“Give Simone a break. She’s figuring it out.”
“I offered to help her,” Kenya says defensively. “She wouldn’t listen to me.”
“Yeah, but you just buy hair,” I say, laughing because my sister wears extensions year-round.
“And you know this,” Kenya says, laughing back. “Hair is trouble, man, especially during the season. I could get Simone’s own hair tight if she’d let me. Is Lucius still managing Faded?”
“Yeah. I’m thinking of asking if he’d be interested in opening another shop here in New York? Maybe Brooklyn?”
“I don’t have to ask what you’ll be doing when you finally retire. You already have more businesses than I can keep up with.”
“More than I can keep up with, too. That’s why I pay someone to help me.”
“Well thank you for cutting your little sis in on some of that action since obviously I won’t become a millionaire playing for the WNBA.”
“Don’t even think twice about it. Just introduce me to this potential love interest soon.”
“Hey, I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”
The thought of Lotus being mine, of her in my life, in my bed, makes my dick hard.
I head back to the ice bath.
7
Lotus
There’s something calming about sewing. The hum of the machine. The rhythm. Watching a creation take life and shape under your hands in real time. It’s always soothed me in ways few other things do. I was a wild, angry, damaged twelve-year-old when I landed in MiMi’s care. She wasn’t sure how to occupy my time, how to direct the violent storm churning inside of me, so she tried everything. Some things stuck, and some didn’t. But from the first time she sat me down at her Singer, sewing made sense.
“You almost done with that?” Yari asks from the doorway leading back to the atelier’s workroom.
I like to sew alone. It gives me time to think. Out there on the floor, there’s a dozen languages the seamstresses speak, flying around and distracting. And the gossip is non-stop. I like to see where my thoughts take me. Sewing is meditative and not for the chaos of the workroom.
“Yeah.” I hold up the dress for Yari’s inspection. “I had to tear the whole seam out and start all over.”
“Looks good.” She takes the dress, folding it over her arm. “I’ll get this to the seamstress so she can start on the buttons. Meanwhile, JP wants you in his office.”
“Did he say for what?” I stand and stretch out the muscles locked tight while I concentrated at the sewing machine.