The Company We Keep

by Mary Monroe

  “Isaac, Teri said we could lose the house,” Grandma Stewart said with increasing alarm. “I told you that man didn’t look honest to me. He had enough grease on his hair to fry a chicken gizzard.”

  “How do you know so much about this?” Grandpa Stewart asked Teri, giving her a suspicious look. “Do you know this man?”

  “I know that people like you are getting scammed out of everything left and right these days. Our accountant’s parents got swindled out of thousands of dollars last month in a similar scheme,” Teri revealed.

  “Was it the same outfit? The King Associates?”

  “I don’t know if it was the same outfit, but it was the same scam. Look, I know a lot about these things. Please trust me. It’s been all over the news lately.”

  “Why would anybody want to cheat us out of anything, Teri?” Grandpa Stewart asked with the wounded innocence of a child. And this was why it was so important to Teri for her to keep an eye on them.

  “Because they can, that’s why. But they won’t if I can help it. You’re the two most important people in my life now. I am not going to let anybody take advantage of you.” Teri ripped the documents in two.

  “What do we tell that Mr. Brinkley when he calls next time?” Grandpa Stewart asked.

  “You give him my telephone number and have him call me. In the meantime, don’t even let anybody into this house trying to sell you anything unless I know about it. I don’t care if they are trying to sell you a fly swatter, you call me before you let them into this house,” Teri said in a stern voice, shaking her finger in the air.

  “Well, I guess that’s that. I didn’t think we needed all that mess anyway,” Grandma Stewart said, leaving the room with her husband behind her mumbling under his breath.

  Teri didn’t enjoy being in the position she occupied in her grandparents’ lives. But in a way she was glad she was. The fact that she always had to be highly alert to keep them out of trouble kept her on her toes in other areas. She knew that as long as she had her wits about her and could hold her own, growing old alone didn’t seem nearly as ominous as everybody tried to make her think it was.

  “Is the coast clear?” Nicole asked, peeping around the doorway, then easing back into the room. Teri stood by a window, looking out at the backyard. Her old swing set and sandbox were still in place next to the brick barbeque grill that she and Nicole had helped Grandpa Stewart build fifteen years ago.

  “It’s fine. Come on in. How was your date last night?” Teri asked, frowning at the half-dollar-size purple sucker bite on the side of Nicole’s neck. She promptly replaced her frown with a smile.

  “Oooooh, it was nice.” Nicole swooned with a grin and a wink, rubbing her neck. “I can barely walk.”

  “Oh, shut the fuck up, you nasty buzzard!” Teri snapped, pinching Nicole’s arm as she joined her by the window. “Happy New Year, girl,” Teri said, giving Nicole a big hug. “But if you don’t show up for work tomorrow, you’re fired. You look like you’ve been mauled.”

  “Oh, you mean this?” Nicole said, rubbing her neck.

  Teri inspected Nicole’s neck for a full minute, shaking her head the whole time.

  “Say what you’ve got to say about it so we can get it over with,” Nicole suggested.

  Teri let out a loud breath before she spoke again. “I hope I get one soon,” she said earnestly. Nicole gasped and looked at Teri as if she’d just sprouted another head. Then they both burst out laughing. “Let’s go to my room,” Teri invited. Nicole followed her to one of the two bedrooms upstairs.

  Just like the backyard, Teri’s old room looked like she had never left it. And it was the only room in the house that had a youthful touch. There was a brass bed in the center with a blond nightstand on either side. A bright chenille bedspread covered the bed. A few stuffed animals still occupied a high-back chair in front of a vanity table.

  “The dreams I used to have in this room.” Teri sighed. “Would you look at us?” She pointed to a framed photo of herself and Nicole on top of the vanity table. “This is the only picture that the folks wouldn’t let me take. We both look like a pair of crazy women trying to imitate Tina Turner with our flyaway wigs and short skirts.”

  “We were the original crazy women.” Nicole laughed, looking at the picture as if she were looking at a picture of two sideshow freaks.

