Once Trill arrived at Sunni’s house, he parked in the driveway and went and knocked on her door. Sunni opened the door and greeted Trill with a hug. “It’s good to see you.” Sunni smiled. “How was your day?”
“Honestly”—he took a deep breath—“it was a bit rocky. A real long day.”
“Sorry to hear that it wasn’t all that great. Do you want to tell me all about it?” she asked as she invited him in.
“It comes wit’ the territory. You gotta take the bad wit’ the good. All I need is a shower, some good company from you and some rest and I’ll be good.”
“I can manage that,” Sunni assured him.
Something about Sunni’s spirit made him feel relaxed. He didn’t feel the need to be on guard all the time. Although her house wasn’t half as extravagant as his and Precious’, it was more than a house. It was a home.
“Are you hungry? You want something to eat?” Sunni asked.
“I’m starving.” Trill watched Sunni walk toward the kitchen in her Seven jeans and her teal shirt that revealed one of her shoulders. He was no longer sure just exactly what he was hungry for—food or Sunni.
“I can warm up some of this lasagna I cooked last night.”
“I’ll pass on the lasagna. My momma always told me not to eat a woman’s lasagna or spaghetti.”
“She told you right, but I promise you”—she looked in his eyes—“I’m not trying to work no roots on you. I’m not interested in keeping no man who don’t want to be kept. You feel me?”
“I feel that.” Trill nodded. “I do want something to eat, but I want us to go out so we can talk. I want to know who Sunni is, the woman under all that armor.”
“Since you’re tired, how about we just chill inside and order in. We can sit by the fireplace and chat there,” Sunni suggested.
“Only if you agree to participate and give me a heart to heart.”
“Just make sure you keep it real,” she informed him as she went up the stairs to draw his bathwater.
It was taking a few minutes for Sunni to get things together for Trill in the bathroom, so, he got up from the sofa and went upstairs, to check on her.
“Hey, where you at?” he called as he roamed the hall.
“I’m in here,” Sunni yelled out from the bathroom.
“What you doin’?” he said as he entered.
“I’m getting everything straight so I can give you a bath, a massage and a pedicure since you had a long day.”
“Are you going to personally bathe me?”
“I can.” She smiled.
“That’s a good look.”
“Yeah, just make sure you return the favor when I have a bad day,” Sunni returned with a wink as she tested the temperature of the water with her hand.
“No doubt.”
“Well, everything you need is in here,” Sunni said as she exited the bathroom.
“Not anymore,” Trill hinted.
“I’ll be waiting right outside the door for you,” Sunni said, then smiled and walked away. “Holler when you’re undressed and in the water.”
Within a few minutes Sunni responded to Trill’s call that he was ready for her to come wash his back. As she did so, Trill began asking her about her life.
“Why don’t you have a man? I know you like what we got,” Trill said with a laugh as her hand dipped down over his belly.
“That’s a long story.”
“I got time.”
“Okay, but remember you asked. I was with this dude, Scoop. Not living with him. I was living with my gram. Scoop made the mistake of selling coke to a snitch right on the front porch. When the police kicked in the door, it went flying off the hinges, and my grandmother had a heart attack right then and there.”
Trill looked at her sympathetically.
“I won’t never forgive Scoop for that. But then it got worse. Gram’s health got worse after that, and she died. She was the only dependable and stable thing I ever had in my life. Scoop comes along saying he’s gonna take care of me.”
Sunni shook her head, remembering how Scoop nobly stepped up to the plate and vowed that he would take care of her, that he would make sure she always had a roof over her head and a full belly. He vowed that he would be everything that she ever needed in a man. The Bible says better it is that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Well, obviously Scoop’s grandmother never dragged his butt to church.
“Yeah, and what happened?” Trill wanted to know.
“When the indictments came out, Scoop found out that he was facing twenty years. Until death do us part, ride or die, death before dishonor to anybody, including his momma, went clean out of the window. He cracked at the pickup. Before he was even sitting down good in the interrogation room, not only had he given up all his peoples, but me, too.”
“Some niggas.” Trill shook his head.
It didn’t matter that Sunni had never touched a drug a day in her life. She didn’t even know cocaine from baby powder. The detectives didn’t give a shit. Somebody had to take the charge. Since Sunni didn’t cooperate with the detectives by providing them with the information they needed when they were trying to pin the case on Scoop, she would have to do some time. It didn’t matter if she had showed up to court dressed like a nun, she was still going straight to hell if the system had anything to do with it.
“So that’s how you wound up in the penitentiary?”
“At nineteen years old, I was sentenced to five years. Got out after three for good behavior.”
