Page 25 of Wasn't Supposed To Be Yours
The second we got out the car, my eyes were on the door of the smoke shop, and because these days, God has been having a field day making me the butt of a joke, I saw where the door was opening from the inside. I was standing here, literally fighting like hell for it to be anyone other than Tank that walked out of the door, and sure enough, it was him, and he was carrying a classic Louis Vuitton briefcase in his hands, and for some reason, I felt like that briefcase might have been filled with money.
He turned around, so that he could lock the door, and as he was doing that, you could see the gun that was showcased in the back of his jeans. Tommie and Free were too busy talking amongst themselves that they hadn’t seen him yet.
“Let’s go this way,” I said, pulling Free’s hand, so that we could all just cut through the parking lot.
“Dionne, girl why would we walk through the damn parking lot when we could just walk through the shopping strip? Come on,” Free argued, still having her hand in mine, but she tried to direct me, and go the other way.
I didn’t even have to announce why I was trying to cut through the parking lot because she eventually looked over, and she saw Tank. Her and Tommie saw him because they giggled, as they looked at each other, and then back at me.
“Oh bitch, this is why you wanted to change the location? How the hell you knew his shop was here?” Tommie inquired.
“I saw him one day when I was leaving my Pilates class. Don’t say anything to him,” I argued because I knew how Tommie was. Her ass talked too fuckin much.
“Heyyyy Tank,” Tommie did the exact opposite of what I told her to do. I wasn’t even a violent person, but I wanted to fight her ass. I really did.
Free thought the shit was so funny because she was cracking up, as we walked up. Tank saw the three of us, and he started smiling. His eyes literally only stayed on my sisters for about two seconds, before he did that thing where he turned to look at me, and he boldly did it.
“What’s good with ya’ll? What ya’ll got going on?” he asked, once we approached him. Like we were all family, and my sisters were his sisters-in-law, he went for them, giving them one armed hugs, and when he got to me, he stood right in front of me, both hands on his briefcase, holding it below him, and he had a smile on his face, watching me, wanting to see what my next move was going to be.
“We’re about to go to the lounge that’s on the other side,” Free responded to him.
“Oh yeah? I’ll walk ya’ll over there, and get ya’ll in. My homie owns that spot,” he took his eyes off me for a second, so that he could respond to Free.
“We didn’t know your smoke shop was right here,” Tommie released.
“Your sister knew. Didn’t you, Dionne?” he asked me. I sighed, not answering his question. When I ignored him, he laughed.
“Damn, you back being mean to me, baby? We had a fun night the last time you were around me, and now you treating me like a stranger all over again,” he voiced, and when he said that, I wanted to kill him, and then turn around, and kill my sisters for the loud ass outburst that they were making.
“Wait, wait. When did the two of you have a fun night out together? Dionne, what the fuck?” Free asked, as if she wasgenuinely offended that I wouldn’t tell her that I hung out with Tank.
“It was nothing like that. He happened to be at the same place that I was,” I lied. Well, I didn’t lie. I just left certain details out.
“And tell them the rest. Don’t leave shit out. We left that place, and I took you to a nice lounge, and had your ass there with me until three in the morning. Ima tell all your fuckin business. You took shots with me, we exchanged numbers, and you even let me get a little hug from you at the end of the night,” he was getting a kick out of this, as he stood here, smiling the entire time that he was snitching on me, and my sisters were getting a kick out of it as well, as they were screaming like some dumb ass schoolgirls.
“Oh, we got a lot to talk about when we get a booth tonight,” Free said to me, once she calmed down.
“What kind of products you have in your shop, Tank? Dionne don’t smoke, but me, and Free do,” Tommie said to him.
“Legally, I can’t sell weed in here. I got some other shit in there that’ll do the same shit to you that weed can. Ya’ll fuck with edibles? Come inside. I’m closed, but we family, so I can open shop for ya’ll,” Tank replied, removing himself from standing in front of me, so that he could walk over to his business door, and let us in.
I pulled Free by her hair, so that she wouldn’t go inside, but she pushed me off her, while laughing, and her, and Tommie’s goofy ass was right there, walking to the door, as Tank was pulling out the keys that was in his pocket, so that he could open it.
I wasn’t even trying to be a bitch. I swear I wasn’t. I came out tonight with the intentions of having a girls night with my sisters. Me, and Tank’s situation was weird because on one hand, I was attracted to him, but on the other hand, somethingwas in me, pulling away from him, saying that it wouldn’t work because he was the opposite of what I usually dated, and because I still didn’t have any real clarity on the situation with him, and the woman he came with to Liberty’s birthday party. Not only that, but Free just told me that he choked the woman out the other day, and I live with way too much trauma to ever deal with a man that was physically abusive. So yeah, the shit was just complicated.
Tank eventually got the door opened, and the alarm that he had was going off. Instead of disarming the alarm first, he kept the door open, so that my sisters could walk in, and I stood back, with my arms folded, trying to see if I should walk in. Because I didn’t know how long they were going to be inside, I decided to just come inside, and when I did, I stood right by the door because I was going to just wait for them right here.
Once I was inside, that’s when Tank disarmed the alarm, and he closed the door. He locked it behind himself, and the lights came on automatically. I looked around the shop in amazement, really impressed by the inside.
Not going to lie, it felt like I was standing inside of a jewelry store, compared to a smoke shop, and I only felt this way because of all the gleam. The walls were painted in a matte black color, but there were accent walls that were painted in gold, which is what gave the shop that rich feel, and didn’t make it seem so dark. The glass display cases had gold trims, with soft strip lighting underneath that made the products glow in a way like trophies were being displayed. I think the part of the shop that really won me over was the bar area. There wasn’t any alcohol though. It was just set up like a traditional bar would be.
Behind the bar area, there was hookah lined up perfectly that I knew my sisters and I would love. There was vape cartridges, and even some CBD oils arranged like bottles of liquor. There were barstools that were sitting right in front of the bar area,which was nice because it gave his customers the ability to sit, and enjoy samples.
My eyes literally danced around this entire shop, and I had to say that I was proud of him. From our conversation that we had at the lounge that night, I knew that Tank used to be in the streets. He could have chosen to continue to do that with his life, but he didn’t, and I think that’s the part that made me so proud.
“Tank, this is so nice. I’ve been to plenty of smoke shops, but none of them look like this. I feel like I’m at a luxury lounge or some shit. What made you want to branch off, and open a smoke shop?” Tommie asked Tank, now that her, and Free made their way over to the bar area, and they sat down in one of the barstools.
By this time, Tank was standing behind the bar, and he started pulling stuff out, putting it on the display, so that my sisters could see it.
