by Peyton Banks
“If I tell you about my life then doesn’t that violate the anonymity of the Proximity app?” she lazily asked, opening one eye to peek at the smooth skin of his chest. Her hand smoothing up and down it, stroking him.
“You don’t have to answer with anything specific. Keep it generalized.” He suggested as his kisses continued back and forth across her nape. Tiny shivers wracked her body continuously at the touch of his lips. Every time he spoke, his warm breath infused her with more desire.
“Okay.” She agreed. She laid in his arms thinking of what she could tell him while still protecting her identity. After all, for all, she knew she could have just had her brains fucked out by a serial killer. A totally hot serial killer, but a serial killer nonetheless. “I work in customer service.”
“Hmmm, nice. Do you like it?”
“Fuck no,” she blurted out before she could stop herself. Oh well, if he didn’t figure out by now that she had a potty mouth, there was no hope for him.
She felt his chest rumble under her hand as a chuckle escaped him. “Well don’t hold back on your feelings.”
Tiara playfully slapped his chest.
“Why don’t you like your job?” he looked down at her. She saw genuine interest in his gaze and so decided to answer him truthfully.
“I work for a call center, and our number one client is an insurance company. People who call up insurance companies are usually in the middle of some major crisis. I get that, but really? Is there a need to be such an asshole to the person who is trying to assist you?” She didn’t understand what it was about Jordan that made her blurt out things that she didn’t even tell her best friend. Maybe it was the fact that he was a complete stranger. Maybe it was in hopes that he wouldn’t judge her for not wanting to be pleasant to douchebags. She didn’t know what it was, but it got her ball rolling with the things she hated about her jobs. She was so entangled in her word vomit about her job that she didn’t even notice Jordan stiffening at the mention of working for a call center.
“And another thing. I am trying to help you.” She sat up, waving her arms to emphasize her point. “If I am doing my job and following company policy, then don’t jump all over my butt about that policy. I didn’t make it. I just have to follow it.” Jordan pulled her back down in his arms. “Also, my supervisor, Mr. Davidson, is a sexist asshole who only promotes men.”
Surprise crossed Jordan’s face at my pronouncement. “How can someone get away with that in this day and age?”
“Because our Human Resource Department is made up of his cronies that have the same sexist mentality as he does. Even women buy into the sexist attitude that is prevalent throughout the company. Many of them believe the gibberish that he spouts about how men need the higher paying jobs to support their family and women always have the option to fall back on their man.” Tiara knew she was getting heated, and poor Jordan was suffering the wrath for it, but he made the mistake of asking her about her job. She should have warned him at the start of this encounter that works discussions were taboo. Oh well, that ship has sailed since he seemed like a willing audience, not to mention a neutral one, she could vent about all the shit that was wrong with working at Barnaby’s Call Center.
“Do you know that I have been passed over for promotions four times even though I am one of the highest performing customer service rep at the company. And I also have an MBA?”
“You have an MBA?” Tiara smirked at the surprise in Jordan’s voice.
“Yep, white boy. You are fucking a smart black woman.”
“I knew you were smart, after all, you did hook up with me.” He joked.
Tiara grinned at him. Jordan seemed to be the type that always had a serious demeanor, she was delighted to realize he had a sense of humor. She knew he could fuck like a demon, but laughing wasn’t an aspect of him that she expected, but then again getting to know each other wasn’t the purpose of their hookup.
Fuck. Fuck and fuck some more. Friendship wasn’t a requirement. Actually, it was pretty much preferred that people who met through Proximity not become friends. That she was still hanging out in Jordan’s hotel room and not riding him like a camel through the desert pretty much went against the purpose of the app.
“So why do you stay with the company? Why don’t you go somewhere else where your skills will be appreciated, and you will be challenged?”
Tiara heaved a sigh. She asked herself that same questions many of times, and it came down to one thing.
Loyalty.
“When I first graduated from college, I was the bright-eyed and bushy tail. I was on track to changing the world. I was a dreamer, and Mr. Barnaby gave me my first job.” Tiara saw that Jordan was watching her intensely as she explained why she stayed. “He took a chance on a young, black girl with no experience what-so-ever, just a shiny degree, and hopes. He taught me so much. Before he got sick, I was moving up the corporate ladder. I was going places.”
A feeling of sadness came over Tiara as she thought of the years that have gone by since Mr. Barnaby passed away leaving the company in the hands of his son. Tiara's heart broke at the thought of Mr. Barnaby seeing how the call center has changed since his time there. “It is because Mr. Barnaby gave me my first chance. He believed in me, and I still believe in his dream of providing excellent customer service, even to douchebag customers. I keep holding onto the job hoping that someone will come along and help raise Barnaby’s Call Center out of the hole of substandard work that it has been dug into.”
“Wow, that is a very noble idea. I didn’t realize your passion extended beyond the bedroom.”
“Oh my God, you are so fucking stupid.” Tiara pulled a pillow from behind her head and hit Jordan with it causing him to burst out in laughter. He dragged her underneath him and begin to tickle her without mercy.
Tiara was laughing so hard that she was crying as she tried to escape from Jordan.
