If You're Willing

by Ivy Symone

  His hands squeezed her breasts gently, pinching her nipples in between his fingers.

  “I’m not gonna say anything Cassie, damn!”

  She tried to relax.

  He said, “Why don’t you get them fixed if it bother you that bad?”

  “It never really bothered me like that until you started cracking jokes and shit,” she said angrily.

  “I think you should get implants,” he suggested.

  Cassie studied her breasts. They really weren’t that bad. They were almost perfect if they were about four times bigger. She wasn’t exactly flat-chested but she was close. She had never considered plastic surgery before. And for him to suggest implants was a bit bruising to her confidence and self-esteem.

  She broke away from him, grabbing her nightshirt. She slipped it on as she headed out to the bedroom.

  “If I had known you was gonna be so difficult I woulda stayed my ass away from you,” Rock said as he followed her.

  “You knew my personality before we crossed that line. We’ve been friends since we were little,” she said nonchalantly.

  “But you’re a horrible girlfriend,” he stated. He sat down on her bed.

  “Oh so I’m your girlfriend now?” she smirked.

  “I’m just saying…If you were my girlfriend, you’d be horrible,” he corrected.

  Cassie frowned. She was disappointed because it was clear that Rock didn’t want to put a label on what they were doing. At the beginning he acted as though he had to have her. It’s like once he got her, the thrill died. What they were doing seemed forced at times. She wasn’t exactly the happiest, but a part of her wanted him to want her again.

  She thought about Gio at BevyCo. Maybe if someone else was after her, Rock would realize he was going to lose her.

  “I’m working with Eli and Gio,” she blurted out.

  “You what?” A scowl quickly formed on his face.

  “I’m Eli’s new assistant and him and Gio work together,” she said.

  “When this happen?”

  “Today when I went for my interview.”

  “So you finna work with that nigga?”

  Cassie snapped. “What do you have against Eli? What he do to you? Are you mad he don’t want you or something?”

  “Keep playing,” Rock threatened.

  “Nigga, you ain’t crazy,” Cassie shot back. “I ain’t never seen Eli do anything to you or say anything about you. Hell, I doubt he care you exists cause that’s just how he is.”

  “So you know how he is, huh?”

  Cassie rolled her eyes hard and let out a frustrated groan. “There you go.”

  “Man, fuck this shit,” Rock snarled as he jumped up from her bed.

  “Bye nigga,” Cassie called after him. She didn’t even bother walking his ass to the door. Their relationship wasn’t going anywhere and maybe it was time to call it quits.

  She heard the front door slam. She ran to her living room to step out onto her balcony. Before she could even see him come into view she shouted, “Don’t be slamming my goddamn door!”

  “Fuck you,” Rock said.

  Cassie looked at the empty spot where her car should have been. Dammit! Her mama took her damn car anyway.

  _____

  On his drive over to Jah’s house, Rock thought of what occurred earlier that day. What he told Cassie had been a lie. He never came to her apartment looking for her; he came by to see what Colette was talking about. She had been trying to get at him for the past two weeks, and up until recently he avoided coming into contact with her physically. She text him and sent him pics of her body as a tease. Honestly, he thought she was playing.

  At first he didn’t want to go to Cassie’s and disrespect her in her own place, but shit, fucking with her mama was already disrespectful. What more could it hurt?

  Colette assured him that Cassie wasn’t coming home any time soon. Rock couldn’t resist and took his ignorant ass over there. He couldn’t explain it but it was something about this older woman that piqued his interest. First of all, she was bad than a mothafucka. Her body was right. Her face was on point. She had a wild free-loving spirit. Cassie was the total opposite of her mama. And maybe that was it too. Cassie was driving him away. She was hateful as hell, always angry about something, and boring as fuck.

  When he got to Cassie’s, Colette was ready to jump his bones. He stopped her. He wasn’t quite comfortable. She asked if she could put him at ease. He wanted to know what she had in mind. She showed him…with her mouth. And the shit was good!

