healing-hearts

by Yvette Hines

  Moments later, his door opened and the Scorpio file landed on his desk in front of him. He picked it up. “Thanks, Jeannie. Let me know when the team gets here.”

  “No problem...anything else, sir?”

  Jason looked up at the sound of the male voice. “Mr. Coleman, I apologize, I thought you were Jeannie.” Jason rose from his chair to shake his boss’s hand.

  “No offense taken. I was on my way in, and told her I would bring it for her.”

  Jeffrey Coleman was sixty-two and, by all accounts, still in the prime of his life. Jason didn’t think he would ever see the day when he would retire. One day they would walk into his office and he would have passed away silently at his desk, completing some project. At one point seven years ago, when he had first begun to work for Coleman and Weary, Mr. Coleman had been a micro-manager. Every decision and idea had to go through him first. Three years ago he’d had a heart attack, and since then he had changed his life around. He learned to delegate, which Jason was happy about, because it gave him and the other department heads a chance to run their own division with minimal input or interference from the president.

  “Please, have a seat, sir.” Jason resumed his seat moments after the older, gray-templed man.

  “So, how are you feeling?” Mr. Coleman asked as he unbuttoned his suit coat to get more comfortable.

  A sign Jason knew meant this wasn’t a brief visit.

  “I’m feeling better all the time. If it wasn’t for the slight tenderness I feel in my thigh, I could forget it even happened.”

  “Take it from me, son...you don’t want to forget.” Mr. Coleman placed an idle hand on the center of his chest. “Eight years ago I sat where you are—two angioplasties and a number of collapsed stints later I had open heart surgery. I wish I’d learned the first time.”

  “Well, I don’t want to go back into a hospital ever again, if I don’t have to.”

  “Hear, hear.” Mr. Coleman took a slow breath before continuing. “Sometimes things will happen to us in our lives, completely out of our control, but it happens just the same. When it does happen, it makes us stop and look at what we have. It allows us to take stock of our lives.”

  When he paused, Jason didn’t say anything. He was getting the impression that Mr. Coleman was leading up to something, but he just didn’t know what.

  “Jason, I’m going to be frank with you.”

  He looked directly at Jason, as if trying to weigh his words.

  “You did a fine job in my absence assisting David Weary with the company. He was impressed and so was I with the great work you did and your work ethics.”

  Jason could not help the smile that crossed his face. “Thank you, sir. I wanted to do a good job.”

  “And you did. You know that David will be gone soon and I need to replace my vice-president.”

  Jason nodded. No answer was needed. The information was common knowledge in the whole company.

  “What you don’t know is that I’m leaning heavily in your direction.”

  Jason’s heart leaped and he felt like jumping out of his chair and yelling, Yes!

  “Now, that doesn’t mean that I’ve made my decision. So, before you go buying business cards, I do have a very big concern.”

  Jason’s heart didn’t even flutter; he held the confidence that whatever Mr. Coleman’s concern was he could put it to rest. “What’s your concern, sir?”

  “Your life outside of the company.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Jason, you have no life outside of this office. You spend all of your hours at the office and as much as I’m thrilled by your enthusiasm, it concerns me.”

  Jason’s heart was making a slow descent from its high. “Sir, I’ve known I’ve wanted to do this all of my life. The position I’m in proves that it’s paid off. The fact that you’re leaning toward me is proof that I’m headed in the right direction.”

  “I couldn’t agree with you more, Jason. When I started this company twenty-four years ago, I believed that you had to sacrifice everything in order to make it in business. I don’t see things the same way. It cost me a heart attack and David a stroke.” Mr. Coleman raised an eyebrow in his direction, “I don’t want this job to cost you your life.”

  “So, what are you saying, sir?”

  Leaning forward, the older man looked him in the eye.

  “I need to see you lead a balanced life. One that allows you to unwind at the end of a day.”

  Jason’s heart plummeted.

