The room had grew quiet between the four for a few seconds until Melanie decided to finally speak. "I said that Jayla ran out of shampoo. Where is the supply closet?" She asked again tearing her eyes from Nikki and placing them on King.

"Tell Jayla that's it's the door on the right by the back door." He answered never letting his eyes leave Melanie's.

It was oblivious that they were trying to ignore the elephant in the room, but Nikki had no problem addressing the problem.

"Hey Melanie! It's so nice to see you again." She greeted while giving her the fakest smile she could pull off.

Melanie eyes had now cut back to Nikki. "I wish I could say the same." She replied turning her attention back to King.

"Is it locked or something because she tried ear-."

"There's no need for the disrespect. Especially something that went on when? Four years ago." Nikki implied mumbling the last part as she examined her nails.

"Don't you see us talking?" Melanie asked agitated now. She was truly sparing Nikki the benefit of the doubt but if she didn't back the hell up Melanie wouldn't have a problem solving her problem. "Okay then shut the fuck up. You still as irrelevant as you were four years ago." Melanie continued rolling her neck.

"Melanie chill out." King demanded as he stood up from his chair. Placing hisself in front of Melanie he whispered in her ear to just let things go. He didn't feel like breaking them up or even hearing them fight. "And Nikki if your not here to get Trey's hair cut then I'm going to have to ask you to leave. This a drama free zone." He further explained making a visual circle in the air to represent the zone.

"You know I find it funny. Usually I kick you out but now your kicking me out." smirked Nikki as she turned Trey around and headed the waiting area.

"What did she just say?" Melanie questioned as she stepped from behind King's large figure.

King watched a Nikki gave him a devilish smile as she crossed her legs and began playing on her phone. Melanie had now moved in front of him with her arms crossed waiting for an answer. A few of the barbers were giving him a confused looked but he dismissed them when he shook his head.

Grabbing Melanie's hand King led them into his office. At first it would have been the supply closet for the front of the store but he decided to turn it into his personal office. It was better than working from home when he could just handle the shop's business at the business.

Swinging Melanie into the room he closed it behind them. He was surprise Melanie didn't put up a fight since she hated when people touched her when she was mad. But surprisingly she sat down in one of the empty chairs with her hands in his lap. King decided to lean against his desk just in case things popped off between them.

"Why do we keep letting Nikki ruin our peace?" He wondered starring at Melanie. She wasn't looking directly at him but he knew she was fully paying attention.

"That's a question that you need to answer. Why you keep letting her around?" Melanie shot back shrugging her shoulders. She wanted him to hear how dumb his question sounded.

"I'm not letting her around nothing. She came into a public facility that's something that I can't change." He explained not understanding what Melanie was trying to get at. No matter where he went it seemed like Nikki came around. No matter how many times he cut her off she reties herself back to him.

"That don't even matter no more. The thing I want to know is why did she say what she said." Melanie said flipping the question back on King. "Y'all got jokes now?" She wondered sitting back her chair.

"Jokes about what? You already know she's delusional behind me." He clarified not wanting his name to associated with hers at all.

"Why is she saying that she's always kicking you out but now your kicking her out? You been at her house or something?" Melanie angrily accused him now that she had let Nikki words sit in her head.

"I dropped her off once and you already know that. Ain't no telling what the hell Nikki talking about or what she got planned out in her head." King answered wanting Melanie to just drop the conversation.

"Alright so if I go smack the sh** out of her maybe she'll answer for the both of y'all." Melanie argued hopping up from her seat and towards the door.

King quickly leaned up from the desk and grabbed her. "Will you chill out seriously." He said scrunching up his face at her. "You letting her get you all out of character for what? Like you said she is irrelevant so let her stay that way."

"Yeah she's irrelevant until she tries to play with me. So what was the joke about King because it seems to me that you understand it." Melanie jagged moving her face closer to his.

"I don't know nothing about no damn joke. Y'all both starting to piss me off. We was just doing good before Nikki walked up in here. And now we up in here arguing while she still sitting her crazy a** out there enjoying her day." snapped King as he let go of Melanie's arm and headed back towards the door.

He had became entirely pissed off at the situation. And Melanie didn't seem to make it any better, and before he said something he regretted he had to remove hisself. Walking back into the shop all eyes were on him for a quick second before everybody returned back to their business. Ignoring them King scanned the room until his eyes landed on an empty seat.

"Tony, where Pat at?" He inquired noticing that the empty chair was Patrick's section.

