Avery hadn’t always felt this way. Growing up, Coleman Village had been home for her. The small neighborhood of brick row homes was a close-knit community where everyone had looked out for one another. But over the years, it had diminished and become drug and gang infected. The streets she had rode her bike along when she was a kid no longer felt safe and it was often featured on the nightly news as the backdrop for the latest murder, gang war or crime wave. The only reason Avery stayed was because her boyfriend, Duke, had no desire to leave. If he had his way, he probably would be buried right in Coleman Village.
The sound of thunder clapped so loud that it caused Avery to jump. Duke’s car was gone and the thought of being inside, alone, caused her to worry. The auto-parts store where he worked closed an hour ago, and he hadn’t mentioned going anywhere when he got off. She reached for her cell phone and dialed his number for the fifth time since leaving Food Zone, and for the fifth time it went straight to voice mail. Where the hell is he? she thought. She shook her head and willed herself the energy to run from the car to the front porch. The cold rain did nothing to help the lock, which was now slippery, in addition to already being tricky.
“Damn it!” she shouted into the darkness, “I hate this fucking house!”
Finally, the light clicked and the door finally opened. Avery froze, hearing voices coming from the back room that they used as a den. Great, that’s all I need, to walk in on some damn burglars.
“So, Ms. Crawford, tell me what you don’t like about yourself?” a man’s voice asked.
Avery breathed a sigh of relief. After locking the door, she walked in and saw a familiar scene from Nip/Tuck on the plasma TV screen, which Duke had obviously left on. She also noticed that he also left a huge bowl of half-eaten cereal in the middle of the coffee table and his Timbs and a pair of socks in the middle of the floor. Not having the energy to clean up his mess, she headed straight upstairs to their bedroom. Clicking on the light, she immediately saw that Duke had left a mess there as well. His sweats and wife beater were thrown in the middle of their unmade bed. In the bathroom, his razor was laying on the sink along with a wet rag. Again, Avery pretended the mess didn’t exist. She took a long, hot shower, cleared a path in the bed, and climbed under the covers. Just as she was about to close her eyes, she spotted her computer bag and statistics book on the nightstand.
“Shit, my homework!” She sat up. It was well after eleven and she didn’t even have the strength. Unable to hold back the tears she had been fighting all night, Avery lay back down and cried. This is not how she wanted to live her life. This is not what she worked hard and sacrificed for. Four years of college, almost two years of grad school, twelve hours at a job I don’t even like, a home where I don’t even feel safe, and a man who seems to be gone more than he’s home. Why am I dealing with all this bullshit? Why? She knew the answer better than anyone. She dealt with it because she was in love.
“So, are you saying this is my fault?”
“I didn’t say that,” Avery snapped as she got dressed. The clock read 6:40 and she had to be out the door in the next twenty minutes if she was going to make it to work on time. The “no tardy” policy at her job, Jennings International, was one that wasn’t taken lightly. Management was always looking for something to say and although she was rarely late, she wasn’t in the mood to have to answer to anyone.
“But that’s how you’re acting. Like I was the one that stole your wallet,” Duke grumbled as he rolled over and lifted his head. One of his turn-ons was watching Avery get dressed in the mornings and normally she would give him a show, but she wasn’t in the giving mood this morning, that was for damn sure. Instead, she took her pantsuit into the bathroom and slipped it on. By the time she came back into the bedroom, she was fully dressed and Duke was now sitting on the side of the bed. Avery couldn’t help but notice the slight glance of disappointment on his face. No peepshow for you, boo, she thought as she grabbed her laptop and book bag, then headed out the door.
“So, you’re not even gonna say anything to me, Avery?” Duke whimpered.
Avery paused then turned around slowly. “You need to go to the grocery store. We’re out of milk.”
She had barely made it onto the interstate when her cell phone began ringing and Duke’s name and picture appeared on the screen. It took her ignoring his calls five times before he realized she didn’t want to talk. She sent him a text telling him she would call when she got to work and he responded with a quick I Love u. Normally, it would have put a smile on her face, but after the night and morning she had, she wasn’t feeling any love. Her phone rang again, and this time, she saw that it was her coworker, Tabitha.
“Hey, girl,” Avery greeted her, “I’m glad you called.”
“You should always be glad that I call,” Tabitha said. “Not too many people have that honor. I’m at Starbucks.”
“Thank God,” Avery sighed. The thought of much-needed caffeine waiting on her when she got to work was almost enough to make her feel better.
“And can I get a tall mocha latte, no foam,” Tabitha said.
“No, wait,”Avery interrupted her. “Venti, with a double shot of espresso.”
Tabitha repeated Avery’s order to the barista, then remarked, “A double shot? Wow, someone must’ve had a hell of a night. Sex or studying?”
“Neither,” Avery answered. “And I’m gonna need for you to let me into the building.”
“Damn, you are having a rough morning. You left your badge too?”
“No, someone stole my wallet last night at the grocery store.”
“Aw, Avery, that’s jacked up. Did you cancel all of your credit cards?”