  “Tell me about it,” Teri responded with a nod. The nostalgia brought tears to her eyes, causing her to blink hard and sniff a couple of times.

  “And now look at us.” Nicole paused. “Speaking of crazy, do they know?”

  “Know what?”

  “That your crazy ass is seeing a shrink?”

  “Are you kidding? I’d rather run naked down Sunset Boulevard before I let them know that. You know what their generation thinks about shrinks. Besides, I don’t think of Carla as a shrink in the traditional sense.”

  Before Nicole could respond, Elliot, one of Teri’s other young cousins, came tearing into the bedroom.

  “The Lakers won! Dwight Davis hit a three pointer at the buzzer!” the boy reported.

  “Boy, get your knotty-headed self out of here,” Teri ordered. Elliot did a jig, crossed his eyes, and stuck out his tongue before he ran back out of the room. “That’s what you have to look forward to in a few years with Chris,” she told Nicole.

  By five o’clock, most of the Stewarts’ guests had left. Teri and Nicole volunteered to stay and help clean up. They ended up doing all the cleaning. Grandpa Stewart had returned to his favorite chair in the living room and was now snoozing like a baby. Grandma Stewart kept trying to help, but all she did was get in Teri’s way.

  “I appreciate your coming over,” Teri told Nicole just as they were about to finish their chores. “I know you’d rather have spent the day with your son.”

  “You’re right about that. But you know how inconsistent Greg is. And Chris absolutely adores that fool. I have to let him see his daddy whenever I can get him to come over. I don’t want my son to grow up resenting me someday because he didn’t get to spend enough time with Greg.”

  “Well, you’re raising the boy right and that’s all that really matters. Let’s just hope he turns out to be a better specimen of a man than his daddy,” Teri said. “We could use a few more good men in our race.”

  “Oh, we already have a lot more good ones than we know. We just have to find them,” Nicole offered with a laugh. “It might take a lot of searching, though. And I know you don’t want to hear this from me again, but if you don’t get busy, you never will get one…”

  CHAPTER 12

  It was the first day back to work in the New Year for some people. Teri and Nicole both knew a lot of their friends and associates were still celebrating or recovering from the arrival of the New Year and had called in “sick.” Bobby Ming, the young Chinese man who delivered the mail twice a day, had called to say that he was “so sick he couldn’t even get out of bed.” But two of his coworkers saw him on their way to work that morning cruising down Olympic Street with his fiancée, grinning like a man who didn’t have a care in the world. The bookkeeper who occupied the cubicle next to the break room had called to report that her flight from Cancun had been cancelled so she had no choice but to take another day off.

  Nicole, loyal and dependable to a fault, had arrived an hour earlier than her usual time. She wanted to jump-start her first workday in the New Year, make a pot of coffee, and have Teri’s schedule printed and on her desk when she arrived.

  Just as Nicole was about to open the door to Teri’s office, she heard somebody coughing. It was coming from behind the double doors that led to Teri’s office. Nicole sucked in her breath and glanced at the telephone on her desk, wondering if she should call security. Then she sniffed and smelled the aroma of coffee coming from the break room down the hall. Before she could decide what to do, she heard Teri’s voice. “Nicole, is that you?”

  Nicole eased open the door and entered Teri’s office. “Teri, what are you doi
ng here at this hour?” She was pleased to see how well rested Teri looked. Before they’d left the Stewarts’ house the evening before, she had noticed how tired Teri looked. Now she looked like she’d slept for three days and was ready to take on the world. She wore a navy blue suit with a light blue blouse underneath. This was the ensemble that Nicole jokingly referred to as Teri’s kick ass armor.

  “I’m working,” Teri replied with a laugh. “I just made a fresh pot of coffee.” She was bent over her desk with a thick pile of papers and folders in front of her. There was a pencil perched behind her ear. Her thick hair was piled on top of her head and held in place by one of those light blue squeegee-looking things.

