Sinful Read Free

wrong. Listen to me close, I can’t do the square life and can’t use no square love.”
    Caught between a hard head and her better judgment, Chandelle refused to let Dior’s difficulties in the workplace go unchallenged. “That may be so, but every black woman deals with the same issues until they realize it’s not always about us. I wasn’t gonna say anything, but you know who you sound like talking all pitiful and woe-is-me?”
    â€œI know who you bet’ not be thinking of,” Dior spat ferociously. “Leave her out of this. I’m not going to end up like Billie.” Her mother was doing a ten-year bid in the state penitentiary on a welfare food stamp charge. Dior had yet to forgive her for getting caught. Hustling was a way of life she’d grown accustomed to, but a woman leaving her family behind was unacceptable under any circumstances.
    â€œDior, you might not plan to but that’s where the road you’re headed down leads. Me, I love being a square. Need I remind you that you’re in my whip? My square job and my square husband help to keep me rolling in it. Thank God.”
    â€œWhatever, I’m just saying…can’t do the square thing.”
    â€œHere’s a note for you, cousin, we all have to grow up sooner or later.”
    â€œI hear you, just ain’t ready yet. Anyways, all that stuntin’ I do, it’s cool because it’s like I’ve heard you say, that God of yours knows my heart.”
    â€œListen at you. He knows your heart. That’s another reason for you to check yourself because He does know about the stuff you’re too ashamed to tell me.” After Chandelle got her dig in, she backed out of the small parking lot and proceeded toward the apartment she’d sworn never to revisit, Kevlin’s den. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she huffed. “Nothing good can come from getting mixed up with him again. He’s a snake, poison.”
    â€œBump that, Chandelle. Kevlin said he was sorry, and that’s what’s up. Let me out so I can get what I’ve been dreaming about for almost two weeks.” Dior hopped out and wrestled her bag down the walkway to an open gazebo-style beige-colored brick building with three doors on either side. She knocked at the nearest door on the right. When a yellow-toned, muscle-bound man wearing a long gangster perm and sagging blue jeans opened it, Dior’s eyes floated up in a begging-please-take-me-in manner. Chandelle, looking on from the street, shook her head disapprovingly. Kevlin’s expression was undecipherable to Chandelle as he stared at Dior and her bag resting at his doorstep. Then he leaned out to clock whoever was watching their reunion from the red Volvo idling in the road.
    Yeah, I’m the one who told Dooney you were putting hands on his twin. Uh-huh, the same one who’s responsible for him posting you up at the car wash and had you crying like a li’l punk, Chandelle thought, as she rolled down the window so he could see her face clearly, displaying her unmistakable contempt for him and men like him. Yeah, the stitches and the lumpy hospital bed, that was all on me.
    After mean-mugging Chandelle like he wanted to return the favor, Kevlin nodded his head respectfully instead, pecked Dior on the lips, and then ushered her inside.
    â€œThat’s what I thought,” Chandelle mouthed triumphantly, before making a fast U-turn to get out of the area as quickly as possible. Although Dior was willing to brave the climate of the low-rent apartment district, she wasn’t in the mood to reminisce on the life she led before leaving it all where it belonged, in the past.

2
At the Job
    A ppliance World, a second-rate retail operation, thrived in the midst of mammoth-sized chain stores dwarfing it on both sides. When the owner, Larry Mercer, learned that two appliance giants wanted his location near the busy