“How about we channel that passion into another direction.” He suggested covering her mouth with his own.
Tiara’s diatribe ended with the passion reigniting at the touch of his lips. Before she knew it, she was drowning in the sensation caused by his touch. Concern about her job far away.
5
Tiara skipped into work on Monday morning. There was nothing that could remove the feeling of sexual contentment from her face. She smiled and waved at her co-workers. Internally laughing at the googly-eyed look many of them gave her. Sure, she was known as the company grump, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t good at her job. It just meant that she didn’t deal well with bullshit and her co-workers had a way of creating a big old steamy pile of it.
“What the hell has you smiling on a Monday morning,” Barb asked her as Tiara sat down in her cubicle next to Barb’s. They had been friends from the moment they met in orientation six years ago as both of them started at Barnaby’s Call Center. Tiara straight out of college with her shiny new degree in Business Management that has proven to be worthless among the many other students with the same degree. Even taking night classes to earn her master’s in business management didn’t help her move up the corporate ladder. She was well aware of the reason why. It was moving her way.
“Miss Lawson.” Her slimy, smarmy work nemesis spoke.
“Mr. Davidson.” Her good weekend bubbled over. She managed to speak his name without snarling per her usual modus operandi. Huh, maybe it was true. Good sex did make the world go around. Well in her case absolutely fucking fabtabulous sex. Yes, she had her brains banged out, and she wasn’t afraid to admit it.
Her polite response must have scared Barb, she ducked back into her own cubicle. Even Mr. Davidson, took a step back from her, wary of her polite response.
She eyeballed the man, looking at him as objectively as she could. He was a nice-looking man; it was his fucking chauvinistic attitude that she couldn’t stand. Whenever she was up for a promotion, he always gave it to a man. His belief that a man needed it because he had a family to support was a bull
shit excuse. Anytime a female made a complaint to Human Resources those assholes believed him when he told them that he picked the best-qualified candidate. How the hell can you pick a qualified candidate if they couldn’t even spell the company’s name correctly in a simple email?
He recovered quickly enough. “I just wanted to bring it to your attention that your customer satisfaction rating dropped this week. I will be keeping my eye on you.”
“May I ask by how many percentage points did it drop?” Look at her being a grown up. Her mother would be proud of her. Now if she could just get Barb to stop looking at her like she was possessed she could get through this workday. Bring on the weekend. Jordan would be back in town for more business meetings. He promised to give her his hotel information so they could meet up again. God save her from a man with a big dick who knew how to use it.
Her mind wandered off as Mr. Davidson began to drone on about how they figured the customer satisfaction rating. She was well aware of how it was done. Unknown to him she had taken all of the extra training that the company offered. As a matter of fact, before he became her supervisor, she had even attended the management training program offered by the company. Maybe she should give up her hope of getting a promotion. Every male that participated in that class had already moved on to bigger and better things. It was the females that were left behind, still manning the phones in their customer service position. Why was she still wasting her potential on this dead-end job?
This weekend of loving from Jordan opened her eyes to a whole new world of possibilities. She realized that she had settled into her life. She had gotten comfortable. Accepting the same old same old routine as the way of life. Now that she had experienced a major change. Yes, getting the life fucked out of her was a major change, it opened her eyes to other aspects of her life. She needed to move on or move up. Either way, she needed a career change.
She marked her mental calendar with an expected date. She would give it one more month. If something profound didn’t happen at Barnaby’s Call Center, then it was time for her to pack it up and move it out.
She turned her attention back to Mr. Davidson. “Well sir that is all well and good, but you have not answered my question.” Damn Barb and that wide-eyed owl look. She was going to have to talk to her about her glasses. It was hard to keep a straight face when she was looking at her bugged eyed from behind those lenses. She really should get some contacts and stop hiding behind those things. “How many percentage points did my customer’s satisfaction rating drop?”
“Well, that is not important.” Davidson hemmed and hawed.
“How will I know what to set my goal at if I don’t know how much I need to improve?” Tiara countered. If all else fails use logic on an illogical person.
“Zero-point five percentage points.” Mr. Davidson answered between clenched teeth.
Tiara took a deep breath and went to her happy place. That her happy place now consisted of Jordan’s cock buried deep in her it was easy to find. She smiled at Mr. Davidson. He took another step back from her. She smiled even wider. “I will do everything in my power to improve that statistical anomaly. Please be ensured that I am giving Barnaby’s Call Center my best work.” She gave him a sweet smile full of teeth.
Mr. Davidson took another step back bumping into another employee. “Yes…um…yes. You do that Miss Lawson.” He stopped, straightening his suit jacket, attempting to stand taller. “I expect nothing less than your best.” He said with a firm nod.
Tiara smiled wider showing all of her teeth.
Mr. Davidson released an undignified squeak, scurrying away from her quickly.
“What the fuck was that?” Barb whooped from her seat taking her glasses off and laying them down on her desk as she engulfed Tiara into a huge hug. Tiara inhaled her scent of cocoa butter and cinnamon, a flavor that belonged only to the small, dark-skinned woman who had been her friend since the beginning. “Your high-yellow ass has been possessed by a demon or something?”
