Page 4 of Don Caselli

Soon as the host saw us, he smiled and extended his hand. “Mr. Caselli and Mr. Benjamin… I didn’t see a reservation for you. We’ll always accommodate you with a table toward the back.”

“We’re good… we’re mee?—”

“Beans!” We both turned and saw Greene walking over.

The Greene who was always running around Stevie and Menace’s crib with her hair in a big ass bushy bun, and sweatpants on, wasn’t the Green in front of us.

She wore a strapless sage green dress that hugged her body like a glove. Her breasts were sitting up, her hair was straightened, and she apparently had gotten a haircut, because it stopped at her shoulder.

With a flute of champagne in one hand and her clutch in the other, she quickly did a light sprint in her heels to give us both hugs. “Come on, we’re down there. Some of Kennedy’s friends didn’t come, so there are extra seats.”

Beans wasn’t hearing shit she was talking about because he was too busy taking in all of her. She stopped when she realized that he hadn’t responded to her. “Got the nigga stuck, Greene.”

She blushed as she looked at him. “Really? This dress is so old, and Navy told me to just toss it on.”

I ignored her little rant about her dress and headed down to where the table was. Kennedy was laughing, talking, and taking pictures with the people who did show up. As she looked up, she spotted me and smiled.

“Mr. Caselli, you came out to celebrate me tonight?” Kennedy smiled as she finished up taking a selfie with one of her friends.

She wore this hot pink silk dress that clung to her body and exposed her stomach. The dress draped around her entire front, leaving that small peek-a-boo spot for her stomach. Her skin glistened under the low lights, and I could smell her from where I stood.

She smelled like cherries and cream. “Happy birthday, Ken.”

Tossing her arms around my neck, she hugged me, and I could tell that she had been drinking. “Thank you, sweetie.”

I held her at the waist and smelled her neck as our eyes connected. It was like she remembered something and quickly backed up. “Help yourself to anything… let me go and take the rest of my pictures.”

“Do you.”

She paused and smiled before she rushed off to take pictures with the rest of her friends. Beans had already made himself comfortable over by the bar with Greene, who was asking me what I wanted. I signaled to let her know that I was good and went over toward the table and sat down.

“Seat taken?” I asked but wasn’t really even paying attention to who was sitting there.

After not hearing a response, I finally looked down to see a brown skin shorty with her face planted in a kindle. I tapped the back of her seat gently, and she pulled her eyes away from the kindle to look up at me.

Her brown skin glistened with each flicker of the candles that served as decorations on the table. Her almond-shaped brown eyes stared up at me with a confused expression on her face. Her braided hair fell down her exposed shoulder. With her hair braided in that loose style women got now, she had the front pulled up, exposing her features with a few pieces framing her face. The rest flowed down her back.

The navy-blue backless dress she wore hung off her shoulders and complimented her complexion, along with thegold bold earrings she wore. Her legs were crossed as she leaned over and secretly read in the middle of all that was going on.

“Excuse me?”

“Is the seat taken?” I repeated myself.

She removed the small purse from the seat. “Not anymore.”

I watched as she sat it on the table in front of her, next to the half-eaten food, and went back to reading her kindle. “My oldest sister has a bag like that.”

Kora and Hermes went together like macaroni and cheese. Every time I saw her ass, she had a new bag on her arm. Being that we shared the same sales associate, I knew her ass was spending a grip on whatever she wanted.

That was the thing when it came to being a Caselli. Money was limitless, and you just spent the shit because you could. Whenever a total was read to me before charging my card, I never winced or reacted because there was no feeling behind it.

I was numb to it all.

Always getting whatever I wanted. Knowing I could wake up and go anywhere in the world because I wanted to was something most people wished to do, but I had the power to do it, and all it ended with was me waking up in another country.

Alone.

She dragged her eyes away from the kindle again and stared at me. “She doesn’t have this bag… I can promise you that.” I watched as she looked at my watch and then snickered to herself.

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