Fired from her medical assistant's job California Jewel heads straight to the nail shop and orders the works. She doesn't skip a beat. Her best friend Sasha needs to borrow money again. The ex-stripper couldn't make it in a regular job and her investment property and main resident are about to be history. Jewel had helped get Sasha a desk job and now she needs to borrow money from her again.
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Sasha's plan is to leave Norfolk for Atlanta and get back into the strip game for to stack some fast cash. Jewel knows the loan is a give away as Sasha has borrowed many times before and not paid her back. She figures her girl is in financial trouble and she has her back as usual.
The two women met while Sasha was stripping and while Jewel isn't into sex with girls (she prefers men) the two have shared intimate space
Touch is Jewel's boy from elementary school in another life. They grew up in Norfolk, Virginia. They look out for each other and have a mellow vibe. People swear they are involved but they have never even kissed.. Touch served a few years as a casualty in the drug game. Once released he bounced back quicker than ever and is running things in Norfolk. He is the father of twin girls and his legitimate investments are going towards a college fund for his girls. He has his share of baby-mama drama but is not one to argue. He's clean cut aside from the drug dealing and Jewel knows if she ever gets in a tight spot that he will help her out. Jewel has respect for his babies' mother if for no other reason she demands that Touch treat her and their daughter's properly.
Jewel meets Calico through Touch and is blown away until he makes a smart comment. Calico is the man in Compton and has come to the Virginia to do business. Jewel doesn't tolerate men talking down to her and lets him know it. He apologizes profusely so that he can get her phone number. He settles for her taking his.
She calls him the next day and she picks him up en route to the mall. He checks out her frame and thinks how nice it would be to get physical with her despite her mean attitude. Like Jewel he can have the lover of his choosing and he is choosing her. They also go out for drinks and end up heading back to Jewels house where they have sex until Calico passes out, spent. They don't know one another because they didn't bother to go past the physical attraction. Since sex is the name of the game they are both satisfied.
Jewel is pulled over by the police while Calico is riding shotgun. She stashes his bag of Ecstasy pills inside of her panties. The cops arrest them both because her license is suspended. She spends three hours in a cell and can't wait to take a hot shower and dislodge the baggie. Calico is not free to go. Jewel is awakened by banging on her front door. Two thugs bust their way in looking for Calico, his dope, or both. They threaten to rape Jewel. She is scared to death. It is the first time she has actually had a gun pointed at her head. She makes up a quick lie and one of the thugs hits her in the head with his gun. As they leave, the short ugly one kisses her in the mouth telling her to let Calico know that Sincere is looking for him.
Sasha is working the strip club when Touch comes in and “makes it rain” at her feet with three one-hundred dollar bills. That's all she needs to sleep with him. Since Jewel hadn't come through with the full six-hundred dollars she needs to pay her bills Touch will do nicely. She's always wanted to see what he was working with and has experienced jealousy over the close relationship he shares with Jewel.
Jewel finally reaches Touch and when he gets to her place she is a wreck. He takes her to his house and quizzes her. He asks point blank if she slept with Calico. She denies it. He tells her she's lying that her phone accidentally called his and he heard enough to know that she and Calico had been getting it on.
Mad that she is caught in her lie, Jewel pouts. Touch decides to be honest about his feelings and tells her that he loves her more than she thinks. He lets Jewel know that Calico is not someone she wants to mess with and he doesn't plan to get involved in his troubles. He'll fight for Jewel, go to jail for her, and even kill for her, but he won't do it behind another man.
When she leaves him in the living room to take a shower he starts thinking about her as more than a best friend and sister. He wants to wife her, but of course he plans to have sex with her first.
Jewel is a bit shocked when he joins her in the shower but tries to play it off. He's bathed her before when she was too drunk to do it herself after they have hung out drinking, but this is different. She tries to make a sexy move and Touch stops her. Once they are dressed and in front of the television he shuts it off for some more “real talk”. He shares his heart, he really loves her. They have sex and decide they will see where things go.
Sasha calls Jewel while Touch is still asleep and Jewel tells her that she “put” him out. Sasha is enraged but doesn't share that she just slept with him in Atlanta.
Touch gives Jewel a hundred fifty thousand, she tells Jewel that she is going to share with her since they are good friends. She is supposed to use part of it to get Calico out of jail and to pay his lawyer fees. The money Jewel receives from Touch is money he owed Calico so he really isn't giving Jewel anything she's collecting and holding it for the guy she is supposedly down for.
Calico meets with his attorney and learns he will need at least a million to beat the charges. He doesn't sweat. Jewel is on her way to him with the down payment of one hundred-twenty-five thousand. He puts a hit out on Sincere and appears to be taking things in stride.
Jewel and Sasha fly to New York. Jewel has all the money she hasn't seen Calico and his lawyer as not been paid. The women hook up with a rap group and party so hard they don't wake up until the next afternoon.
Sasha seduces Jewel so sweetly that she agrees to flip Calico's money on drugs. so she and Sasha have more money to play with. Calico is furious but smart enough to pay his lawyer the retainer needed to start work on his complicated case. He has no plans on doing the time he deserves. He calls Jewel repeatedly and gets voice mail. He believes that Touch and Jewel are playing him. Actually the one's playing with his money are Jewel and Sasha.
Touch starts thinking about how his the Ciara the mother of his twin girls played with heart by messing with another guy and drives to her house to confront her. She argues back and he jumps on her punching her in the face and kicking her once she hits the floor. Her friend Monica tries to help her and he beats her up to. When a neighbor comes to Ciara's door over all the noise he tells her to mind her business. She tells Ciara she's calling the cops. Ciara uses grabs a broken beer bottle off the floor and cuts Touch's thigh down to the white meat.
He leaves and calls Jewel from his car. She agrees to meet him at the hospital. As he waits to be seen and for Jewel to show up he finally takes a call from Sasha. She wants to know if all she was to him was sex. He tells her that's exactly what it was.
Jewel arrives and so do the police they handcuff him while the nurse is wrapping his leg. He's arrested for assault of Ciara and Monica.
Jewel doesn't have the money to pay Calico back and he will kill her for it. Touch is in jail and she can't help him get out. She thinks hard about who can help her. TMZ the rappers she and Sasha hung out with in Atlanta may be able to give her an advance for the ghost writing she's done on their music project.
She's in luck Diablo comes through. He agrees to have the record label put fifty grand in her band account and is willing to buy the dope she and Sasha picked up to flip.
She's pays the bond fees needed to get Touch out of jail, he only gets probation. They flip the dope and buy an expensive car and house. For New Year's Eve they plan a big party.
Sasha meets with Diablo and he lets her know that Jewel put the word out to Calico that she is the one who stole his money. Jewel has made good on half of it and Sasha is scared for her life.
Sasha blames Jewel for her troubles, goes to the party and shoots Jewel point blank in the back of the head.
Best part of story, including ending:
Hated it! The characters were a hot mess, and I hated all the random sexing with no one using a condom. Fights and wars over drugs and turf. Uggh!
Best scene in story:
My favorite scene was when Jewel got popped in the head it was the only time she closed her mouth.
Opinion about the main character:
I disliked Jewel's greed and false belief that she had it going on because of material things.
