“Nah. With the holidays, new product drop, and a host of other shit, that wasn’t at the forefront of my mind.” He reached for the water on the table and took a sip.
I chuckled because killing your sister’s man and not telling her would be at the forefront of any normal person’s mind. But not Aura’s.
“Aye, how I get out this group chat shit with Kyiris? If I get one more memo about this Valentine’s Day party, I’ma block her ass on my personal line.”
“Yo, the daily reminders she been sending is crazy. Key is a trip.”
“Check your phone. She just sent today’s update. Now she want a nigga to wear his drawls outside. Fuck is she on?”
“Nigga, what?” I pulled my phone from my pocket to check the text thread. “Man, this say pajama theme. Where you get you gon’ be in yo’ drawls?” I snickered.
“Shit, that’s what I sleep in.”
“Well, get ready to be in them cause if I gotta go in there matching pajamas with Thyri, nigga, you betta hit the mall and find you some wit’ Danae.”
“Yeah, aight, man.”
Amil finally appeared minutes later. Stopping at our booth, she crossed her arms on her chest tightly and grilled us.
“What?” Aura spoke first.
“Come to the back,” she instructed.
Aura and I shot each other a confused look before getting up from the table and following her to her office.
Inside, Amil stood in the middle of her office, and her eyes bounced between the two of us before speaking. “All I wanna know is where’s the body, so I can tell this man aunt something other than I don’t know.”
Neither of us volunteered to speak, opting to let her question linger for a moment.
“I can’t provide that info for you, sis,” Aura answered. “His people just gon’ have to remember him how he was.”
I followed up after his statement. “A goofy, plotting ass nigga.”
She sighed and shook her head. Nothing about her reaction gave surprised. Irritated, yes. But not surprised. “I knew something was up once I didn’t hear from him for a couple days. But damn, did y’all have to move without giving me a heads up, Aura?”
“What you wanted me to say? Sis, I found out ya nigga was tryna snake me and build his own operation within my shit? And then what you was gon’ say?”
“I would’ve told you to give me some time to feel him out to see what was up.”
“And then once you found out what he was up to then what?” I questioned.
She cut her eyes at me. “Don’t act like y’all the only ones who bust y’all guns.”
“Oh, I know what everybody with the last name Sullivan is capable of, cousin. The difference in how you would’ve handled it opposed to how we handled it is clear in your previous statement though. You talkin’ bout time to see how a nigga moving. And that’s because you don’t want it to be true that the person you brought into the fold was on bullshit. Whereas we gon’ put a nigga down without hesitation.”
“Exactly,” Aura agreed. “So, remain as clueless as you are now. And if his people start to lean too hard on you, let me know, and they can go meet him in the upper room. It’s really as simple as one, two, three.”
She shook her head. “Damn, I really liked him too.”
Amil wasn’t fucked up about Naim’s death. She knew the rules and that everyone under the Sullivan umbrella abided by them, or you ended up missing.
“Oh, yeah? Then, why you ain’t bring him to meet Grandma Lettie then?” Aura challenged.
“I said liked, not loved, dummy.”
I stood to the side and listened to them go back and forth, same as they did when we were growing up. The shit was comical. But under the irritation and jabs, there was love and respect. And Amil knew that if Aura had to put a nigga down, it was for good reason.
I was about to cut in when my phone chimed. I assumed it was Thyri reaching out to check in. She would text me periodically throughout the day when she had EJ just to keep me in the loop on how his day was going. Even though we wereseeing each other, she still took her nanny role serious. What she didn’t know was that she would soon be fired with severance pay. I wanted to lock in for the long haul, so there was no need in her working for me anymore.
