The Legend of Johnny Hustle: Crown Me King (12 page)

              I nodded, trying to figure out who just won and got their way.  Then I remembered what I had to do, so I called Gloria up.

              Gloria stepped into the suite.  Red was back to reading her magazine.

              “Hey, baby, you need Gloria to do something?” Gloria asked.

              I spread my legs and stood at the entrance of the suite. “Listen, I didn’t like the way you just came in without knocking.  I don’t like the way you feel you can do whatever without checking with me first.  From now on, you do what I tell you to do, or do it for someone else.”

              Gloria put her hand on her hips and twisted her mouth before she said, “Don’t no man tell Miss Gloria what to do honey.  Your dick is good, but I know how to please my damn self, so run that macho game on somebody else.” She slammed the door.

Red laughed and said, “What got into you today?”

              I didn’t answer.  I had to meet with Cashmere as soon as possible.

$$$

              Later that night when Roxy and Joy came in, I sat all of the women in the living room.  The talk with Cashmere made me feel like I didn’t know what I was doing.  I didn’t know what I was going to say so I freestyled.

“Listen.  We gonna take care of business the right way under this roof.  We got an objective and things have to be done differently.  Red, you back in the streets, and I need to know where you going and what you doing.  If anything go wrong, we need to know how to come get you.  You have a family now, you not a renegade anymore, so start acting like it.”

              I turned to Roxy. “I was out there today.  You doing a great job, but I want the two of you to carry some kind of protection out there.  Joy, you out there running your mouth and the streets knows what’s happening with my affairs…”

              “All right, but…” she tried to cut in.

              “But nothing.  Don’t cut me off when I’m talking.  You getting comfortable in here and the same way you came in, is the same way you can leave.  I don’t want my business in the…”

              “Okay, daddy, but…” She cut me off again.

“What are you, deaf?  I just told you not to cut me off.  I don’t want them girls out there knowing what goes on under this roof.  Do you hear me?” Joy was opening her purse.

“Well for crying out loud,” she exploded while pulling four stacks of money from her purse.  “I just wanted to tell you that I went out and got Buffy and Tweety out there working with us.  I done told ‘em that they had to work there way up here, and if they did well that you would treat ‘em right.  They’re staying in the Best Western, and they’re trying to move up in here next to you daddy.  You don’t have to tell me what to do, because I’m not ever gonna disappoint you, not ever.”

              I was dealing with a psycho.  She touched my heart and the light bulb went off in my head.  I passed them a sheet of hotel stationary.

“I want all of y’all to put your full names and social security numbers on this paper.  If you don’t have one, then get one.”

              I walked into my room and closed the door. I wanted to call it a night.  From my bed I could hear Red taking charge and giving orders.  I had expected Roxy to be the dominant one, but her level of respect for Red rose when she saw how much money she was capable of making in one day.

              When I stepped out of the shower, Roxy stood there with a towel waiting on me.  I said, “You know I don’t like you on those streets, right?”

              “Um hum,” was her reply while she thoroughly dried my body.  “Baby, I ain’t trying to be all up in your business, but damn, baby; I saw you with Cashmere.  Cashmere is like Jesus to them pimps and girls out there.  His teacher, Pierre, is like God to the rest of us.”

              I heard the name and thought about the man that was the closest thing to a father I had. “Pierre?”

              “Yeah, word on the street is Pierre got one of dem crazy
big
-phat cribs in California.  Him and Cashmere live with another mack named Spanish Romeo.  Romeo from Miami.  Cashmere only comes to the city in the winter for the holidays.  When you see him wearing black, that mean it’s cold out and he just passing through.  When you see him in all white, that means it’s hot out and he’s re-stocking his stable of women so he can go back to Cali.  He got an apartment up in the Plaza.  You got to be paid to do that.”

              “And how do you know all of this?  You wanted to go?”  I asked, sounding insecure.

