Her boss and a few other coworkers were huddled around the stereo system getting their first listen of the record. The stereo was in the wall in the center of the department’s floor; there were a table and several chairs right in front of it. It was a setup perfectly designed for meetings where music needed to be heard. The staff didn’t hold as many meetings there as they would’ve liked because it was such a disturbance for all the assistants sitting a few feet away in their cubicles. However, the staff usually held their music priority meeting every Monday right there in the middle of the floor. People from other departments would just walk up and listen and chime in. It was a cool concept that stemmed from the VP of marketing saying he wanted an open floor meeting to invite all ideas into their marketing plans.
From her cubicle, Naomi couldn’t get a clear view of everyone sitting in front of the stereo, but she kept peeking over to get a glimpse of Tyreek. He had come down to listen to the track as well. He was in A and R and worked on the ninth floor, but he usually made his way to the marketing department at least once a day to do some dealings with Max, this guy who sat a few cubes away from Naomi. Today, however, Tyreek was just down there to hear the feedback on the record. When Naomi saw him sit down, she figured he was the A and R on Random’s album; otherwise he probably wouldn’t have come down. He was dressed in blue jeans, a Rocawear hoodie, and some Timbs. His dreads were pulled back in a rubber band, and his facial hair looked a little scruffy. He was totally masculine and grungy, but Naomi was still so impressed by everything about him.
This gathering to listen to Random’s album was happening because the song had just landed on the VP’s desk and was hot off the press. The VP had a strong belief that the first impression of a song could have a make-it-or-break-it effect, or it could be one of those songs that had to grow on you over time. Some artists didn’t have that time; some artists didn’t get the continuous airplay or the video exposure. Some artists had one shot and one shot only to impress a DJ or a programmer, so the VP liked to have a lot of ears give their opinion on that moment. The usual procedure after listening to a new single was the following: shortly after, they would meet, listen again, critique it, and then decide all the angles they could take when promoting it. They would decide which radio stations across the country would play it and then get to delegating who was to start the promotion of the record and who else would do what else.
Naomi wished she could sit in on those meetings because they looked so interesting, but she had been present for only one. Her boss had told her that after the other assistant came back from maternity leave in a few weeks, she would be able to go to the meetings, but right now, because staff was limited, they needed someone on the other side of the door. Naomi could hear the song from where she sat, and she definitely thought it was a good record. She bopped her head along lightly and tried to understand all the lyrics. She had always been a hip-hop and R & B fan, which was why she knew her job would be enjoyable for her. The song had a hot beat, and Random had a real unique flow; Naomi thought for sure there was a place for him on the radio. She knew what he looked like from his press shots, so she knew he was a good-looking, tall guy the girls would like.
After the song ended, most of the people who had been listening filed into the VP’s office. They were going to list all the song’s selling points, like who the producer was and anything else that would get it more press and publicity. Naomi saw them all walking into the office, and she buried her head back into the files on her desk, placing them in chronological order. As she turned to clear off some more space on her desk, she heard a voice. She turned around, and it was her boss.
“What did you think of the record?”
“I liked it a lot actually. The beat was different, and the hook was catchy,” she replied.
“What did it make you think of?”
“It made me think of dancing at a club, honestly.”
“Cool, thanks,” she said and walked away.
Naomi was surprised she had even come over and asked her opinion. She was pleased that Tiffany actually valued her opinion, and although it was a small thing, it had Naomi feeling real good on the inside.
She went back to her mundane task—that she hoped would fill up at least an hour or two of her day. She was updating the files and packaging older documents to be put away in the file storage closet. She glanced up on occasion to check her e-mails and texts, but for the most part, she kept her head buried in her files.
Kevin walked up. “Boo,” he said.
Naomi jumped, startled by his presence. “Oh, my gosh, you scared me.”
“That’s what I was trying to do,” he said.
“Meanie. What do you want?”
“Nothing, just came to check on you and see if you wanted to get lunch later,” he said.
“Sure, how about two PM?”
“Why so late?”
“I had a big breakfast,” she replied. “But one or one thirty is fine.”
“OK, see you then,” he said. “And I hope you have a cute coat or something because you definitely didn’t check out the fashion chic channel this morning before you left.”
Naomi glanced down. “Forget you…what? I wanted to be comfortable.”
“Well, brush your hair before we head out. I don’t want to be seen walking with Ugly Betty.”
“How mean are you?” she said.
“Lata.”
Naomi knew he was playing, but she was also a firm believer that there was truth to every joke. She caught her reflection in the computer screen and finger-combed her hair back; it was already in a ponytail, so there wasn’t much more she could do. After a while she just brushed it off—besides, this was who she was every day, and Kevin had no right talking.