  “How do you suppose that I go about making this happen?”

  Mr. Coleman rose from his chair, stood to his full six-foot height, and re-buttoned his jacket—a sign the meeting was over.

  “I can’t tell you that, Jason.” The older man walked toward the door and then halted. “You’re an advertising exec, I’m sure you’ll come up with something—if you truly want this job.”

  Mr. Coleman opened the door and left the office as silently as he had come.

  Damn.

  Jason stood up from his desk and began to pace his office.

  Now how in the world am I supposed to ‘get a life’? Jason had no idea how he was going to be able to show that he had personal distractions in his life.

  “I am consumed by my work. Hell, so is Raquel,” Jason said aloud to himself.

  He took a deep breath. He had to calm down. He didn’t know if Mr. Coleman had given Raquel this same speech or if he was leaning so hard toward him he had given him a little advice to tip the scales completely in his favor.

  Buzz.

  Jason turned toward his desk to answer his intercom.

  “Yes, Jeannie?”

  “Mr. Richardson, all of the staff has arrived. May I send them in?”

  “Send them in.”

  He put his personal life on the back burner, where it was used to being, as his staff filed into his office. He arranged five vacant chairs in a half moon across from his desk, then he perched himself on the edge of it facing them.

  His staff consisted of two graphic designers, Louis Bradford and Anthony Williams, one public relations person, Clarence Brown, and two marketing heads, Cassandra Hinton and Carlos Branch.

  “Well, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed your rest, because we have a lot of work to make up. We planned for Scorpio’s promotion party to be this summer. Where do we stand with that project?”

  Louis spoke. “First, I’d like to say welcome back, sir. I think I speak for all of us when I say you were greatly missed.” After a brief pause, he went on to say, “We’re almost done with the graphics. We have a few more ideas we’d like to sketch out.”

  “We should be able to have about five boards ready for your review by the end of this week,” Anthony added in.

  Jason nodded his head. Turning around to his desk he picked up the Scorpio file. Opening it, he pulled out two sheets. He handed one to each of the graphics artists. “I jotted down a few ideas while I was away. If they work with what you all have already got designed, then great. If not, then bring me your designs and if I think one of them will work better, we’ll roll with them.”

  While the two designers took a look at the papers, Jason turned toward the others in the room.

  “How about the rest of you?”

  “While you were away, Mr. Richardson, I tossed around and checked on some dates and events this summer that we could piggy back on, something that would draw a lot more attention than if we just threw the promotion party on our own,” Clarence said, enthusiastic.

  Jason could tell by the gleam in Clarence’s eyes that he was bursting at the seams to share his idea. “What did you come up with?”

  “The Neptune Festival this summer at the ocean front.”

  “Based on Clarence’s idea, Carlos and I did some checking around,” Cassandra spoke up.

  Carlos took over. “Mr. Richardson, Riverdale Heights’ ballroom was still available for that Saturday and they had enough rooms for the key people from our agency and Scor
pio’s staff.”

  Carlos and Cassandra began tripping over each other to give the details of the party.

  “We thought it would work great in conjunction with the festival, given Scorpio’s line of merchandise,” Cassandra voiced.

  “During the party, Scorpio can have some models wear their latest swimsuits and intimates, while attendants are carrying trays of products like the body lotions and oils,” Carlos finished up.

  When they paused, Jason sat for a moment in silence, weighing the feasibility of the event his staff had designed.

  “Once again you all have shown me why I keep you around.” Jason smiled. “So, which one of you is trying to put me out of a job?”

  Jason laughed as he watched ten index fingers point at each other around the room.

  “I’m going to assume, Carlos and Cassandra, that the two of you have all ready reserved and booked everything.”

  “Your assumption is correct, sir,” Carlos confirmed.

