“Aww, I’m sure you’ve replaced me by now,” I suggested, needing to feel like the lack of my presence didn’t matter to her as much as the lack of her presence mattered to me.
“Girl, bye. You know I’m still cool with all of our friends except Corneshia, but none of them were my best girl like you. I missed you so much, Zoe.”
“I missed you too. I know it probably didn’t seem like it because I left and just didn’t come back but?—”
“I get it. You took a hard loss. Time and life don’t stop because of that. They keep going, even if we don’t want to.”
My eyes watered as I pulled her close for a hug. We left the sandwich shop we’d met at for lunch and walked around the square. Of course, I had to take her inside of Grounds so she could see how well it was flourishing now. We tried Haji’s new medium roast with Irish cream, cinnamon, and a little bit of brown sugar. It was the best cup of coffee I’d ever had in my life. He’d somehow mastered my sugar to cream ratio for coffee, and I was even more addicted. After giving me a kiss and telling me he’d see me for our date later, he left me and Jessie alone. We continued to talk until we finished our coffee, then we agreed to do a little shopping.
She was a shopaholic like me, so I was looking forward to being with someone who didn’t mind being at the mall for a few hours. When I told Haji of our plans, he casually handed me a brown bag full of cash and told me to enjoy myself. I waited until I was inside the car to look inside, chuckling when I noticed ten five-thousand-dollar stacks of cash resting comfortably on top of one another.
I was about to spoil myself and my new nephew, thanks to my man.
21
Haji
When water spurted out of Zoe’s mouth, I knew it was time to end the auditions for the day. Of the ten auditions we had, we were leaning toward inviting three to perform for the initial Soulful Sundays. This last audition was a mix of opera and screeching horridness, and while I had the tact to cover my face while I laughed, Zoe didn’t have any sense at all. She almost choked as she covered her mouth and tried to reel her laughter in.
“On that note, we thank you for coming down to audition. We’ll reach out if we want to see you again,” I told Anthony as I lifted Zoe’s arms to keep her from choking.
“Babe.” She cried with laughter as I patted her back.
“You ain’t shit, girl. I see now I’ma have to do these auditions without you,” was what I said, but I couldn’t stop myself from laughing at Anthony and her as soon as he left the sound room.
“Did you hear that?” she asked, pointing in the direction he’d gone out of as she wiped her face.
“Barely. When you started laughing and coughing, I couldn’t focus on anything else. He did sound horrible until that point though. Are you good?”
“Whew.” She released the remnants of her laughter as she sat back in her seat. I fanned her face and shook my head. This girl was too damn silly, and I loved her for it. I also loved how she didn’t give a fuck about how anyone felt about how she felt. It struck me as odd to know the outspoken women with autonomy over herself shrunk for the last decade to appease a job and a man, but I was glad she was coming back to herself. “I think we need a new system for the next set of auditions. Maybe we need someone to do a first round of auditions before they come in front of us because I cannot sit through that again.”
“I mean, I would have to agree. I’m not trying to witness you choke to death. I thought I was about to lose you there for a second.”
That caused her to laugh harder as we stood. “Well, I’m just glad you’re professional because I cannot. He was dead wrong coming in here sounding like a kitten being skinned in Italian.”
“Zoe, please,” I begged through my laughter as we left the sound room.
Once we made it outside to my pickup truck, I helped her get inside, then paced around outside while I talked to the emcee that was hosting the first Soulful Sunday. We’d partnered with a Memphis influencer whose pull had people RSVP’ing for the event as soon as she shared the registration link. Our headliner for the first event didn’t have to audition, so with just her hosting and him performing, the first event sold out within thirty minutes.
When I got into the truck, Zoe was shaking her head. Her light and bubbly mood had been replaced with irritation. Before I could ask her what was going on, she put her phone on speaker and accepted the call with, “Yes, Raymond?”
“So you’re not coming back home?”
“Not right now. No. I still have a week left, and I’m working virtually here. I really can’t say I’m working because I have literally hundreds of emails to go through before I can do anything. Did you not have my team doing anything while I’ve been gone?”
“I didn’t trust them to do your job, Zoe. I told them to leave your files alone until you came back.”
Her eyes rolled. “How do you expect me to be the president of marketing if you don’t trust anyone else to do what I do? Do you expect me to be the president and still do all the legwork too?”
“Come on now. Don’t do that.”
“Don’t do what? I’m doing everything. Clearly, that hasn’t changed.”
“Look. How about you just take the next week off and don’t worry about work until you get home? We can sit down and discuss what you’re willing to do and what you’re not. Whoever you trust to handle certain tasks, I’ll trust as well.”
Her head shook as she sighed. “I’ll call you next week, Raymond.”
Before he could say goodbye completely, Zoe was disconnecting the call. As I pulled out of the parking lot, I struggled with whether I wanted to say anything or not. She was clearly irritated, and I didn’t want to add to it, but I didn’t like how she was already getting rigid and stressed again, and she hadn’t even returned to work.
