7. My Business Is Sullivan Business
My Business Is Sullivan Business
KYIRIS
“What y’all be doing when I’m not here?” I asked Jay and Tay as I leaned against the shelves that held the new shipment of artillery that had just come in. “Because this is not organized at all.”
“What you mean?” Jay questioned, stacking the last crate labeled red wine in the corner.
Whenever there was a new shipment, I liked to be on the scene to ensure product was stored a certain way.
Some would say that it was a little OCD mixed with a lot of bossy, but there was always a method to my madness.
My top tier organization skills made it so that product went out in a timely manner, and there was no confusion on what product went to who.
Quiet and swift was how we moved and what kept this part of the family business undetected.
“I’m saying, y’all stacking stuff neatly, but is it by state, territory, block? The way I usually have it set up?”
“And how you expect us to do that when you the one with the blueprint in your handy dandy iPad?” Jay replied, turning to me.
“I sent it to y’all too. It’s a whole spreadsheet.”
Tay shrugged, pushing open the steel door and gesturing for me to exit. “Everything is accounted for and organized in a way that works for us, Key. The niggas who work distribution. We straight. Come on ‘cause we ain’t tryna be here witchu all day playin’ Tetris.”
“Real shit.” Jay chuckled, walking past me.
I rolled my eyes and locked my iPad. “Cool. I don’t wanna hear nothing from the niggas who work distribution when shit get chaotic in there either. Y’all gon’ have to deal with Aura. Not me.”
“Yeah, aight. You know you live to fix some shit. It’s what you do, cuzz.” Tay put his arm around my neck in an attempt to butter me up.
He’d been doing that same move since we were kids.
Out of all of us, Taylin was the finesser.
He knew it, we knew it, but by the time anyone outside of immediate family knew, that nigga would have talked you into something or out of it.
All of the men in my family had the gift of gab, but that Taylin was a little more calculating with it, and I always peeped game.
“Back up off me.” I pushed him. “You just made it clear that y’all don’t need my help outside of what I do. I’ma just prove you wrong as soon as y’all do.”
“Wowww,” Jay dragged, “praying on our downfall. That ain’t Sullivan business. Not at all.”
“Y’all stay tryna wipe me down. Forgetting I ain’t one of y’all hoes. Y’all gon’ have to stand on it wit’ me,” I made clear, taking a seat at the long wooden table in the middle of the room.
“Maannn, forget you.” Tay waved me off and sat on the edge of the table.
“What time Aura say he gon’ be here?”
“Should be in the next twenty minutes,” Jay confirmed.
“I got a question, and y’all gotta answer as if I’m not your cousin. Just like… one of the homegirls,” I said, making sure to set the question up before asking.
Jay’s brow shot up, while Tay crossed his arms across his chest.
“You ‘bout to ask some outta pocket shit, ain’t you?” Tay had already caught on.
I flashed a small grin. “Can I ask the question or not?”
“Go head,” Tay pushed.
“Okay. What y’all think about poly relationships?”
They both went silent, with Jay blinking and Tay’s lip curling up.
Tay spoke first. “Type shit you on, Key?”
“Did you completely miss the part where I said I’m not your cousin in this instance?”
“Nah. I heard you. I just ignored it ‘cause you are my cousin, and you on some freaky shit.”
I bust out laughing, trying to figure out how he got “freaky shit” from the question at hand.
“Anyway,” I turned to Jay, “what you think?”
He scratched his beard and shrugged. “I mean…”
“Ahhh hell,” I interrupted.
“What?” He chuckled. “I ain’t even say shit yet.”
“That pause said a lot. But continue.”
“I think it take a certain kind of nigga to handle that kind of responsibility. I ain’t gon’ front.
I tried to make that shit happen with India and Esha.
And not just because I wanted to be able to fuck with them both openly.
Part of me felt like it would help the kids flourish too.
They would see their mothers loved on by their father, and the monies would stay in one household. Then, we’d build on that.”
I nodded. “So, what happened?”
“Nothing.” He laughed. “That shit sound good in theory, but if everybody ain’t aligned, it don’t work. And that ain’t some shit you can coach a woman into. They gotta be wit’ it 100% or not.”
“And lemme guess… India was not?”
“Cussed my Black ass smooth out the moment I tried to put a schedule in place.”
“That’s ‘cause her ass ain’t used to structure.” Tay laughed. “You really had a kid with a big ass kid. Talkin’ ‘bout you tried to put a schedule in place. You hear this guy?” He pointed to Jay.
“Shut up and give her yo’ answer.”
“Right,” I agreed, wanting to know what Tay thought.
He could barely commit to one of anything, always had to have two or more, so I was almost sure that his answer would be yes. I just wanted to hear the explanation.
