Authors: Arlene Brathwaite
“How you know who they are if they on the DL?” Baby asked.
“You got to look for the signs,” Mr. Ryan said, placing emphasis on signs.
“What are the signs?” Esther asked.
“When your man’s earrings hang lower than yours, your antennas better go up. If he wears spandex and tweezes his eyebrows, watch out. If y’all be having arguments over him being in the mirror longer than you or he’s always admiring himself in the mirror, he is definitely a DL brother.”
“You’re too much,” Olivia said.
“He ain’t lying, though,” Baby said.
“What you know about DL brothers?” Olivia asked.
“Remember Johnny?”
“The guy you was all in love with last summer?”
“Yeah. He was a DL brother.
“Get out of here,” Miki said, walking up on the conversation.
“I saw the signs, but I refused to believe it. Mr. Ryan ain’t lying. Especially the part about being in the mirror longer than me. That was the first sign. But when he asked me to do some freaky shit one night, I two-pieced him.”
“What did he ask you to do?” Miki asked eyes wide.
“All I’m going to say is, he wanted to put my thumb where it don’t have no business being.”
“And you two-pieced him?” Miki asked astonished.
“Shit, I was going to four-piece him, but the two-piece put him out cold.”
“Damn, Baby,” the young gentlemen sitting in Lynise’s chair getting a pedicure said. “Tell me what I got to do to get you on my team.”
“After that episode, I’m a free agent, no commitments, and anybody who wants to get with me his paper got to be the way I like my dicks: long and strong.”
“Baby!” Olivia tried yelling over the roars and the claps. Olivia didn’t mind a little trash talk, as long as the language wasn’t too graphic.
“And why the hell are you so quiet?” Chuck asked Grace.
Grace looked like she was about to bust. “Glenn wanted me to wait until he got here, but…” she looked at Olivia. “He proposed to me last night.”
“And?” Baby asked.
“And I said yes.” Grace started jumping up and down. Baby, Esther, Miki and Olivia ran to her and crowded around her for a group hug.
“My girl is getting married,” Olivia said. “And I’m getting old,” Mr. Ryan said.
“Oh hush up. My girl is getting married.”
The women talked for a couple minutes before getting back to work.
Byron walked in, like he was walking down a runway. Mr. Ryan elbowed Olivia and mouthed “DL.” She started laughing.
“Olivia, how are you?” he asked. “I’m fine. How ‘bout yourself?”
“Wonderful.” He looked at his watch, then looked at Lynise. “Am I early?”
“No, I’ll be with you in a second.”
“No, rush. I’ll be in the boardroom.”
“I think he likes you,” Baby said. “He won’t allow anyone to touch his head, hands, or feet but you.”
Lynise smiled bashfully.
Olivia was just glad he stopped sweating her. Everyone froze when Glenn walked through the door.
“You told them,” he said to Grace.
“Congratulations!!” Everyone shouted.
Grace ran into his arms. “I’m sorry, baby. I tried to hold it, but they dragged it out of me.”
“Yeah,” Baby said. “We had to twist her arm.”
Grace stuck her middle finger up at her.
Forty minutes later, Olivia was just finishing off Mr. Ryan, when her oldest brother, David walked in.
“What brings you around here?” she asked.
“I need a reason to come see my little sister?”
“What’s wrong? Toya okay?”
“Everything’s fine. I was in the neighborhood, and decided to drop in to see how you were doing.”
“Other than working twelve hours a day and having appointments booked as far ahead as next year, I’m doing just great.”
“That’s wonderful.”
“Why don’t you go wait in my office. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Sure.”
Olivia walked in fifteen minutes later. “Okay, what’s the real deal?”
“Sis, everything is fine. I’m just dropping by.”
Olivia folded her arms and stared at him for a minute, before walking to her chair and sitting down. “You’ll have to excuse me. I’m just not used to you coming down, just to see how I’m doing.”
“Well, get used to it. Me, Jon-Jon, Shawn and Mike had a meeting after we all had our meeting the other day.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, we kinda agreed that we’ve been just a little overprotective with you.”
“You think?”
“You got to understand—”
Olivia held her hand up. “I understand. The business, dudes trying to get with me just to get a piece of Butta Cutz.”
“It’s more than that.” David sat on the edge of the chair. “You were young when mom died, but you remember how close we all were.
Olivia nodded.
“She was beautiful, inside and out.”
Olivia put her head down.
“The night she died was like any other night in our household. We would eat dinner, take our showers, brush our teeth, and go to bed. No one seen it coming. Just like that, she dies in her sleep.” David’s eyes were brimming with tears. “You and mom could pass for twins.”
Olivia dabbed at her tears as they ran down her cheeks.
David continued. “She just slipped through our hands. She was the glue that held us together. Then you became the glue that holds us together. If anything was to happen to you, me, Jon-Jon, Shawn and Mike we would lose our minds. So, we hover over you, not because we don’t want you to have a personal life. We just know how it feels to have the woman of our lives snatched from us, and we’re not trying to lose anymore women in our family.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything. Just know that we love you and we see you as the mother hen. And we’re not going to let anything happen to you.”
“I appreciate everything that you guys do for me. You know I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for y’all. I still say y’all should be with me when I go on Oprah.”
“No, that’s your time to shine. And you are going to shine.”
Olivia stood up and hugged her brother.
“So, how are you and the accountant doing?”
“We broke up.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“Nope. I think he has some unresolved issues in his life that he has to find closure on.”
“That’s what he told you?”
“No, that’s what Dr. Phil would’ve said.”
“Oh, God. You and Dr. Phil.”
“The man is a psychological genius.”