  “Good. Then the only thing you all left me is my job. I’ll call Mr. Jordan and see if he’s available Monday for a meeting. Then float the idea by him and show him the ad boards; see if he agrees. If so, then we press forward.” Jason rose off the edge of his desk. “If not, it’s literally back to the drawing board.”

  His staff murmured affirmatively and started to head out.

  “One more thing. Cassandra, Carlos and Clarence, I’ll have my ideas for the ballroom setup and publicity with you all by tomorrow. We can see what can be incorporated into what you all already have. Keep me posted.”

  “We’ll do, Mr. Richardson.” Clarence made his way out of the office with the other two.

  Jason rounded his desk as his phone rang. He answered it. “Richardson.”

  “Mr. Richardson, there’s a Dr. Hudson who needs to speak with you.”

  Jason felt butterflies in his stomach when he heard his doctor’s name or voice.

  “Put him through, Jeannie.”

  There was a soft click as the two lines were connected.

  “Dr. Hudson, something up with my test?” Jason asked hesitant.

  “No, everything is still fine with your results. How is your first day back going?”

  “Okay, no problems. What’s up? I didn’t expect you to be calling me this soon to check-up on me.”

  Jason could hear Dr. Hudson’s chuckle through the phone.

  “I’m not checking up. I just forgot to tell you this morning that I made an appointment for you at Healthy Fit.”

  “Hmm.”

  “Well, by your response I can see it was not high on your priority list.”

  “You can say that again.”

  “Well, then I guess I made the right decision in making it.” Dr. Hudson was confident. “After this one it will be up to you to make the second one or any others you see fit to make. But, I am making this first one mandatory.”

  “Great.” Jason was apathetic. His mind wouldn’t even allow him to fake excitement.

  “Remember how important it is for you to really look at making some changes to your life, Jason.”

  “Yeah, so people keep telling me. Talk to you later, doc.”

  Four

  “Knock, knock.”

  Yasmine looked up from her desk to see Leigh leaning against the doorjamb. She gave her friend a halfhearted smile and waved her in.

  “So, what’s up?” Leigh asked as she took the seat next to Yasmine’s desk.

  Yasmine didn’t even try to pretend she didn’t know what Leigh was talking about. She had slept horribly last night, obsessing about the twins, and she was sure that’s exactly how she looked. “Have you ever wanted something that you couldn’t have?”

  “Yeah, a Mercedes Benz fully loaded.” Leigh gave her a playful wink.

  Yasmine laughed, despite how she was feeling inside. Times like this always reminded her why Leigh was her best friend, because even when she was sad or worried about something Leigh was always there to lighten her burden.

  “That wasn’t quite what I was talking about.”

  “Oh, you mean like in the first grade, I wanted a bright pink and yellow banana seat bike, but my dad said I was too small.”

  “That’s a bit closer. Except instead of it being a bike, it’s a child.” Yasmine’s voice faded.

  Leigh sat quietly for a moment.

  Yasmine could see the confused questions play across her features. She watched Leigh’s gaze drop to her stomach before returning to her face.

  Yasmine quickly clarified. “No—I’m not pregnant.”

  Leigh placed a hand on her chest. “Phew, for a moment there I thought you had secretly gotten artificially inseminated.”

  “Maybe I should have, it may have been easier to get approval for it.”

  Yasmine knew she was in a funk, but she just couldn’t shake it. She wanted the twins.

  “So, what were you trying to get authorization to do?” Leigh questioned.

  Yasmine paused, not sure how she was going to verbalize to her friend what she wanted without crying like she had done most of the night, until she fell into an exhausted sleep.

  She took a deep breath and plunged forward. “I called a lawyer yesterday about adopting a set of twins from the orphanage.”

  “Wow!”

  Yasmine looked down toward her desk; she felt guilt about not being honest with her best friend about what she had planned to do.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before, but I guess I was just afraid you might try to talk me out of it.”

  “Yasmine, I’m your best friend and I’ve never judged you. If you’d have told me I would have just offered you my support.”

