“I’m just saying tho’, you hittin’ that?”
My cheeks blushed, and eyes grew wide at that insinuation.
“Nah, man. That’s just work.”
“Work running up in yo’ shit like that? Dammm, man. You gon fuck that little girl up. Shiiidd, she too little for yo’ big ass, Kole.”
“I told you, that’s work. That’s all she is. I’m not caught up with that girl. Hell, I’m not even attracted to her like that. She’s not my flow,” Kole replied.
Well, okay. That was an ego stealer if I’d ever heard one. Would he please hurry back with that bottle of water so that the conversation could end? I don’t think that my self-esteem could take much more.
“Shiiidd, she’s my flow!”
“Anything with a hole between its legs is yo’ flow, D. That’s why yo ass ain’t walking down that aisle with Gina in a couple of months.”
“Damn, Kole. You hatin’ like that?”
“Bruuuuhhhhh! You the one that fucked yo’ shit up, not me. So, who's really hatin?” Kole said.
I pulled my hand over my face. Maybe I needed to go back home where I belonged. But before I could implement that plan, Kole showed up, extending a bottle of Voss towards me.
I accepted it, and murmured my “thanks,” before he turned back to his brother.
“D, thanks for stopping by checking on things. I’ll see you next weekend,” he said, slapping his brother on the shoulder.
“Damn, Kole, you just gon’ kick a muh-f—”
“Yup. Silver and I have a lot of work to do. See you later, big bruh,” Kole said, literally pushing his brother towards the door.
If I hadn’t heard their earlier conversation, I would have thought he was trying to be alone with me. But any hopes of that were dashed to the ground.
“Uh, Silver, it was nice meeting you!” Darnell shouted as he ducked under Kole’s arm, waving at me. He still wore that big Cheshire cat grin.
“Um, you too?” I said, waving at him.
Kole locked the door, pulled a hand down his face, and turned to me with the sexiest smile I’d ever seen. It was a crooked grin but exposed beautiful white, even teeth.
I had to get over this crush. Sitting in that office day after day, knowing that my feelings weren’t reciprocated and that there was no chance of that happening was a damper on my spirits. Even now, I was ready to head home.
But it was too late. Kole had sat down on his recliner and turned the laptop to face me. He pointed out some of the things that he had been working on and ran a few ideas by me. I liked two of them, but I told him that one of his ideas wouldn’t get the radio station anywhere.
“Why not?”
“Well, we tried a version of that idea before. We spent thousands of dollars on making it successful, and it still flopped. If we push the same idea to the public, it’ll look as if we just re-packaged and re-branded the idea to push at them from a different angle. It’ll be insulting, to say the least, and we’ll end up in a worse situation than now. We don’t want to offend our audience, but we want to convey the message that what they want is our sole focus.”
He nodded his head. “That’s true,” he agreed.
We continued working on the plan for another half an hour before his stomach started growling loudly.
“Well, I guess I know what time it is,” he said as he got up and moved towards the kitchen.
“You’re cooking?”
“Nah, you know we’re totally electric.”
Yes, I did. Not sure why I’d asked that dumb question.
Kole returned with three menus in his hand, waving them back and forth.
“You choose,” he said, handing me the menus.
“Oh, I’m not hungry,” I declined. “You go ahead.”
“Well, the way that I look at it, we have no idea how long the power will be off. At some point, you’ll get hungry. You might as well get a free meal while you can. Even if you don’t choose to eat it now, you can have it later when you do get hungry.
I took the menus because he had a valid point. Flipping through four menus, I tried to decide what I wanted.
“If you wanted something else, we could always do Door Dash, just let me know,” he said, sitting on the couch beside me.
Why hadn’t he taken his recliner, opposite me? That was a more comfortable option than sitting here, smelling his natural scent mixed with soap and some sort of bath wash that had the same notes as his Polo cologne.
And just damn. Kole’s legs were spread wide open, his knee touching mine.
I was hyperaware of this man. More than I wanted to be or even had a right to be. I knew I shouldn’t be in his apartment like this. Wasn’t it a conflict of interest, with us working together at the office?
On the other hand, if I weren’t attracted to him, I wondered if these questions would have popped into my mind. I was having a hard time making a decision.
The only thing that I wanted to consume was Kole Smith, not any of these foods that I was looking at. So, I handed him the menus back.
“I’m not sure. I’m not a picky person. Whatever you choose, I’ll be fine with,” I said.
His eyes narrowed.
“Are you vegan? Or do you eat clean?”
I shook my head rapidly. “No, I have the worst diet ever. Which is why I have to work out so faithfully.”
He nodded his head slowly and turned his gaze to the menus in his big, thick hands.
“A’ight. We’ll go with Marlow’s Tavern,” he said, setting the other two menus aside.
We spent the next ten minutes poring over the menu and making our selections. We finished discussing work just as our food arrived. By that time, I was hungry and could no longer deny it.
My body was betraying me with the sounds it was making.
“Still not hungry?” he asked, giving me that crooked smile.
“I can’t make that stand anymore,” I said, grinning at him as he set our food down.
