Boss Bitch Swag Read online

  The following day, we visited the ranch where Boss purchased six full-grown Mastiffs. They were big as shit. I had never really been around dogs, so I was a little apprehensive, but those dogs loved me. They must have been able to sense I was pregnant because they were very protective. The night we finally brought them home, Boss and I were in the middle of a very passionate lovemaking session when they started going crazy; they barked so loud that one of the neighbors who lived a nice little distance heard them and called the cops. Boss put them outside after that, and from then on, every time we banged it out he made sure to put the dogs out first; it was either that or have to stop halfway through - and Boss wasn’t having that.

  The months began to fly by. My pregnancy was going smooth. I had no major aches or pains, and best of all I’d only gained twenty-five pounds. It was early July, two months before I was to start my senior year, when I went into labor. Twelve hours later, Malaysia Clark was born, weighing in at seven pounds and seven ounces. Boss went crazy: he spent over a grand in the hospital’s gift shop on roses, balloons, giant stuffed teddy bears, and candy. I didn’t get the point of the candy, but I didn’t complain; Boss was happy, so I was happy, too.

  “Baby, what am I gonna do with all this?” I was completely overwhelmed when I opened the card from him and found a check for one hundred thousand dollars inside.

  “You said you wanted some new clothes,” he replied casually, as if the check was for a hundred dollars or two.

  Our daughter hadn’t left his arms all morning. I held her a few times - but once Boss got a hold of her, it was over. I loved the way he looked at her; I could have sat there and watched them all day. He was infatuated, and I knew the feeling: it was the same way I felt that day when he picked me up out of the rain; my life was never going to be the same, and I knew it. Boss looked at our daughter like he was having the same realization, and that made me so proud. No matter what he did out there on the streets, I knew I had a good man. He took care of me, he provided for me, and despite the violence that surrounded him every day, he kept me safe. Some women might have had a problem being known for being a nigga’s bitch, but I didn’t mind. I heard them whisper, “There go Boss Bitch,” and I smiled. I’d be that bitch, and I’d be her well. Fuck everybody else; Boss was all I needed. As long as I had him, our baby, my mother, and my little brothers and sister, I was set. They were my life, my source of joy, and my strength. As I watched one hold two while two held one’s heart in the palm of her tiny little hand, I sat in that hospital bed and counted my blessings..

  “We have the prettiest li’l girl in the world.” Boss smiled at Malaysia, still not able to take his eyes off her. “She looks just like her mama.”

  God, I loved him. I loved the way he touched me, the way he looked at me, and especially the way he spoke to me when we were alone. Once the business was handled and it was just me and him, he never held back. He would tell me how beautiful I was...I never had that before; nobody told me I was special before Boss. Nobody besides my mama had even told me they loved me. He had me dressing in expensive clothes, and that was great and all, but what he put underneath those clothes was even better. Underneath, I had pride and self-esteem like I never had before. It made me want to take better care of myself. It made me want to eat healthier foods and hit the gym three times a week. I started reading books I never would have glanced twice at before. I was training for our future...I was preparing to be the queen my king deserved.

  The only thing missing from that day was my brother. Anthony would have been such a good uncle. I thought about watching him hold my little girl, and just for a second I allowed myself to be sad. I had so much to be thankful for, but there would forever be an empty spot in my heart. No one would ever be able to take Ant’s place. I promised that if I ever gave birth to a son. I’d give him my little bro’s name: Anthony Malcolm Clark...I thought that had a nice ring to it.

  “So dis where the party at?” Pee-Wee joked as he came through the door with pink flowers, pink balloons, and a giant pink teddy bear that was almost as big as he was.

  “How you doin’, Meesh?” he asked while placing a gentle kiss on my cheek.

  “I’m good, Pee-Wee. Thank you so much; these are beautiful.” I admired the beautiful bouquet of soft cream roses, pink carnations, and pink snapdragons.

  “Look at this nigga.” He pointed at Boss. “Hoggin’ the baby already.”

  “That’s right.” My man puffed his chest out proudly. “Nigga, I made this.”

  I couldn’t do anything but laugh. They were a pair, but I loved them both. Pee-Wee had become a very important person in my life. I considered him my cousin as well. He was the yin to Boss’s yang; a more loyal soldier was never born. He looked out for me when Boss was away, and I knew he’d also look out for our daughter. That was just the kind of man he was.

  “Meesh, tell yo ol’ stingy-ass babydaddy to let me hold the baby.” Pee-Wee sat down on the edge of my hospital bed and prepared for his turn with Malaysia.

  “Babe, let Pee-Wee hold the baby,” I laughed. “He ain’t gonna run away with her.”

  Boss walked over and gently placed Malaysia in his cousin’s massive arms. Pee-Wee was a big guy; he had to be at least six-foot-eight or nine. His weight was harder to calculate; he wasn’t fat, but he was most certainly solid. You didn’t fuck with Pee-Wee unless you wanted to get fucked up.

