by Xyla Turner
“Oh my goodness, you scared the shit out of me.” I exclaimed.
“My bad.” He continued to snicker lowly.
I was clutching my chest and breathing deeply. I figured he could tell I was nervous because I didn’t know him and I normally just don’t go to people’s apartments. Well, excluding Joshua’s and that got me in trouble. I couldn’t get in that type of trouble here. That would not be cool. The man was hot, but for some crazy reason I wanted Joshua. For the life of me, I just couldn’t explain the attraction. He was overbearing, bossy, an alpha, probably crazy and drove me wild.
“Come and sit,” Trevor said as he escorted me to the sofa, where he sat on the end. Great, because I sat on the opposite end and put my food in the middle where he put a lap table to separate us, so we could put our spread on there. He pulled out a salad with grilled chicken and avocado and a water. I pulled out my food and started eating the grill cheese sandwich first.
“You bought a grilled cheese sandwich? I could have made that for you,” he laughed.
“You bought a water, I could have poured that for you,” I quickly retorted.
“Touché, touché,” he smiled. “I needed to meet the $10 minimum.”
I laughed to myself.
He picked up the remote and turned on the TV. The game was on, the Redskins were playing the Giants. He went to change the station and I said, “No, you can leave the game on.”
Out of my peripheral, I saw his head turn towards mine. “What? You’re a fan of football?” he asked.
“Yeah, I used to play tackle football with the guys in my neighborhood, until I started to develop in certain areas. So I know the game and from time to time, will watch the sport. I hate the Redskins, even though I’m from the District and they are getting crushed yet again, so this is fine.”
“I think I’m in love.” He looked shocked.
“Oh my God, calm down. There are plenty of women who like sports.”
“I haven’t met one. Well, one that I was interested in, until now,” he clarified.
On that note, I shut up and took another bite of my grilled cheese. This was getting awkward and now I was thinking this was a bad idea. Stupid neighbor, stupid delivery guy, stupid me for putting myself in this position.
“Soo,” he started. “What do you do?”
“I’m a marketing consultant. How about you?”
“I’m a website designer.”
“Oh, nice. You’re a geek.”
He smiled and said, “Something like that.”
“Nice! You write code and all of that or do you cheat like I do and WordPress it?”
“I’m a coder,” he smiled.
“Ah, yup. A geek.”
It fell silent and we continued to eat and watch the game until the half-time show came on. The quiet wasn’t weird but expected since he invited me over, he’d had some sort of plan of conversation. Maybe I offended him by calling him a geek. I started to fret over this, until he asked, “So, this relationship you are in, it’s serious?”
“Uh, why do you ask?” I looked at him with my eyebrows pushed together.
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m interested in you, but you said you were in a relationship. I’m trying to figure out if it’s serious or not, so that …”
“You can steal me away?” I asked.
He laughed, “No, just to see what my percentage is. Remember, I’m a geek, so I deal in real statistics.”
“Ah, I see. Well, shouldn’t you calculate my interest in you, since you deal in real numbers?”
“I have.”
“Oh, how did you figure that?”
“You’re here aren’t you?”
“What does that mean? I’m watching a game and eating my food at a neighbors. That has nothing to do with my interest in you.”
“Actually, it does. One, we are friendly towards one another. Two, we share a love of the same restaurant. Three, we share a love of avocado. Four, we are both quick-witted. Five, we both like football. Six, we both hate the Skins and seven, shall I go on?”
“No, but what do those things have to do with my interest in you? I have male-friends and I see nothing wrong with them.”
“Right and as one of your potential male friends, I will have a better chance with you than any other guy, because we were friends first. It’s a proven fact.”
“Oh my gosh. That’s not true. I have a male friend for about three years and he hasn’t once tried to hit on me, ask me out and I was single most of that time.”
“He’s either gay or you’ve put him in the friend zone a long time ago.”
