Page 6 of Virgo Type Sh*t (BLP Signs of Love #1)

Some Time Later . . .

Charleston, South Carolina

“Man, I told you not ta hire dat girl when you had hire her,” Casey, my best friend, jested. “Nah, you thought it been ga be cool ta have dat girl work here. I tol’ you to keep boppas off our payroll.”

I dropped my head into my hand. “Man, I ain’t think that girl was ca do all that dumb shit. I mean, I happy da shit ain’t had shit to do wit’ me, but again, I can’t have dat shit mixed up in my business.”

Casey and I were sitting on my back deck, smoking a blunt.

It was finally the weekend, and I couldn’t have been happier.

It had been a high productivity week for my family company, Burke Manufactured Homes.

After high school, I went to Trident Technical College for Civil Engineering Technology.

From then on, I became a general contractor, just like my dad, Jethro Burke.

I made good money as a general contractor, but it wasn’t enough to keep my ass out of the streets. I was hell in those streets too.

My father went to my older brother, Odafin or O.J.

as we called him, for help. My parents set my and my brother’s middle name as Jethro in honor of our father.

My dad said that he didn’t want a junior.

Where and why they came up with our first names should be studied.

My first name, Tumnus, has something to do with a wardrobe and a lion or some shit.

Odafin came from that detective in the sixteenth precinct on that damn dun, dun, dun show. My mama was wild for that one.

My brother was older than me by two years at thirty years old.

When he got into trouble, my father reached out to one of his friends that he grew up with, Fabuloso.

My father had the thought process of if you’re going to do the wrong thing, at least let me show you how to do the wrong thing right.

He and my mother went back and forth about my father’s decision to connect my brother with Fabuloso, until my brother was shot four times and almost died at twenty-three.

After that, my mother was amenable to anything that would keep her son alive.

Two years later, O.J. worked for Fabuloso’s daughter, Galiana.

He now ran one of their family’s mortuaries and was a certified mortician.

When they said that my brother knew where the bodies were buried, that had dual meanings for him.

Well, when I got into my shit, that mortician shot wasn’t for me, so Galiana thought a better fit for me would be with her husband’s company, Christianson Enterprise.

I joined them at the tender age of twenty and had been with them since.

When I was twenty-three, I teamed up with my father to start our own business in construction, but we went the manufactured homes avenue.

Casey sucked his teeth. “I’on know how you ain’t think that girl was not gonna come to a job where it’s basically a dick buffet for a boppa and not think her ass wasn’t gonna gobble some up.” His hard ass stare told me what I already knew that I knew what it was.

“Bubba, I ain’t ga say I ain’t think she was ga come get full, but I thought her ass wouldn’t be messy about ’em,” I admitted. “How da fuck you outcha fuckin’ on somebody husband when his wife work here too?”

I foolishly hired this girl that I fucked with in the past. She came to me with her baby daddy problems, so I looked out and gave her a desk job at our manufacturing plant, where we built the homes that we sold.

Her damn job was to sit in the front office, answer the damn phones, set the showing for the agents who showed the homes, and file papers.

There were more duties than that, but that was the gist of them.

Unfortunately, her unprofessional ass spent more time with dick in her on the clock than she did doing her actual job.

Today, Casey who managed the plant, had to fire her, the wife, and the husband. The women fought on the production floor which was a major risk and hazard. Casey chuckled. “Now, you know there’s very few hoes dat got self-control. Let’s jus’ not do dat shit again.”

I showed him my middle finger before we both laughed. “What the fuck eva, man. Now we gotta backfill those positions.”

Casey snapped his fingers. “Oh, speakin’ of hiring, Croy reached out ta me dat other day to ask if we were in the market for an electrician. Fiona’s cousin lookin’ fa a job.” He took his phone out and tapped on the screen. “I just sent it to your email.”

I picked my phone up and went to my email to pull up what more than likely would be a résumé.

I would look at it as a formality, but I’d hire whoever it was because of where the referral came from.

Mekole Henderson. I skimmed the résumé and was impressed by the experience.

“This looks good. I’m cool wit’ it if you wanna hire ’em.

