by Anna Black
“What if Tiffany doesn’t want it?” she said. She didn’t want to be defeated. “Baby, Langley is not returning, and you can make an executive decision on how you want things to run. Langley doesn’t have to even know until I’m already in it. I can give my shows to Tiffany and even Darryl, and you know everything they touch turns to platinum. It would be a win-win. Plus, I can let Tiffany’s junior’s assistant have the idea for My Single Life since they want to accuse me of stealing it, and we’ll all be happy.”
Mike was quiet at first, but then Tracy went there. “What’s the purpose of being family if I have no privileges?”
“What are you talking about, Tracy?” he asked. She didn’t understand why he was confused.
“I mean, I take care of you, Mikey, and as your mommy, that should entitle me to something. I don’t want to start talking to the other moms about our relationship. Tiffany is expecting. I’m sure I can give her some parenting tips, though.” His body shifted under hers.
“You and I both know that you don’t need to discuss what goes on here. You gave me your word.”
“I did, but I also assumed with my role you would make me privileged.”
He let out a breath. “It does.”
“Do you like what I do to you, Mikey?”
“You know I do.”
“So me getting a new title overseeing my department can happen for me, right?”
“Tracy, I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t make any promises.”
“Okay,” she said, and then stood. She went over to her bag. “While I have your undivided attention, baby, can I show you something?”
“What do you want to show me, Tracy?” She could hear the impatience in his voice, but she didn’t give a damn. Mike was a very wealthy man, and he wasn’t paying her for her sexual favors, so she wanted what she wanted. She retrieved her tablet from her bag, then she got back in the bed, and he propped himself up an elbow.
“What are you showing, babe?”
“You’ll see; it’s a new show idea. You’re going to love it.” She pressed Play, and when Mike saw himself and her, in his playroom, his eyes bucked.
“Tracy, when did you record us?”
“The real question is when did I start recording us?”
Mike’s dark complexion went pale, and Tracy knew he was terrified. “Okay, then, when?” he asked in a panic.
“Well, it was a couple of months ago when I got you that teddy bear. It is a nanny cam. I wanted to watch you while I was away and watching when I wasn’t away is just an added bonus. Now, it did please me to know that you’re saving this special thing for me only, so that is a plus, but there is nothing to think about, Mike. I know you can create any position you want, and I want Tiffany Banks to answer to me,” she thundered.
Tracy could tell Mike was nervous. She didn’t know it would be that easy, but she knew he’d want to keep this part of his life a secret.
“Fine, Tracy, fine. I’ll have your new contract drawn up by week’s end.”
“And my office?” she smirked. “I assume I’ll be moving to a different floor.”
“Of course, just promise me you will not let this footage go any further than this room. I don’t want to embarrass my wife or my company. This stays between us, right? I mean, it’s hard to find someone that is like me, Tracy, and the others, I paid for their silence, so if you want a higher position, it’s yours.”
“Thanks, baby,” she leaned in and kissed him. “You’re the best.”
He gave her a half smile.
“I want to call a meeting to announce my promotion.”
“Of course,” Mike said. She caressed his face. She was overjoyed and proud that everything was working in her favor.
“Now come here, baby, and give Mommy’s clit some attention,” she purred. She knew the last thing Mike may have wanted to do was go down on her, but she insisted that he did. He wasn’t the best-looking man, but his bedroom skills were off the charts, so she never had a problem with having sex with him. If she had to be honest, she had grown to like him. Hell, she suddenly felt like she could do anything. Make Mike leave his wife . . . become part owner of the company—hell, the sky was the limit, but for now, she’d enjoy the moment she was in. Now she was over Tiffany, and she called all the shots, and she couldn’t wait to see the look on Tiffany’s face.
This Is Where It Ends
Episode 28
Tiffany
The following week, when Tiffany walked off the elevator, she was bombarded with a lobby of producers, cast members, and her assistants. Everyone was talking about something, and Tiffany wondered what happened that day and so early. She hurried to her office and checked in with her assistant.
“Summer, what’s going on? What’s up with this morning’s circus?”
“You haven’t heard?”
“Heard what?”
Before she could answer, Darryl and Myah had made it over to Tiffany.
“Oh my word, turtle dove—Tracy! The shit is about to hit the fan,” Daryl said, fanning himself.
“What’s going on, guys? Someone just please tell me.” Maybe there was a fight or a personal matter because Tiffany had just had brunch with Langley the day before and they were still on schedule, so it had to be some celeb, cast member drama, she thought. Boy, was she wrong.
“Well, your girl got a promotion,” Myah spat.
“Who got what?”
“You heard me. Tracy is now the head of our department!” Myah barked.
“Says who and since when?”
“Since today. I don’t know. But first thing this morning when I checked my e-mails, it said meeting this morning at nine sharp in screening room B to announce the new head of our division,” Myah responded.
Tiffany laughed. “This has got to be a joke. I saw the alert, but I didn’t open any e-mails this morning.”
“No joke, honey bun,” Darryl said and whipped out his phone. He went to his inbox and shared the message with Tiffany.