  “Thanks for making the coffee. I sure need a cup, and I am too lazy to go down to Starbucks and stand in that long-ass line for twenty minutes,” Nicole said, rubbing the back of her head. She had on a pair of black slacks and a purple turtleneck sweater to hide the love bite that was still visible enough for people to notice. She wore her hair in one long braid, wrapped around her head like a crown.

  “And I made it nice and strong because we’re going to need it in the meeting,” Teri said, moaning under her breath. “The first staff meeting in the New Year is always the hardest. It sets the tone for what we can expect for the next twelve months. Last year you would have thought that Victor was practicing to be the next Terminator. He fired three people…”

  “Three lazy, incompetent motherfuckers who should have been fired a long time ago. Humph! Getting fired is the least of our worries,” Nicole remarked. “The best-kept secret around here is that you and I are keeping this place from going to the dogs. If Victor fires us, or even one of us, they can rename this business Titanic.”

  “I don’t know if we are that important around here. These folks were doing just fine before we came on board. I do know that it sure would do us a lot of good to take a break for a few days. Maybe we should go on that Caribbean cruise we’ve been putting off since last year,” Teri said hopefully.

  “I could be packed in five minutes.” Nicole swooned. “All that black Caribbean gold running up and down those white beaches, dicks big as baseball bats, I hear…”

  “Can you get your mind out of the bedroom for a few minutes?” Teri barked as she plopped down into her chair. She knew that she could not stop Nicole from talking about sex so much. But all that talk about sex didn’t help Teri at all. If anything it only made her more frustrated. “Shit, get serious.”

  “Sorry. Whatever you say.” Nicole bowed her head in submission. She removed the dreamy-eyed look from her face and tried to contain herself. “What were you saying now?”

  Teri reared back into her seat and bit the side of her bottom lip. There was a serious look on her face. Her face was as beautifully made up as usual, but Nicole was surprised to see that Teri was not wearing any jewelry, not even earrings. “Work has become the most dominant thing in my life and…and it’s still not enough. There’s got to be more out there—and I’m not talking about a big dick. So please do me a favor and do not bring up Harrison Starr’s name. Or the fact that he left Rahim’s party with another woman.” Teri shot Nicole a look that was so hot, it made her flinch.

  “Okay, I won’t.” Nicole dipped her head and gave Teri a contrite look. “Happy?”

  Teri nodded. “Like I was saying, there’s got to be more to life than work.”

  “That’s what I keep trying to tell you. But if you want more out of life, nobody can do anything about that but you, Teri. You choose to work your fingers to the bone, so don’t complain to me about it.”

  “I’m not complaining. I’m just making conversation,” Teri whined, which was something she rarely did. “Despite all the bullshit, I still love my job. And I want to give it everything I’ve got.” Teri tilted her head and sniffed.

  “And God knows you’re doing that. Please tell me you didn’t come here after I left you last night and slept here,” Nicole pleaded, glancing at her watch.

  “I didn’t sleep here last night,” Teri replied, looking at her watch, too. “I’ve only been here for a few hours. I couldn’t sleep…”

  Nicole shook her head and looked at Teri with pity.

  “Did you have company again last night?” Teri asked, looking at Nicole out of the corner of her eye. She removed the pencil from behind her ear and started tapping it on the top of her desk.

  “No. Why do you ask?”

  “Because you look a little tired to me, Nicole.”

  “I could have had some company again last night, but I chose not to. I did take a rain check, though.” There was a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. “Did you have company last night?”

  “Now, don’t you even go there,” Teri hissed, shaking her finger in Nicole’s face. She drank from a large green coffee mug with a bullfighter taunting a snorting bull on one side and I PUERTO VALLARTA on the other. It was a gift from the maid she’d treated to dinner during her last south of the border visit. “Now get your butt to work before I…before I write you up, or fire you, or something.”

  Nine o’clock crept up on Teri and Nicole like a mugger. But Teri would not have even noticed the time if Nicole had not buzzed her.

  “I’m on my way,” Teri said in a hurried voice. She suddenly wished that she had eaten more of her grandmother’s black-eyed peas yesterday.

