by Xyla Turner
“That woman down there left a company because they didn’t value her as a partner, started her own company and will go on to be a force to reckon with in the years to come. As a business man, I want to invest in companies like that. So, it shames me to know that I have a guy working at my company, Mr. Holden, that talks and if given the opportunity would treat her in the same way her last company did. We are equal opportunity here at Kelly International, we don’t discriminate on anything, even asshole opinions, but we also don’t allow others to do that to partners and guests in our home.”
I turned to Craig.
“So, Mr. Holden, you are relieved of your duties at Kelly International, effective immediately. Here is your official letter of reprimand and you’ll be escorted out once you’ve gathered your things with security.” Craig said with anger laced in his voice.
He added, “I personally hired you and I’m so embarrassed.”
Holden was bright red and looked close to crying. His face was a combination of embarrassment, shame and guilt. I had no remorse, because the one thing I didn’t say was that he was speaking about the woman I loved.
******
SAMANTHA:
The past month was so hard for me. I avoided Joshua like the plague. My old plan that I had developed in the beginning was put in motion. Always have someone with me and never be alone. I did that and he allowed me to do that, I knew. He wanted the separation too, so there it was. He didn’t make it difficult and I worked extra hard to make sure he didn’t have to come at me or Craig for anything. We gave him daily updates, projections, and thoughts. If the next couple of months worked like this, we would be good, professionally. Personally, I had no idea. I saw him every damn day and that was hard on my heart. I talked to Elliot and Roslyn about it, but they just kept saying we made a mistake, because I told them this was a mutual decision. I even told them about BDSM, which neither of them flinched about. They both seemed to be quite familiar with it and schooled me to some things. Then Roslyn, not in front of Elliot, pointed out that I had engaged in some form of BDSM before. I had to remind her, I only dealt with the D in that acronym, and nothing else was even remotely appealing. She responded that it was because Joshua didn’t do it to me. Urg.
Trevor tried to contact me several times, but I told him exactly how I felt about what I heard and I didn’t want to talk to him anymore. He didn’t seem to want to take no for an answer, so I had to throw out the tact and I let him have it, loudly – since the third floor likes to be in my business. My parting words were ‘what’s the point of having enemies, when there are friends like you.’ Then slammed my front door in his face, on cue. I heard a thump and a “Fuuuuck.” The next day, I found that he had in fact punched a hole in the wall. Great, an angry ‘frienemy.’ I decided it was time to take the stairs more often.
Christmas and New Years had come and gone, so we were approaching February and our second thirty-day cycle had already begun. Vicki and I were working on edits when we saw one of the marketing guys being escorted by security. Behind them were Craig and Joshua, who both looked livid. Joshua met my eyes and he held them. I wasn’t sure if I would be privy to why they were escorting him, which in essence meant he was fired, but decided I’d ask Craig. I turned my focus back to Vicki and we continued working. Later on, Craig filled me in that Mr. Holden made some disparaging comments and he was fired. I asked him when did disparaging comments get someone fired, he said they were about me and Mr. Kelly heard them. I made him tell me more, but he didn’t want to reveal too much, because if Kelly didn’t give me that information, he didn’t know if he wanted to me to know. What stuck with me was that Kelly laid into Holden about women having to struggle in businesses and work twice as hard and how he didn’t listen to a woman who told him about this, but that he was once an idiot. I could not believe my ears. Joshua Kelly was advocating for women and firing employees who crossed the line.
Oh shit.
I told Craig I wouldn’t say anything, because I hadn’t even been talking to the dude. My iciness did cool a little and if he stepped in the room, I’d speak directly to him and not call attention to his presence. He must have realized this, because he would make it a point to come ask me about specific questions and I would answer them, instead of getting Craig. I still sent correspondents to him with Craig cc’d on them, but I kept my ‘steer clear of Kelly’ campaign going, just maybe not with such an icy vengeance.
We were approaching March now, with literally twenty days to go before the project would be complete. Professionally, everything was going great and personally, things had gotten better. I was still going to the Herpes Anonymous meetings once a month and I’d met a guy there. He was tall, cute, and happened to be Hispanic. That was a first for me and we had a date this Friday. He sent me flowers to my office, which was cute and he wrote the message in Spanish, because he was trying to help me learn the language. He sounded so good when he spoke Spanish. He also spoke French and Portuguese. He was a lawyer and he worked at the United Nations.
Our schedule was changed for Friday, so we weren’t working in the morning, but the evening, because of a prior client negotiation. Craig and I were working on the final touches of phase two, when he suddenly jumped up, yelling, “Alura.” She beamed at him and they embraced.
Wait, one fucking minute. How the hell did he know Alura?
“Darling, it’s so nice so see you again,” she exclaimed.
“Yes and you look ravishing,” Craig replied.
Alura turned to me and said, “Oh, Samantha. So nice to see you again. I see you’re burning the midnight oil.”
“Hey Alura, nice to see you too. Yeah, we’re hard at work here.”
“Yes, Joshua tells me you and Craig make quite the team.”
I looked at Craig and we both smiled at each other. We had been working very well together. I hadn’t anticipated it would be this way.