Her eyes scanned the e-mail, and all kinds of thoughts ran through her mind. She and Langley hadn’t discussed that, and Mr. Green never mentioned speaking to Mike about it.
“Let’s go,” Tiffany ordered, and they all followed her to the screening room. This is going to be good, Tiffany thought to herself and couldn’t wait to hear what Tracy had to say. They filed inside, and Tiffany, Darryl, and Myah took front-row seats. Losing patience, Tiffany’s nerves were all over the place, but she tried to appear cool, calm, and collected. She should have gone straight to her office and called Langley, but she wanted to know what was going on first before she went to him.
After Tracy kept them waiting it seemed like forever, she finally graced the podium with her presence. She stood and waited for the banter to cease, and then she spoke. She cleared her throat, took a sip of water, and then adjusted the mic. All eyes were on her, and Tiffany wondered why Mike hadn’t joined the meeting.
“Good morning, all. I hope everyone is well.” She ran a palm over her lapel, and then continued. “I’m sure most of you got my e-mail this morning, so I’ll get right to it. This company is one of the largest in the industry, and I am so happy to be a part of it. TiMax is known for . . .” she continued giving them all a history lesson on the network, something they already knew. Some sat patiently, but the sighs and breath releases had shown some of the staff’s annoyance. Tiffany wanted her to get to the point.
“In conclusion, I am your new boss,” she said with a smile bright enough to illuminate a deep hole in the ground. “From now on, producers and junior producers will report to me and consult me with any problems. I will be meeting with each one of you to have a one-on-one about your shows and to get you your new lineups. As for now, I don’t have time to answer questions. I suggest you hold them and ask in our one-on-one.”
“What the fuck just happened?” Dee asked. The room was no longer quiet.
Millions of questions were asked anyway, but Tracy said, “Thanks for your ti
me; have a great day.” She adjourned the meeting.
“I don’t know, Dee, but I’m going to find out.”
“I can’t work under her, Tiffany. This is insane. Whose idea was this?” Myah objected.
“I don’t know, guys, but I’m going to get to the bottom of this,” Tiffany said. Dee and Myah stood and helped Tiffany’s pregnant body from the low chair. They left the screening room, and Tiffany assured them she’d let them know when she had answers. She headed to Mike’s office, but he was not in. She figured he wouldn’t be. That bastard was the one who created that monster, and she knew Tracy must have been giving him sexual favors. To create a bogus position, give her a bogus title was the work of an idiot, and she knew Langley would pull the plug on that shit.
She hurried down to her office to let Summer know she was leaving. She had to get to Mr. Green. Talking to him on the phone would not suffice. She made a pit stop in her office to use the bathroom. The further along her pregnancy got, the more frequently she had to go. When Tiffany was done, she walked out of the bathroom and dropped the paper towel she was drying her hands with. “Oh great,” she said because the idea of bending was a task. Approaching six months, she felt like she was further along, and she looked as if she was too. She bent over, and before she could return to a full standing position, she saw a red light blinking under her desk. “What the . . .?” she said and moved closer to it. She didn’t want to touch it, but she got up close to it. She instantly knew what it was.
She sat and didn’t say a word. Then she reached for her phone and called Kory. She would give Ms. Tracy an earful that day.
“Hey, baby,” Kory answered.
“Hey, baby, are you busy?”
“A little, what’s up?”
“Okay, brace yourself for what went down this morning.”
“Okay, talk to me.”
“So I get in this morning, and there is an uproar in the lobby.” She proceeded to tell him, play-by-play, making sure her tone was of one who was pissed. “Bottom line is, I’m done. This is where I go, because you know I can’t work under that woman.”
“Quit? What are you talking about, baby? You can’t quit.”
She knew Kory was in the dark, but she planned to call him right back when she got into the car to let him know the real deal.
“I can, and I will. I’m coming for some boxes, and I’m cleaning out my office today, so whatever you need to do to get out of there to help me, make it happen, Kory,” she growled and ended the call. Kory tried calling her back a few times, but she purposely hit Ignore. Her desk phone rang. It was Summer. She hit the speaker. “Yes, Summer?”
“Mr. Banks is on the line.”
“Tell him I’ll call him back,” Tiffany ordered. She wanted to roll on the floor laughing. That explained the show idea, the popping up wherever she’d be, and her face burned when she thought about the couple of times she and Kory made out in her office. Oh well, they were husband and wife. She stood and grabbed her things to head to Mr. Green’s. She couldn’t wait to inform him of this bullshit. She also planned to tell him about the recording device. After she was done, Tracy was sure to be back to being unemployed, and Tiffany didn’t give a damn.
Surprise, Surprise
Episode 29
Rose
Rose hung up with Tiffany and went into her bathroom. She had avoided this, but it could wait no longer. She and Levi had been working out, and she didn’t want to step on the scale, but she did. She looked down, and the numbers hadn’t changed from the two weeks’ prior number. She was just about ready to throw in the towel. She had been working out and giving it her all, but the pounds stuck to her body like white on rice. The first month, the pounds were falling off, and she had easily lost her first twenty-six pounds. The second month, it wasn’t as many, but now she had lost forty-two pounds in total. She had gone down two sizes, and although a sixteen looked more attractive to her, she wanted to lose fifty more pounds, but the scale wasn’t budging.
