by Trina Crooks
“I definitely could but who told you.”
“I did baby,” Antonio said as he came to stand nearer to me. “I found the number for the Barnyard and told Michael who spread the word. I hope you don’t mind.”
I couldn’t believe that he was thoughtful enough to do that. “Thank you.” I placed a kiss on his lips and then turned to the group. “Alright. Let’s get going.”
We worked tirelessly for four hours whipping up batch after batch, icing cakes and boxing items to go. The men slowly began making deliveries to the house before we were finally finished. “Thanks everyone,” I said as everyone gathered up their belongings and I was filled with gratitude. “I thank you guys so much.”
Desiree, of all people, came over to me and gave me a tight hug which I appreciated. “That’s what friends are for.”
Everyone else was leaving to get ready for the party but I was not in the mood to be amongst a crowd. I was tired and just wanted to relax to bring in the new year so we went back to my place and continued vegging out on the couch for a couple of hours. Antonio dosed off from all of the hard work he said I made him do and by the time he woke up it was nearing 11pm.
“Why did you let me sleep so long?”
“You needed it, I guess. I caught a quick cat nap myself.” I was standing in front of him which caused him to stare at what was in my hands.
“What’s going on?”
I reached out my hand to him and helped him to his feet. “Just come with me. We have to bring in our new year properly. You said as long as you were with me than you didn’t care what we did.”
“That is correct. Lead the way my lady.”
So, I did. We climbed into my new Christmas present car and we drove the short distance to J&R Grocers, my parent’s store. Antonio gave me a side eye when we parked on the quiet street and refused to leave the car after I got out. I walked around to his door and looked at him until he finally opened his door. “Come on.”
“Hanging out in a grocery store hardly sounds like an interesting way to bring in the new year baby.”
“Can you just trust me?”
He followed behind me as I unlocked the door and unarmed the alarm. We walked to the back of the store and right outside my parent’s office I unlocked yet another door that led to a set of steps. We climbed those and exited onto the roof which gave you a wonderful view of Jasper Springs.
“You have been holding back.” His eyes were wide and the sexy ass smile on his face showed that he liked what he was seeing. “This is amazing.”
My father bought furniture for this roof deck years ago and I often came up here when I needed to unwind and get away from the world. The lights of Jasper Springs and a glass of red wine always helped to ease the stresses of my life. Normally I visited during the summer months but tonight it was surprisingly bearable with the temps still hanging out in the sixties for this last day of December. “I brought a blanket for us just in case the temperatures take a dip. And this is the absolute best place to be when the fireworks from the Kincaid party hit the sky.”
“Sounds great.”
We sat down and Antonio marveled over the view of the town from up high. “It really is a pretty here. Are you going to miss being at home?”
I looked around at my surroundings and then scooted even closer to him. “I will miss it but I know this is the right decision. Being in New York is just the change my life needs and now that I have you in my life, I know this is the best decision.” Just then the sky began to light up with sparklers that were in a variety of colors.
“I guess it’s the new year,” Antonio said. “Happy New Year baby. This is going to be the best year ever now that I have you in my life.”
“Happy New Year to you,” I said to him as I leaned in for our first kiss of the new year. My new life was beginning right now and I couldn’t wait.
Chapter Seventeen
“Are you ready for your first day of work?”
Today I was starting the new job that Mrs. Johnston offered me and I was extremely nervous. To say I had butterflies in my stomach was an understatement. All last night I couldn’t sleep; tossing and turning endlessly. Eventually I ended up waking Antonio up so he initiated a love making session that I’m sure he thought would work me out enough to tire me out. I was exhausted after it was all over but my mind still refused to shut down. I ended up getting only four hours of sleep so I hoped I wouldn’t fall asleep on my first day. “I’m as ready as I am going to be.”
“You will be great. I am sure that you are going to have a great day. They are going to love you down there.”
“I hope so,” I stated as I put on my coat and grabbed my purse. Antonio walked me to my car that was parked in the garage and gave me a soft kiss goodbye.
“I will see you later. Call me at your lunch. Do you have my desk number in your phone?”
Last night he gave me every possible number I needed to reach him at in case there was an emergency. I programmed them into my phone and hoped I wouldn’t have to use them. I didn’t want to call him with a problem on day one. “I have it.”