“Alura,” a deep voice called. That was no one but Joshua, who stood in the doorway, looking at me.
“Oh darling, I want to catch up with Craig and Samantha, we have plenty of time to get there.” Then she turned to me, “You aren’t going to the ball tonight, Samantha? I’m so sorry you missed out…”
“Alura,” Joshua interrupted her.
“Uh, no.” I looked at Joshua in confusion, “no ball for me. I have a date.”
Joshua looked at me with fire in his eyes, while Alura put her hand to her chest and said, “Oh, I didn’t know.”
At this point, Joshua was next to Alura with his arm through hers pulling her away.
“We have to go,” he commanded looking down at her disapprovingly.
“Have fun Alura, you guys look great together,” I said.
Joshua tensed at my words and Alura beamed. They left without looking back.
Chapter 17: Something about Elevators
JOSHUA:
That fucking woman. It was like she could smell trouble and gravitated to it. I had no intention of going down to the 36th floor because I knew Samantha was there. I guess when I asked Alura to join me, she got suspicious and wanted to find out for herself. Well, fuck me. She insisted on meeting me at my penthouse because she didn’t want to go into the ball alone on the Red Carpet. Why didn’t I just take someone else? Because I didn’t want Samantha to think I was actually dating someone? I figured if I took Alura, she would think I was fulfilling a final obligation for her grandfather. I knew there would be pictures from the Red Carpet, so she could possibly see that I had gone, but this was a fucking disaster and now she probably thought I lied and deceived her more.
This was the second time Alura had sabotaged something I was trying to set up with Samantha. Come to think of it, she had purposely told Samantha that she was my wife, didn’t tell the story right, and lead her to believe we were in love. But that was furthest from the truth. She might have been, but I told her a long time ago, I didn’t love her. She must still have feelings then and I didn’t want to lead her on. I couldn’t do thi
s.
As I was looking up at the ceiling, deep in thought, I saw Alura push the stop button on the elevator. I turned to see what was wrong and her eyes were low. She started to strut towards me with determination and purred, “I knew,” she shook her head and her extended index finger, and continued swaying her skinny hips towards me, “I just knew you wanted me.”
What the hell?
This bitch is crazy.
I stood at my full height, looked at her square in the eyes and said, “Alura,” I halted her progress to get in my personal space by extending my arm the entire length and placing my hand on her center chest, “you and I were done fourteen years ago, while you were still in business school. I explained to you that I did not think of you that way and I never have. It’s been years now and you haven’t understood that?”
She blanched at my words. Like, I had physically slapped her. She held on to her purse for dear life, then it dropped and everything seemed to happen in slow motion. She lunged at me with her nails, scratching my face with her right hand, swinging her left claws towards my eyes, I saw it coming and moved back. In that process, I hit my head on the elevator wall, which caused me to close my eyes. Thankfully, the elevator jolted as it started to move again and Alura lost her balance in those five inch heels and fell to the floor which left her ankle twisted in a nasty way. She screamed when she fell and kept screaming when the doors opened. I thought she was in that much pain, so when the attendant came and asked if I was alright, I told him to call an ambulance.
“And call the fucking police?” Alura screamed. I turned to her and saw she was pointing at me with tears in her eyes and yelling to the attendant, “Call the fucking police, he attacked me.”
I stood there in shock. This woman I’ve been married to as a favor, turned on me when I rejected her and tried to have me catch a case. I turned to the attendant and said, “Wally, please call the police and make a copy,” I pointed to the top right of the elevator, “of the footage from,” I looked at my watch, and continued, “5:30 – 5:45 PM.”
I looked at Alura, who was still on the floor and said, “I’d like to press charges.”
She turned ghostly pale and huge tears came down her cheeks. Her mouth was wide open and if I didn’t think she would scratch the other side of my face, I’d close it for her.
“Yes, sir. I saw the whole thing.” He added with a sound of sympathy for me.
“You wouldn’t,” she murmured.
“Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t dare, but after what you just pulled on me, with my woman and then tried to have me catch a case. I damn sure would,” I said, calmly.
“She’s not your woman,” she snarled.
“Oh, she is, always has been. You on the other hand, could never compete. I’m not sure why you tried or why I even went along with this charade for so long.”
“You’re pathetic, she’s going on a date with another man and you’re still wrapped up over her? I would have given you everything,” she screamed. “Everything. I was there for you all those years and you throw me away like a piece of gum stuck on your shoe? This is not the gratitude I deserved.”
I stepped towards her, because I couldn’t believe how diluted she was. “I’m pathetic?” I laughed, “No, darling. I’m not pathetic. I didn’t rope someone into marrying me, just to get money to start a business and keep them married to me in the hopes they would love me. I might have been the fool to not see through your ploy until recently, but I was never pathetic. Now, you are a different story.”
She slumped back off of her elbows and dropped her head to the ground, crying. I decommissioned the elevator cart, so it wouldn’t move. It was at least another 30 minutes before the cops and the ambulance came. We explained the situation, showed them the tape, and the officers took my statement. At first Alura was hysterical, then they put her on a gurney and gave her something to calm her. She was still glaring at me, but no noise was coming from her.