Almost an hour went by—it was close to noon, and most of the department was still in the meeting about Random’s single. Naomi’s boss had stepped out for lunch, and a few others had left the room as well. Naomi had been busy answering phones, sending and responding to e-mails, and working on the filing project she had started that morning. A few phone calls had come in, but she had only taken messages because she was pretty confident that none of the callers were VIP enough to interrupt Tiffany for. That list Naomi had created with the VIPs had been coming in handy. Only once did she need to intercom Tiffany to see if she wanted the call, and that had been Hollywood. This time around, Tiffany had said to tell him she was in a meeting and that she would call him back. Naomi had been furious because Tiffany had had an attitude as if Naomi never should’ve interrupted her in the first place. If I would have told him that on my own, I would have gotten yelled at, she told herself as she hung up the phone.
When Naomi saw her boss leaving, Naomi said nothing to her at all. Some days Naomi just wished she had an office she could close the door to and not have to see Tiffany at all. She pretended to work as she discreetly watched her boss exit the department. Knowing she was gone, Naomi sat up at her computer and logged on to her Facebook account. Excited to see that her red notifications icon read 14, she began to look through them. One of her guy friends from Texas had written on her page I miss ya, come home soon. Naomi smiled and began to write back. When she was home she hadn’t paid that boy no attention in school, but she had to admit she missed him, too. She missed all her people from back home, and she missed not feeling out of place. As she was typing back, I miss you, too. I’ll be home for the holidays, she noticed Tyreek exit the office in which the meeting was being held and walk in her direction. She instantly glanced at her reflection in the computer screen again to see how she looked. Remembering what Kevin had said, she knew she wasn’t looking like she belonged on the cover of a magazine, but she wanted to at least look presentable. By the time he reached her cubicle, she had already smoothed her hair down and licked her lips.
“Hey, is Max in today?” he asked Naomi.
“Yes, but he went down to the art department,” she replied.
“OK. Can you tell him Tyreek came by?”
“Sure.”
Before she could say any more, Tyreek walked back to where he had come from. Naomi watched him walk away and felt a bit disappointed that she couldn’t keep his attention any longer than a few seconds. She understood that they hadn’t really gotten to know each other yet—the extent of their conversations was usually a few words or a question and answer. Still, she didn’t get why he couldn’t just take a second to ask how she was doing or ask her name, even. In her opinion, guys always took a second to say at least a few words to most girls. Naomi had seen Tyreek on many occasions laughing and chatting it up with girls who worked there, flirting as well, so she knew he wasn’t some antisocial, quiet guy. She felt under par, knowing he didn’t care to even be cordial with her. Damn, am I that far from his league that he couldn’t even acknowledge me? she thought.
Once he was out of sight, she looked back at her Facebook page profile picture. She was attractive, but she didn’t highlight her attributes. She wore loose-fitting clothes that covered her 34-C breasts and her size-six waist. She kept her hair pulled back in a ponytail most days, and she wore no makeup at all, aside from lip gloss. She had light brown skin with jet-black hair and brown eyes. Back home in college she was considered one of the pretty girls at her school. She’d had a boyfriend, but on a regular basis there were different guys trying to talk to her. Even though she’d turned the guys down because she was madly in love with Charles, she enjoyed the attention because she hadn’t gotten much of it in junior high and high school. Her confidence level had skyrocketed in college, but ever since she had moved to New York, she felt overlooked and unattractive. Most of the girls in New York City were pretty, fashionable, and bubbly. In comparison to them, Naomi was no triple threat.
As she stared at her profile picture, she started to think about her high school days when she wasn’t that popular. Looking at her picture, she realized she looked pretty much the same as she did back then, give or take a few things. She began to wonder if she just simply wasn’t all that attractive. It didn’t make her feel any better that Tyreek had just treated her almost like she was invisible. Something wasn’t working in her favor.
Because her boss was out to lunch, Naomi decided to make a quick call to Devora.
“I don’t know why it seems like he just looks right through me,” Naomi said.
“Well, do you guys have a reason to speak, or do you try to start a conversation?” Devora replied.
“You know I’m not going to try to start talking to him. I wouldn’t even know what to say.”
“You ask a question, that’s the best way. Ask about something to do with his department or his job—that will at least get the ball rolling, and most likely he will want to brag about himself.”
“Yeah, well, he comes over to me to ask me about where one of my coworkers is, but then he just runs right off after getting an answer. No ‘thank you,’ no nothing.”
“Maybe he was just in a hurry.”
“Yeah, he’s always in a rush, but I just want to at least get to know him a little.”
“You sound so young, like he’s a crush from eighth grade.”
“It’s just I’ve been here for seven months already, and I have no male friends, and it would be nice.”
“Why him?”
“I guess because I work with him. There are no other options, and I think he is cute.”
“That’s a good enough reason,” Devora replied, laughing. “Well, for starters, try to consider some other options as well, just in case he’s out of your league.”
“Devora!”
“What? I’m just saying, just in case.”
“Yeah, yeah. Well, I guess you coming out with me this Friday then.”
“I can go out with you, that’s fine. I don’t want you looking all desperate around your office trying to get that boy’s attention, I know that for sure.”