              “This White girl used to work for Cashmere told all of us on the Ave.  Said she went out to Cali and was living it up.  The minute she didn’t keep her word, they threw her out, and she had to hitchhike her way back here.  They don’t play no games, and they don’t like streetwalkers.  All they women is call girls, fashion models, and ex-movie star type girls.  You can learn a lot about the game from him.  I’m not trying to tell you what to do, I’m just trying to look out for my man.”

              My mind started clicking after that.  I sat back and thought of a whole new hustle I knew nothing about.  Then I thought about Gloria and Crissy and how I could get all women to respect me.  I asked myself how I could be king of Times Square if I didn’t know something about every hustle.  Cashmere was a master, and I came to the conclusion that it was time for me to be a student again.

              Red disturbed my thoughts.  “Hey, sugar?  Roxy is gonna spend the night in my room.  Joy thinks you’re mad at her.  She’s out here having an emotional fit, so I told her that she could spend the night with you.”

              I looked her in the eye and snapped. “You’re asking me or you telling me?”

              She took a deep breath, stepped in closer, and said, “Johnny, I respect you, know this.  You are the first man to get that, okay?  Just be calm, baby; I was asking you.  I heard your speech and I wouldn’t undermine what you’re trying to do.  A man should control his household.  I’m a country girl; I know how it goes.  Just please continue to respect me.  I was asking you, sweetheart.”  She closed the door with her last words.

              I ignored her and slipped under the covers.  My emotions were mixed and my mind was spinning.  When I was about to doze off, I felt the load of heavy weight getting into the bed.

              “Daddy, please don’t be mad at me,” Joy said, reaching between my legs.

              At first I didn’t like the ‘daddy’ thing, but her term of endearment was a new turn on for me and I stiffened in her hands.  Her head sunk under the sheets, and her lips fastened all over my manhood.  Her tender expertise was appreciated.  I could feel the tension leaving my body.

              She slipped the condom on, and then mounted me for the first time.  When I was all the way inside of her, an inferno of heat consumed my shaft.  Her big legs comforted me, her hot body put me at ease, and the size of her huge breasts was a pleasure to my tongue.  That night I learned why making love to big women was a great secret, and I planned on keeping it to myself.

$$$

              On Saturday night, I was in the suite feeling lonely.  Red was in her bedroom with a cold and she didn’t want me near her.  I had sent Roxy, Buffy, Tweety, and Joy on a mission.  The maitre’d called up and told me that their services were needed for over fifty men that came in for a Compact Disk convention.  Most of the computer geeks wanted sex and were willing to pay big money for it, so I felt better knowing the girls were indoors.

              Since I didn’t know where I wanted to go, I picked up the phone, called the Plaza Hotel, and reached Cashmere.  I asked him what he was up to and he told me grab a fur, put on my dancing shoes, and meet him in front of the hotel.

While standing in the lobby, I was approached by the maitre‘d and a fine young Latino woman.  The maitre‘d explained to me that the woman could take Gloria’s place in taking care of things.  I had nothing to lose in the matter so I agreed, trying to figure out how they knew Gloria and I had a falling out.  I remembered that I was in Times Square, and anything was possible.

Once my short meeting was over, I waited in the lobby looking for Cashmere’s Benz.  Instead, an all black Rolls Royce Corniche pulled up.  I stepped out when I saw his fur hat. He rolled down the window, called me over, and I jumped in the car.

“Damn, man, this is nice,” I told him, sounding like a kid in a candy store.

“I’m just playing the part tonight, this is Pierre’s. But he never uses it ‘cause he tired of New York.”

When he pulled off, I wanted to check the story Roxy told me, so I said, “So he stay out in Cali all the time?”

“Indeed.  We got us a five million-dollar estate up at Mullholland Drive.  Eight bedrooms and ten baths.  All legit.  Me, Pierre, and the best playa on the West Coast, Spanish Romeo.”  He hit the dashboard with his hand and shouted, “Playa-playa. Romeo, he the man dog.”

              I wanted to see how far I could go. “I think I heard of him, he from Miami?”

