by Jazz Jordan
CHAPTER 7
The air around Angelique’s cubicle was filled with the pungent smell of marijuana. Loud music blared into her ears with, “Bitches want my dick. Bitches want my dick, but it’s all a trick to get all they can get.” A few feet away from Angelique, the door to the studio opened and closed. Various scantily clad women walked in and out. She was furious that Vertigo was, at that moment, recording a song that was a far cry from the family friendly direction planned for the company’s rebranding.
Angelique stared at her laptop screen, unable to concentrate. What kind of work environment is this? She thought, wondering if she’d made a mistake by abandoning the security of her job at QMI Global for her less than professional surroundings. I didn’t go to college to deal with this shit! She closed the laptop screen and took a deep breath.
Angelique grabbed her phone out her purse and called Mona.
“Hey,” Mona answered. There was loud traffic in the background.
“Are you still coming in today?”
“Yeah, I’ll be there as soon as I finish up downtown. Is everything under control?”
“Of course, I just wanted to run something by you.” Angelique tried her best to sound confident.
“Okay, I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be there in an hour or so. I’m just gonna grab a quick bite. You want anything?”
“No thanks, I brought my lunch.”
“You do realize that we’re about to be millionaires. You don’t have to be so frugal, missy.”
Angelique smiled. “Yeah, but when we get that big check, I plan on staying a millionaire.” She lowered her voice. “By the way, any word on the status of our retainer?”
“Big Buck said that accounting will cut our check next week. He can’t swing half, but he agreed to a third. We’ll get the next check in January and the balance in March.”
“Sounds good,” Angelique said, counting up her share in her head. She was less than seven days away from a payday worth over half a million dollars.
“I’ve got another call, I’ll see you in a little bit.”
“Okay, we’ll talk when you get here.” Angelique hung up her phone, feeling a bit more inspired. She was never the kind of person who would do anything just for a dollar, but this was an entirely different situation. She could put up with loud music and the occasional contact high if it meant that she’d never have to worry about finances again.
The studio door opened, and Caliber walked out. He was a brotha who wore his jeans sagging down to his knees and his hair cornrowed straight back. He turned and smiled at her, revealing a diamond grill that rivaled Paul Wall’s. He pressed a marihuana joint up to his purple lips and took a puff. “Hey sexy, this is some hellafied sticky icky, and you look like you could use a hit.” Caliber offered it to Angelique.
“No thank you!” She cut her eyes at him.
“Damn baby, you ain’t gotta be so uptight.” He took another puff and eyed her cleavage. “You lookin’ real sexy in that business suit; you got a nigga’s mind runnin’ wild. Look, my Range Rover is parked in the garage, yo. How ‘bout you let me take you to the back seat real quick so I can lick you and stick you and…”
“Are you aware that sexual harassment is unlawful?”
“Bitch, I ain’t got to sexually harass no chick! You wish you could get at a nigga of my quality. Do you who the fuck I is?”
“I don’t know who you are, and I don’t care to know. You’re being disrespectful, and you’re totally out of line.”
He took a long puff and grinned. “Ha… I get it; you playin’ hard to get.” He reached out toward her breasts.
“Don’t touch me!” She stood up from her chair and stepped back.
The studio door opened, and Vertigo walked out with two women on each of his arms. They were identical twins, tall and shapely with heavy makeup and unbelievable weaves. One had in green contacts, and the other one wore blue contacts.
“Yo, Vert, this uppity bitch said I sexually harassed her! Can you believe that shit?”
Vertigo turned to him. “What the fuck did you do man?”
“He tried to grope me,” Angelique explained.
Vertigo shook his head. “You grimy motherfucka; what the hell is wrong with you?”
Caliber took a long drag from his joint and laughed. “Can’t you stand a joke, nigga?” He walked over to one of Vertigo’s protégés and whispered something in her ear.
She giggled as she lifted up her tight-fitting t-shirt, showing off a pair of high melon-sized tits. Caliber squeezed one of her breasts and buried his head into her chest. She and her twin sister laughed. Vertigo looked pissed. Finally, Caliber stepped back from the girl’s cleavage and said, “That should prove that I don’t have to sexually harass a bitch to get some ass. Ain’t that right, sexy?”
“Yeah, Caliber,” the topless twin said in a squeaky voice that gave Angelique a headache.
She touched her forehead, sickened by the grotesque display. For the first time, she was beginning to feel that the money wasn’t worth it. Angelique’s principles had always been important to her, and from the looks of it, Mandingo Records was going to compromise them on several levels. Moments ago, Caliber had tried to grope her. It almost happened, but the next time she might not be so lucky. And even if she avoided Caliber, Angelique feared that the place was filled with men like him.
Vertigo stepped away from the twins and approached Angelique. “I’m sorry he disrespected you.”
“Later for that bitch!” Caliber shouted. “You rollin’ with us or what?”
Vertigo shook his head.
“Let’s get out of here, ladies,” Caliber said as he wrapped each of his arms around one of the twins. They walked away.
“Thanks for taking up for me…” Angelique looked up into Vertigo’s hazel eyes. “But I can handle myself just fine.”
“You look like you can handle yours, but I’m not gonna stand by and see a lady get disrespected, especially not by no punk-ass nigga like him.”
“You want me to put my shirt back on?” the topless twin asked Caliber.
“Hell naw, show them titties off girl! You too.”
The other twin slipped off her shirt. As trio neared the elevator, several people around the office whistled and catcalled. The twins grinned and blew kisses, loving every second of the attention. When the three of them stepped onto the elevator, the twins dropped to their knees as the metal doors shut closed.
“Skanks,” Vertigo said.
“From the looks of it, you seemed to be enjoying their company,” Angelique said.
He shook his head. “Them two are the resident hos; they don’t mean shit to me. Caliber can have both of ‘em.”
“So you’re not the jealous type?”
“Not when it comes to chicks like that.”
Angelique grabbed her brown bag lunch off of the desk. “Hey, I forgot, what floor is the cafeteria on again?”
“It’s on the eighth floor.” Vertigo looked at her lunch. “What you got in there?”
Angelique raised the bag just slightly. “PB&J.”
“I’m all about my PB&J, but come on girl; it’s cold as hell outside. You know you need some hot food. How ‘bout we head over to B. Smith’s?”
Is Vertigo asking me out on a date? Angelique thought as she looked up at him in disbelief. She couldn’t deny his sex appeal. His handsome features and toned body made him a perfect ten, and the combination of his dark skin and hazel eyes were downright exotic. But Angelique knew she had to be careful. She didn’t believe in mixing business with pleasure. Although Vertigo was a splendid embodiment of her physical type, she knew that they had nothing in common. For all she knew, he was just a more cunning version of Caliber, and Angelique was not going to be anyone’s video ho.
She smiled. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m expecting my business partner any minute…”
“And I’m sure she’ll understand that you and I have some business to tend to.”
“You wouldn’t be acting like this if I was some stuffy dude in a suit and tie.”
Angelique hesitated; he was right. Throughout her career, she’d gone out for lunches, dinners and even drinks with several male colleagues. It was completely normal. In fact, a lot of business proposals were finalized over a good meal, and it was always platonic. But then again, none of those men possessed a fraction of Vertigo’s sexiness.
“Me and you have business together. I know Big Buck signed your contract, but please believe that I have pull around here. I know he has his mind made up, but there’s a lot of things I didn’t get off my chest at that first meeting we had. So what’s good? Can me and you sit down and chit-chat over some catfish and mac and cheese?”
Angelique smiled. “Sure.”
“That’s what’s up, ma. Come on, I’ll have my driver pick us up at the front door.”