“They weren’t even in my wallet; my check card and credit cards were at home in my checkbook, which was at home. All they got was my license, my insurance card, my work badge, and a measly thirteen dollars and some change,” Avery told her. “They would’ve come out better stealing the damn four-hundred-dollar purse.”
“Probably some low-life kids,” Tabitha told her. “At least they didn’t get your plastic.”
“No, but it was still frustrating as hell, and I have to go get a new license. I’m gonna leave early and go take care of that, if they’ll let me. You know how funny-acting they can be at times.”
“If they give you any problems, just let me know. I’ll pull some strings and see what I can do,” Tabitha laughed.
“Yeah, like you got it like that,” Avery chuckled. “Hell, they hate you as much as they hate me up in there.”
“Not the guys, only the females, and that’s because they are intimidated by our brains, beauty and most of all, our breasts!”
That really made Avery laugh. Tabitha was five feet two and a size four on a good day. They were total opposites. Whereas Avery’s cup size was clearly a triple D, Tabitha’s may have been a B. And although both women dressed better than anyone else in the entire five-story building, Tabitha’s wardrobe only consisted of the color black and high heels. Avery loved her bubbly, petite, blond coworker who smoked like a chimney, although every week she swore she was quitting. How the two of them became such great friends, Avery didn’t know, but working beside Tabitha made her days go by faster and the job a little more bearable.
“And what breasts are you speaking of, Tabitha?” Avery asked, “Surely, you must be referring to mine.”
“Mine too, you jerk. Yours may be larger, but mine have more perk!”
“Okay, you do have a point,” Avery agreed.
“Just have your perky-ass breasts at the door when I get there and let me in. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Not a problem. I’ll be there in five.”
Chapter Two
“Ladies, we have a department meeting this morning. You need to report to the conference room at nine-fifteen,” the department secretary said as soon as Avery and Tabitha arrived at their desks.
“What’s this about?” Avery asked, looking at Malcolm, who was their other coworke
r whose cube was between theirs—thus the nickname they gave him: Malcolm-in-the middle.
“Don’t look at me,” Malcolm said, shrugging.
“Don’t lie, Malcolm,” Tabitha whispered, “you know everything that goes on around here. First of all, you’re nosy as hell and second of all, don’t front like you’re not banging Kurt’s sister, Sharice, who works on the fourth floor.”
Malcolm looked at the two of them like a kid who just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He was a really nice guy who seemed to have no control over his libido, and so oblivious to how attractive he was that it made him an easy target for the vultures in the office. If it wasn’t for Avery and Tabitha clueing him in on the gaming skeezers they worked with, he would probably be a father a hundred times over in the three years they all worked together.
“I swear, I don’t know anything. And I’m not banging Sharice,” Malcolm told them. “We’re just friends.”
“Yeah, that’s what you said about Darla, and didn’t she file a paternity suit against you not too long ago?” Tabitha folded her arms and nodded. “Granted, she filed one against several other dudes too.”
“And don’t forget about Lori from accounting,” Avery said, nodding.
“The married chick that looked like a man,” Tabitha snickered.
“Who brought you lunch every day,” Avery said, “and bought you some pretty nice gifts too, I might add.”
“Until her husband found out,” Tabitha added.
“Don’t hate because I’m the office mack.” Malcolm rubbed his chin and struck a GQ pose.
“More like the office whore,” Tabitha corrected him.
“What are you trying to say, Tabitha?” Avery asked, taking a sip of her coffee.
“I’m just saying that if he’s screwing the director’s sister, which we all know he is, he should, one, make sure he’s wrapping it up, two, he should be able to get some inside information, and three, can you put in a good word for me because you know how much I am really trying to get with Kurt.” Tabitha plopped herself on Malcolm’s desk. Tabitha wore her love for black men like a red badge of courage, and she was not ashamed in the least. The fact that the black women in the office frowned upon a white woman having the hots for them didn’t even seem to bother Tabitha. She didn’t care and just shrugged it off by saying she liked what she liked.
“You are crazy,” Malcolm laughed, pushing Tabitha off.
Avery’s cell phone rang, and she quickly grabbed it. “Damn it, I forgot to put this on vibrate. Hello.”
“I thought you were gonna call me when you got to work,” Duke asked.
“I just got here, Duke. I’m still getting settled,” she said, turning her back to Malcolm and Tabitha.
“I can’t believe you had an attitude with me this morning.”
Had? How about I still have one, Avery thought but instead told him, “I can’t believe that I told you someone stole my wallet out of the basket at the store and your reaction was to tell me it was dumb to have my purse in the basket to start with? What kind of shit is that, Duke?”
“I’m just saying. You know this neighborhood ain’t the safest, boo. You gotta be careful at all times.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Avery asked, “You’re right, the neighborhood ain’t the safest, which is why I’ve been telling you we need to move for months now.”
“Here we go with that again,” Duke grunted. “Avery, you know I ain’t leaving this house. Uncle Larry left me this house and as rough as this neighborhood may be, it’s still home. You grew up here the same way I did. I used to run these streets, you know that.”