“Alright. See you later.” I sat down in my car that was delivered back to New York yesterday, he closed the door behind me and then went to push the button to lift the garage door. The snow that seemed like it fell every other day here in New York was snowplowed to the side and I prayed that I would be able to drive on this foreign mess. Antonio told me to treat it like rain and that I should brake early just in case of any sliding. All of this was starting to be too much to deal with but I was not going to be a baby about this. I could do this.
I drove the congested streets of the city and spent more time in my car on this drive in to work than I’d spent in a years’ time in Jasper. The job was only twenty minutes from his house but I could not tell that from how long I sat in each spot. I turned on my hands-free earpiece and immediately called Kira since it’d been a few days since I spoke to her.
“Hello.”
“Hey K. What are you doing?”
“Just rolling out of bed.”
“What?” I looked at my clock that was reading 8:07. I didn’t start work until nine but I wanted to give myself time to get lost or get familiar with my new surroundings. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready for work now?”
“You are an hour ahead of us now. I don’t have to wake up at the break of dawn to get to my job,” she said with a chuckle. “Let me go to the guest room so I don’t wake up Michael with my talking.”
“I’m so sorry girl. I didn’t even think about that.”
“It’s alright.” I listened as Kira shuffled out of the room and then heard the creek of a door. “How is everything going with you?”
“Fine, I guess. It’s just the first day of my new job and I am so nervous. All I’ve worked at was the rental place.”
“You will be fine,” my friend said with more confidence than I had. “And by the way, speaking of the rental place. That girl that you hired, I hear is doing a horrible job. I was thinking of going in there and lending her a hand.”
“For real,” I stated as traffic moved a little faster. I was finally able to turn the corner and it was free flowing after that. “She insists on making this job harder than it has to be.”
“How is Antonio? Are things still going okay with him?”
“Oh yes.” I pulled into the parking lot where my job was located and almost cried a river in my car. The building had to be twenty stories high and there were well over one hundred cars parked outside. There was a parking garage attached to the building I needed so I entered it and did a slow crawl behind several other cars until I found the first empty available space. The whole way I was explaining to Kira what was going on and she started laughing. “What’s so funny?”
“I know all about that. I lived in LA remember. You will get used to it.”
“I hope so. Let me get off this phone and make my way inside. Pray for me Kira.”
She laughed heartily. “Yo
u will be fine. Call me later to tell me how it went.”
We hung up and I took one last look in my visor mirror before I got out of the car and began moving toward the building with a crowd of others moving that way too. I knew that Johnston Realty was on the fifteenth floor and I stopped to park my car on the fifth floor out of nervousness so once I entered the elevator, I pushed the button for floor fifteen. It rose slowly with occasional stops along the way until I was the last one on board, which was fine with me. It gave me time to take a couple of deep breaths without appearing like a crazy person in need of medical assistance or something. I rubbed my sweaty palms on my skirt and then…
Ding!
The elevator doors opened. I stepped off and was happy to see that the whole fifteenth floor was not the company, hoping that it was an intimate business with four employees. As I reached the end of the hall in search of suite 1515, I knew that was not the case. The glass doors let me see right inside of the business and that four-employee thing was blown up in the first two seconds. I had half a mind to turn around but I had to fight through the fear. I walked up to the very pretty secretary and introduced myself.
“Oh yes. I’ve been expecting you. Let me call Joanne. She is supposed to show you around.”
“Thank you.” My heart had calmed considerably now that I was actually here so I tried to tell myself that this was going to be alright. Then I met Joanne who came into view with a scowl on her face that appeared as if she wanted to do anything other than show me around.
“You’re Sonya?” she asked gruffly. This African American woman who was beautiful physically with a sienna skin tone, heart shaped face and a full head of natural hair had an attitude that was totally stank. Why did I have to get paired with her?
“Yes.”
“Follow me.” She turned and began to walk way too quickly back toward where she came and I attempted to keep up while I took in what I could. There were several cubicles filled with workers, most of them having conversations with each other because the work day hadn’t officially begun yet. We finally stopped at an empty desk and Joanne pointed at it. “This is yours.”
“Okay.” I set my purse down and then waited for more instructions but Joanne didn’t seem to have any.
“I sit over here,” which was catty corner to my desk. “We have a meeting in fifteen minutes so I will get you when it’s time.”
