn’t already have enough male problems as it was, including the one laid up in my bed. Okay, let me stop exaggerating. Charlie wasn’t that bad if you liked guys almost twice your age with receding hairlines. The only problem was he was always pushing me to get married. Then again, what should I have expected from a guy who was gonna end up paying this month’s rent? You see, Charlie didn’t know it, but he was more like my ATM machine than my boyfriend, and it was time for a withdrawal. Especially after I came home to find a note tacked on my door from my landlord. It read:

      Kerri,

      I know times are hard but they are for everyone. You’re three months behind in your rent. Pay up by Monday or you have to get out!

      Katrice

      Well, I certainly didn’t have the money to pay up but I knew who did. I’d picked up the phone and called Charlie right away.

      “Hey, handsome, what time do you get off? I got something I wanna give you.” I gave him my sexiest voice so he’d know what I was talking about.

      “My shift ends at eleven.” I could hear a lot of noise in the background, so I knew he couldn’t talk long.

      “I need for you to come over on your way home. What I’ve got for you, you’ve gotta have hot,” I teased.

      “What is it?”

      “You sure are full of questions, aren’t you? But if you must know, it’s warm, wet, and waiting for you,” I purred.

      “Daaamn. I’ll be there by eleven-fifteen, not a second later,” he promised as he hung up the phone.

      I set up the living room with candles, to set the mood. I took a bath and covered myself with the warm vanilla sugar spray I copped from Bath and Body Works. A little Luther on the stereo, my shimmering fine ass barely covered by a red satin robe, a bottle of Chianti chilling in the fridge, and by ten minutes after eleven, everything was ready.

      “Hi, baby.” I opened the door and greeted him before he had a chance to knock.

      “Hey, yourself. So what do you have for me?” He smiled as he looked me up and down. I grabbed him by the tie and pulled him into my small living room, kissing him before I pushed him down on the sofa.

      “So, how was work?”

      “Work was work. Now, what you got for me?” He smiled, letting me know he knew exactly what I had for him.

      “I’ll tell you in a minute. Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

      I went into the kitchen and poured him a glass of wine. Before I could turn around, I felt him behind me, reaching under my robe, caressing my ass.

      “Damn, you smell good.”

      “I taste better,” I said as I turned around and gave him a glass. He took a swallow and then kissed me full on my mouth. This was another thing I liked about Charlie. He was a take-charge kind of guy. I kissed him back and tugged at his shirt and tie until they finally came off. I was reaching for his СКАЧАТЬ