Tales from the Qrypt – Business Woman

I was startled by a finger poking me in the side, I turned around and saw that it was Hendy  “hey are you playing?” he asked “Oh! its my turn? of course I’m playing” I said sliding off my stool.  “Nicole this is Hendy, please don’t hurt him” I said winking at her as I turned to walk over to the pool table. I saw that I had practically lost the game so I may as well throw in the towel. I surrendered my cue stick to one of the guys who had been waiting impatiently for the table. I looked around for Celia, as far as I could tell she wasn’t in the bar which meant she was probably upstairs. I glanced over and saw that Hendy was still talking to Nicole.  I decided to head on upstairs to see if Celia was there, maybe she was ready to go somewhere else.  I was hungry but wasn’t in the mood for deep fried chicken tonight.

I maneuvered my way through the crowd and up to the 2nd floor. Celia was sitting at a crowded table on the balcony a cigarette held between two fingers as she gesticulated vigorously. As usual she was surrounded by a cloud of cigarette smoke and a bunch of guys who were hanging onto her every word.  I decided to stand at the bar and wait until she she saw me. I love Celia but I honestly hate cigarette smoke! I looked around the room, some of the women were on the stage dancing in time to the pulsating beat of the Jamaican dance hall music. I noticed that a few were also sitting with customers at the bar nearby.  A group of guys seated at a table near the top of the stairs suddenly started whistling and drumming on the table. I looked over and saw that Nicole and Hendy had followed me up.

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Tales from the Qrypt 2

My job was like no other, I guess because Maco was the mastermind behind it all. One night he abruptly turned to me and said, “you need a job? meet me tomorrow at Marie’s”. Marie was the Haitian woman who owned the Copa Cabana bar as well as another bar on Nelson Street. When Maco told me to meet him at Marie’s I was more than a little taken aback. Everyone knew that the sleek and sophisticated ladies who came from Milan and other parts of Europe were housed over on Nelson street above Marie’s other establishment.

I decided that Maco probably had a good reason for asking me to meet him on Nelson Street. When I arrived at Marie’s, Maco was waiting impatiently. ‘Come on up’ he called down to me from the balcony overlooking the street. I went up and he ushered me into a large sitting room with plush red carpeting and long white leather sofas.

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Tales from the Qrypt – Nicole Part 1

So Maco had gotten me a job,  I was teaching the Hatian woman Marie how to cook. After her second lesson in pastry making, Marie decided that I was wasting my talent teaching her and she put me in charge of the bar’s kitchen. I needed to prep the bar food so that it would be ready for the evening crowd. Everything was cooked once an order was placed except of course the ham cutters !  The first day I did the prep, I  arrived at 10am and was done by 12:30pm so I went to the beach and hung out for the rest of the day.

The next day I went in and found that more than half of what I had prepped the previous day was still there so I didn’t need to do anything! I was debating whether to call Celia up to see if she wanted company. Celia ran a small bar which she shared with another Latina, I’d never seen this type of partnership before – they switched operational hours each week. This meant that one week Celia sold her own stock every night while the other girl sold hers every day then they rotated each Monday. I was contemplating whether I should head on over to the bar to hang out with Celia and shoot some pools or whether I should call up another friend to see if she wanted to go for a swim.

I was just leaving the kitchen when a strange woman walked into the kitchen. I stared in surprise, I did not hear anyone come in the outer door and I had no idea who she was, probably the owner’s relative I decided. She had the kind of yellow even skin tone that most black women wish they had, coupled with eyes that slanted slightly, a narrow nose and full lips I figured she probably had an interesting lineage . If she had tracks in, I couldn’t tell but silky black  hair framed her pretty face and cascaded down her back. A candy striped cropped tank was barely covering perky breasts and minscule shorts hugged her curvy hips leaving a wide expanse of midriff and quite a bit of ass cheek bare.  She smiled exposing even white teeth and when she spoke I couldn’t help but grin, “Mawnin, ‘oney any ‘ot water dere?” she asked in a deep Jamaican accent.  I returned the greeting then pointed to the electric kettle sitting on the counter top “There may be some in there, but if its empty just refill” I said.  Continue reading “Tales from the Qrypt – Nicole Part 1”