  The conference room that often served as a battleground was a little too warm, but it was going to get even warmer. Victor Oliansky was the only person in the room who looked like he was there because he wanted to be. Everybody else looked like they were constipated and had been dragged to the meeting kicking and screaming. The attendees were shuffling papers, clearing throats, clinking coffee cups, checking BlackBerrys, and snapping cell phones shut. In addition to a few noticeable sighs and yawns, there were a few muffled comments about who had done what to ring in the New Year.

  Had Victor attempted to play the part of a recording studio executive in a movie, every casting director in Hollywood would have said that he was too much of a stereotype. He was at least sixty, probably older. But it was obvious that he was doing everything his money could buy to look younger. Some of his employees knew that to be a fact, especially his secretary. John, a busybody of a secretary if there ever was one, snooped through Victor’s BlackBerry and e-mail on a regular basis. He always knew when Victor had an appointment for a Botox treatment, and John made regular trips to a nearby pharmacy to pick up Victor’s Grecian Formula hair dye and refills for his Viagra prescriptions. Every time Victor pissed off John, he blabbed Victor’s most intimate business to Nicole, his unofficial confidante. They’d been thick as thieves ever since they’d attempted to set Teri up with a male prostitute.

  Despite Victor’s sixty-something years, he was in fairly good shape for a man his age. But his long, flat, black ponytail didn’t do much to improve his appearance. In spite of his position and wealth, he looked more like the type you’d expect to see stretched out on a lumpy, three-legged couch in a trailer in a plaid flannel shirt and bibbed overalls drinking generic beer. The Armani suit he wore today was the same shade of pale blue as his eyes. He was slightly married to his fourth wife. According to the office gossip, he was trawling for wife number five.

  Right after Nicole passed out the meeting agenda, Victor mumbled something to her and she slunk back out of the room. A few minutes later she returned with a spiral notepad and a large mug of coffee and handed it to Victor. He cleared his throat and looked at Nicole as if he were seeing her for the first time. She responded with a smile, but that didn’t soften him. His lips were already thin, almost to the point of being nonexistent. They were now pressed together so tightly, had it not been for the line that divided his lips it would have looked as if he had no mouth. But that anatomical feature didn’t fool anybody. Victor’s lips hid a tongue that could be as sharp as a serpent’s tooth.

  Nicole gave Teri a conspiratorial look before she took a seat across from her.

  “I can tell from the
happy faces before me that you are all just delighted to be here with me. Right?” Victor began, looking at Teri as if she were the only other person in the room.

  “Hell no. I can think of at least a dozen other places I’d rather be,” she said sharply. Victor pretended that he didn’t hear all the snickers going around the table. Teri didn’t even look up from her notes.

  “Now that we are all back on earth, let’s get down to business,” Victor continued, looking around the room. Within seconds there was a forced smile on every face.

  Safety was always the first item on the agenda. It consisted of five minutes of dos and don’ts and a report on work-related injuries, if any. After a few more remarks, most of them unnecessary, Teri took the floor. Other than Victor, she was the only one who stood up when giving a presentation. All eyes were on her again as she flipped through her notes and cleared her throat.

  “Teri, please proceed and be brief,” Victor instructed. He slid the arm of his suit jacket up so he could see his watch. “I’d like to be out of this room by Easter.”

  “Let’s get down to business now. Trevor Powell’s first single from his new CD has just been released,” Teri began, with her voice full of confidence and authority. There were several sheets of paper stapled together and clutched in her hand. She glanced at the first page, shook her head, and then casually flipped to another page, perusing it slowly and thoroughly. “Yes…hmm…oh! Here we go. I’m going to cut to the chase. If anyone is interested in reading my full report, let Nicole know and she will make you a copy.” She paused, then cleared her throat some more. “The reviews have all been good, so far. And, even more important, the numbers are good. Very good. I’ll be getting the team to focus on the up-and-coming release of his next CD.” Teri gave a triumphant smile. But that smile faded as soon as Victor opened his mealy mouth.