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she’s seducing him right under the nose of his girl. My father always told me if you don’t want to be known as promiscuous, stop pulling down your panties.
    “Demetria, girl, come on,” I say. “You’re being inappropriate.” I purposefully stare out the store’s window at Francine, who’s pacing next to Michael’s bronze BMW X5.
    “Excuse us, Michael,” Demetria says, and grabs me by the arm and steers me a few feet away.
    “Girl, do not tell me you’re defending some chick you just met over me, your so-called best friend? After all I do for you? Is she in here trying to hook you up, change your life? Has she ever loaned you money? Bought you expensive birthday presents? Personally trained you on how to suck dick the way a man needs it to be sucked? Huh, Veron?”
    “Okay, don’t tell all my business. Lower your voice.”
    “No, you lower that bad attitude you got. If you wanna be like me, get used to it. Real men aren’t blind, Vee. He ain’t gonna turn down a kiss or conversation from me, are you, Mike?” she asks, turning to look at him.
    There’s no way Mike could have heard our conversation, but he rapidly shakes his head no and causes all of us to laugh. I am grateful for the break in the tension. Mike and Demetria move a little further into the store, and I watch him smile brightly at her and touch her hair.
    My cell phone rings again. I pick up the line but don’t say anything.
    “Hello? You’re finally answering my calls?”
    “Ferris, you’re through. Lose my number.”
    “But I was wrong, baby girl. I want to make things up with you—”
    “Too late for making up, Ferris.”
    “Say what? You always used to forgive me back in the day.”
    “Well, it’s a new day. Listen carefully, Ferris, because I’m not going to say this twice. Don’t you ever call me again, you hear? If you so much as call me or come by my job, I’ll stick my foot so far up your ass, my toes will be hanging off your dick.”
    “Wh—?”
    I hang up.
    “Dang, this new wig is making a difference already,” I say, interrupting Demetria, who’s locked in a good-bye embrace with Michael West.

—4—
    D EMETRIA
    “Get ready,” I say to Vee. “Because by the time I’m done with you, everything will be brand new.”
    Vee nods and smiles, and for the first time I feel confident she’s ready to let me do what I need to do.
    “Hey, baby girl,” Mike says. I thought he had left; he must have come back in. “Let me get them digits.” He nods at my BlackBerry Pearl phone.
    “Of course I’ll give you my number…but I need someone to pay for this stuff,” I say, smiling while I stretch out my fingers to stroke them across his sideburns. The moment I touch him Mike stares deep into my eyes, then reaches for his back pocket and pulls out his wallet.
    Vee stares at me.
    “What?” I ask her innocently. “School is in session,” I explain to her while Mike makes the credit-card transaction.
    “Where are you going now, Mike?” I ask him after we’re handed our bags and exit the store to stand in front of Wig World.
    “What you got in mind?”
    “Well, Vee and I are going to hang out a little while longer, but I want you to come with us. Think you can make that happen?”
    “Uh, yeah, that’s doable. Tell you what, I’ll be right back.”
    He slowly strides pimp-style toward his bronze BMW. I turn my back against Mike and look directly at Veron, intently studying her face as if it’s a mirror.
    Her eyes enlarge and her mouth pops open.
    “What?” I say to her. “Tell me what’s happening.”
    “Girlfriend is
pissed
. He asked for his key back and he’s going up to that Yellow Cab that was waiting near them in the parking lot.”
    “Damn.” I laugh happily. “I’ve got skills.”
    “Don’t be too happy. Mike is so insensitive to dump his girlfriend just to hang out with us and do nothing. I wonder what lie he’s making up.”
    “Don’t worry about his lies. His problem. Not ours. We