Big Business — by Brian M. Riley

 

 

For the reason of insurance Abraham says for me to keep record of these facts for the business we have now from the house. Abraham, he will be the customer service agent and me, Edwardo McKlusky Nguyen, I will write all the happenings in this long and yellow paper pad.

“Baby, you’re the wordsmith between us,” Abe said to me before.

“So, how about when it comes to handling our clients, I’ll do all the talking—and you do all the record keeping?”

“I am to keep the records?”

In the chair he twirled to put me between his knees. Then wrapping my thighs into his hands Abraham told me, “Right. It’ll be my job to charm the pants off of these people—and it’ll be your job to keep track of what everybody was wearing. How’s that sound?”

“But Abraham, you said to me how no more around us would have to be the naked!”

And to this he laughed. “I’m not literally going to be charming their pants off, pumpkin! I just mean I’m going to be schmoozing with them.”

“This is what, ‘to be schmoozing’?”

“Schmoozing is like sweet talking.” And with this my Abraham kissed my belly of brown sand. “You gotta admit, I’m pretty good at it—sweet talkin’.”

With my fingers Abraham’s silver hair was combed. “And me, I am good and pretty with the records?”

“The best.”

“So we both of us has a job in Dot Com that is equal?”

“Fifty fifty, pumpkin pie. We`re partners now, you and me. In life and in business.”

“We both of us are now the boss of us!”

“That’s right, Eddie.”

To us this sounded hot and so of the course we made the love. I do not know if this fact is a record to put in the yellow pad, but to be safe I write everything now inside. Plus so happy it makes me to read, how Abe and Eddie always make the love. Every sentence in the planet should have words about the love.

And it is besides like Abe says, if the boss of me is now me—I then order to me to record always the love and tell me, ‘Edwardo, good job well done!’

But my Abraham is truly the smartest man. For in the case of any accidents, like a customer doggy or meow kitty running away from our home, we can then show the owner people this pad of records—and maybe even a judge in a court if we must—as proof of what is our innocence.

Oh, but the most important record for me to put—I am forgetting of what this is all to be!

Abe and me, Edwardo McKlusky Nguyen, are now the boss men of Sit and Stay Dot Com. This is the new business we have made as husband and husband. Abe is the smart man with the computer, making the pictures and the words for our customers to click on, renting the days for their doggies and meow kitties to be sat.

It is in this way how Abe and me have the plan to spend our lives together from now until forever. Not ever will we have to leave our home if we do not want (just for the walking of the doggies, of the course!).

“Look at that!” said Abraham soon from the top on his lap. “We’ve already booked a client! Bailey and Rhett Morgan, proud owners of Peanuts. But lookit this, they marked ‘Labrador’ by mistake.” He pointed to the screen’s picture. “Peanuts looks like a Puli to me!”

On the screen was the Peanuts dog and OMG I screamed to see a Puli!  Like a mop of the night was the Peanuts dog who was marked a Labrador by mistake, black with the hairs of fat ropes from Jamaica.

“And wow—they want an immediate drop off!” said Abe to me as he was reading the message.

“Means ‘immediate’ in this?”

“Immediate means right away, pumpkin. They want to check Peanuts in pronto!”

“No, Abraham,” I made a screech. “I am not in my shoes and even into my shirt!”

“They’re not dropping him off right now, silly. But soon! Tonight at seven!”

“I have better to write in the yellow pad about the Peanuts the dog at seven as a record!”

“You got that right, baby. You have to keep close track of all this stuff! We don’t want to make any mistakes. I’m going to send a booking confirmation,” said my husband when he typed. “And then we better run a quick vacuum around this joint. It’s a bit crack housey.”

With now the million things to do I ran and excited for the room we now the two of us share. But at the hallway Abe called to me that I should turn around to him quick.

And I did to find him now smiling so happy.

Never have I looked at my Abraham so happy.

“We’re really doing it, Eddie. We’re really making this work.”

And to me he blinked the eye.

Like all the other times I tried to blink my eye to him back, but again blinked both my two eyes instead.

At this he laughed and laughed, “You’re way too cute.”

“You trick me always!” I told him.

“No baby, not anymore.” Abraham smiled with love to me. “No more tricks. We’re partners now, remember. It’s just you and me—and Sit and Stay Dot Com.”

With tears filling up in my eyes that always both blink, I went to the room we now share to get pretty for the first computer customers and the Peanuts dog they have that is not a Labrador it is a Puli.

This now is the end of a record. The first one. Now to go back and see how in every sentence there can be added the love. It is from now on for us the most important.

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Brian M. Riley lives as an illustrator and educator in the San Francisco Bay Area. His writing has appeared in the likes of The Fix, Page & Spine, and Berlin’s KING KONG magazine.