“That is not true. He’s not gay and we started off as colleagues and I don’t usually like to mix business with pleasure.”
“Usually?”
“Well, the guy I’m seeing now is also a colleague.”
“Ahh, you broke your own rule. Why?”
“He didn’t give me a choice, I guess is the simple answer.”
“You didn’t want to have the choice, is more like the accurate answer.”
“On some level, I guess you are right. I am usually very aware and can disengage people, but he just blew all that away.”
He stared at me thoughtfully and said, “I can see that. He broke through your defenses and it’s scary, huh?”
“Are you a psychologist?” I smiled.
“I minored in psych during undergrad,” he said matter-of-factly.
I laughed. “I see.”
“Well, for the sake of transparency, just in case it doesn’t work out with you and your ‘colleague.’ I’m interested and as your friend, I should be next in line.”
“That seems a little calculating and you don’t even know me man. I’m hell on wheels. Ask anybody. Plus, you are very attractive and can pull any woman you want. You don’t want to be someone’s rebound, so don’t feed me that line.”
“Babe, that’s no line. I told you, I’m a man of statistics and I can count ten reasons why there should be ‘a you and me.’ I don’t see it as a rebound, but a process,” he responded in a matter-of-fact way.
“Hmm, so you say.”
“I do,” he said with a smile.
“Well, I should be heading out,” I said after wrapping up my trash.
“Yeah, there is no way the Skins will come back after this, so we can sleep well tonight.”
I laughed and stood up.
“We should do this again,” he suggested.
“Uh, maybe not.”
“Come on, as friends. I won’t make you feel awkward, I won’t analyze you and I damn sure won’t ask you about your ethnic roots. I am a quick study.”
I laughed loudly.
“You’re funny,” I said through my laughter as I headed towards the door. I turned around to say good night and he was right behind me, looking at me very intently.
“You have a beautiful laugh,” he said. I looked up to him, because all of a sudden he was very close and I saw that he was taller than I thought. I also didn’t have on any heels. He was quite handsome with that sexy grin and brownish/blond goatee. I needed to leave soon, but as soon as I turned, he reached for my shoulder and turned it back towards him, then he cupped my chin up and pressed a kiss on my lips.
Goddamn.
He moved away from my face slightly, like he was trying to figure out if he should continue, waiting for me to slap him or react, but I just stared in his hazel eyes. He smiled and kissed my forehead this time.
“Until next time, Sam.”
He released me and I made a quick retreat out of his door and to my apartment. Now my dreams would be haunted by that short, but telling kiss.
He was definitely interested.
Chapter 9: Dinner guest
SAMANTHA:
The staff meeting was long, but productive. The staff was excited, but wanted to hash out every detail today, so they could contact our other clients with more definitive plans about moving forward. I kept reiterating that Kelly International was a client like
the rest, but just because this was a multi-million dollar deal, does not mean we short-change our other clients. This company started off with small businesses and we need not ever forget that, because they would always be a part of our mission and lineage.
After five hours, a viable plan, lunch and our marching orders, I contacted Joshua via email with the plan, stipulations, start date and proposed end date. He didn’t respond right away and when he did two hours later, it read:
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Date: December 12, 2014 @ 4:17PM
Subject: Re: Partnership Agreement
See you tonight. Be ready by 7PM.
I’ll send a car to pick you up at home.
JKelly
Uh, really.
I didn’t know how to respond to this, because I felt a little dismissed. This same man was hot for me one second, begging that I partner with him. I email him my official yes with two pages of notes, schedules, and procedures and he doesn’t even respond to that, but is talking about dinner plans. Somewhere deep down, I began to wonder if this partnership wasn’t a part of a bigger scheme. It seems very unlikely that we’d get this anyway, but I keep banking on the fact that he is a very smart business man. Well-respected and for many years, there is no way he’d throw something this big to someone he thought couldn’t handle it. I shouldn’t read too much into non-verbal text, I know, but I’m not feeling good about this.
