“She’s gonna be working under you. Shadowing you heavily at first. You good with that?”
Rolani shrugged. “Yeah, that’s cool. When does she start?”
“Soon. Well, she kinda already started. She got you set up for a radio interview. She’ll be in soon to finalize everything.”
“Oh, word.”
“Yeah, she just wrapped a big project. That Beyond the Game special. She sat down with DaVinci Bryns and some other athletes.” Giovanni pulled up a clip on his phone. “She did the premiere special for us. Remember? Paige’s friend.”
Rolani sat up in his seat, now fully engaged.
“Kennedi?”
“Yeah”
“Well, yeah nigga, I remember her.”
That was an understatement. He remembered everything. The plane. The studio where she’d fumbled a mic clip because her hands were shaking, and she thought he didn’t notice. The premiere where she’d rolled her hips on that dance floor and held his stare. The elevator where he’d put his gun to a man’s temple for touching her. The hotel room where she’d opened the door and pulled him inside. The morning when she’d checked the hotel over blueberries because she couldn’t be his girlfriend, but she could make sure he didn’t die.
He shook his head.
And the club. The back office at Velvet, where he'd had her and still couldn't make her stay. He'd asked anyway. He already knew what she'd say.
She left on Tuesday. One text at the airport. She never responded. He kept his word — didn't blow up her phone, didn't show up in Colorado. Gave her exactly what she asked for.
That didn't mean it was easy.
Giovanni kept talking, scrolling through his phone. “Yeah, she killed that piece. Had me looking like I actually know what I’m doing.” He laughed. “That premiere coverage is what caught their attention and led to her getting the Beyond the Game deal. So really, we helped her launch back into the big leagues. Now she’s coming back home, and I want her on the team.”
Rolani scoffed. The fucking nerve of that premiere being the very reason she had a runway to run.
He still fucked with Kennedi. Hell, he was happy for her, proud of her. He respected her hustle. But he refused to believe that what they had was supposed to stay in a hotel room in LA.
“When’s this radio interview?” Rolani asked, keeping his voice level.
“Next week. I don’t know all the details, but she should be here to sign her contract and everything within the next few days. I need you to look over it and get it back to me by tonight.”
“I got you. I gotta head back to LA in a few days for the merch meeting. I’ll get it back to you.”
Giovanni set his phone down. “And bruh, I know you got a lot going on with Monroe and everything, but this is important. Soon, Robin will touch down and lighten the load. But in the meantime, take care of Kennedi. She’s the real deal. She can take what we’re building and make people actually care about it. Not just the product, but the story behind it.”
“I hear you.”
Silence. Rolani looked at his best friend because he could tell he wasn’t saying something.
“What you ain’t saying, G?”
“I can’t lie, I thought y’all would’ve hit it off.” Giovanni leaned forward. “She’s cute, successful, and has her head on straight.”
Rolani’s expression didn’t change, but something sharp twisted in his chest.
“I hadn’t noticed.”
Giovanni laughed. “Man, you’re lying. Anyway, she’s professional. All business. That’s probably why she curved your ugly ass.”
All business. Right. That’s exactly what she’d been that night in LA when she’d pulled him into her hotel room and let him worship every inch of her body until the sun came up. Real professional. Business only.
He cut the thought off before it could take him somewhere he couldn’t come back from.
