Lies You Tell (DE)

29.

" I don't like none of these," Joseph said as him and Dre looked around at rental properties to start a business. " Can we have a minute?" Joseph asked the real estate lady.

She nodded and stepped outside. After the situation with the Italians, Joseph had been in his cousins ear about finally letting this street shit go before they got too in over their heads. The way Joseph and Dre had money put up, they would be set for the rest of their lives if they were smart and invested it correctly. Joseph was tired of living the way they were living, tired of the drama and risking their lives.

He was in love now. Grace had showed him a whole other side of life that he didn't even know existed. Dre had a baby on the way in seven weeks, it was time to take a step back.

" I don't think this gone work," Joseph said, looking around at the small space they intended to turn into a laundry mat.

" This was your idea,"

" Yea but we done made way more money than we had at the time when we was comin up with this shit. We not gone be able to clean enough money with a laundry mat without lookin suspicious,"

Dre nodded listening to Joseph talk as he thought.

" We need something bigger with a higher cash intake,"

" So what you talkin?" Dre asked. " Like a club?"

Joseph twisted his lips, nodding. He'd never thought of a nightclub establishment.

" You and I drop anywhere from five to ten thousand on a section and bottle service alone in cash when we pop out," Dre continued.

" That's smart but you and I can't just go renting some big ass property and building a club. We ain't never worked no job in our lives, they gone ask for a paper trail. This little run down muthafucka they wouldn't even think twice," Joseph said gesturing towards the building they were standing in.

" We can find somebody to invest in it for us," Dre said. " We'd have to cut them a little percentage but that ain't shit to us. Shit we could even run our product through there. Coke is a party drug, advertise to the high rollers, take this shit off the streets. Them rich white folks is where the real money at,"

Joseph nodded holding his hands behind his back. " I think yo slow ass on to something, finally usin that brain God gave you," He snickered.

" Shut up bitch," Dre replied.

" Do you guys need more time?" The realtor asked, poking her head in through the door.

" Na," Joseph said, watching as she came back in. " We need something bigger,"

" How much bigger are we talking?" She asked, raising a brow.

" What's the standard square foot for a nightclub?" Dre asked.

She looked at the ceiling, shrugging as she thought. " Anywhere from three thousand to ten thousand square feet, but that would be way out of the budget you set for me,"

" No more budget," Joseph waved his hand. " We need you to find us the best spot in the city that would get us the most foot traffic,"

The realtor nodded with a smile, extending her hand for them to shake. " I will get right on that, I look forward to working with you gentlemen,"

Dre and Joseph followed her out walking to their cars.

" Now all we need is to sell a dream to a rich white muthafucka and have them sign their name under ours," Joseph said to Dre.

" Bae!" Joseph called as he came home.

" Back here!"

Grace smiled seeing Joseph come in the room. He set down his keys and emptied his pockets, kicking off his shoes and putting them neatly into the acrylic sneaker organizers in his closet before coming back over to where she sat on the bed.