Unique I

Chapter 8 - Let's Get Down to Business

An hour later the girls were in a booth, waiting on Fat Tee. Tyeedah had refused to allow Unique to go alone to deal with the jackass. The coffee shop was crowded with patrons trying to boost their already high and unhealthy caffeine levels.               
     “That’s him.” Unique nodded to Tyeedah. Fat Tee walked in, wearing a wrinkled Willie Esco jean outfit that looked like he had slept in it. The girls didn’t even have the common courtesy to motion to him; they let him look lost as he searched the coffee shop for Unique. Once he laid his eyes on them, he grinned that aluminum smile as soon as he saw Unique. Then he headed over to where they were sitting.
     “Damn, girl, that’s what I always loved about you, Unique,” he said, plopping down in the booth seat on Tyeedah’s side, opposite of Unique. He was excited. “Anything you put your head to, you make happen. You are one of the most ambitious people I know, I will say that,” he said, feeling the vibe that Unique had really pulled off getting him his million dollars. “You know I give props where they are due.”
     Unique just sat there with no emotion toward Fat Tee as he tried to act like a big shot.
    “Who’s your friend?” He looked Tyeedah up and down and licked his lips. “Fine ass. You know the freaky things I’d do to you, girl?”
     Tyeedah glared at him, and her nose flared like someone had just dropped a bag of shit next to her. “Not in your wildest dream or nightmare for that matter,” she responded, shutting him down.
     Unique never offered a name; Fat Tee already knew too much for his own good. Fat Tee kept eyeballing Tyeedah, obviously feeling himself, but Unique wasn’t bothered by that. “How about you let me take you down south with my friend,” he said with an exaggerated drawl, painting his crusty, purple lips with his tongue.
      Tyeedah snorted. “If you were dying of starvation, I wouldn’t even allow you to eat out of my ass.”
     Not sure whether he should take the remark as a compliment or a diss, Fat Tee was at a loss for words. His mouth parted but no words came out; the look on his face was priceless.
    “Let’s get down to business, don’t nobody have time to be shucking and jiving with you. This is not a leisure session, this is a business meeting,” Unique said, and handed him a Bergdorf Goodman shopping bag, which contained the knapsack with the diamonds in it.
      Fat Tee looked confused and asked, “What the fuck is this? Ain’t no million fucking dollars in here.”               
     “Actually, it’s more than a million dollars,” Unique said dryly. She looked around to make sure no one had heard his loud voice before she spoke again. “Just open it up and look in the bag.”
     When he did, the sheen from the diamonds seemed to lighten up the entire room. His eyes did a double take. “What the fuck is this?”              
     “This fool can’t be as stupid as he was acting,” Tyeedah said to  Unique.              
     “What does it look like?” Unique asked Fat Tee mockingly.              
     “I know what they are,” Fat Tee acknowledged, “but what the fuck I’m supposed to do with them? I asked for cash.”               
     There were over a hundred diamonds in the pouch, all either nicer or just as nice as the ones that Shummi showed to her and Kennard. Unique’s mental appraisal of the jewels was that they were worth way over a million dollars. Damn, I’m so wanting to get this nigga off my back that I’m slipping. In fact, Unique was disappointed in herself that she wished in hindsight that she had taken out a few of the diamonds for herself; at least she could have given Tyeedah and Lil-Bro a couple for their help. But she just wanted to get Fat Tee out of her face, out of her life, and on his way.               
     “What the fuck you think you’re supposed to do with them? They are fucking some of the best diamonds available,” she informed him. “You still a hustler, right?” she said sarcastically.
     He looked at her like she was asking him the most stupid question. “Until the day I die. But that don’t have shit to do with the fact that I asked for cash. Hell, you might have well have given me fuckin’ euros that I have to go to the foreign currency counter to exchange. I wanted cash.”
     Tyeedah sucked her teeth and added, “Again, are you sure you a hustla? Or a pimp? ’Cause it’s a little confusing to me.”
     That comment bothered Fat Tee, and he used his neck to motion to Unique. “She knows my résumé in the streets?”
     “Résumé? I can’t tell? You asking her what you gonna do with some diamonds. Who knows? Shit, you stalking ladies for money and shit—ain’t no real hustla raping and extorting no woman for money,” Tyeedah said, wanting to give him more than a piece of her mind.            
      Unique spoke up before this got out of control “Just like coke, dope, weed, guns, or whatever you moving these days, you hustle these but the return on these beauties is going to be so much more than anything you ever grinded in your life.              
      “It didn’t cost you nothing, so the only thing you gotta recoup is that Chinese bus ticket you got to get yo ass up here and that roach motel you staying at,” Tyeedah said, dead serious.              
     Fat Tee brushed the last comment off and was thinking about what Unique said. Then it had dawned on her that the fool had never seen this many precious stones in his life, outside of a movie. But that wasn’t her problem and she continued to sell the gems to him. “They’re top-notch cuts and the clarity is ridiculous. Well over millions of dollars retail.” She looked in his eyes. “Do it right . . . ,” she assured him with sincerity, “and you’ll come off with a million plus.”           
     Unique could tell by Fat Tee’s blank expression that he had no idea if what she was saying was true or if she was just shooting game to him. Fat Tee sold drugs and dealt in cash; that’s all he really knew. “Look, I’m not blowing smoke up your ass. I wish we could keep them for myself. I’m just trying to make this right because what Took did was wrong,” she said genuinely.
     “She putting you onto something new and at this point; what do you have to lose?” Tyeedah asked.            
     Unique’s patience was growing thin with all this back-and-forth with Fat Tee, and she was about to tell him to take it or leave it when her cell phone went off. It was Kennard calling. This wasn’t the time or place to take his call. But it was her cue to end this meeting and get the hell out of there. For good. “I think our business is done,” she said. “I have a life to go live now that this chapter is closed.” She got up to leave.              
      Fat Tee stayed seated. “I think I’ll stay for a cup of espresso.”              
     He was blocking Tyeedah in. “Excuse me,” she said.            
    He played dumb. “My bad.” Or maybe he wasn’t playing. He stood up so that Tyeedah could pass. When she did, Fat Tee smacked her on her behind.           
     Tyeedah shot him a look like she wanted to cut his head off with a dull knife right there in the coffee shop. “That’s your first and last time ever touching me,” she said, with the words of dynamite.            
     Fat Tee rolled his eyes and Unique stepped in. “Let’s go, girl.” Unique pulled Tyeedah by the arm. “He’s not worth the drama. Like I said, our business here with this Bozo is done.” Unique walked out of the coffee shop with Tyeedah, satisfied that she’d righted a wrong and had gotten a bitch-ass nigga off of her back in the process.            
     It was too bad that Fat Tee had other plans.