“Shut up, ain’t no one looking desperate. I just said I wanted to get to know him.”
“Well, maybe it’s time you start making yourself more noticeable,” Devora said.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Like wearing different clothes, changing your hair—you know, catching up to New York trends around here. Tyreek is probably accustomed to a certain type of girl. You can at least try to step up your game some.”
Naomi looked down at the purple knit sweater and Mossimo jeans she was wearing.
“Well, then, I guess you’re going shopping with me this Friday.”
“I guess you’re going to pay me for all my services rendered,” Devora replied.
They both laughed.
“Good-bye, crazy,” Naomi said. “The Wicked Witch of the East will be back soon.”
“Lata,” Devora said.
Naomi hung up and got back to work, sorting through the SoundScan files. SoundScan was the report of all the albums sold for the week; it was released to the industry every Tuesday, and careers were made and lost because of this report sometimes. At the end of the day, no matter how many bottles got popped in a video or how many Bentleys were driven to the clubs, album sales were all that really mattered. A part of Naomi’s job was extracting all the sales figures for all the urban artists and keeping them in a spreadsheet alongside the information on the amount of spins that week. The promotion department where Naomi worked dealt with the artists’ visibility and popularity. Her department promoted the music to radio stations all across the world in hopes of getting records played, and they arranged in-store signings and other events and opportunities to help make the artists more popular. Naomi enjoyed her job; although she wasn’t a big part of the program yet, she believed that, in time, she could be.
She sat there, doing her work and randomly thinking about Tyreek and all the other cute guys she worked with who never paid her any mind. She wasn’t sure if Devora was right about her needing to update her look—all she knew was that she was tired of spending all her nights and weekends alone at home. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do, but she knew she had to make stronger efforts to get some attention. Just the thought of talking to Tyreek made her nervous. What should she say to a guy like him? He was a mover and shaker in the business. He seemed like the type of guy who was interested in only money and power—two things Naomi knew nothing about. She knew if she was going to try to find the courage to speak, she had to take advantage soon, because to her understanding he traveled a lot with the artists, so she would have only limited amounts of time to spark a conversation with him. She was definitely not skilled in the area of catching a man, and definitely not a man this far out of her league. She had realized less than a week after she’d moved to New York that the pace of things was also way out of her league, especially in the music business. She had never had a chance to learn the ropes or adapt to the pace, but she was tired of being a fish out of water. She knew if she could get Tyreek’s attention, she could finally begin to make her time in New York a lot more interesting.
Chapter 15
KD sat down on the edge of the office chair as though he had no intention to stay long. Madison had scheduled a meeting with him, and she hadn’t told him what it was about, but she was pretty sure he knew it was regarding his incident with Tryme and getting arrested. She wasn’t in the best of moods on this particular day, and everyone knew on days like this they shouldn’t push her buttons.
She was wearing some gray fitted Joe’s Jeans with a long-sleeved white and black Baby Phat top—it was one of her favorite shirts because on the back, in small print, it said DIVA ON BOARD. She was wearing her flat gray boots, and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. She was dressed down, enjoying a casual day at work, but just because she was dressed casually didn’t mean she wasn’t taking care of business.
“Sit back, take off your jacket, stay a while,” Madison said as she leaned back in her chair.
“I have another meeting after this. Is this going to be long?”
“Well, about as long as you make it. We need t
o cover some things. If you cooperate and I get what I need by the end, you will make your meeting.”
The look on KD’s face meant he wasn’t interested in that response, but instead of challenging her, he just removed his navy blue flight jacket. Underneath he wore a white and navy blue Alador & Smith shirt with some True Religion jeans and construction boots. KD had one of the biggest names in radio, and he was well paid and very well respected. Good talent was hard to come by, and he knew this, so although he worked for Madison, he was also well aware of his worth at the station.
“Listen, KD, I am not trying to bust your balls in here, but I am just a bit fed up with having to talk to you.”
“What I do?” he asked.
“Well, for one, this getting arrested situation. This station doesn’t need any more drama surrounding it, no pun intended.”
“That wasn’t my fault—he came at me, and I defended myself.”
“You do know that self-defense is only justifiable when you match the force.”
“What are you talking about?”
“If he used his fists, you can defend yourself with only fists. Once you picked up a weapon, it was no longer self-defense because he didn’t have a weapon. You upgraded the level of force.”
“Yeah, my lawyer told me something like that.”
“Well, this is likely to carry on a bit longer if he chooses to press charges.”
“I am working on getting the charges dropped. Besides, I heard he is going to anyway because he knows this is a horrible look for his career,” KD said.
“Exactly. You can’t be on air threatening to ruin his career and never play his music. We are supposed to play songs our listeners want to hear, not just the ones by the artists you get along with.”
“I didn’t mean it like that. I am just saying how he going to be rapping about being all hard and he pressing charges over a fight? He is getting killed in the streets right now, so he was going to drop it for that reason, not me.”
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