Still Wifey Material by Kiki Swinson Page A

clothes, now you’re trying to cop the same shit. I got a new whip, you got the exact same one.”
    “Yep, but I paid cash for mine. Too bad you couldn’t do the same,” Nikki snapped back.
    “It doesn’t matter, Nikki, because you’re still a fucking hater!”
    “Nah, bitch! You’re the fucking hater! And for your information, I can do hair. And as soon as I get my license and open up a shop, I’m gon’ show your dumb ass how to really run a salon.”
    “Yeah, what the fuck ever! I wish you would hurry up,” I replied and turned toward Carmen because I really had had enough of Nikki’s mouth. Carmen held her head down the entire time she was arranging the items in the box. It didn’t matter to me, though, because I knew she was going to hear every word I had to say. “Is there anything I can do or say that would make you stay?” I asked.
    “I’m sorry, Kira, but that ain’t gon’ happen,” Xavier yelled from the front door. “She’s going to open up her own salon in the part of town where I be at, so I ain’t got to worry about this shit ever happening again.”
    “Is this what you want?” I whispered to her.
    Carmen looked at me with tears falling from her eyes. “One of the guys was getting ready to rape me until the other one talked him out of it,” she whispered back.
    Hearing her say those words hit me like a ton of bricks, so I immediately embraced her. “Oh my God! I didn’t know. I am so sorry.”
    “Don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault.”
    I continued to hold her because I felt her pain. I guess Xavier wasn’t feeling my gesture because he walked over to us and broke us apart. “Come on, now, enough of that shit! We gotta go.” He tugged on Carmen’s arm. “Grab her stuff,” he instructed one of his boys.
    I let her go and watched her as X escorted her out of the shop. “Call me,” I shouted.
    Carmen looked back at me. “I will.”
    While I watched the last guy close the door behind them, Rachael told her husband to go out to the car and wait for her. She looked at me and said, “Do you have a clause on your insurance policy that would allow me to file a claim for theft?”
    I looked at her like she was out of her damn mind. “No, I don’t.”
    “So you mean to tell me that my husband is going to have to come out of his own pocket to replace my wedding band set?”
    “I’m afraid so. The policy I have for my business will only cover damages lost in fire or a natural disaster.”
    Rachael sighed heavily and stormed off. “Well, somebody is going to have to pay for my loss, because my husband shouldn’t have to.”
    “Wait a minute! You mean to tell me that your husband didn’t purchase any insurance on your ring when he bought it?”
    “No, I didn’t,” Peter blurted out.
    “Well, I’m sorry to hear that, but that was truly a bad judgment call.”
    “You’re right, Kira, it may have been a bad call on our part,” Rachael acknowledged. “But who thinks that one day while she’s working, two big-ass guys are going to barge in and rob her? You would think that your workplace is a safe haven, like your home.”
    “I agree,” I said, “but that robbery that happened today can happen anywhere.”
    “Yeah, you’re right, but the only difference is that I looked at this place as my second home, and now I can’t say that I feel that way anymore.”
    “Well, I am sorry that you feel that way, Rachael.” I watched as she walked toward her husband. All she did was shake her head in dismay and leave.
    Right after she left, I went into my back office and made a call to an after-hours locksmith. When I returned to the service area, I noticed that Nikki had left. Thank God, because I couldn’t take being around her much longer, and if she would’ve said another word to me, we would have been knocking down everything in here.
    I made sure the locksmith wasn’t located too far away, because I didn’t like the feeling of being there all by myself while