Around 7 PM, my door buzzed, indicating that the car was outside waiting for me. I walked outside to a limousine, not a car. A man approached me from the car and said, “Hi, I’m Fred. Mr. Kelly has sent me to take you to the restaurant. He sends his apologies, because he is just arriving back.”
“Hi Fred, I’m Samantha. Thanks for relaying the message.”
I almost added, it would have been nice to hear it from Mr. Kelly, but decided it wouldn’t be good to embarrass him, because his boss was a jerk. My mood was disintegrating quickly. I probably should cancel and go back upstairs. I doubt I’d be good company tonight.
After driving for thirty minutes, Fred pulled up to a restaurant in Bowie, Maryland. It was exclusive and very ritzy. I’m glad I wore my little black dress, stockings, four inch heels and a black shawl/coat to give me more of an elegant appeal. My hair was down, but layered around my face, so it had a Zoe Saldana look. I was compared to her often enough, so it helped that I liked her style. I walked in and gave the hostess Joshua’s name. She nodded and took me straight to him.
He stood when I approached with a wide smile on his face, but I didn’t return that smile, because not only was my mood deteriorating, but there was a woman sitting next to him, looking awfully cozy. What in the hell?
I slowed my pace, partly in confusion, but also just in case I needed to make a U-turn. I was more than willing. The woman smiled at me, but my face remained straight. I had no idea what I was walking into and I didn’t feel prepared, which made me feel guarded.
“Baby, there you are,” Joshua said with a smile.
What!
He came to me, pulled me to him and kissed me on the forehead. Then he moved his lips to my ear and whispered, “I missed you.”
I pulled away and looked at him in confusion. He raised an eyebrow to me as if to ask me what was wrong. I then pulled completely away from him and looked at the woman who sat next to him and said, “Hi, I’m Samantha and you are?”
She smiled brightly at Joshua, “I like her.”
Then she extended her hand, “I’m Alura, Joshua’s wife.”
Without missing a beat, I shook her hand, “I didn’t know Joshua was married.”
She laughed, “No one does.”
Joshua growled, “Aluraaa.”
“Oh, right, right. We’ve been separated for thirteen years now.”
“I see,” I said. Completely guarded and refused to let anything being said show how much it affected me. I was floored, heartbroken and hurt. I don’t give one fuck if they’ve been separated for fifty years, which is not information that should be thrown at anyone on what would be classified as a first date with your damn wife. I was mentally calculating how I would rip him a new one and tell him where he could go.
Joshua ushered me to a seat across the table from him and Alura. I quickly took the seat and tried with everything that was in me to not show that I felt like he just slapped me in the face. I sat down, pulled my shawl off with as much grace as I could muster and looked at the menu.
“Are you hungry sweetheart?” Joshua asked.
Funny how he wanted to use the terms of endearment more now, and funny how they had no effect on me now.
“Yes, I’m starved. Whose idea was it to have dinner at 7pm?” I asked and looked at both of them.
Alura smiled and said, “That would be me. Joshua and I had a very late lunch, so I didn’t want to spoil my dinner by eating early.”
“Ah, makes sense,” I said.
So, if Joshua Kelly went missing, they would look at me and her since we were the last ones to have seen him. Maybe I could summon an Uber to come get me and he’d be forced to take her home and then if he went missing they’d just look at her. I had to focus on my CSI episodes, just in case I gave into the thoughts of killing this man. I have never been so humiliated in my entire life. Or it felt that way, but I’ll be damned if I would tuck my tail between my legs and scamper away. I’d take this like a damn grown ass woman. Take that Roslyn. Shame I couldn’t call her to share this little tidbit, well I could, but I’m still mad at her.
“Samantha, Joshua tells me that you are going to be partnering with him to bring the “Stark” to the public.” Alura announced.