“What should I do?” she wondered. She called Levi, and he had said what he said to her over and over again, “Ditch the scale. The numbers don’t mean anything. It’s how you look and feel in your clothes.”
“I hear you, baby, but I want to lose the pounds. Maybe I should see a doctor or a nutritionist.”
“I guess, baby, but I have to go. I gotta fight crime.”
“Okay, baby, I’ll let you get back to it.”
“Okay, I love you.”
“I love you too. Are you coming home for your dinner break?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll call you.”
“Okay, baby, be safe.”
She hung up, and then went for her tab. She googled a nutritionist in her area and after calling a couple of places, she made an appointment with the first person that could see her that day. She dressed, went by her gallery, ran a couple of errands, and then headed over to her appointment. She got there fifteen minutes early as the receptionist suggested and filled out the long medical history forms and consent forms. She waited, patiently scrolling Facebook on her phone until they called her. Then she gathered her handbag and the clipboard and went back.
The young lady was nice, and they exchanged small talk while she got her vitals and drew blood. The young lady then gave her a cup to take in the bathroom and give her a urine sample. Rose just wanted to know how to lose her stubborn pounds and wondered why they needed urine, but she went anyway.
Once she got into the doctor’s office, she occupied her time reading the healthy eating and weight management posters. She checked her watch after ten minutes or so and wondered why they called you from one waiting room to make you wait in another room. After almost twenty whole minutes, the doctor finally walked in, and Rose was impressed that she apologized for the long wait.
“So, Rose, I see you’ve come in today to ask a few questions about weight management, right?”
“Yes, ma’am,” she responded.
“Well, let’s take a look at your vitals and results and I’ll check a few things, and then we can discuss a plan for you and your body type.”
“Sounds good.”
“How long have you been working out, Rose?”
“A couple of months. At first, I was shedding pounds like melting butter, but now I’m not losing anything. I don’t even have the same energy I started with, and now, I’m even a little sluggish.”
“Okay,” the doctor attentively listened as she did her exam. She listened to her heart, made her breathe in and out, and checked her glands and neck. After she looked down Rose’s throat and checked her ears, she sat down and powered up her tab. “Well, you look good, although you are considerably overweight for your height; your blood pressure looks fine, and your heart rate is good. It looks like you’re pregnant, so that could be the reason you’re starting to feel sluggish and the pounds are not coming off.”
“I’m what?”
The doctor looked at her. “You’re pregnant,” she repeated. The look on her face showed she assumed Rose knew that already.
“I’m pregnant? Are you sure?”
“You didn’t know?”
“No, I didn’t know . . . I mean, are you positive?”
“Well, that’s the results from your urine test. When was your last period?”
“I haven’t had a period in over a year. My periods have been irregular for as long as I can remember,” Rose said. She could not believe her ears.
“Well, surprise, surprise. You are, in fact, pregnant.”
Rose still couldn’t believe what the doctor was saying. “This has to be a mistake. I mean, how, when . . . well, I know how, but . . .” Rose was baffled.
“Well, it may have happened after you dropped a few pounds. Sometimes weight can be a factor of infertility. You said you’ve lost over forty pounds, so with that, you were able to conceive. You should get with your OB/GYN to get more of your questions answered, Ms. Jennings. They can give you a more accurate timeline and start your prenatal car
e.”
“Pregnant,” Rose said again.
“Is this an unpleasant thing for you? Do you know who the father is?”
Appalled, Rose snapped. “Of course, I know who the father is. We’re engaged.”
“I didn’t mean to offend; you’d be surprised nowadays, so please forgive me.”
“It’s okay, I’m just trying to take it all in, and I wonder how I’m going to tell him.”
“Well, congratulations. We can still go over some healthy suggestions for you to maintain a balanced weight and good eating habits, but like I said, for your questions about your pregnancy, you’ll have to get with your OB.”
Rose nodded. She finished up her appointment with the nutritionist, and then called Tiffany. Before Tiffany could fill her in on what went on at Mr. Green’s house, Rose said, “Before you say a word, I’m pregnant.”
“What!” Tiffany screamed in the phone.
“Yes, are you home?”
“I am. I just walked in.”
“I’m on my way.”
Time for Change
Episode 30
Tiffany
Tiffany pulled up to Mr. Green’s gate, where the guard greeted her with a bright smile, and then let her in. Once inside, one of the staff members told her where Mr. Green was. She showed herself to the outdoor patio, where Mr. Green sat with Mike Harrington. Surprised to see him there, Tiffany politely greeted them both.
“Have a seat, Tiffany,” Mr. Green said. She sat, and one of Mr. Green’s staff members came and filled her glass with lemonade. “Would you like anything else?” Mr. Green asked.
“No, sir, this will be fine,” she said before taking a tiny sip.
“How are you feeling, Tiffany? How is the baby?” Mr. Green asked. Always before business, they exchanged personal banter.
“I’m doing fine, Mr. Green, considering the stress I’m starting to encounter at TiMax, and the baby is fine. My pregnancy is progressing well.”