“I tell you what, you spread the food out here, and I’ll grab plates, utensils, glasses, and...wine? You drink wine or beer?” he asked, heading for the kitchen.
“Uh, wine is fine.”
I pulled the containers out of the bag and spread them out on the table. This man had ordered a feast.
When he returned with the dishes, I looked up at him.
“Do you mind if I wash my hands in your restroom?”
“Sure, I don’t know if our layout is the same, but it’s right around that corner on the right,” he said, pointing in that direction.
I rushed off to the bathroom, used it, washed my hands, and checked my appearance in the mirror.
The lip gloss I had applied before leaving my place had rubbed off, but the mascara was still on. My ponytail was still as neat as it had been earlier.
Rolling my eyes at my reflection in the mirror, I whispered, “Stop! The man doesn’t want you. He said that loud and clear in his kitchen.”
“Silver! You okay?” he called.
“Uh, yeah, I’m coming,” I replied, straightening my t-shirt.
Maybe my whispers were a bit louder than I thought. Sue always told me that I didn’t know how to whisper well.
I made my way back to the living room to find that Kole had prepared everything, and there was nothing left for me to do but eat. The man had even found candles somewhere and set them up all around the living room and lit them.
The ambiance was romantic, and I wasn’t sure if I could keep my composure under this strain. I’d have to stay calm, or I might just lose it. After all, it had been five months of no sex, nothing but the little toy in my nightstand.
Determined I would never make another mistake like Ryan again, I had closed my legs, locked up my safety deposit box, and thrown away the key.
“You’re sure you’re good? Thought I heard you back there talking to someone,” he said, as he poured wine in my glass.
“Um, just thinking out loud about some things I have to do in the morning
,” I said.
Slowly he nodded his head. “Yeah, I feel you. This lights off stuff isn’t working too well for me either. It’s throwing me off my schedule. Well, I found some candles so we wouldn’t be sitting in pitch-black darkness. The sun has gone down.”
“Yeah, I see,” I replied, glancing out the balcony doors.
“Do you...do you pray, Silver?” he asked, looking at his food and then slowly up at me.
“Pray?”
“I mean, say grace over your food?”
Shaking my head, I said, “I don’t. I’m not religious.”
“You don’t practice anything?”
Shaking my head, I said, “No. My parents practice Buddhism, but I don’t practice anything.”
“Yeah? Well, my parents are Baptists. Southern Baptists at that. I don’t go to church, although I grew up in the church. My mom has a fit about that every now and then, but I still adhere to some of the same things that I grew up doing. Like saying grace. If you don’t mind, I’ll say it over our food.”
I nodded my head and accepted his hands as he stretched them over the table. It was a darned shame. I could focus on nothing the man was saying because I was too busy enjoying the feeling of his hands wrapped around mine.
They were large and swallowed mine. Surprisingly, Kole’s hands weren’t hard like I expected them to be, but they weren’t soft either. They were smooth and strong.
When he finished praying, I peeked an eye open and then the other one when I saw him smiling at me.
“We can eat now?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, Silver. We can eat.”
CHAPTER 11 – KOLE
Damn! I was happier than a motherfucker that those lights came back on just before the sun completely set Saturday night. There was no way in hell I was gonna let her ass stay up in my place. I could tell by her initial reaction that she was scared to return home in the dark.
From the moment that she’d looked bashfully from me to my brother after I’d answered her question about what happened to the power, I could tell she was waiting for an invite.
But we’d spent the evening making small talk about work and a very brief detour on the topic of religion. I purposely avoided discussing personal matters because I just couldn’t go there. If I did, I was scared the lines would become blurred.
Lines that I had no business blurring would get wiped the hell out. Because the truth was, I did find Silver attractive.
I’d lied to my brother. I wasn’t a fool; I knew that she could hear our conversation in the kitchen. And I knew that she was listening. But I didn’t want her to feel like I was sweating her in any way. And the fact that she’d found her tiny ass down in my place, I wasn’t about to hear nothing about a sexual harassment claim later.
Her soft floral and citrus scent, her demure personality, and her tiny but curvy body teased me all evening. Not to mention, Silver was an intelligent woman who I’d come to respect greatly. So, I was careful as much as I could be about everything that I did, including keeping her at a distance.
But the more time that we spent together Saturday night, the more that I wanted her to stay. And I knew that was wrong.
When Sunday arrived, I left to go work out. After my workout, I’d returned home and showered and then headed straight for my parents’ place. I’d spent the remainder of the day with them and, eventually, my sister Lauryn when she had dropped by.
Now that Monday had arrived, I’d immersed myself in work, largely ignoring Silver. Until this meeting.
“I just don’t understand. Where could that amount of money have gone to? I didn’t find any expense that it was related to, and I went through all of the accounting reports that their department sent to me. We’ve reconciled everything except that fourteen hundred dollars,” Claire said, scratching her head.
I wondered if she was oblivious or if she was playing dumb.
Leaning back in my chair, I drummed my fingers on the edge of the table. We were meeting in the conference room with Gary and a couple of managers from two other departments.