  That was as far as it went. He started getting nervous that they would get caught so he left only to realize he left his phone behind.

  At first he felt guilty about what he done, but after her informing him that she would be working with Eli; the guilt went out the window. But he needed someone to talk to. That’s where Jah come in at.

  After arriving at Jah’s house, they went into Jah’s man-cave.

  “Nigga, you won’t believe what I done got myself into now,” Rock said shaking his head.

  “I bet I can believe it cause you stupid as fuck,” Jah said.

  Rock looked over his shoulder to make sure no one else was around to hear. He asked, “Where Jazz?”

  “She upstairs getting Ja-ja situated. Whatchu done did?”

  “Cassie mama.” Was all Rock stated.

  “What about her?”

  Rock just gave him a shameful look.

  Jah looked at him in shock. “You dirty mothafucka. How you gon’ do some shit like that? Nigga, you going to hell.”

  Rock laughed. “I ain’t fucked her or nothing, but she did give me some head.”

  Jah shook his head. He couldn’t believe his friend would do something so stupid. He grew angry. Snapping he said, “And what the fuck you telling me for. You dragging me in this shit, cause when Cassie find out—and she gon find out, that’s just how women do mothafucka—she gon be fucked up and crying to Jazz. Then Jazz’s ass is gonna be mad at me for not saying nothing ‘cause she gon’ assume I knew what the fuck was goin on. From now on, keep this kind of crazy shit to yo’self nigga.”

  Rock didn’t really have a response.

  Jah whispered, “But was the head good though?”

  Rock started laughing. “Nigga there you go.”

  “I bet that bitch can do all kinds of nasty shit. Old ass slut,” Jah said.

  “She ain’t that old. She only bout…twelve or thirteen years older than me.”

  “Nigga, you gon get caught. I’ma pretend like I don’t know shit. And I’ma sit back and watch Cassie set yo mothafuckin’ ass on fire. You know Cassie ain’t right in the head. Nigga, she gon fuck yo ass up.”

  Rock dismissed the thought of Cassie as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. “Fuck Cassie. She on some bullshit anyway. Hell, the bitch won’t even suck my dick. She barely let me fuck her.”

  “Damn,” Jah said sympathetically. “Ya’ll shit fucked up like that?”

  “Cassie bipolar as fuck. I swear she need medication.”

  “Yo dick must be garbage if she don’t want you fucking her,” Jah laughed.

  “Fuck you nigga. Cassie’s pussy is garbage,” Rock mumbled.

  Jah was repulsed. He shuddered at the thought. “Ugh! I don’t wanna talk about Cassie’s pussy…And see nigga! See how the thought of Cassie is nasty to me? The thought of her mama should have been nasty to yo ass.”

  “It’d be easier for me to think that if Colette wasn’t so damn fine,” Rock said.

  “Okay, you got a point.”

  They sat in silence. Since Jah’s man-cave was off from the kitchen, they could hear that someone was moving around in there. Rock looked at Jah wide-eyed thinking Jazmin may have overheard them.

  Jah got up and headed out the room. Rock was right behind him.

  To Rock’s surprise it wasn’t Jazmin at all. It was Eli. Rock glowered in his direction. Eli didn’t pay neither one of them any mind.

  “When he get here
?” Rock asked.

  “He was already here,” Jah said.

  “Is it a problem?” Eli asked. His tone was almost taunting.

  “Don’tchu got a house around the corner?” Rock asked smartly.

  “Hey,” Jah intervened. “Nigga, you act like you call the shots in my mothafuckin’ house. How you gon question him and he at my house?”

  “I’m just sayin’. The nigga was probably easedropping and shit.” Rock snarled.

  “He ain’t heard shit. Eli did you hear us talking?” Jah asked.

  “I ain’t heard shit. I just came in here. What? Is it something I should have heard? And the word is eavesdrop. Eaves. Eavesdropping,” Eli said with an impassive face.