He was right, he did used to run the streets of Coleman Village. Not only did he run the streets on foot as a little boy, but as he grew older, Douglas “Duke” Manning became one of the biggest runners in the dope game. Flashy cars, clothes, jewelry, and the women, he had it all, until one day he spotted Avery Belmont working at the recreation center as a counselor one summer. She was seventeen and had just graduated from high school, preparing to leave for college in a few months. Duke asked her out and she declined. Not only did she tell him no, but she warned him that the center was considered a school zone and if he got caught on the property with dope on him, it was an automatic ten-year sentence. Duke thought she was joking until he saw in her face that she was dead serious.
“What’s your deal?” he asked her. “You think you’re too good for a brother like me?”
Avery looked at him and shook her head. “No, not at all. I think it’s really sad that a brother with as much potential as you doesn’t even realize that you’re better than this.”
“I don’t think so.” He stared at her. “You’re beautiful, intelligent, and sexy as hell. What could be better?”
“I think you got it twisted,” Avery said. “It gets no better than me. You’re too good to be in this dumb-ass dope game. You’re better than that.”
From that moment, Duke was in love. His boys and most folks in the neighborhood couldn’t understand what he saw in the “smart, big girl” as most of them considered her. It took him almost two years for Avery to go out with him. And she did so only after he eventually got out the game and became legit. It was Avery who helped him get his GED and by the time she finished college, he had gotten a decent job working at Tangier and Sons Auto Parts and Service, right near the neighborhood. His Uncle Larry was proud of the changes his nephew made and he knew that it was all due to Avery. When he died, he left the house to both of them, along with his beloved Caddy, which Duke cherished. Everything seemed to be working out for the young couple; without having to pay rent, Avery landed a well-paying job at Jennings International and enrolled in grad school. But lately, things were becoming strained between them. Her job was stressful and so was school, and Duke put more money into the Caddy and electronics for the house than he did into paying the bills and contributing toward their future. The two of them just weren’t on the same page—hell, they didn’t even seem to be in the same book.
“Look, I have a meeting I gotta go to, Duke. I’ll call you at lunch,” Avery told him, then hung up. She stood up and rubbed her temples. “My head is pounding.”
“Well, prepare yourself because this meeting probably isn’t gonna make it any better. You need some drugs, Ave? I got Percocet, Darvocet, Vicodin . . .” Tabitha began digging in her purse.
“Does it bother you that the contents of your purse contain as many narcotics as the Walgreens up the street?” Malcolm asked.
“Hey, I look at it like being a Girl Scout, always prepared,” Tabitha replied.
“Prepared would be having aspirin,” Malcolm said.
The three walked into the already crowded conference room and sat down, with Malcolm being in the middle of them once again. Avery couldn’t help but notice the excitement in his face when Sharice walked in and waved at him.
“And you don’t have a clue about what this is about?” Tabitha leaned over and asked.
“No!” Malcolm hissed. “I promise, I don’t know anything. If I did, I would’ve said something.”
The room got quiet as Kurt Miller, their CFO and director, who also happened to be the brother of Sharice, walked in, followed by the department team leads. Among them was a woman whom Avery had never seen in the office, but looked vaguely familiar.
“Good morning,” Kurt said. His deep voice seemed to echo in the room. As usual, he was impeccably dressed in a dark suit and power tie; his wavy hair cut close and his face shaven so smooth that Avery could tell, just by looking at it, it was soft to touch. His skin was the exact shade as the coffee she was drinking and he looked just as hot. She saw every reason in the world for Tabitha to want him—hell—if her own situation was different, she would want him too.
“Good morning,” everyone mumbled.
“Well, I’m sure you’re wondering what this impromptu meeting is about. So, I’m going to cut straight to the chase and let you all know that as of last night, ther
e have been some organizational changes,” he announced.
A unified groan went through the room. Avery, Tabitha, and Malcolm all looked at each other. They all knew that organizational changes was the company’s key phrase for either someone getting fired or their department was being shifted to clean up some mess created by another department.
“This department will no longer handle marketing for the southeast district,” Kurt continued. “That task will be transferred to another office.”
And here comes the bullshit, Avery thought.
“This office will now be the site responsible for consumer client commitments.”
Consumer client commitments? Yeah, right. That’s just a fancy term for customer service. Oh, hell no. I did not bust my ass in college to be a customer service rep.
“This is ridiculous,” someone behind them said.
Kurt cleared his throat. “With all of the changes and regulations with Homeland Security, some of our clients have fallen through the loop and it’s caused somewhat of a company dilemma.”
“What about customer relations? Isn’t that their job?” someone yelled. “Why are we always the ones changing departments? I’m tired of doing everyone else’s job.”
“I know this is gonna be a little uncomfortable at first, but look at it as the faith the company has in you, in addition to it being job security. In addition, over the next month or so, there will be a staff reduction of approximately fifteen percent.”
Avery was shocked; a company layoff was the last thing she expected. She couldn’t afford to lose her job. Although Duke was working, she was the major breadwinner in the house, plus this job was paying her way through grad school. Avery looked up and saw Kurt pointing to the woman she thought looked familiar.
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