“No.”
His answer came so fast, it shocked me and Jay.
“Really?” I questioned in disbelief.
“Yeah, really. I don’t have enough heart to share with two women. And while I don’t knock the next man or really give a fuck about what works for him, I know that when I’m ready to lock in with a woman, I wanna drown her in my love.”
“Ooouu, that nigga got deep on us,” Jay joked with his hand up to his mouth.
I stared at Tay for a few seconds. “You serious?”
“Dead serious.”
“Damn. You surprised me wit’ that one, Tay.”
“See. You don’t know everybody after all,” Jay said.
“I guess not.”
“What made you ask that random ass shit anyway? You considering getting on some poly shit?”
I smiled innocently. “I just wanted to know what y’all thought about it.”
“CAP!” Jay called it.
“Yo’ ass don’t ever ask questions just to ask,” Tay added. “What nigga got you ready to eat pussy?”
“What?! Taylin, don’t play wit’ me.”
They both cracked up laughing.
“Nah, forreal though,” Jay said, “who you know that’s wit’ it?”
“Y’all irritating. This guy I met has two women, and I was just asking a question, goddamn.” I had a feeling that I had opened the door for them to now flip the script and get to questioning me.
“Is it the nigga from the club?” Jay asked.
I caught Tay slick trying to gesture for Jay to shut up and shook my head.
“How you know about a nigga from the club?”
Jay immediately pointed to Tay, who shot him an incredulous look.
“Y’all ain’t no better than the girls. What, y’all in a group chat with Aura and Enzo too?”
Before either of them could reply, the elevator door opened, and Aura stepped off.
“Here come Thing 1 now,” I said.
“What’s good?”
“Shit,” Taylin greeted first, giving him a pound. “Talkin’ to Key about her new lifestyle.”
“Shut up talkin’ ‘bout me like I ain’t sitting right here.” I scowled at him, getting up to hug Aura.
“She ‘bout to be a nigga girlfriend number three,” Jay cosigned, wasting no time adding fuel to the fire.
“Didn’t nobody say none of that.” I rolled my eyes and gave him the finger.
Aura gave me that inquisitive look he gave everybody when he was trying to figure them out.
With my hand on my hip, I rolled my neck. “What?”
“That nigga, Mehki, good people and all, but don’t let that man talk you into nothin’ you ain’t wit’ forreal. I know you, and that poly shit ain’t ya style.”
I narrowed my eyes and broke out in a slow smirk. “You in my business?”
“So long as your last name is the same as mine, yes,” he replied without an ounce of shame. “Inventory good?”
“Yep. Sent everything to your phone. I’m heading out. Bye, nuccas.”
Pulling the elevator door open, I stepped inside.
“Kyiris,” Aura called out to me.
I turned my head slightly, looking back over my shoulder. “Yeah.”
“Good people don’t mean exempt from a bullet. Be mindful about how you move and don’t get that nigga killed, aight?”
I held his gaze for a few seconds before replying. “Noted.”
I rode the elevator upstairs to the main floor and headed out to my car.
There was something reassuring about knowing that Aura knew Mehki.
His warning didn’t make me feel uneasy, maybe because it was expected.
I knew how my family was coming about me.
But if he called Mehki good peoples that meant something.
So far, Mr. Mehki was looking alright in my book.
He’d checked off a few boxes, and I was looking forward to him checking off a few more.
I pulled into the visitor’s parking lot of Amil’s building just as the sun had ducked behind the clouds.
She’d called me in distress while I was home, practically begging me to come over.
And when Milz started her dramatic shit, I knew she’d either been sitting on a million ideas too long and needed help sorting through them or a nigga had her fucked up.
Either way, I was open to help because it was just who I was.
Picking up my purse and the black plastic bag I had in the passenger seat, I locked my car and walked across the street to her building. When I entered, the concierge’s head popped up.
“Good evening, Ms. Su… Kyiris.” He corrected himself before I had a chance to.
I nodded slowly, while he smirked. “You’ll get used to it one day, Lonnie. I mean, it’s been a year now. I told you I’m cool with the first name.”
Mr. Lonnie, Amil’s concierge, had to be around sixty years old.
He was a nice-looking, older gentleman with salt and pepper hair that he kept in a low taper fade.
He was the sweetest guy and insisted on addressing everyone using their last names, even if you weren’t a resident of the building.
I had to almost threaten him to call me Kyiris.
“Force of habit,” he replied genuinely.
Leaning over the counter, I smiled. “Listen, when I become someone’s rich, put-up wife, then by all means add the salutations. Until then, Kyiris is just fine.”
“You got it.” He returned my smile and patted my hand. “Ms. Sullivan is expecting you.”