Lovers & Friends

Thirty-Eight

The room had grew quiet between the four for a few seconds until Melanie decided to finally speak. "I said that Jayla ran out of shampoo. Where is the supply closet?" She asked again tearing her eyes from Nikki and placing them on King.

"Tell Jayla that's it's the door on the right by the back door." He answered never letting his eyes leave Melanie's.

It was oblivious that they were trying to ignore the elephant in the room, but Nikki had no problem addressing the problem.

"Hey Melanie! It's so nice to see you again." She greeted while giving her the fakest smile she could pull off.

Melanie eyes had now cut back to Nikki. "I wish I could say the same." She replied turning her attention back to King.

"Is it locked or something because she tried ear-."

"There's no need for the disrespect. Especially something that went on when? Four years ago." Nikki implied mumbling the last part as she examined her nails.

"Don't you see us talking?" Melanie asked agitated now. She was truly sparing Nikki the benefit of the doubt but if she didn't back the hell up Melanie wouldn't have a problem solving her problem. "Okay then shut the fuck up. You still as irrelevant as you were four years ago." Melanie continued rolling her neck.

"Melanie chill out." King demanded as he stood up from his chair. Placing hisself in front of Melanie he whispered in her ear to just let things go. He didn't feel like breaking them up or even hearing them fight. "And Nikki if your not here to get Trey's hair cut then I'm going to have to ask you to leave. This a drama free zone." He further explained making a visual circle in the air to represent the zone.

"You know I find it funny. Usually I kick you out but now your kicking me out." smirked Nikki as she turned Trey around and headed the waiting area.

"What did she just say?" Melanie questioned as she stepped from behind King's large figure.

King watched a Nikki gave him a devilish smile as she crossed her legs and began playing on her phone. Melanie had now moved in front of him with her arms crossed waiting for an answer. A few of the barbers were giving him a confused looked but he dismissed them when he shook his head.

Grabbing Melanie's hand King led them into his office. At first it would have been the supply closet for the front of the store but he decided to turn it into his personal office. It was better than working from home when he could just handle the shop's business at the business.

Swinging Melanie into the room he closed it behind them. He was surprise Melanie didn't put up a fight since she hated when people touched her when she was mad. But surprisingly she sat down in one of the empty chairs with her hands in his lap. King decided to lean against his desk just in case things popped off between them.

"Why do we keep letting Nikki ruin our peace?" He wondered starring at Melanie. She wasn't looking directly at him but he knew she was fully paying attention.

"That's a question that you need to answer. Why you keep letting her around?" Melanie shot back shrugging her shoulders. She wanted him to hear how dumb his question sounded.

"I'm not letting her around nothing. She came into a public facility that's something that I can't change." He explained not understanding what Melanie was trying to get at. No matter where he went it seemed like Nikki came around. No matter how many times he cut her off she reties herself back to him.

"That don't even matter no more. The thing I want to know is why did she say what she said." Melanie said flipping the question back on King. "Y'all got jokes now?" She wondered sitting back her chair.