by Tracy Brown
She smiled broadly now. “Is that right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ve heard all there is to hear from Fox.”
“Nah,” Troy said, waving his hand. “I want to hear from you. Not all the professional shit you talked about earlier. I want to know who Crys Scott really is.” He smirked. “What’s your story? Where do you live? What kind of car you drive? What type of music you like?”
Her eyes narrowed instinctively. She wondered where this was going. She noticed that he had slipped out of his professional speech. She let out a soft sigh. “I live in Brooklyn. I drive an Audi.”
Troy’s eyes widened, impressed. “A five?”
“A six.”
His eyes widened even more. “Whoa. Okay.” He sat back and flexed a little on her behalf.
She laughed.
“Okay.” He nodded, impressed. “I imagined you in something more subtle.”
Crystal was distracted for a moment by an angry customer arguing with the cashier. Her grande latte wasn’t whipped to her standards or something. She gave Troy her attention again.
“I like speed. And power.” She took another sip of her coffee.
He stared at her. “I don’t know what it is about you,” he said. “I can’t put my finger on it. But I like you. You seem like the kind of woman I will enjoy working with.”
She grinned. “What kind of woman is that?”
“Smart, driven, focused. With a passion for power and speed.” He chuckled a bit. “Sounds like I’m describing myself.”
Crystal chuckled, too. But at his arrogance.
“Tell me more.” He took a bite of his pastry.
She shrugged. “There’s really not much to tell.”
He looked skeptical. “Come on,” he coaxed. “Tell me about your family. What do you do for fun?”
She smiled. “I don’t have much family.”
“No siblings?” he asked between bites.
She thought about Malik, but decided not to dredge up that old history right now. “No,” she said simply. “But my cousin is like a sister to me. I hang out with her a lot. My parents. I have a few close friends, but I’m not much for crowds. Not unless it pertains to my work.”
“Are you married?” he asked.
Crystal let the question linger between them for a moment before answering. It felt inappropriate on some level, him asking her that. But she decided to answer him anyway.
“I’m not.”
He nodded, a grin tickling the corner of his mouth. “Neither am I.”
Her eyes narrowed again. “But that’s about to change soon, right? Aren’t you engaged to Vanessa Nolan?”
She could tell that he hadn’t expected her to know that. After all, the engagement was only a couple of days old. There had been no big announcement. In fact, Troy had kept an extremely low profile for the most part. Until now. Fox spoke about his sons from time to time, though. He had mentioned the engagement to Crystal after a weekend away in Vegas. Vanessa Nolan had some very prominent parents. Her mother was Roxy Nolan, a former Miss USA. Roxy was gorgeous, exotic, and had a body that put women half her age to shame. Vanessa’s father was Harvey Nolan, one of the top civil rights attorneys in the country. He had been a partner at the firm of Wakefield Crawford since its inception in the eighties, and was one of the power movers in the political arena. He rubbed elbows with the likes of Obama and Clinton, and many urged him to pursue political aspirations of his own. Instead, he was content to continue mostly pro bono work at the firm, while maintaining strong ties to D.C. and reaping the rewards of both.
Harvey was one of Fox’s old friends, which made their children’s relationship a sweet twist of fate. Troy had proposed to Vanessa at her parents’ anniversary party in Las Vegas, surrounded by their family and closest friends. According to Fox, it had been a beautiful and romantic display.
Troy laughed. “I see my father talks a lot.”
She nodded. “He’s very proud of you. He mentioned you have a brother. His name is Wes, isn’t it?”
Troy appeared to tense a little at the mention of his brother’s name. He looked at Crystal oddly. “That’s right.” He seemed uncomfortable. She wondered what that was about.
“Your dad is a pleasure to work with,” she said. “He’s laid-back and calm. But he’s a lion in the boardroom and he expects results. I respect his business sense and he respects my vision. We’ve done well together. From time to time, we chat about our family life. He mentioned your engagement the other day and he could barely contain his joy.” She smiled at him.
Troy returned the gesture and seemed to relax a little. “He’s happy.”