  “Nigga, sit in the chair so I can sit next to my wife.” Boss joked; at least I thought he was joking. He called me ‘wifey’ all the time, but never his wife. I laughed like I did every time he made a joke – but he didn’t; this time, he wasn’t joking.

  “I’m serious, Meesh.” He waited for Pee-Wee to move over to the chair beside my bed, then sat down right next to me. “I want you to marry me.”

  I was speechless. We already lived together and had a child, but he still wanted to marry me. I didn’t know what I had done to deserve all the blessings that I was receiving, but I was thankful just the same. I wasn’t just going to be Boss’s bitch; I was going to be Boss’s wife.

  “Okay,” I opened my mouth and gasped for a breath of air, “I’ll marry you, Boss.”

  The moment was perfect. We’d just welcomed a brand new baby into the world. Pee-Wee, one of the most important people in both our lives, was there. Then, right on cue, the door opened - and in walked my mother.

  “Is this a bad time?”

  “Not at all.” Boss put his arm around me and pulled me to his chest. “Yo daughter just agreed to be my wife. We’re gettin’ married.”

  “Seriously?” Mama’s eyes doubled in size. “I’m so happy for you, baby.” She practically ran over and hugged me so tight, I thought the stitches from my C-section were going to pop. “I’m happy for both of you.” She went on to hug Boss with tears now flowing freely down her face. “Ya’ll don’t mind me; these here are happy tears. Not only do I have a new grandbaby to spoil, but now I also have a wedding to help plan.” She looked over at the tiny baby still in Uncle Pee-Wee’s arms. “Can I hold her?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Pee-Wee stood up slowly, then stepped to the side so my mother could sit. “Here you go.” He placed Malaysia into her grandmother’s waiting arms.

  “She’s so beautiful.” Mama started to cry again. “She looks just like you did when you were a baby. I can’t believe my baby’s a mother. ” She looked over at me with my child in her arms, and in that moment I got it all. I understood why she was always so hard on me, why she pushed me to get good grades, and why she never let me settle for anything less: she was my mother, and she loved me more than she could ever love herself. Her own dreams were sacrificed in order to help me strive for mine. There was no way I could ever repay a debt that massive, but I could pay it forward with my own daughter. I already loved her so much more than I could ever love myself, and one day when she had dreams of her own, I’d sacrifice any and everything to help her achieve them. It wasn’t complicated; it was just a mother’s love. There was nothing
in the world like it, and nothing in the world that could rival it. The day I met Boss, I tried so hard to get him to see me as a woman, but I wasn’t; I didn’t become a woman until the day I became a mother. That was why he waited until then to ask me to be his wife: he wanted to marry a grown-ass woman. He wanted me to grow up a little more, and I did – and now it was time for him to man up and put a ring on it.

  Chapter 28

  I started my senior year the first week of September. Boss hired a maid to take care of the house and hired my mother to take care of the baby. Neither one of us trusted leaving her with anybody else; we knew nobody would take care of Malaysia like her grandmother would. Besides, that was the only way I could go to school all day and not worry. I knew she was in good hands because a few years ago I was in that same hold. My mother made some mistakes along the way, but considering what happened to some of my friends, I was thankful for those small roadblocks; they got me to where I was standing, and the view was damn good: I had everything I wanted, and my life was only just beginning.

  My mother and I didn’t waste any time before we started planning the wedding. Boss didn’t want to wait six months to a year, so I searched for a planner that was equal parts efficient and fierce. Raquel Bleak knew just the bad bitch for the job: Rion Bianci was a six-foot-two-inch Amazon queen with skin that looked as if it had been bathed in the sun every single day since her birth. Her face outshined any Cover Girl model - past or present - and her body was what every sister secretly wanted her own to look like. She had legs for days and ass for weeks – so needless to say, she and Boss never met face-to-face; I knew my man loved me, but I was also no fool. On a scale of one to ten, Rion was a twenty-one; hell, I would have switched teams for one night with her.

  I met with Rion almost every single day after school. When we went over the color scheme. I wanted something classic, so I went with black, white, and red. Damask was my obsession of the moment, so I combed through dozens of bridal magazines and found a photo of a four-tier cake that was decorated so elegantly with the pattern. Rion found the perfect cake designer to reproduce it. The invitations were created and sent out. We wouldn’t have a lot of guests, but we would have everybody that mattered. The food was ordered, everything from the appetizers to the main course. Things were going well for us. There were no more phone calls from anonymous women, and even Boss’ late nights out with Pee-Wee seemed to be a thing of the past.

  When things seem to perfect, they usually are. That week, Monday through Wednesday came and went without so much as a flat tire or a misplaced assignment - then Thursday rolled her evil ass around and ruined everything. I was sitting at a table in the corner of the school cafeteria, laughing and joking with my new friend Larry. Every since I found out that he was Boss’ cousin, I took to him. We hung out at school and even sometimes at the house. He didn't ask me a million questions about Boss, and I appreciated that. He also knew our number one rule: he didn’t run his mouth.

  “I heard you fuck with Boss?” Risha Williams bent over our table with her funky ass all up in the air. “Is that true? You fuck wit Boss?”

