Carter gave his colleague a hard look. Then he wrote down the date and the address on the back of one of his businesscards. He handed it to Raymond. “Have her come two weeks from tonight and tell her to be there at seven-thirty. Tell her tardiness is not an option.”
Raymond needed the cash they gave him, but he felt like a traitor nonetheless. “This ain’t gonna be no smut thing, though, right?”
Carter gave him a hard look. “What’s that to you? She’s getting paid. What difference does any of the rest of it makes?”
But Raymond was shaking his head. “She ain’t that kind of girl, I’ll tell you that right now. If we were talking about some of these other hoes in here, or her BFF Makela, our cute bartender over there? That’ll be different. Makela and a lot of these other ladies are down for whatever. But Jayda ain’t built like that. Even if it pays real money, she’s not gonna take it if it makes her do something that goes against her values.”
“I thought you said she was living with her boyfriend,” said Dalton. “What values?” He and Archie grinned.
Raymond was offended. “I know you rich white folks do your dirt in the dark and us regular folk don’t be so cautious. But it all comes down to the same thing, don’t it? We’re all doing dirt. We’re all human. And y’all are too. Now I ask you again,” he said, this time looking only at Carter, “is it a smut gig?”
“No,” Carter said as he stood up, prompting his colleagues to stand too. “It’s more like an interview.”
“Can I ask what for?”
“You can ask,” Carter said, and then he looked at Raymond. “It’s a job. No more than that. She won’t be mistreated in any capacity.”
Then he left. Dalton and Archie gave Raymond a smirk of superiority, and left too.
“Assholes,” Raymond said as he pocketed the cash.
But as soon as Jayda saw them leaving, she left the table she was serving and hurried over to Raymond. She sat down beside him. “They want you to fire me?”
“No,” said Raymond. Then he handed her the card. “They invited you to work a party.”
“When?”
“In a couple weeks.”
“They need a server?”
“They say it could lead to bigger and better things, yes.”
“But like what? More serving gigs at other parties?”
Raymond didn’t respond. Mainly because he doubted if she was going to be serving the way she thought.
But he didn’t have to go there because she saw the address. “TheShalimar?” She looked at her boss. “The party is going to be at theShalimaron Billionaire’s Row? That’s one of the richest addresses in America, Raymond. I pass by it all the time when I’m making deliveries. I always wondered what it looks like inside a place like that.”
“Now you’ll get the chance to see for yourself.”
Then reality set in. “But why would they want me?”
Raymond frowned, feeling guilty. “What difference does it make why? You need the money and they need the server. Are you interested or not?”
“Did they say how much it pays?”
“No Jayda damn! They’re rich. It automatically pays well. I’m just the messenger over here.”
Jayda leaned back. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I don’t get it. I called one of them a perv this morning, and now this evening they want me to serve at their fancy dinner party?Me?”
“Stop overthinking it. Maybe they liked how you served them tonight.”
“Yeah, they liked it so much they didn’t bother to leave a tip,” she said, looking on the table for that much-needed tip.
Raymond was staring at her with a worried look on his face. He could tell just by talking with that rich dude that it wasn’t the kind of revenge she thought they wanted from her, but something probably worse: A revenge of the bedroom variety. “It’s a risk, Jayda, I ain’t gonna lie to you. They may try to take full advantage of your situation. For real though. But you can always turn it down. You can call him right now and turn him down cold. Or you can take the risk.”
Tears appeared in Jayda’s huge, tobacco-brown eyes that stained even her naturally long lashes. “But I need the money so bad,” she said, unaware she was batting those lashes in a way so sexy to Raymond that it gave him an erection. “I’m gonna be evicted if I don’t start getting up that full rent for next month. I have no choice. None. It’s a risk I have to take.”
