Free Thirsty 2 by Mike Sanders, Nuance Art Page A

deceased brother that he would look out for him. Carlos also thought about old man Luther, the old man who used to cut his and his older brother’s hair back in the day. Carlos had convinced him to come back to Charlotte from Atlanta to help his nephew run the new barber and beauty shop he was opening on W.T. Harris Boulevard.
    BobCutz was Carlos’ legitimate business and one of the easiest ways for him to launder his drug money. Most of the barbers and stylist either went to school with War or they once worked for and were trained by Luther, so Carlos felt confident in their barber and styling experience.
    Carlos looked toward the receptionist area and watched as Luther’s granddaughter operated the front desk with efficiency. He glanced at Luther sitting in his comfortable green reclining chair in the right corner of the shop. Carlos hated that chair because it fucked up the décor he was going for with the shop, but he kept his mouth shut because he wanted the old man to stay comfortable. In turn, Luther made sure War stayed on his P’s and Q’s and most importantly, kept the shop intact. Luther was the observant one. Just when you didn’t think the gray haired, seedy-eyed man who had less wrinkles than men younger than his seventy-two years of age wasn’t paying attention, that’s when you realized he was looking right at your ass.
    War had taken a brush and finished wiping off the loose hair from the apron that Carlos was still wearing. Carlos took the apron off and before he could instruct Preme and War to go with him to his office, Tia and Rena walked in. Tia carried two bags full of that Cajun-spiced chicken, southern biscuits and sides, while Rena carried two gallons of sweet tea.
    Carlos realized that their business could wait until after they ate, so he motioned the ladies to follow him to the break room. He had a small lounge room in the back for the barbers and stylist to relax and take a break and where they could handle their personal business. He watched Tia walk past him, noticing how nice she filled out the pink Juicy Couture jump suit. The tight material highlighted her grade A sirloin ass that he wouldn’t have minded having a piece of.
     Rena was an insult to Tia. She was almost the same complexion as Amber Rose, same body type, but her hair was just a whisper longer. Normally, Carlos wasn’t attracted to chicks with short hair, but Rena was turning him on a little. He caught himself staring at her ass in the tight jeans she was wearing.
    “Los!” Tia raised her voice, breaking Carlos out of his daze.
    “Yeah,” Carlos half-answered while tearing his eyes away from Rena.
     “I wanted to let you know they were talking about Ms. Evans on the news again.” She was referring to Sapphire’s mother. With Ms. Evans being the founder of a nonprofit organization that helped young ladies develop an interest in math and science and then helped send them to colleges nationwide, she became well known in the city and her sudden fatal illness was a shock. “You might wanna check on ole girl.”
     “Fuck!” Carlos said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his iPhone. “Thanks for the heads up.” Carlos saw War and Preme coming in his direction. “Y’all go ahead. I need to handle something real quick.” Carlos turned around and headed toward his office. He spoke Sapphire’s name into the small mic and the phone automatically dialed the number. On the second ring, Sapphire picked up.
    “Hello.”
    Carlos could hear in her voice that she’d been crying. “Aye, what’s going on?” Carlos questioned as he closed and locked the door to his office and sat behind his desk. “How is she?” he asked.
    “The cancer has spread to her brain—the doctors say she may not make it to the end of the week.” Sapphire sniffled. “The church is doing a prayer vigil and some of the ladies are putting together a bake sale so they can raise money to help pay for the hospital bills.” Sapphire’s