“Are you happy?”
He stared at her blankly. For a moment, she regretted asking the question. Just as she opened her mouth to apologize, he spoke.
“You know what I’m happy about?” He smiled and his eyes sparkled. “Taking over Stuart Mitchell and working with movers and shakers like you.” He drank the last of his coffee and winked at her as he set the cup down.
Crystal smiled and decided that was a nice way to end this. She felt they had crossed enough professional boundaries for one day. She rose to leave.
“I’m looking forward to working with you, too, Troy.” She extended her hand to him across the table.
Troy looked up at her. “You have to leave so soon?” Disappointment was evident in his face and tone.
She nodded. “I do. But thank you for the coffee.”
Reluctantly, he rose and shook her extended hand. As he had done earlier during their first meeting, he held her hand longer than necessary.
“Take care,” he said.
Her grip tightened involuntarily, and she pulled her hand away hoping that he hadn’t noticed. Grabbing her purse off the table, she forced a smile, and waved as she rushed out the door.
He watched her go, wondering what it was about her that piqued his curiosity so. Being around beautiful women was nothing new. He was engaged to one of the most gorgeous creatures he had ever laid eyes on. Crystal, though, had appealed to him in ways that weren’t purely physical. Her intelligence and drive made her more attractive somehow and Troy found himself wanting more.
He thought about the question she had asked him about his engagement. Whether he was happy. He cared about Vanessa, there was no question. But happiness was something that had eluded him all his life. He found it interesting that Crystal had asked him that. As a journalist, he guessed she had developed a knack for asking the right things. It was something he hadn’t considered for some time. And now, the question haunted him like a ghost in his mind.
Are you happy?
He gathered the trash from the table, and deposited it in a garbage can on his way out the door. The cool autumn air smacked him in the face as he emerged and melded into the crowd on the streets of New York City.
* * *
Crystal greeted her cousin Destiny as she entered her apartment. She took off her coat, and flung it across the sofa. Destiny had given her a spare key a year ago after injuring her ankle in a fall. Crystal lived a few blocks away, and had come by often in those days with groceries and toiletries for her cousin. Now that Destiny was healed, she wondered how long Crystal would continue the practice of letting herself into her apartment unannounced.
She shook her head jokingly at Crystal now. “Girl, give me back my keys.”
Crystal pouted, and hid them behind her back. “I’ll call next time. I promise.” She held up the bag of Cuban food she brought with her. “I come bearing gifts.”
Destiny laughed and led the way into the kitchen. Crystal followed, set the bag of food down on the long oak wood table, and poured herself a glass of wine. This was the type of indulging she tried hard to avoid, knowing what it did to her petite frame. She told herself that today was an exception. Comfort food and alcohol were just what the doctor ordered.
Destiny grabbed plates and utensils and joined her. “How did your interview go today
with the Jackson family?”
“I’ll tell you all about it,” Crystal promised, “but first we gotta eat. I’m starving and this food is smelling good.”
Destiny agreed. “I hardly ate all day. Too stressed.”
Crystal frowned and glanced at her while she prepared her plate. “Stressed? About what?”
Destiny sighed. “I just got off the phone venting to Mommy. I broke up with that nigga Dwayne.”
Crystal shook her head, grinning. “I thought you stopped saying the ‘n’ word after you saw Twelve Years a Slave.”
Destiny sucked her teeth. “Yeah,” she admitted. “It’s hard to stay woke, though, when you’re dealing with a nigga like Dwayne.” She surveyed the food Crystal had brought over. She put a couple of empanadas on her plate, and told herself to be satisfied with that. Destiny had always been a hefty girl, but now that she was nearing the age of thirty, she was determined to get her weight under control, once and for all. She doubted that she’d ever transition the way that Jennifer Hudson had. But she thought she could at least get her Jill Scott on.
Crystal laughed. “What happened?” she asked, though she truthfully couldn’t care less. It seemed like Destiny and Dwayne broke up every two weeks. She was sick of hearing about it, but loved her cousin too much to say so.
