It's Above Me Now.

2: This Was Unexpected

"Chance, you and I both know that this is a bad idea. What if these hospital folks start asking questions and connecting the dots? I ain't tryna see no damn jail cell man. Especially not over some bullshit like this."

I tried my hardest to tune out my brother. All his blabbering was making me lose focus. We needed to get in, find out what was going on and get out. Plain and simple. Looking around the busy hospital, no one even seemed to be paying us any attention. We could probably stroll up in any of these rooms and no one would notice.

"Are you sure this is even the right hospital? Can we even trust Polo to give us any decent information?" Dylan continued. "What if this is all a set up to trap us?"

"Man, would you shut the hell up?" I asked. "Lemme think a bit. Karin nor the rest of them wouldn't do us like that. They family."

"Family?" Dylan chuckled. "Man, you better open yo eyes. They our associates, bro. Didn't you see how fast she was ready to cut us loose if we didn't pull up to see what's going on with her son? That's not what family does to one another."

"She was just stressed." I reasoned. "C'mon man, we've known her for almost all of our entire lives. She wouldn't do us like that."

"Yeah, whatever." Dylan muttered, clearly not believing what I was saying.

And it wasn't like I could blame him because I couldn't even gather what was coming out of my mouth. This whole thing looked shady as fuck, and for her to threaten us the way she did wasn't making the situation any less troubling.

"Yo, ain't that Turnt Punany from the club?" Dylan asked.

I turned to where Dylan was pointing to see Miranda James. She was one of the baddest women to ever walk this earth, and there she was sitting down at the reception desk taking phone calls.

Miranda was one of the highest paid strippers at the strip joint 'Shake', but word on the street is that she hung up the stripper shoes to finish her degree. I was proud of ol' girl for taking a step further in life but hella men were pressed to see shawty go. It was understandable though, because the way how Miss.Punany would clap that ass and give that seductive ass smile, would surely be missed.

It was as if Dylan and I had the same idea when we grinned at each other. Miranda was the key to the kingdom. She had a little soft spot for me back in the day but Chanel was the main focus then. And contrary to what a lot of women thought, they were still faithful men out there. And I happened to be one of them. For a while.

"I'll let you do the talking." Dylan said. "Handle that, young king."

I nodded and got my thoughts together. This had to work or else we were back to square one. I had faith in my game and even more confidence in my looks. I had this on lock.

"Damn, would you look who it is..." I announced, strolling up to the front desk with Dylan. "What up, Miranda? I ain't seen you in a minute."

Miranda beamed brightly. "Hey Chance. Hi Dylan. I should say the same about you two. Then again, since I left the club I don't really see a reason for us to cross paths."

"Yeah, I heard about that." I replied, propping up on the desk. "I think you've made a truly impeccable decision to further your studies. It's so honoring to witness a young black woman such as yourself finding the courage to fight the good fight of schooling and striving forward to excellence. I'm replenished with pride."

There was a moment of silence before Miranda burst out laughing and I smiled. The mission was half way complete. I had this more than covered.

"Boy, what do you want? You know you don't gotta play these games with me." Miranda said smirking and touching my hand gently.