The other elevator door pinged and Craig and Samantha walked off, with shocked looks on their faces. Craig and Samantha saw Alura on a stretcher and ran to her. Samantha looked to me and asked with pleading eyes, “Is she alright?”
“It was a sprain” I said automatically, trying not to let her know exactly what transpired. “Well, it was more than…” “Oh my God, Joshua, what happened to your face?” She reached up and moved my face to the left.
“Alura stopped the elevator, tried to seduce me, and when I rejected her, she attacked me until she fell when Walter started the elevator again.”
“Stop playing,” she said with a smile.
“It’s all on tape,” I said seriously.
I thought Samantha said, ‘that bitch’, but I couldn’t hear her clearly.
“Wow,” she said louder.
“Yeah, aren’t you going to be late for your date?” I said, trying to lighten the mood.
“Oh yeah, damn. You aren’t going to go to the gala?”
I held my finger up to my face and said, “Not like this.”
“Ah, I see.” She looked like she was pondering on something, so I helped her make her decision.
“You are going to be late, get going,” I prompted.
She looked at me and said, “Are you sure? I’m here if you need me.”
“No, go ahead, I’ll be fine. I’m pressing charges.”
“What,” she gasped. “That’s your wife.”
“Ex-‐wife, and she was going to press charges on me, until I showed her that I had the tape.”
“That bitch,” she said it loud enough for me to hear that time.
“I know.” I smirked.
“I can stay, help you clean your face up,” she said.
“No, Samantha, go ahead. The paramedics can help with that,” I insisted.
She looked at me square in the eyes and it looked like hurt passed through, but then it was gone. She nodded her head, like she’d just solidified her decision and said, “Have a good evening, Mr. Kelly,” then she walked away.
“Bye mama,” I murmured.
Chapter 18: Stranded & Rescued
SAMANTHA:
I couldn’t believe that crazy bitch did something like that. I almost wanted to see the tape. I didn’t want to go on my date with Raymond – I wanted to be with Joshua. She fucking attacked him, I wanted to show her how we got down in DC, but that was none of my business as Kermit the frog said and drank his tea. He actually encouraged me to go out on this date. I would feel some type of way if he went out on a date, but I guess he was done with me. So much so that he called Alura – bitch. I hope he doesn’t press charges on her. That would be bad press. Billionaire presses charges on his estranged wife or secret wife. She could sling his name through the mud. Who knows, she could say he cheated, I needed to mind my own business. I guess he had a publicist for all of that. He hired me and my company to help with Stark, not his personal life.
I walked down the street and it suddenly registered that he said, “Bye mama.” That could have just been my imagination, but I swear he said it.
My date with Raymond was alright. I was distracted and he could tell. I apologized at the end of the evening and I told him that I wasn’t ready to date just yet. I wanted to be friends, and who knew where that might lead. He said ‘the friend zone’. I laughed out loud, because that was funny. He actually had a good sense of humor and once I actually got over Joshua, I would consider trying to get to know him better.
I arrived home around 11 PM to start my weekend, which included going to Florida to see my parents. They had retired, were currently living it up and left their only child to fend for herself. Well, that is what I told them, so they suggested I come spend the weekend after making them feel guilty. The only traveling they wanted to do was to the beach. On Saturday, I took a flight from DCA to ORL, which was quick and sweet, no delays, no turbulence and no talkative seat buddies. I brought my bathing suit, some summer dresses and was excited to be in some heat for a change. DC was still freezing co
ld, with snow sporadically coming and going when it pleased.
My mother met me at the airport and right away knew something was wrong. She said she heard it over the phone, but she was never one to pry in my business. Since I was an only child, I had always been pretty independent, which is one of the reasons why they felt it was okay to move to Florida, because I wouldn’t need them as other parents children do. I understood the logic, but somewhere deep down, I felt like they left me. Like they did their duties as parents and then kicked the ‘little bird’ out of its nest to learn to fly. They didn’t do that, of course, after I graduated from college and then went to grad school, they totally supported me. It wasn’t until I moved from ‘the dunce’ to start my own that they decided to officially move. They had visited Orlando quite frequently, which is why they had so many miles they could give me on short notice. They supported me financially and every other way, but I know they worked hard all their lives to give me a good life and teach me how to support myself, and it was their time to relax and get back to them. I got it, but I guess I was feeling rather emotional. I spilled to my mom about Joshua and she listened, didn’t offer advice, but asked probing questions, so I could answer my own doubtful thoughts. Dad just simply hugged me, called me his baby girl and said, ‘give ‘em hell.’ That was his signature line to me and he would be proud to know I live up to that motto. After baking in the sun, getting some highlights in my hair with my mom, and enjoying their company, I set off to leave on Sunday evening around 6 PM and would be home by 8 PM. The flight was delayed due to a rising storm. All the flights were delayed at ORL and around 9 PM, I decided it was time to let them know I wouldn’t be back at work tomorrow morning. I emailed Vicki, Craig, and Joshua, explaining the situation and that I would keep them posted.
Several minutes later, I get a text from Joshua:
Which airport are you at?