“How did you manage to do so well when you got out?”
“While I was locked up, I got my GED. I also got certificates in cosmetology and business management. Most important, I learned how to manipulate the system. My gram was my inspiration; Scoop was, too, in a way, because I promised myself I would never let anyone do me that way again.”
After the bath was over, the Chinese food arrived and they sat in front of the fireplace and continued to enjoy the company of one another.
“So, what’s up with you and that girl Precious?” Sunni just came out and asked. It was his turn to ’fess up.
Trill was about to come up with a lie, but decided to shoot from the hip, keeping it totally real. “Honestly, I’m trying to figure that out myself. Everything ain’t everything like I thought it was. As you know, sometimes that same person we put all of our trust in is the one who should be the least trusted.”
“Amen,” Sunni agreed.
“I just need to figure a few things out.”
“Well, let’s figure them out together,” Sunni said, moving in closer, giving Trill her undivided attention.
“Precious was someone who I used to fuck and used as an arm piece before I got locked up. I was a mediocre hustler, getting money on a way smaller scale than I am now.” Sunni listened attentively as Trill continued. “Anyway, we were out one night and some bustas tried to rob me. I think they thought because I was out with a chick that I wasn’t gon’ have a piece on me. But they was dead wrong, I never leave home without it.”
“That’s why you were giving me such a hard time about you not having your pistol.”
He nodded and continued with his confession. “Well, I was shooting back on the strength. She got caught in the cross fire and ended up losing her leg.”
“No way.” Sunni felt kind of bad that she had to act as if she didn’t already know the business. “Damn!”
“Once I went to jail, Shawdy held me down. She raised my son for me. To this day I don’t even know how she held it down, fo’ real.”
“That’s deep.”
“Witnessing her do all that for me”—he dropped his head—“I fell in love with her. I really had no other choice but to give her my undying love and loyalty.”
“I feel that,” Sunni said, but Trill could see the disappointment in her eyes.
Trill caressed her face with the back of his hand. “But a lot has changed and now the stakes are different.”
“How so?”
“They just are.”
“I don’t understand. Can you please make me understand? Because I am about to put my shield back up and the armor is going back on.”
He put his hand up and said, “Hold up! Hear me out.”
“I’m listening.”
“Look, I’ve been hustling in the streets since I was ’bout fourteen, knowing firsthand illegal hustling got a time capsule on it.” Sunni looked at Trill as he continued to drop jewels on her. “Once I was released from prison, my plan was to come home and build a foundation for us, a house, nice cars, work on getting a business, stack me some real paper and get out the game.”
“Sounds like you had a pretty good plan. What happened?”
“Usually a plan consists of a few good men or women.”
“Oh?”
“Well, I put my work in, but Shawdy girl, she…” He shook his head as his words tapered off.
Inside Sunni got a bit enthusiastic, but she didn’t show it. Her round eyes focused in on him like a puppy dog.
“You know how dudes come home from the penitentiary and they try to play catch-up?” Trill voiced, staring off as if he were reminiscing.
Sunni nodded. “I’ve seen it a many of times.”
“Well, it was vice versa. She wanted to play catch-up. Needed a house off the bat. Within two months of me coming home, I bought our house, a house she had clipped out a magazine.”
“Wow! You hit the ground running.”
“Got her a nice whip, the finest prosthetic leg money could buy and I gave her an allowance every week. I’m not bragging. Nor am I kicking dirt on Shawdy, either. I just felt like I owed that to her, you know.”
Sunni assured him that she understood. She was engrossed in the conversation because she had never had such a real conversation with a man. She was used to lies and deceit.
“No matter how much I gave her, it was never enough. And never did she try to move forward with the business ventures we talked about to make us legit.”
“That’s crazy to me. I wish I had someone who could have given me a jump start on my business.”
“How did you get your business?” Trill probed, turning the tables.
“When I came home from jail, I still had money that Scoop had given me to put away early in our relationship. I gave it to my friend Cher to hold for me. I didn’t know she was still going to have it when I came home. After all I had been through, I was sure it would be gone.”
“Damn, Cher is a real soldier.”
“Fa’real.” Then Sunni changed the subject back to him. “So you gon’ marry Precious?”
“Like I said, I appreciate everything she’s done and I will always hold her down. But on some real shit, it ain’t no future there. I’m trying to retire and have a legit business.” There was silence between them. He took her hand into his and looked at her. “Real talk, from the heart.” He put his hand on his heart. “I haven’t been this comfortable with a woman in a long time. Never even thought I could feel this way.”
“Straight like that?” Sunni asked softly.
“Straight like that.”