Still Candy Shopping by Kiki Swinson

is Slim,” he replied, and then he extended his hand for me to shake.
    I shook his hand. “Nice meeting you,” I told him and then I tried to step off.
    He moved in front of me once again to block me from walking away. I looked up at him and asked, “Are you lonely? Need some companionship?”
    He chuckled. “That’s funny. I like that.”
    “Listen, Slim, I gotta go so I can find something to clean these cuts and bruises I got on my hands and knees.”
    “I can help you with that if you like.”
    “If you’re looking for me to give you some pussy, then you’re talking to the wrong chick.”
    “Look, shorty, I ain’t trying to fuck you. If I wanted some pussy, I could make a phone call right now.”
    “So what is it that you want from me?”
    “Look, Faith, you said you needed to clean yourself off. So, all I was doing was trying to help you out. That was it.”
    Before I took Slim up on his offer, I looked into his eyes to see if I could see through all his nice gestures. Normally cats from this part of town didn’t have a nice bone in their bodies. They were full of ulterior motives. But for some reason, I couldn’t see any bullshit from this guy. If he was hiding something, then he was doing a damn good job of it.
    I let down my guard. “Where you live at?” I asked him.
    He turned around and faced the Okeefe Apartments. “I stay right there,” he told me.
    “Do you live alone?” I asked.
    “I got a couple of roommates. But they’re out right now.”
    I sighed. “Well all right. I guess I use your place until your roommates come back.”
    “A’ight, well let’s go then,” he said and escorted me toward the apartment building.
    I followed him to the second floor of the apartment building. He lived in apartment 2-C. All the lights were on in the apartment, so I could see everything from the front door. I immediately took inventory of the entire living room and noticed that everyone who lived there seemed to have problems with tidiness. I set my duffel bag on the floor next to the couch while Slim started cleaning up. Plates, cups, forks, women’s clothing, and shoes were all over the living room. There was barely any space for me to sit on the sofa, but I made the best of it. The main thing was that I was out of that hot night air and inside soaking up some good AC that was pumping through the vents. Slim left the room and returned a few minutes later with a couple of paper towels and a bottle of peroxide. After he handed them both to me I applied the liquid to the paper towels and then I proceeded to clean the effected area around the cuts and scraps. It didn’t take me long to clean myself up and when I was finally done, I sat the bottle of peroxide down on the floor next to my feet and laid my head back on the sofa.
    Before I could fully relax in the coolness, I heard a knock on Slim’s front door. I sat up on the sofa while Slim answered the door. He looked through the peephole and then he opened the door. Two young girls walked into the apartment dressed in short, skimpy dresses and high-heeled sandals. Their hairdos were jacked up. One of the girls wore red extensions hanging down her back while the other girl had purple fucking hair extensions pulled back into a ponytail. I assumed that they were in their early twenties because their immaturity showed big time.
    As soon as they stepped into the house, Slim closed the door behind them. The girl with the red hair spoke first.
    “Slim, me and Jennifer ain’t getting no play on Goff Street. So can we go on Church Street down there by C Avenue with Sabrina and Tacora?”
    “Yeah, go ’head. But don’t come back here an hour from now talking about y’all ain’t getting no play down there either, because there’s gonna be some consequences,” he threatened.
    My eyes popped when I heard this young girl ask this cat’s permission for her and the other young girl to go down on Church Street. The cat was out of the bag. These chicks were