              Cashmere was filled with excitement. “Man, we got a penthouse down there in Miami?  Indeed, Romeo knows how to do life man.  And Pierre?  He the only player on record that played in Paris and Italy.  He did Milan, Rio, Morocco, and back in the days, he was playing in Cuba man.  Cuba!  They know how to ball out there in them spots, and one day I’ll be ready for them.”

              “Ready how?” I asked, wanting to be ready myself.

“You know, raise up in the game.  Get my speech together, get my mind right so I can hang out with them rich broads and speak that rich language.  I’m already ghetto rich, but it’s a whole world out there, playa, and the only thing that can stop me is me.”

              I thought of Pierre. “Pierre must have did a lot of pimping to live in a mega five estate.”

              “Oh no, playa.  I told you we ain’t pimps.  Listen closely.  A woman, either rich or poor, got things that need to be satisfied.  A rich woman don’t want no poor man ‘cause she can do bad by her damn self.  A rich woman ain’t gone give a man something that she know he can’t relate to, or that she don’t feel he worth.  Ain’t no way you can ask a woman for something and get it, unless she feel you worth it, or got to offer more than she got.  A rich woman don’t want no man with just potential, because in her book, potential means you ain’t doing a damn thing right now.”

Again Crissy popped into my head. I shook her out of my thoughts and listened to Cashmere’s sermon.

“What we know is—we rich even if we ain’t got a dime.  We know that we ain’t settling for less, and that out there is some women that got everything in they life except a good man.  Money don’t make them happy, but we can.  Pierre had a rich chick that took care of him.  He took care of her, and when she died, it was either leaving ten mill to her cat Scruffy, or to Pierre.  We see who got the paper, huh playa?”

              The car stopped, and we were parked at a club named Bentley’s on 43
rd
Street between Fifth and Park Avenue.  The line went around the corner, and Cashmere parked right out front.  When we exited the car, we walked straight in, dressed to impress.  Under his full-length mink, Cashmere wore a black cashmere suit with a black silk and cashmere polo sweater.  On his feet was a pair of crocodile shoes.  I had on thick brown Guess corduroys, a brown knitted Coogi sweater, and a pair of brown Sergio Rossi loafers with buckles on the side.  My mink was draped around my shoulders, and I was ready to dance all night long.

The club was packed with a mature crowd.  When Entouch’s,
Too Hype
came on, I started running to the dance floor, but Cashmere held me back.  A bottle of Cristal was placed in front of us, and he began his schooling.

              “We different from the rest, playa.  Take a good look around you.  A playa’s best company is himself.  Look at all these women sweating you.  You think they got something to offer?  They here trying to pick up a man that’s gonna solve they problems, and we looking for a woman that can solve ours.  Now, when them gold diggers come at you, what you gonna say?  A playa always knows what to say because you gotta out-think a scandalous broad.  They always looking for a weakness, and if you can’t out-think them, they will hustle you before you ever hustle them.”

              As he sipped on his champagne, I thought about how Crissy did me wrong.  He tapped my leg. “We here to have fun, but I don’t want you to cramp my style.  What I want you to do is tell yourself that you the best thing walking on this planet, and not one of these women is worth your time.  Like watch this.”

              The best looking woman in the club was heading our way.  She wore a purple, one-piece mini skirt outfit.  She had long hair, and wore large, gold, doorknocker earrings.  Security surrounded our tables and Cashmere told the muscle-bound men to let her in.  When she stepped over, she looked at Cashmere and asked, “Excuse me, don’t I know you from somewhere?  What’s your name?”

              Cashmere gently pulled her by her hands and sat her on the small table between us.  He leaned over so I could hear him.

“Hey love, if you knew me you would have never forgotten me, and you would be broke because my name is expensive.  Unless you bringing me a bottle of champagne or some cash, you out of line.”  He then gently helped her up. “I’m talking to this playa right now, so I’ll play with you later.  Run along now, when I’m ready to dance, come find me.”