” I looked at the time on my phone. “Shit, let’s get outta here so we can get to his house. ”

Once a month, Croy had a kickback at his spot that he invited select individuals to.

I’d only been invited for about a year. Casey wasn’t directly connected to Christianson Enterprises, but he knew what it was.

Although he wasn’t connected, my best friend ate exceptionally well.

It was always the same people at these kickbacks, which was cool because the tighter your circle, the harder it was to break it.

I lived in North Charleston, and Croy lived in Summerville.

It wouldn’t take me a long time to get to his house since it was a straight shot down D Road to there.

Casey and I were the last to get there. The kickback was always on his back deck.

That was one thing that everyone that I hung with had in common, nice ass back decks.

My father, some of our workers, and I had built many back decks.

We didn’t only build manufactured homes.

“What’s up, Bubba?” Croy greeted me and Casey when he opened his front door. “We all outcha.” We followed him through his house.

He and his wife, Fiona, recently became empty nesters when their twins went to college. Both of them followed their older sister, Croya, to South Carolina State University. Croy loved that shit because it made it easier to stalk his kids on one campus.

The usual suspects were here: Mega, Ned, Draco, Jacob, War, and Yetti. “What’s up, y’all?” I greeted everyone.

I’d worked on missions with Ned and a few times with Mega before he retired.

Draco was what I called a sole survivor because it was like they sent his ass in and only he came out.

Jacob was my boss, but he was cool as fuck.

War was Jacob’s best friend, and Yetti was War’s brother.

The circle was tight. It was so tight that all their women were close friends, if not best friends.

When Ned asked what was up with us, Casey’s ass told their asses about our ho ass receptionist. “Man, I don’t wanna talk about dat ho. Croy, I looked at da résumé you sent ova for Fiona’s cousin. Ole boy got a lotta experience.”

Croy had just pulled from his blunt when I made my statement. He didn’t speak until he took a sip from his cup. “Ole girl. It’s a female.”

That caught me off guard. Not to say that a woman couldn’t be an electrician, but you rarely saw it. “Oh, that’s what’s up. You don’t see too many females in that field.”

“You talkin’ about Mekole?” War asked. After Croy confirmed, he nodded. “Yeah, she a cool chick. She’s staying in one of the apartments in one of our buildings downtown.”

War and his brother owned three lifestyle-apartment complexes.

They had one downtown, North Charleston, and in Summerville.

I lived in their North Charleston community before I purchased my home a few years ago.

The rent in their communities were on the upper end of the pricing spectrum, but it was worth it.

“Yeah, she told Fiona she loves it there. Shit . . .” He glanced down at his watch. “Her ass should be here in a few minutes. You know when we have our kickbacks, the girls do their shit too.”

Mega rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I’on like the shit either.” He pointed at all the men. “Tell y’all heathenish wives that they have one more time to give my woman of God an edible, and I’m coming through like the devil on their asses.”

His brows kissed between his eyes. There was a dead silence before everyone erupted in laughter. “Man, stop acting like you didn’t reap the benefits of her little high ass,” Ned said through his laughter.

Mega threw his hands in the air. “Man, yeah. I think it’s a benefit until after the fact.” He scootched up in his seat. “What I’m about to tell y’all better never leave this fucking deck.”

I knew whatever he was about to say would be good because his ass barely cursed anymore. This nigga was the most ignorant nigga that I’d ever met, but he was a real one. If he was on your side, then you could never lose. We all agreed.

He huffed, lowered his head, then lifted it up with tight eyes.

“At the last kickback, one of y’all wives gave her ass a whole edible, and they let Tana make the damn drinks.

When her ass came home, she was on ya boy!

My mama had our bad ass kids, so I was ready to ping pong that holy pussy around the room.

From the windows to the ceiling, then to the walls.

We didn’t even make it to the bedroom. The window, ceiling, and walls of our living room were about to get the business. ”

He clapped his hands. “I did just that too. So boom, we fell asleep in the living room on the couch. I’on even know how long we were asleep when I woke up. Ruth’s ass ain’t on the couch with me. I look up, her ass is looking up the chimney. I watched her for a second because what the hell.