“Well, I’m not a psychological genius, but I know you, and I know you were feeling some kind a way about that guy. Maybe you should use your ‘Dr. Phil’ skills and help him resolve his issues.”
“I got bigger things to worry about, right now. Byron secured a store front in Queens, on Merrick Boulevard.”
David nodded. “Okay, we doing big things. A Butta Cutz in Queens, I’m feeling that.”
“And I talked to his man in Philly. He’s ready to convert his barbershop into a Butta Cutz.”
“Umm.”
“And… Grace is getting married.”
“Get out of here.”
“Glenn proposed to her last night.”
David just looked at her smiling.
“What?”
“It’s good to see you happy.”
“I am. And I’m going to treat myself.”
“Not another pair of shoes.”
“No, butt head. I’m going to go home, curl up on my couch, and break night watching the Law & Order marathon.”
“You’re playing, right?”
“Heck no. I’m staying up all night and then I’m taking tomorrow off.”
“Well, I guess it’s better than getting another pair of shoes.”
Olivia punched him in the arm.
Olivia jumped out of her sleep when she heard the pounding on her front door. She looked at her clock, it was ten in the morning. She broke night watching Law & Order as planned, and had just drifted to sleep. She grabbed her robe and rushed to the door, thinking it was one of her brothers.
“Hold on,” she said as she slid the bolt off. She stepped back in shock when she opened the door.
“You’re through,” Byron shouted, with spittle flying out his mouth. He threw a 9x12 manila envelope at her. “You think you can play me, bitch? I’m going to show you how to play the game. When I’m done suing you, you’re going to be selling
you’re
ass. I’m closing your whore house down.”
“What are you talking about?”
Byron lifted his hand as if he was going to smack her. “See you in court.” He spat at her feet and marched to his car. He filled the early morning with screeching tires as he pulled off.
Olivia looked at the envelope that she realized she was clutching to her chest. She opened it and pulled out the piece of paper that was balled up in it. In big letters Byron had written “FUCK YOU’. As she read the letter, her hands started shaking. She pulled out the pictures that were inside. She looked at them one, by, one. Each one made her madder than the last. She threw them against the wall and sat in the middle of the floor and cried.
Olivia’s grief quickly turned to scorching anger. She ran to her room and threw on a pair of jeans, a sweater, and a pair of sneakers. She snatched her car keys up and ran out her house, leaving the front door wide open. She slowed down to the speed limit. She realized in her rush to get to the salon, she didn’t have her license on her. She couldn’t afford getting pulled over. Not now. She had some work to put in. Her car came to a screeching halt. She jumped out without turning it off.
Miki’s eyes lit up when she saw Olivia walk in. Her mouth dropped open when she saw the dark look on her face. Olivia scanned the salon until she spotted the dead man walking. The whole scene unfolded in slow motion as Olivia ran up on Lynise and delivered her wicked left hook to the side of Lynise’s temple. She collapsed like a beach chair. Olivia kicked her motionless body three times before remembering she had two more victims. She looked up like a rabid dog and her eyes locked with Lynise’s two friends who Jon-Jon had convinced her to hire, Renee and Simone.
Renee backed up and was about to run for the front door, but Baby grabbed her by her long weave and used her face as a punching bag. She didn’t know what Lynise and her friends did, but to see Olivia ready to catch a body, had her ready to be her co-defendant. Esther, Grace and Miki were all on the same page. Esther started after Simone who was now scrambling toward the front door. Grace stood in front of it like a raging bull ready to charge. Miki came flying from behind the reception desk with a bat. Chuck ushered the customers out and locked the door as Jordan tried to break up the simultaneous fights. When Chuck turned around, Olivia was on top of Simone pounding her face in like a meat tenderizer. Baby and Esther had tag teamed Renee. Miki stood in the center of it all gripping the bat, thirsty to bash somebody’s head in.
Lynise made the fatal mistake of coming to and trying to get to her feet. Miki’s face twisted into a mask of anger as she swung the bat at Lynise’s head. God must’ve been on Lynise’s side, because she twisted her ankle as she tried to get up and fell. The bat skinned the top of her head, causing her to gasp.
One of the customers must’ve seen Jon-Jon on their way down the block, because he was at the door, fumbling with his key to open it. He finally got in.
“Olivia! What the fuck is going on?”
Hearing his voice made her look up. Her fingers curled into claws as she stormed toward him. Miki blinked as Olivia snatched the bat out of her hands.
“I trusted you,” Olivia said like a wounded animal.
Jon-Jon walked toward her, acting like he was mad, as well. “Put that fucking bat down.”
“You bastard.” Olivia swung the bat, cracking him square on the shoulder.
Jon-Jon backed up in shock.
Olivia swung the bat again. This time he didn’t call her bluff. He back pedaled and ran out the salon.
“Get these bitches in the back before I kill them,” she said to Chuck and Jordan through clenched teeth.
“Baby!” Olivia screamed. “That’s enough. Although Lynise had blacked out long ago, Baby was still banging her limp head against her barber chair.
Baby looked up at Olivia to make sure she was all right and then smashed Lynise’s head against the chair one last time before letting her drop to the floor.
Chuck and Jordan helped Renee and Simone to their feet and walked them to the back. “Y’all bitches is lucky you ain’t dead,” Jordan said.
Chuck smacked Lynise a couple times. “Boss, I think she may need an ambulance.”
“Move!” Baby said, sizing her up like a punter about to kick the shit out of a football, “I’ll wake her ass up.”
“Olivia grabbed Baby by one of her suspenders. “Back off Baby.”
Everyone looked outside when they saw the flashing lights of a police car.