Thankfully, Destiny had vented to her mother enough already. She looked at Crystal and rolled her eyes dramatically. “He’s a fool, like Mommy said, and ain’t never gonna change,” Destiny said simply. She started fixing her plate. “Now tell me about the interview.”
“Girl!” Crystal took a long sip of her wine. She sat back, her eyes dancing as she spoke. “I had the craziest day! Arnold Jackson’s sister was the only family member at the rally today. So I interviewed her and the family lawyer. It was a lot harder than I expected it to be.”
Destiny glanced at her cousin sympathetically. She had witnessed firsthand how devastating Malik’s death had been for Crystal.
“I knew going into it that the subject was a sensitive one for me,” Crystal said. “Had I known I was going to be interviewing his sister, I probably would have let Dana take the lead. It was like looking at myself in a mirror ten years ago and seeing how scared and broken I was then.” She shook her head. “I was pretty shaken up.” She shoveled some rice into her mouth and chewed.
Destiny nodded. She stared at her cousin oddly. Something was off. “Sounds traumatic,” she said. “So why are you so upbeat when you talk about it?”
Crystal glanced at her cousin. Her face melted into a grin and her eyes were more alive than ever. “I got to meet the Boy Wonder today.”
Destiny’s eyes widened. She stopped chewing and sat back in her seat. She glared at Crystal, a smirk now appearing on her own face as she let her words sink in. Finally, she nodded. “Tell me everything and don’t leave out a single detail.”
Crystal chuckled so loudly that it sounded a little maniacal. She gleefully launched into a recap of her workday and Destiny was all ears.
ORIENTATION
Crystal arrived for work the next morning with nervous excitement bubbling beneath the surface. She expected that Troy would stop in at some point. Although his main office was at Stuart Mitchell headquarters up in Harlem, she knew it wouldn’t be long before he found some excuse to make the trip downtown to Hipster. She wasn’t a bit surprised when she arrived that morning to find Troy smiling back at her from behind the desk in his father’s office.
She chuckled.
“Good morning, Troy.”
He bounced a little in his father’s oversized leather chair. Despite his size, to Crystal he looked like a little kid role-playing at Daddy’s job.
“How did my dad sit here?” Troy asked rhetorically. “This thing is uncomfortable. I’m gonna have to order a new one.”
Crystal raised an eyebrow. “You’re planning on spending a lot of time here?”
He smiled at that. “Yes, I think so. You know, just until I get familiar with the way things are done around here.”
Crystal nodded. She suspected that Troy wasn’t only interested in familiarizing himself with the office mechanics. She was well aware of the way his gaze lingered a little too long on her curves.
“Well, I’ll see you around then.” She held up her coffee cup in a mock toast, spun on her heels, and stepped down the hall toward Oscar’s office. She found him standing near the window, a glorious view of Midtown just beyond him, while he stared intently at some pictures spread on the ledge.
Oscar glanced up at her for just a moment before turning his attention back to the photos.
“Come look at this,” he beckoned. He stood with his arms folded, one hand resting on his chin.
She stepped closer to see that he was studying four pictures of an aging former model.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
He looked at her, eyes wide. “What’s right?” he shot back. “She’s not working.”
Crystal shook her head. The pictures looked fine to her. But she had worked with Oscar long enough to trust his instincts. She looked at him.
“Let’s use Roxy Nolan instead. Make it part of our Mother’s Day issue. Roxy Nolan and her daughter, Vanessa.” She waited for Oscar’s reaction.
He gave it some thought. Then he looked at her sidelong. “You sly fox.”
She smirked. Oscar saw right through her.
“This will go over well with the boss.”
She shook her head. “I’m the boss,” she reminded him. “But you’re right. Fox and Troy will love the idea. If we’re lucky, we’ll get Vanessa to agree to a bridal-themed shoot. Kill two birds with one stone.”
Oscar looked at Crystal closely, his eyes narrowed. “Funny,” he sneered. “I think Troy has his eyes on you.”
She scoffed, although she knew it was true.
“He was looking for you this morning. And when he saw that you weren’t here, he started asking about you.”
