I was in the warehouse by myself for about ten minutes, and before you knew it, I could hear the loud sound of the FedEx truck pulling up. Like a kid in the candy store, or as if I was standing in Chanel, being shown their newest collection, I started jumping up and down, excited to see all the inventory arrive.
I didn’t even give the driver any time to knock on the door because I raced over to it, opened the door, and I met him outside in the parking lot. As he was getting out the truck, he looked at me, and he smiled.
“You might as well keep that door open. You have a large fleet,” he announced. I smiled proudly, letting him know that I would keep it open. He wasn’t alone. Another driver stepped outof the passenger seat, and when he saw me, he shot a head nod my way.
I went back inside of the warehouse, so that I could be out of their way, and I watched them as they unloaded boxes, and boxes of inventory inside. I stood to the side, with my hands pulled up to my mouth in a praying position, silently praying to myself, asking God that He would allow this warehouse to be empty once I announced to the world what I was selling, and I made everything available for purchase.
If I didn’t sell out, I would want to sell at least 90% of the inventory because I really did invest a lot of money and time into this.
Ten minutes into the drivers being here, I could hear a loud truck roaring from outside. I peeked out of the window, so that I could see who it was, and it was Free, pulling up in her jeep. I immediately sucked my teeth, wondering if Tank had ratted me out to my sister, telling her what I was going to be up to today, ruining the surprise.
Free pulled her truck any kind of way into the parking lot, and she rushed to get out. I saw that she had Tommie with her, who’d gotten out of the passenger seat, and Tommie was moving just as fast to get inside. Seeing how fast they were moving, and the unreadable looks on their faces, it caused me to rush over to the door, so that I could see what was going on.
“What happened? How the hell did ya’ll know where I was?” I asked, and the second I finished asking them that, that’s when I remembered that I didn’t turn my location off.
Usually, when I come down here, I would turn my location off, so that they weren’t able to find me. Today, I was moving around so quickly that I guess I’d forgotten to do it.
“Your location! Where is your phone? I called you twice, and you didn’t answer. I looked at your location, and it brought up some warehouses. Girl, I thought somebody had your ass tiedthe fuck up. Fuck, Dionne!” Free snapped, breathing heavy, and with the half tee that she was wearing, I could see her gun that she had on her hip.
I looked over at Tommie, and she looked like she was ready, and on the same kind of bullshit that Free was on. I knew that it wasn’t a laughing matter, but seeing my sisters react like this, and because I knew that Free was a fast driver anyways, I just knew that she flew her ass over here to get to me.
“I’m okay, ya’ll. My bad. My phone is in my purse, so I didn’t hear it ringing. I’m fine,” I had to let them know, so that they both could calm down.
“Who’s warehouse is this? Tank?” Tommie asked me, as the workers were coming back in, delivering more inventory, sitting everything against the wall.
“No. It’s my warehouse,” I announced, and when I said it, both women looked at me like I was crazy.
“Tank gave you one of his businesses or something? What do you mean this is your warehouse?” Tommie asked me.
Most people would have been offended by the sound of their siblings literally having no kind of faith that they would be running a business, but I wasn’t. They were only going off what I’d shown them for all these years. I carried on like I was allergic to work, and that it would be the last thing that I would ever want to be a part of, so I wasn’t offended that they were looking at me the way they were, or asking me the kind of questions that they were.
“Come over here. Open one of the boxes,” I said, leading the way over to one of the big pallets that was filled with inventory, and was sitting against the wall.
My sisters walked into the large warehouse, looking around in confusion, and looking at me as well. The way the boxes were sealed, it would be hard for me to just pull one out, so when theworkers came back inside, I stopped him, so that he could take it out for me.
“Can you open this pallet for me? I’ll give you a tip. I’m sorry. I just want to prove to my sisters that I’m a businesswoman now,” I told the driver.
He was a handsome, dark-skinned man, that looked to have been in his twenties. He licked his lips at my question, and when he smiled, you could see the beautiful dimples that were in his cheeks.
“You don’t have to tip me, beautiful. I’ll feel like shit taking money from you. Can you bless me with your phone number though?” he asked me, and the smile that had been on my face was quickly wiped away the second that he asked me for my phone number.
My sisters stood off to the side, and I could hear them snickering.
“The only two options I have is the tip, or a simple ‘thank you’. I have a man,” I told him, and he nodded his head to that.
“I respect it. You still don’t have to tip me though,” he said, and then he turned around, used the box cutter that he had in the back pocket of the shorts that he was wearing, tore through the seal, and he pulled down at least five of the boxes.
He tore through the boxes, and once it was open, I took out what was inside, and when my sisters saw it, they both squealed, rushing over, so that they could see the bedding set. It was the same set that had been in my condo. I just finally had it in bulk.
“Dionne. Girl. What the fuck! When did you do this? Sister, what the fuck!” Free couldn’t believe it, as she walked around the bedding set, seeing my logo… my business… my brand… my picture, and all the items that were inside.
“When I had been in Milan all that time. That’s what I was out there doing,” I announced proudly.
“Dionne, this is niceeee! What the hell. Why didn’t you tell us about this?” Tommie asked, coming over to me, and she wrapped her arms around me, happy for me.
I knew my sisters would be happy for me. That’s just how we were raised. My mom didn’t raise us to be a bunch of hating ass bitches. We have always been each other’s personal hype women. One of us could walk in here with a brand-new hairstyle, and we were going to cheer whoever it was on and make them feel like they were the baddest bitch in the world.
This was never about me keeping it a secret because I felt like they wouldn’t be happy. I chose to keep it a secret because I wanted to come to them with a brand that was tangible. I wanted them to see what I had been working on physically, so that the look on their faces would be priceless, just as it was right now.