Tony was confused for a second until he remembered what Patrick had told him. "He went to the bathroom real quick." He replied continuing to line up the guy in his chair.

"Aye when he get back tell him to take that lady and her son over there." King instructed making sure Nikki heard him. He wanted her the hell out his shop and he meant it.

"Alright."

"The service here is amazing." snickered Nikki as she rubbed her hands through Trey's hair.

If King didn't have respect for women he would have slapped the melanin from Nikki's ass, but he knew giving her a show would just fulfill her stupid shenanigans. Instead he decided to calm down and not give her what she wanted. Pulling out his phone King walked back to where him and Deezy had been sitting down before. Pulling up his email King started to reply back to some of the important ones to kill time.

This was such a great grand opening, King thought to hisself as he opened up the first email.

__________

6:53 p.m
The Shore family

"Baby we're home!" Nikki yelled as she kicked the door hard enough for it to close on its own. Shifting the white bags to one side of her arm she placed her purse on the couch. "Trey!" She yelled at the boy in front of her. He had been standing there looking down at his phone twirling the bags around in the other hand. "Turn that phone off and go take a bath." She demanded walking past him and grabbing the phone.

Trey smacked his lips but quickly sucked them in when Nikki turned around and gave him the death stare.

"And put my groceries down before you go upstairs." She instructed placing the phone in her back pocket and walking into the kitchen. Trey blew a deep breath before following behind his mother. He quickly placed the bags on the counter and dashed off upstairs. Nikki knew he was only rushing to go take his bath so he could get straight back to his phone, but Nikki had other plans.

Cutting the phone off she hid it in the knife drawers a place she knew he wouldn't look. Plus she knew he only came in the kitchen when he wanted a snack. Starting on the groceries Nikki pulled out the ground beef and the rest of the seasoning bottles that the cashier had placed in there. She hated when the cashier put anything in the bag like eggs with canned goods. But she knew they didn't intend to do things like that and that it just happened sometimes.

Unpacking the rest of the things Nikki laid out what she needed to make her famous tacos tonight. With the rest of the things she placed them away and put the plastic bags away. Grabbing a skillet she placed it  on the stove. Opening the refrigerator she pulled out a half oven she had used two days ago. Pulling out the drawer she moved Trey's phone aside and pulled out a knife. Getting the cutting board from behind the blender she placed the onion on the board and began.

"Wassup baby." Carter cooed as he wrapped his arms around Nikki's waist. Sneaking a kiss on her cheek and neck he backed away.

"Where you was?" She asked turning around and giving him a quick peck before returning to cutting the onion.

"I was upstairs finishing my shower." He replied mistakenly leaning against the stove. For a second he jump but once Nikki reassured him that it wasn't on yet he quickly calmed down.

"That's what you get I told you about coming in the kitchen when I'm trying to cook." She warned him pointing the knife at him.

"Please watch that knife. You already know you crazy." He joked laughing out loud as he slowly scooted away from her.

Nikki couldn't help but laugh with him. "Then stop playing with me and I won't have to act crazy." She corrected him finally chopping all of the onion. Shooing Carter out the way she turned the burner on high and drizzled a little cooking oil into the pan. While that heated up she washed her hands real quick and started on the meat.

"Where you and Trey was all day. I got off work and the house was empty." Carter exaggerated as he watched Nikki pulled out the ground beef and start preparing it.

Nikki paused for a second and thought.

Could this start an argument?

"You know King's shop finally opened today? And he was having a deal on kid's haircuts so I brought Trey down there." She lied seasoning the meat and mixing it in there.

"King's shop?" He questioned hisself slowly as he raised up an eyebrow.

"Yeah you didn't see him when he was upstairs." She asked nodding her head upward towards the stairs.

Carter shook his head no. "Was King there?" He asked.

"Yeah him and Melanie." She explained shaking her head up and down.

"Melanie?" He asked.

"Yeah." She said looking up at him weird.

"That name sound familiar." He responded switching to the other side of the kitchen where he could see Nikki.

"Familiar how?" She wondered a little angry that her man had a memory of who she was.

"I don't know it just does. Let it go." He answered waving her off.

"I mean you can remember the name but not anything else." She mentioned blinking her eyes at him.

"Alright I'm dropping it because I'm not about to start with you." He acknowledged laughing as he held his hands up in surrender.

Nikki shrugged her shoulders as she brushed it off and continued to season her meat. If she found out that Melanie had any history with her man that little scene earlier would be worst. Suddenly Sza The Weekend popped up in her head.

My man is my man is your man. Heard that's her man too