“Nope, I got laid this weekend.”
“Well fuck! Ask him if he has a friend if this is the reaction that it causes.”
“It’s all your fault,” Tiara informed her sitting down at the desk, booting up her computer.
“My fault,” Barb looked at her in surprise. “How is your getting laid my fault? Fuck if it worked that way, I would have gotten some ass a long time ago.”
“I used that Proximity app you told me about.” A smile of sexual contentment settled on her face.
“Wh—what? You did? It worked?” Questions continued to stutter out of Barb. Tiara just nodded in satisfaction. “I’ll be damned.”
“If you sign up before this weekend, you might get lucky and be fucked.” Tiara couldn’t resist teasing her friend. Barb’s sex life was just as dry as hers. It was something about living in this town. It was small but big.
Yeah, strange explanation. The Springs was big enough to be home to several major businesses, but its population of brothers was abysmal. That left the only option of male companionship was to swim outside of your own color range which was a risk. Because men fell into two categories in Tiara’s opinion in the Springs. They were interested in a woman of color for the novelty, or they were gay. If you managed to come across someone who didn’t fit into one of those categories, then you better hold onto him and ride him into the sunset like a bucking bronco. That is what she planned to do as long as Jordan was coming to town and looked her up.
She hummed as she lost herself in her work, counting the hours until the weekend.
6
Tiara buzzed with excitement. Good Lord it had taken forever for the weekend to get here. She spent the week on pins and needles waiting for the Proximity app to alert her that Jordan was back in town. Mr. Davidson grudgingly admitted before she left work yesterday afternoon that her numbers had improved.
“I don’t know what you did this week Miss Lawson,” frown on his narrow face as he attempted to look down his nose at her which was impossible since she stood several inches taller than him, “but not only are your numbers back to where they were before, but they actually improved.” A sour look crossed his face. “As it is you have the best numbers in the company.”
“Why thank you, Mr. Davidson.” Tiara gave him the same smile she had been scaring him with all week, “I couldn’t have done it without your support and encouragement.” She ignored the snicker that came from Barb at her completely insincere tone.
“Well—whatever,” Mr. Davidson turned and walked off without uttering a goodbye.
“I don’t think he is happy with me,” she cocked her head to one side watching him storm away.
“Why the fuck should he be? You blow all of his ‘men are superior in the workplace,’ and ‘women should be at home raising babies,’ bullshit right out of the water. It must get his goat that his best employee is a woman. Chauvinistic asshole,” Barb ended her rant on a compliment.
“So, Barb, did you download the app?” Tiara spent the whole week bugging Barb to take a walk on the wild side with her conservative ass. She was sure if she found the right guy and took a trip to pound town her weekend would be great just like Tiara’s had been. She was all for working off a stressful work week with a round of sweaty hot sex with a partner of your choice.
“Yeah, its lock and loaded. Maybe I will get lucky at the grocery store tonight.” She shook her head in frustration. “When did my life get so pitiful that I am now trolling the supermarket for a fuck?”
Tiara thought over the statement, tapping one long nail on her chin. “I would say around the time you developed boobs and realize that boys could be used for something other than to lift heavy objects.”
“Asshole,” Barb threw her stapler at her as Tiara ducked with a laugh.
Now she was at home, waiting.
Waiting for her freshly washed hair to dry.
Waiting for Jordan to hit her up on the app.
Waiting for another round of the best sex she ever
experienced.
She snatched up her phone when the distinctive ringtone of the Proximity app private message alert sounded. She took several deep breaths before opening it. It wouldn’t do to pass out in excitement before reading it.
Welcome to Proximity, the app greeted her. Thanks, I have already been here.
Your Hook up is closer than you think. It promised. Yeah, I know. Get to the point, Tiara encouraged the app.
You have messages. Damn it. She should have gone into the settings and changed it to show her the newest ones first. Now she had to scroll through all of these wanna-be fucks to get to her main course.
Attending a private function this evening. If interested, please join me at the Grand Valley Resort at seven o’clock tonight. The occasion is semi-formal. Don’t wear any underwear. J.
To go or not to go. This was something more than a hookup. This was being in public with someone she barely knew.
What if he attempted to eat peas from his knife?
What if he slurped his drink?
God forbid, but what if he couldn’t dance? The horror.
Could she deal with a non-dancing white guy in public? No matter how good he was in bed, there was just somethings a woman could not handle. What was her cut off point?
Wait.
He could fuck like a dream. That meant somewhere in his body was rhythm. He had potential. That is all she needed to work with. She hopped up off of her sofa. It was just a little past noon. Time to call in the cavalry. She dialed her back up.
“Barb, I got a hookup tonight, and I need to go buy a semi-formal dress. You down for some shopping?”
“Hmmm, let me think. Rents paid. Groceries bought. Netflix is pending. Bitch let’s do this.”
“I am on my way.” Tiara threw clothes everywhere as she dressed in something suitable for shopping. A cross between fashionable and comfortable. It’s not like you could buy a semi-formal dress at the GAP. No, something of that nature required a trip to the exclusive shops in Downtown Colorado Springs. Watch out now. Tiara was in the house.