  Rock cut his eyes at him. He looked at Jah, “I’m finna head on out. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Jah walked Rock to the door so he could lock back up. When he reentered the kitchen, Eli was still standing in the same place. Jah waited for it because he knew it was coming.

  Unable to resist, Eli asked, “Is that nigga really fucking around with that girl mama?”

  Jah started laughing. “I knew yo mothafuckin’ ass heard us. Ear hustling ass nigga.”

  Chapter 5

  The following day, Cassie was ready to start her first day. She made sure to look as cute as possible without being obvious. She wore an a-line, belted, eggplant-colored dress that fell right above the knee. It gave her a cute flirty baby doll look. Even though Eli informed her that Gio was married, some friendly flirting wouldn’t hurt.

  Eli told her to be there at eight, but his ass was nowhere to be found. Was she supposed to just sit at her cubicle twiddling her thumbs? She had no idea what her duties were.

  Then she heard a familiar laugh. She knew good and damn well it wasn’t who she thought it was. She got up and went in the direction of the laugh. She ended up at Gio’s office. He was sitting behind his desk and in front of his desk was a giggling Tanya.

  Frowning, Cassie asked, “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m working,” Tanya replied.

  “Don’t you have a job?”

  Tanya’s playfulness disappeared. She cleared her throat and glanced at Gio. She said, “Yes, I do; it’s here.”

  “But you were just working at Cigna this past Friday,” Cassie pointed out.

  “I know.”

  “So you just quit to come work here?”

  “Yeah. Well, Jazmin told me to come up here yesterday. I came because Gio needed a new assistant. Felicia, was promoted.”

  “So no two weeks notice or anything? You just quit and brought your happy ass here?”

  Tanya could sense Cassie had an issue with her being at BevyCo. She looked at Gio and asked, “Can you excuse me for one second?”

  Cassie looked past Tanya as she headed in her direction. She smiled and waved at Gio. “How are you this morning?”

  “I’m good,” he chuckled. He found the two women’s interaction rather comical.

  Tanya grabbed Cassie and pulled her down the hall. She whispered. “What is your problem? You can’t be talking like that in front of that man.”

  “Tanya, how you gon’ come up here cause I came here?” Cassie asked. She was bothered by Tanya’s need to be at BevyCo.

  “So I can’t work here?” Tanya returned.

  Cassie put on her petulant face. “But why you get to work with him?”

  Tanya’s mouth dropped open. Then she straightened her posture, put her hands on her hips, and gave Cassie a scornful look. “So this is about that nigga in there?”

  Cassie snickered. “I’ll trade.”

  “We can’t do that. Girl you crazy. You getting all mad at me cause you wanna be hot in the ass.” Tanya rolled her eyes at Cassie in a playful manner. “Let me take my fat ass back in here before he fire me…Messing witcho ass.”

  As Tanya walked away, Cassie saw Eli coming down the hall lost in his phone. She noticed he had really been in his phone a lot lately. It was like his mind was somewhere else.

  The curvature of Eli's legs in his tapered pants caught Cassie’s attention. She hadn’t realized that he was bowlegged. She hadn't paid close attention to his body before. But since his pants were orange, who wouldn’t notice? And no man in her normal circle of friends would dare to wear orange pants. It was time for her to clown him since he always wanted to point out everything about everybody else.

  “Eli, who told you it was okay to wear them pants. This is April, not October,” she joked.

  He looked up, noticing her for the first time. “Oh it’s not October? I assumed since a goblin came and sat in my office asking for a damn job, that it was close to Halloween.”

  “Fuck you,” Cassie laughed as they passed one another. Damn, what was that cologne he was wearing? She had to give it to Eli though, he was always crisp and clean, despite his choice of colors. He had a flashy style but it suited him, and only he could pull it off as effortlessly as he did. She couldn’t blame her brother for being so smitten with him.

  Five minutes after she sat at her cubicle, Eli came out of his office and tapped her on the shoulder. “We gotta go to the conference room.”

  “Conference room?”