  I knew it was about to be some drama. Words can’t even describe how much I hated that bitch. She was so simple - and not in an innocent way, but in an ignorant way. Risha was a rat I’d known since the second grade; I even hated her ass way back then. She was the little girl that kicked the back of your chair when the teacher’s back was turned but never got caught doing it. I thought things were settled when I whooped her ass back in seventh grade, but I was obviously mistaken. What other reason did the stupid bitch have for approaching me about my man? She knew damn well that I was now the mother of Boss’ only child; the kids at that school knew my life better than I did, and she was no different. The thirsty trick spoke my name so much, I bet she mumbled it in her sleep. She was just a hater, and I knew that - so why did I let her get to me?

  “Risha, what you want?” I took a deep breath and sat back in my seat like the shit was nothing to me. “You know I fuck with Boss. So what’s yo point?”

  “My point is,” Risha bent down even further and snaked her neck with every vile word she spoke, “I fucked ‘em.” She made sure to blurt it out loud enough for everyone in the entire lunchroom to hear.

  I was mortified, but I wasn’t about to let her know it. She started it, so I just played along with her. Mama didn’t raise no fool - but she also didn’t raise no punk.

  “Bitch, what you want, a lollipop?”

  “Nauh, I already had one.” She egged me on, licking her crusty-ass lips in my face. “And he let me lick the wrapper.” Lil Wayne’s lyrics came firing out of her mouth like a missile launcher. “I sucked that nigga’s dick so good, I made his toes curl.”

  “Really?” I stood up and met her halfway across the table. “’Cause I sucked his dick so good that he bought me that Porsche parked out back.” I couldn’t help but smirk. “And bought me a house and asked me to marry him. But I guess that’s just the difference ’tween me and you: you make nigga’s toes curl, and I make nigga’s hearts weak.” I said what I had to say, then sat back down in my seat. Who was that bitch to make me uncomfortable? I wasn’t tripping off her lies. Boss was my man, and that was all that mattered. It was hard sometimes to trust a nigga like him, but if I didn’t at least try, there was no point to our entire relationship. I wasn’t that naive. I knew he’d been unfaithful in the past, but when he asked me to marry him I assumed that part of his life was over. I had him so far up on a pedestal, he couldn’t do anything but fall.

  Risha didn’t learn her lesson in the seventh grade. She wanted to try me again, so I gave her what she wanted. When she jumped across the table and knocked me to the hard linoleum floor below, I was taken completely off guard. She got that one off, I gave her that much - but it wasn’t over just yet. Once I shook it off, I walked that bitch like a dog. Larry tried to pull me off her, but I wasn’t having it. We went at each other like animals in the wild. Word of a girlfight spread fast, and soon damn near every student in the school surrounded us – but my rage wouldn’t let me care.

  “The principal comin’!” An unfamiliar female voice shouted out from within the crowd.

  “Come on, Meesh.” Larry pulled me off Risha as one of her girls pulled her from me.

  “Let me go!” I snatched away from him, picked up the chair I was sitting in earlier, and swung it right at Risha’s head. “Talk all that shit now, bitch!”

  The chair hit her on the side of the face, sending her crashing to the floor - and I regretted it instantly. The way I hit her was merciless; that wasn’t me, but she made me so mad. I understood then how people commit murder with no intent. I didn’t kill her, but I could have. A blow like that to the head could have cost Risha her life and cost me my freedom. I knew I had to get my temper under control; if I didn’t, my baby was going to grow up without me - and that was not acceptable. She was my first priority...I even put her before Boss.

  The principal arrived right in time to see it all go down, and I got suspended for thirty days. He told me that the only reason he didn’t call the police was that I’d never been in any kind of trouble before. Risha was another story; that girl lived up in his office. Plus, I had too many people on my side that said she started it. After the nurse checked her out, she got bounced the same way I did. Thirty days was fine with me, just as long as she got the same.

  The drive home was quiet. I played no music and answered no phone calls or texts; my mind was too busy. I thought about the man I was about to marry, the man I loved with all my heart. Just for a second, I allowed myself to doubt him: What if Risha really was telling me the truth? What if Boss fucked that rat? It didn’t take long for me to start to believe it was true; it wasn’t like it was the first time. Asia wasn’t the last bitch to call my house, and everybody else couldn’t be lying...Boss had to be guilty of something.

  “What you doin’ home so early?” He began to question me as soon as I walked through the front door at one
-thirty in the afternoon.

  “Why?” I shot him as much attitude as I could muster up. “I fuck up yo plans?”

  “Fuck you talkin’ bout, Meesh?”

  “Whatever.” I just brushed him off, then tossed my bookbag on the floor in front of him. “I got suspended.”

  “For what?” he managed to ask through his laughter. “Baby, what the fuck you do?”

  “Ya know,” I walked over and sat down on the couch right across from him. “It’s bad enough you gotta cheat on me - but do you gotta do it with a bitch that goes to my school?”

  “Here you go,” he complained as if I were the one being unreasonable. “Quit lettin’ them hoes fill yo head with bullshit.”