In These Streets

Chapter 8

We all sat at a long patio dining table that was set up on the further side of the pool. It was lit with candles and expensive dinnerware and cutlery, with drinking and wine glasses all gleaming in the intimate lighting.

I sat in the cushioned chair next to Genesis, which was the head of the table's right side, where Darius sat.

Talia quickly scooped up the seat on his left side, and he looked at her in annoyance.

"Yo, Talia, can you switch seats with Pop. We have shit to discuss," he motioned to Pop with a casual gesture.

Talia glared at him for a moment, and he held her gaze squarely until she looked away and sharply stood up and found a seat at the opposite end of the table.

Everyone tried to ignore the snub as if it hadn't happened.

The chef that I had met in the kitchen on Darius's tour came out minutes later with courses of butter poached lobster tail, hickory smoked dry rubbed chicken wings, sweet potato mash, a gourmet cheese tray, and a mouthwatering goat cheese mango mint salad with an orange honey vinaigrette.

We all filled our wine glasses with the bottles Darius ordered from his lower-level bar, an expensive red vintage from Spain.

I hadn't planned on drinking, but I was curious to try it and didn't think I'd get the opportunity again.

The first of the meal was a little awkwardly silent as we all ate, but the alcohol seemed to kick in and soon everyone was talking and laughing as we sipped the wine.

Darius and Pop leaned into each other, in an animated conversation about basketball.

I turned to Genesis as she ate some cheese.

"This place and this food is incredible. I didn't know tattoo shops could provide this kind of lifestyle," I murmured.

Beyonce's voice was filling the air from the sound system, loud enough that it kept the conversations at the table muffled from one another.

"He told you that, did he?"

"Yeah. They must be really high end."

"They are. Lots of celebrities and rich people go to his tattoo shops to get ink because he has the best tattoo artists working for him. His shops have the highest quality equipment, furniture, everything. Guess they make the experience for tattoos and piercings a fucking commodity. The cover-ups his artists can do are insane. He started off with one tattoo shop and built it up so successfully that he started a chain and opened three more throughout California and three others in Florida and New York," Genesis explained as she attacked a chicken wing.

I peeked over at him just as he glanced over at me, and before I could quickly look away he winked, sending my stomach into a quiver of butterflies. I was concerned at the very real possibility that I might drool.

God, how could a man be that insanely handsome?

Talia had a sour expression on her face the entire time, scrolling on her cellphone from the beginning of the meal, steadily draining and refilling her wine glass, though she'd barely touched her plate.

By the time we all finished dessert, which was a chocolate mousse cheesecake, everyone was thoroughly drunk.

Genesis had been telling me about the people in our group, and I learned that Pop and Darius were actually brothers, though Pop was twenty-five.

"What's Pop's real name?" I whispered.

"His real name's Apollo. And that other nigga over there is their other brother, Jason. He goes by Ace though. He's the baby, only twenty-two," she murmured, pointing to one of the guys on the other side of the table who was lean and muscled, and had tight, black cornrows.