Page 8 of Divine

Syre mentioned that he would be sending the information Sunday, but apparently, it had slipped his mind. With that in mind, I plopped down on the bed and dialed the number that reached out to me for the interview.

“Yeah,” someone answered after the first ring.

Assuming it was him, I went ahead and stated my business. “Hey, I’m all set to start tonight. I just wanted to remind you about sending the address.”

I could hear muttering in the background before he came back on the line. “Liam, my guy, I haven’t forgotten about sending you the address. My people have everything sorted out for you.”

“OK. I just wanted to make sure.”

“You’re all set. When you get there, there will be a briefing package for you in that big wicker basket on the porch. Make sure you read it from cover to cover before you get started. It’s only about five pages, but the lawyers in the family thought it was necessary. I don’t give a damn about no paperwork. Let me know when you get there because I need to call to give you oral instructions.”

“Cool.”

“There’s no dress code, but I do instruct everybody to dress as they normally would. We want to keep the environment comfortable and easy going. A bunch of niggas roaming around in uniform would make everybody tense. Just dress how you would if you were going to hang out with the guys.”

“Got it. I just wanted to make sure I was there on time,” I said, picking up the bottle of water from my table and taking a swig.

“Don’t sweat it, big guy. We have everything planned down to a science. You live exactly twenty-three minutes away from where you’ll be primarily stationed. I like that you’re eager to get there on time, though. I need that kind of dedication when it comes to protecting my girl. At the same time, we’re always diligent in protecting ourselves. I’ll send the address thirty minutes before your shift. As long as you’re ready to head out when it’s time to go, there won’t be an issue. Talk to you at eight, my guy. I’m in the middle of getting some pussy.”

My eyebrows shot up as I looked down at the phone.

“Did this nigga just say?” I mumbled under my breath as I looked at the home screen to verify that he had hung up.

He said all that shit before suddenly remembering that he was in the middle of getting some pussy. We had a whole conversation like it was nothing.

What the hell? Who in the world were these people? So far, I only knew the name of the owner and his company. I wasn’t usually a nosy person, but now, I was even more curious about the people I was about to be working for.

I only thought about it for a second before I stood and walked over to my dresser. I opened the top drawer and pulled out a pair of black Polo briefs, a black wife beater, and matching socks. After putting them on, I stood and surveyed my cologne collection before going with one of my top five. I hit my neck and made a line down my chest with a few sprays before putting it back in its rightful place.

Moving over to the closet, I took out a pair of black 501s, put them on, and pulled them up over my ass as my eyes scanned for what I would wear with them. Since he said dress how I dressed on a day-to-day basis, I reached out and removed a black and red Bulls jersey and slid it over my head.

I moved over to the shoe section and didn’t have to think before grabbing my black and red Jordan twelves to complete the look. If I could continue to wear my own clothes, then I could justify buying more shoes in the near future. I couldn’t walk around in busted shoes. I had to keep it fresh.

I laughed at my logic as I walked over and picked my phone up off the foot of the bed. I had barely killed thirty minutes, which gave me plenty of time to eat. I made a beeline to the kitchen where I had prepped some turkey burgers earlier. I walked over to the cabinet under the sink and removed a skillet.

I put some oil in the bottom of the skillet to heat up while I walked over to the refrigerator to remove the burgers. I placed them on the counter then turned back to the refrigerator to get lettuce, tomato, and pepper jack cheese. I placed everything on the island in my kitchen before I moved to my pantry to get honey, mustard, an onion, and an avocado.

By the time I had gathered everything, the oil was starting to heat up. I placed four of the turkey patties on the skillet and pressed them down with a spatula to make sure that they cooked evenly. While they cooked, I assembled the ingredients to make turkey burgers with my spin on a honey mustard dressing.

While my burgers cooked, I went to the living room to water my plants. A few years ago, I started with a peace lily from a funeral. I felt like I might as well get two to even things up, and from there I’d turned my living room and bedroom into a greenhouse. I had plants all over the room as well as several trees.

There were tomatoes and peppers growing at all times, and I even had a couple of fruit trees outside. Apples and plums grew right in my little back yard. I had as much lettuce, cabbage, and kale that I could stand to eat. Sometimes, I went down to the local food banks to give them a box or two when I found myself with too much on my hands.

I was grateful that I had stumbled upon gardening. It kept me stable when everything felt off balance. Being an earth sign gave me a connection to nature that I seemed to find when working the soil with my hands. The peonies and azaleas growing in my backyard were proof of how dedicated I was to my green thumb.

“Whatever happened to predictability, the milk man, the paperboy, and evening TV?” I sang under my breath as I watered my plants.

I put the watering can down next to one of the big, black ceramic pots that held my rubber trees and headed back to the kitchen to flip the burgers. I knew I wasn’t going to want to keep checking my phone for the time, so I went back to my bedroom and grabbed the black-on-black G Shock that I’d taken off the night before.

I was all set aside from putting together my burgers for now and later. With that thought, I went back to the task at hand. Since the turkey burgers were almost done, I put a slice of cheese on each one then dressed two of the burgers and placed the toppings for the other two on the side.

I grabbed three bottles of water, a peach nectarine Red Bull,and a protein shake out of the refrigerator and tossed everything except one of the waters into my insulated cooler. I put the plastic container with the condiments and toppings for my burgers inside along with a few bags of chips. I assembled two of the burgers and wrapped the other two in foil and placed them in plastic containers of their own.

There were a lot of late nights where I didn’t get hungry, but just in case, I was going to be prepared. I polished off two turkey burgers and drank the water in no time flat. It wasn’t often that I wasted time while eating. I enjoyed cooking, but I wasn’t all that ceremonious about the act of eating. If something was good I enjoyed it down to the last drop and that was that.

I grabbed a banana and a couple of tangerines to add to the bag that I would be taking with me tonight. As I zipped the bag, my phone rang. I wasn’t surprised to see that it was Syre calling back. I tapped the green button to answer the phone then put it to my ear.

“Just wanted you to be on standby for the address. Hit me up when you pull up, and I’ll give you another quick rundown.”

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