Ghetto Love Bird

19. Cognac

R O M A N ‘S   P O V

“Peep, lower the music, and gather the boys.”

Peep nods, heading over to the speakers, and then the backyard. I raise the lighter to my blunt, covering the flame with my palm. With a quick inhale, I pull the poison from my lips and blow out the fumes.

The boys crowd around, throwing themselves on the couches, drinks, cigarettes, and joints in the hands.

“Yo, when can we get some bitches up in this jawn? It’s quiet as fuck.”

“That’s cause we bout’ to meet, dumbass. Now shut your b***h ass up.”

Peep was my right-hand man, a brother. When I was gone, he took care of everything, he made sure that things were straight. And even while I was there, he made sure no one stepped out of line.

“Wassup, boss? What’s going on?”

They were eager, concern written all over their faces. It wasn’t often that I called a meet, normally if there was a message to pass on, I’d have peep handle it. But this was important.

“As you know,” Peep starts, “one of our men, Gate, went missing, returned in pieces.”

The room erupts in murmurs ranging from s.i.p to death threats. We let them say their peace before continuing.

“We all know that we’re gonna catch the niggas who did this, and deliver them personally to their grave,” the room agrees, and Peep holds up his hand, “but, we’ve got bigger problems to deal with right now.”

“Roman and I were having a discussion earlier this week, seems like our supplier has gone M.I.A.”

“f**k,” Randso, one of my main men on deck, rubbed his chin. He knew what that meant.

“For how long?”

“We only noticed just about a week ago.”

“Alright then,” Razor shrugged, “we gotta go find him.”

“It’s not that easy,” Peep shakes his head, shoving a hand in his pocket, “suppliers are always careful. They don’t tell people where they leave, and they surely don’t make themselves easy to find.”

“Plus, he might’ve got f****d up. Feds rained down on him and are waiting for us to show up looking, he got popped by rivals, s**t we don’t wanna get caught up in.”

They sit in silence, looking around the room.

“We can’t go too long without product, boss. The people we distribute to are gonna have a problem, the streets will catch word that we don’t have the drugs, and with all this competition . . . “ Randso shook his head.

“I know,” I take another hit, “that’s why we’ve got to find another supplier.”

“s**t,” Razor blew out a breath, “them boys hard as f**k get, man. This might be a challenge.”

“No doubt, which is why we’ve got to get on it, now. Before this starts affecting the business.”

“Agreed,” Peep nods, “so if anyone has an idea of a link, connect, anything that can get us in the right hands, you let us know that s**t asap.”

They all nod, and one of our newer members raises a finger while rubbing his beard.

“I know somebody.”

He announces, and we all stand, waiting for his revelation.

“Well, s**t nigga, you gon’ tell us or we gon’ have to beat it out of you?”

“Relax, Razor.”

“Fizz,” the boy says, “I ain’t know too much about him –“

“Nobody knows too much about a f*****g legend, man,” Randso scoffs, “In these streets? Fizz may as well cease to exist. They say that man has links to Colombia, Cuba, man, even pure, authentic, product from Antarctica. You know, snow under the snow.”

“How can we get to him?” Peep asks the question everyone wanted to know.

“That’s the thing, peep,” Randso’s raises his eyebrows, “ain’t nobody can find that nigga. Word is, he moves like a snake, quietly, quickly. No one knows where to even start looking.”

“Well, if he’s as good as everyone says, we need to think smarter. Talk to anyone who may have had any connection with him. If people know things like that about it, someone must’ve been in touch.”

“The rest of you, work on sourcing new suppliers. We need trust, and reliability, those are most important. In this business you know we afford to get caught lacking, so be careful. Look out for each other, and use your heads.”

Everyone nods, conveying their compliance before leaving.

Peep turns to me, an eyebrow raised, “what you really think about all of this, Roman?”

“Man,” I sigh, “I don’t know, sum’s up. How can the supplier just disappear?”

“Like you said, maybe he got popped, maybe the feds got him. Whatever it is we gotta let that ship sink on its own. We don’t wanna sink with it.”

“Agreed.”

“You really believe in this Fizz person? Mystery plug?”

I rub the creases on my forehead, “anything is possible my nigga. Imma just look into it.”

“Not for too long though, we don’t have enough time to be chasing no fairytale.”

I don’t reply, I just take a sip of my cognac.

“Gotta head home, you know Gia’s pregnant, and she’ll have my ass hanging from the roof if I’m not around as often as she’d like.”

I chuckle, “look at you, all p***y whipped.”

“Shut the f**k up, nigga,” I grab my stomach, doubling over in laugher, “yea’ yea’ every dog has its day. Imma see you.”

“Ight bro,” we dap each other up, “stay safe.”

I watch as Peep leaves, and it’s just me that remains in the strip club.

I pour another glass of cognac, my blunt loose between my fingers. In the silence, the emptiness, I think of Honey. I think about how she looks, how she feels. I try to remember how her body felt on top of me, below me, against me. It’s been a second. I ain’t never felt like this with any other jawn before. I try to remember the few times she’s offered me a smile, the few times she’d laugh and try to hide it. Such a beautiful girl, she don’t even know how much I was starting to adore her. She don’t even know what I would give to have her here with me, just filling the silence with her presence. Even in a room filled with people, I believe I would see only her. She don’t even know . . . how close I wanted to be.