“That’s what I’d like to know. As a matter of fact, that was the purpose of my calling this meeting. I’ve found quite a few discrepancies like that, Claire,” I said, giving a brief nod at Silver, who sat across from me.
She nervously grappled with the folder in front of her, pulling out four sheets of identical papers. They were all copies of the spreadsheet that I had in front of me.
There was a line of discrepancies listed, along with the amounts that were budgeted, the revenue that had come in, and the line items they were attached to. However, there was no proof from accounting that this money was expensed to anything. But again, just like the fourteen hundred, they had gone missing.
Silver pushed the papers down the table to Claire, Gary, and the other two managers, Bernard, and Holly.
I formed a steeple of my fingers underneath my chin and watched everyone’s reaction closely, including Silver’s. Her response would be the tell-tale sign. She knew these people in ways that I didn’t. I had asked her to watch everyone for any indication that they were worried, concerned, or had any sort of fear.
I had been working with her long enough to detect when she was uncomfortable, or when she identified an anomaly. Although she might not bring the issue to my attention right away, I’d learned to read her well.
Like now, when her eyes glanced away from Holly and her eyebrows dipped slightly. Holly intimidated her, and I wasn’t sure why. Or when she glanced at Bernard and smiled widely at him, with her eyes wide and expressive. She admired him. Hmph.
No reaction to Gary, and a mild one to Claire. The one that she had with Claire was guilt. I knew that she felt guilty working so closely with me and not sharing anything with Claire. But I also trusted her enough to know by now that she wouldn’t betray anything that I shared with her in my office.
“What’re you trying to prove here?” Holly asked, thumping the paper with a finger, and then tossing it back to the center of the table.
Turning my lips down, I replied, “There’s nothing for me to prove. It’s up to you guys to let me know the anomalies. That’s the best way that I’ll be able to help you all save this radio station. And your jobs,” I emphasized, wanting to rip her a new one.
Since I’d been on board, she hadn’t been very helpful. If anything, she had a condescending attitude, as if I were an annoying gnat that she just wanted to go away.
We talked a bit longer about the concerns presented, and then the meeting broke up.
“Silver, can I see you for a quick minute? I need you to get a couple of reports for me,” I said as she exited the conference room.
She glanced at me and lifted an eyebrow. “Uh, sure. Now?”
I nodded as I gathered my things. “Yeah, I’m heading in that direction now.”
I watched as she walked away from me in that tight little pencil skirt. Although she was thick, she was a tiny little thing, and the shit that was running through my head about her right now should be illegal. My brother was right. I’d blow her fucking back out.
“IS EVERYTHING OKAY?” Silver asked, sitting in the chair opposite my desk as I walked to my chair.
“Yes, but I just wanted to get a brief assessment of what you thought about the meeting in there,” I said, setting my laptop on my desk.
“Nothing caught my eye. But there is something that I wanted to share with you. Those line amounts that are showing discrepancies are all in Ryan’s photography budget.”
“Who makes his budget?” I asked.
“He does.”
“Who manages it?”
“He does, but Claire has oversight of it.”
“What other budgets does she have oversight of?” I asked.
“I’ll get you a list of them,” she said, bowing her head over her laptop.
“Cool, I need the ones that she’s both, directly and indirectly, responsible for.”
She stopped typing and looked up at me, her brown
eyes holding a question that I couldn’t answer. I was just moving on a hunch, but without concrete evidence, that’s all it was. A hunch.
“Do you think—”
“Get me those GL numbers, as well as the budgets for each, please,” I ordered.
“I’m on it, Kole,” she said.
I nodded and made a mental note to dig deeper into all the budgets that Claire managed, as well as the activities of all the employees under her supervision. Except for Silver. I’d already researched everything that she had done a couple of weeks earlier, unbeknownst to her.
We worked feverishly for the next several hours. Silver pulled everything that I asked for, and I dug deep into everything, questioning even the tiniest discrepancy. She stayed by my side and answered every question I had.
By the time I looked up again, it was starting to get dark outside.
“Shit. What time is it?” I asked, stretching my arms above my head.
“Hmm?” Silver had abandoned the chair and reclined on the couch in my office. Her legs were stretched out along the length of the couch, her laptop in her lap.
“Earth to Silver,” I joked.
She looked up, rubbing her eyes and stifling a yawn.
“Yeah?”
“Kid, get outta here.”
“Oh...” she said, looking out the window.
“What time is it?” she asked, posing the same question I’d asked a minute earlier.
“A couple of minutes after eight,” I muttered, staring at the back of her neck and her shoulder, in the short-sleeved dress she wore.
She had just pulled her auburn hair loose from her bun and tugged it over her right shoulder. It fell into her lap in a pool of silk. I was having visions of clutching her hair in my hand and snatching her head back while I tapped that ass.
Sighing, she closed her laptop, breaking my train of thought.
“I just sent those last two reports to you with notes attached.”
“Thanks.”
She stood and headed to the door with her laptop under her arm and was typing on her cellphone.
“Silver, how’d you get to work today?” I asked.
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