  Leigh’s saying that just made her feel guiltier.

  “So, what did the lawyers say?”

  Yasmine regained eye contact with her friend. “They basically said it was next to impossible for a single woman to adopt two children.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “There’s nothing I can do. I probably could try, but the lawyer said I would be wasting my time and money.”

  “You’re just going to give up?”

  Yasmine looked intently at her friend; it sounded as if she was disappointed in her.

  “I have no other choice,” Yasmine alleged categorically.

  “The lawyer said it was hard for a single woman...”

  Yasmine caught the twinkle in her friend’s eye. “And?”

  “Get married.”

  And there’s the tongue in cheek Leigh to bring me out of my funk. Yasmine had no doubt her friend was joking. Leigh had been there through her divorce and she knew her thoughts on remarrying.

  Yasmine rolled with her friend’s humor. “So, do I put a line in the personals? SB-RF, single bi-racial female looking for adoption partner?”

  They both began to laugh.

  “No, I think you should put flyers around the city and on bulletin boards.”

  “Better yet, why don’t I offer the option to the next guy that comes walking into my office?” Yasmine declared.

  “If I agree, does it mean I don’t have to come back?”

  Yasmine and Leigh sat dumbstruck by the sound of a male voice coming from the doorway, one Yasmine recognized.

  At the sight of the good-looking honey tanned white man, Leigh recovered quickly.

  Standing up and walking toward the door, Leigh held out her hand to the man while giving him one of her smiles and introducing herself. “Hello, I’m Leigh Clark. Welcome to Healthy Fit, can I assist you with something?”

  Yasmine watched from her desk as the man looked past Leigh and directed his gaze at her. For a moment, Yasmine wondered how much of the conversation he had overheard.

  Moving his gaze back to Leigh, he took her hand. “I’m Jason Richardson and I believe I have an appointment with Ms. Sousa.”

  “Oh, lucky her.” Leigh turned back to Yasmine and lifted an eyebrow in her direction. “I’ll just leave the two of you to your appointment.”


  Yasmine rose from her desk with her hand out toward him. “Mr. Richardson...I didn’t think you would show up.”

  As he approached her, she glanced at his appearance. Jason Richardson was dressed in full business apparel. He wore a navy blue suit with a soft gray tie striped with navy blue over what she could only assume was a perfectly starched white shirt. By his style of dress, she figured he had returned to work since his heart attack. She was curious about how long the doctor actually gotten him to stay out of work.

  Fleetingly, she thought about the difference in their worlds as she smoothed her free hand down the front of her khaki slacks.

  He stepped up to her desk and grasped her hands in his.

  Soft met strong.

  “Well, to be honest I wouldn’t have come if my doctor hadn’t insisted.”

  “I figured that was it when Dr. Hudson called me the other day and made the appointment. He rarely does that. Most of the time the patients do it themselves.”

  “I wouldn’t have...” He paused briefly. “Let’s get on with this if you don’t mind.”

  Yes, sir. I say, someone is used to be in charge.

  “Have a seat, please.” Yasmine gestured toward the chair on the side of her desk Leigh had vacated moments before. She handed him a clipboard. “I’m going to need you to fill the top sheet out for me. It’s just a basic questionnaire about your eating, exercise, and stress level.”

  She watched the subtle lift of his left eyebrow before he took a pen out of his inside jacket pocket and began to write.

  Oh, great, this is going to be fun, Yasmine thought to herself as she walked the few steps to her filing cabinet and took out his file she had assembled after Dr. Hudson’s call.

  Heading back to her desk, she slowed her pace and took a quick moment to watch him unobserved. She could tell that he took pride in how he looked, from the neat taper of his haircut to the polish of his shoes. She glanced at his hands while he was writing—man hands, nothing small or weak about them. She could see the large veins under his skin. Her body began to pulse and throb between her legs. She squeezed her thighs together and it intensified the feeling.