Crystal’s heart sank for a moment. “Asking what?”
“About your schedule and your work habits.” He glanced at her suggestively then.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Oscar shrugged. “I wonder if he’s this interested in all of the other magazines his family owns. It might not be just the work that has him excited.”
“He’s engaged to Vanessa Nolan,” she reminded him. “What else did he ask?”
“Nothing really, darling. It wasn’t what he asked, to tell you the truth. It was the way he went about it. He seemed like a boy with a crush in school. It’s obvious that he likes you.” Oscar winked at her coyly. “I think he’s showing up here so early in the morning for more than just the free coffee.”
Crystal laughed. “Save the melodrama for this morning’s cover meeting. I’m on my way in now, so you should join me.” She gestured toward the photos he had been staring at. “I’ll set up the Roxy Nolan thing. We’ll figure out a way to use these somehow. Don’t worry.”
“Worry makes wrinkles,” Oscar said, waving his hand as if something smelled bad. “I don’t do that.”
He followed her to the conference room down the hall, where they found the executive team already assembled. Troy had taken the seat at the head of the table. The same one his father always occupied during his rare visits to Hipster’s headquarters. She felt his gaze all over her as she moved to a seat near Marlo and her marketing team.
“Crys,” Troy called out.
The buzz of conversation in the room died down at the sound of his voice. Crystal glanced at him, a bit embarrassed by all the attention. At the moment, it felt like every pair of eyes in the room were on them.
“Sit closer. I might have some questions during the meeting.”
Crystal changed seats, aware that with every step he watched her like a hawk. She sat beside him and called the meeting to order.
She gave a brief overview of the direction she wanted the issue to go in. While she spoke, she was aware that Troy was watching her closely. S
he pretended not to notice and spoke confidently. Crystal took her job seriously. Her career had been the one constant in a life that had seen its share of peaks and valleys. Despite whatever chemistry there might be between the two of them, she was determined to focus on the task at hand. She laid out her plans for the March issue in exquisite detail.
After her presentation, she handed the floor over to Oscar, sat back, and listened.
Troy paid attention to Oscar because it was impossible not to. Oscar had a flair for the dramatic that made it impossible to look away. It was the juxtaposition of his large, imposing frame against his fluttery words and the flick of his wrist. The entire room was riveted.
Troy still managed to steal a glance at Crystal every now and then. She sat with her spine straight, chin up, and with her breasts struggling against her skintight dress. She was a lovely sight. He forced himself to focus on Marlo Stanton, who had now taken the floor. Marlo shared her ideas for improving sales and subscriptions during the next quarter. Crystal noticed that Eric Donovan was listening intently, as now Marlo was speaking his language—dollars and cents. She stole a glance at Troy and was startled to find him watching her.
He leaned in and whispered, “Have dinner with me tonight.”
She shifted in her seat uncomfortably, then looked around to see if anyone else had noticed. Everyone was giving Marlo their rapt attention as she outlined potential revenue streams. Everyone that is, except for Troy. Crystal glanced at him again. This time, he appeared visibly amused by her discomfort. He stifled a laugh as she self-consciously tucked her hair behind her ear. She averted her gaze and focused on Marlo, who was speaking now about consumer research and growth opportunities that might help them surpass the magazine’s performance in the last quarter.
This time when Crystal looked at him, she held his gaze flirtatiously. Her lips stretched into a slow and sexy smile and finally she nodded. She looked away, feeling his energy from inches away. He was hungry for her and he expected to have her. She knew all about men like him. Used to having their way with everything and everyone in their path. She was simultaneously amused and aroused by him. He was, after all, sexy and wealthy. Two very tantalizing qualities in a man. But his assumption that having her would be as easy as whatever he had planned for the night made her giggle. For the rest of the meeting, she refused to look his way. Like a spoiled brat, he tried everything to get her attention. He asked her to repeat what Marlo was saying, although she knew that he could hear the woman clearly. She was grateful when Marlo heard him and spoke louder so that even the people outside the conference room could hear her. Crystal had to stifle a laugh.