Oh, she knows the name of the phone? I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, but his ‘estranged’, well she said they were separated, not ‘estranged’, wife knows it enough to call it by name.
“Yes, I believe we will start on Monday if everything is approved.”
“Oh, I was under the impression this was already done,” Alura responded.
“It is,” Joshua said sternly and looked at me.
“I didn’t receive a confirmation email from my last list of stipulations, so I figured you needed to go over them with the Marketing Department.”
“I don’t have to go over anything with anyone. It’s approved. You need a confirmation email to say that?” he asked as he pulled out his phone.
The nerve of this bastard.
“That would be nice,” I smiled. “CYA and all that.”
Alura busted out laughing at that and hit the table with her hand. “Joshua, honey, she is a hoot.”
Honey?
I know the rich and famous get into some kinky stuff, but if they think I’m going to participate in a ménage à trois, they were sorely mistaken. I looked at Alura closely. She was tall, but I couldn’t tell how tall, because she remained seated. She was white and about the same complexion as Joshua, with tanned exotic features, long light brown hair with blond highlights, pointed nose and high cheek-bones. Her eyes were almond shaped and hazel. She was on the thinner side and had on a chiffon dress, that I assumed either was long or short, depending on her style. She rocked a huge diamond ring, but it wasn’t on her ring finger and she had on a beautiful necklace that I’m sure cost a fortune. She screamed rich and entitled.
“I sent it,” Joshua said as my phone pinged with a new email message.
“Thank you so much. I’ll be sure to let my staff know it’s a go,” I responded.
He stared at me and I smiled back. Alura on the other hand, seemed to get a kick out of this and was brightly smiling at me. Glad she found something funny.
The waiter came over and Joshua ordered some expensive wine for the table. He went around and asked what we all wanted. I settled on the salmon, asparagus and a glass of water. Alura got a salad with light French dressing, which Joshua seemed to frown upon. She actively ignored him and asked, “How did you meet Joshua?”
“I literally bumped
into him about a year ago,” I said as Joshua gave the waiter his order.
She laughed, “That seems like the only way to get this man’s attention.”
Joshua looked at her as revelation filled his eyes, then it was gone. She looked at him as she took a sip of her water. This was none of my business. I dipped the bruschetta that was on the table in the olive oil and took a bite. I guess this was the time that Joshua wanted to reveal the news as to why we were having dinner, because he said, “Samantha, I went out of town to handle some business with Alura and her father, but she insisted on meeting you, so she kind of intruded on our evening together.”
I guess I had this so-called ‘alpha’ man all wrong. He lets women intrude on his evenings or maybe just this woman, his fucking wife. Clearly this was a deal breaker for me, because on some level I liked a guy who didn’t let anyone intrude on him, but also one that would put my well-being before anything, especially another fucking woman. Did he even consider how I would feel about this? He’s married and doesn’t tell me. Just has her drop it in my lap, like ‘oh by the way, I’m married. Yet, I’d like to fuck you three ways from Sunday.’ He didn’t warn me, just had me walk into an uncertain situation and fend for myself. I don’t like that kind of man and this act right here, seemed to solidify in my soul. Oh well, it was better off just business.
“Yes, I’m sorry dear.” Alura said to me, “But when Joshua told me that he had a love in his life, after over a decade, I just had to meet her.”
“Ah, a love, huh?” I mused.
“Yes, well his exact words were, ‘this is serious,’” Alura chimed.
“I see,” I replied.
Joshua kept staring at me. He must have finally picked up that I wasn’t feeling this bullshit. I had better hone in on my acting skills, quickly.
“Yeess,” I chimed in my most charming voice. “So Alura, are you from around here?”
“No, I’m actually from Tennessee. I’m surprised you don’t hear the accent.” She smiled. “Joshua tells me you’re from DC? You must like the city.”
“Yes, I love the city, but I think the older I get, I’d like to settle somewhere in the suburbs. Maybe even move out of state.”