  “Cassie, I ain’t got time for you to be acting dumb. Grab something to write with and come on,” he said and walked off.

  She scrambled to find a notepad and a pen and hurried to catch up with him. He wasn’t very good at explaining anything to her. When she sat down beside him, she whispered, “You act like I know this stuff. You ain’t even trained me.”

  He whispered back, “Just shut-up and pay attention.”

  “Ugh,” she frowned. “Why you gotta be mean?”

  She brightened up when Gio and Tanya entered the conference room too. They sat across from her and Eli. During the entire boring hour and a half meeting, Cassie daydreamed about Gio. She wondered what their kids would look like. He looked full Italian, and he had that dark olive complexion possibly passing for a light skinned black person. The way his arms appeared in his crisp blue button down, she could tell he was muscular. She wondered if he liked chocolate girls such as herself.

  When it was over, Cassie followed Eli back to his office where he proceeded to explain to her that between today and Friday, they would be preparing to move to the fourth floor of the building. He then broke down what was expected of her.

  “Wait,” she interrupted. “Why it sound like I gotta do everything?”

  Eli blew out a frustrated breath. “Listen, I hired you for something you ain’t even qualified to do. I’m doing you and Jazmin a favor. So hush.”

  “But Eli, you—”

  “Another thing,” he interrupted. “Don’t think because we’re cool out there that you’re gonna get to slack and lallygag and shit in here. I will expect for you to do your job and do it well. Right now you need to acclimate to the way things are done around here.”

  “Yes sir,” she whispered meekly. She didn’t realize how serious Eli could be.

  “Also, learn how to turn your ghetto-ness off and on. Try talking as close to proper as you can. You’ve been around me and you know damn well I can talk just as fucked up as Jah, but there’s a switch when dealing with these people and taking their money. Now, do you have any questions?”

  Yeah, can I switch with Tanya? That’s what she wanted to ask but she dared not test his patience. But she was curious about one thing. “Is this what you’ve always done here?”

  “No. I used to be my brother’s assistant. Since, he hasn’t come back yet, I didn’t want to work with anybody else like that. I guess I could have become Lu’s right hand but he worked too close with Stefano. I will point him out to you so you’ll know not to fuck with him. I hate him.”

  “Okay,” Cassie said feeling awkward.

  He continued, “Hell, I guess I had to put my education to use, so property management it is. And you’re more like a secretary but if you wanna sound more important than you really are, you can say you’re like a
closing coordinator.”

  “Hey, we never discussed salary. What kinda money will I be making?”

  “Right now you’re making zero dollars,” he laughed.

  “What?” Her mouth dropped open.

  “Calm down. I never sent that info over to our personnel department. Whatchu wanna make?”

  Cassie looked at him baffled. “I get to tell you what I wanna make?”

  “Well, you ain’t getting nothing ridiculous like six figures or something like that. Be reasonable. If you don’t suggest something I’ma tell them to pay you eight dollars hourly.”

  “Hell naw!” Cassie exclaimed. “I need more than that Eli.”

  “Okay, okay. We’ll figure something out.”

  “So you get to do whatever you want around here?”

  “Something like that. And right now, we’re about to leave. So get your stuff and meet me by the receptionist desk.”

  Cassie began to think that maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all. Especially if she got to see more of Gio.

  _____

  After riding around with Eli assessing a few properties and attending a meeting, Cassie was beginning to enjoy her job even more. She didn’t know how many times she laughed at Eli’s crazy ass and the way he talked to people. He wasn’t that bad to be around after all. But she could tell something was eating at him. He kept tapping around on his phone and blowing frustrated breaths of air. By the end of the day, he was so stressed he asked her if she wanted to meet up with Jazmin for happy hour.

  They ended up at Sambucas. And it was a pleasant surprise to see that Gio had joined them. Although Cassie was crushing on him, she felt nervous around him. She wanted him to take interest in her like the way he had looked her up and down when they bumped into one another. But Eli had all of his attention at the moment.

  “Are you coming Cassie?” Jazmin was asking.