At least it didn’t feel right whenever our eyes met across the table or when he asked if we could hang out the next day. I spentthat whole day avoiding his phone calls because I had an issue with just sayingno. I was about to be thirty-five and still hadn’t mastered boundaries. Still, avoiding phone calls wasn’t the most embarrassing thing I had done to keep from feeling like I was letting anyone down.
In fact, I was doing one of those embarrassing things right now. I left my family the day after Christmas to head straight back to work. My boss called me over my holiday to ask if I could cover a big story she couldn’t do herself because she was out of the country with her new man. I agreed.
The piece was about a tech company CEO signing a deal that would take his company to billion-dollar status. I couldn’t necessarily turn down the opportunity to be in the company of someone who had not only built a business from the ground up but also grew it to an income level most business owners only dream of.
I believed in manifestation and the saying that you are who you hang around, so I didn’t even get the full details before agreeing to do the story. Not only would it take me out of the mindset of being back home and the sadness that came with it, but it would also put me right back into the groove of making my dreams of launching my own magazine come true. These were exactly the kind of stories I wanted to feature.
Karina:Can you shoot me the details for the meeting on Monday?
Rayla:Emailing you now.
Leaving my luggage at the door, I grabbed my laptop bag and sauntered over to the kitchen counter. I poured myself a glass of white wine before I opened my laptop. I almost choked on the first sip when the nameKareem Sheffieldand the face that had just been sitting across from me at my grandma’s kitchen table stared back at me from Rayla’s email.
No fucking way.
Chapter
Two
Kareem Sheffield
“First, I want to apologize for having you all here on a holiday weekend. However, this is big. K&K Solutions is most likely about to hit billion-dollar status.”
My best friend, Raymond, who was also the head of my marketing department, made the announcement that had everyone in the room turn and look at me. The room erupted in claps and congratulations. I never expected to take my company this far in such a short time span, but it happened without me even trying.
I was just another kid from the block a little while ago, yet now I was days away from being a billion-dollar CEO with a room full of people looking at me in admiration. I had everything. Well, at least everyone else assumed I did.
“Yes, give it up for Mr. Sheffield. He’s worked hard for this,” Ray continued. “Our effort has to match that hard work. The rollout for this announcement must be huge. The plan is to hit all four of our major hubs on a 96-hour tour — Vegas, Paris, London, and New York. And we are doing it with a splash. I’vecontacted the major news and magazine outlets in every hub, and I have them on standby for photo ops, articles, and think pieces. We want it all fresh off the press. Everyone is going to want to know everything about Kareem Sheffield when we are done with this four-day tour, and it is our job to frame the story.”
“We won’t let you down, Mr. Sheffield.” Marjorie was the first to speak, and I nodded in acknowledgment.
Marjorie was one of my first employees. I met her while in the Army, and she’d been one of the many mentors I had as a private. When I separated from service, I tracked her down and hired her on the spot. I needed people like her, who not only cared about the mission but also the people, on my team then, and I still do now.
“Here’s your coffee, Mr. Sheffield,” Tyla sang as she strutted through the glass door and over to me.
“Thanks, but I’m good.” I pushed back from my seat and stood to leave. “Raymond, meet me in the office. Everyone else, thank you for coming today, and I will see you all in Vegas Monday morning.”
I wasn’t expecting so many people to meet us here this morning, but we had a room full. The only purpose of this meeting was for Raymond to present his plan for the next four days. Now that Tyla had come in with another cup of her nasty ass coffee, I’d met my quota of people for the day. He could brief me alone in the office and turn the rest of that meeting into an email for everyone else.
“You know you don’t have to be so mean to Tyla, don’t you?” Raymond joked as he closed the door to my office behind him.
He knew how much that girl got on my nerves and decided to make a joke out of it every day. I would have fired her a long time ago if she weren’t actually good at her job. If she stopped all the flirting and shit, she would be the perfect assistant.
“Yeah, I do. If her ass knew how to take a hint, I wouldn’t have to keep reminding her. Whatever she thinks is going to happen between us, she needs to stop thinking that shit before the thought has her out of a job.”
Tyla was a beautiful girl. She was petite with a short hairstyle. She put me in the mind of Jada in that movieALow Down Dirty Shame. She was actually funny like her when she wasn’t trying to push up on me. However, I could spot girls like Tyla coming a mile away, and they couldn’t even get a conversation out of me, let alone some dick.
“Chill, bro. You could use a piece of pussy with your grumpy ass.”
“I’m not grumpy.”
I sat down at my desk and gave my attention to my computer instead of Raymond. I came in here to talk business, so any other conversation he wanted to have wasn’t on my agenda.
Raymond was one of my best friends, but I would be lying if I said he didn’t allow women to put him in messed up positions. In fact, if it weren’t for Raymond, I wouldn’t have been in the last situation I was in. If that situation taught me nothing else, it definitely taught me to keep my eye on the ball, not on a woman.
“If you’re not grumpy, then who are you saving yourself for? You got some kind of purity situation going on that I don’t know about because I damn sure ain’t seen you with nobody since that whole fake baby situation.”
“And can you blame me? The last ho tried to pin a baby on me, knowing damn well I never went in her raw.”