“Alright.” I sat down in the comfortable chair and saw that there was paperwork in front of me to help me log into the computer so I did that and nothing else. I pretty much stared at the screen and hoped the day got better from here.
It didn’t, well not at first. In the meeting I listened as Mrs. Johnston went over the house sales of the week and complimented individuals that did an amazing job. She then introduced me and I got a reasonably warm welcome but that was it. After the meeting, Mrs. Johnston asked me to stay behind and gave me the instructions of what she wanted me to do. It did not go unnoticed that no one bothered to introduce themselves after the meeting. They all just filed out like I’d been working there for years.
“You are mainly over house and apartment rentals. When someone calls, they will be directed to your line and you do your best to get all of their information, perform background checks and get them placed in our open housing listings.”
“Sounds simple enough. I just might need help navigating the system today.”
She frowned. “Joanne helpful at all?”
“No ma’am.”
“She can be like that. I will get Daphne to assist you today. She’s a sweetheart. I will send her over to your desk.” She then gave me a tight hug which eased some of my stress. “I am so happy you are here.”
“Thank you,” I responded as I fought back tears and returned to my desk to fumble through what I could while everyone else went about their normal days. Finally, after an hour, Daphne came over and sat down on the edge of my desk.
“Hello there. I wanted to introduce myself formally in the meeting but I had an important call to make. Daphne Campbell.” She stuck out her hand and I took it in mine. Daphne was plus size, about an eighteen in my estimation and was as cute as she wanted to be. Her hair was in box braids and she was dressed very nicely in designer clothes and shoes. She was much nicer than Joanne was and really helped me to learn the computer system quickly. Daphne left me for a little while and I managed to familiarize myself with a fair number of things and even fielded some phone calls for potential placements. By the end of the day I was tired but had accomplished quite a bit.
“You want to go get a drink,” Daphne asked. “A group of us made plans to go across the street to Plain Jack for some cocktails.”
“That sounds great.” I might as well get friendly with my new co-workers. I pulled my phone from my purse and dialed Antonio’s desk number and when he didn’t answer I left him a message saying I was going to be late and then sent him a text. He got that and responded back with a short ‘ok’.
Instead of driving across the street, Daphne informed me that everyone left their vehicles in the parking structure and walked. It was cold as all hell outside but I pulled my coat closer around me and made the quick walk across the street where we met up with Karlton, Andrew, Tabria, and Joanne. As soon as I came to the table, Joanne rolled her eyes and turned her attention to everyone else.
“What is her problem with me?” I asked Daphne before we fully sat down.
“She has a major crush on Antonio Randall.” She said his whole name like I wouldn’t know who she was talking about, but I had to remember that to them he was a “celebrity” and to me he was just Antonio. “She really thought she was going to get to meet him one day and they would fall in love,” Daphne said with a chuckle. “I guess you got him first.”
“So, she is going to be a royal bitch to me because of some crush. This is ridiculous.”
The rest of the crew we were drinking with must have been good friends with Joanne because they gave me the cold shoulder too which made me wonder why I was still sitting here. After thirty minutes and one drink, I stood to my feet and said goodbye to Daphne. Just as I was about to put on my coat, a woman came barreling passed me and spilled her drink all down the front of me. “I’m so sorry ma’am. Girl, why did you push me. See what I just did,” the giggly woman fussed to her friend with little remorse.
“It’s fine,” I stated because that was just the cherry on the top of this horrible day. I was ready to get to Antonio’s house so that I could relax and get ready for day two which I hoped was a lot better than my first day in the big NYC.
*~~~*
Antonio leaned back in his leather chair and stared into the air because he was ready to go home already. Today was his first day back and it seemed everyone in the building had dropped by his office to say hello. There was a mountain of work that Antonio had to attend to which made his day feel extremely busy and he felt like he was working nonstop. The clock on his computer said it was only four but he was ready to call it a night even though his normal work day ended at five.
“Knock, knock,” Antonio heard someone say and once he lifted his head, he found his father standing in the doorway. “You busy?”
“Never for you. Come on in.” Nathan Randall stepped a foot inside of his office and closed the door behind him before he made himself comfortable in a chair across from Antonio. “Why do I get the feeling I am in trouble?”
“Not at all. Just wanted to see you. You’ve been back for a couple of days and you didn’t drop by to see your mother and me.”
They hadn’t. When they arrived back in New York, Antonio and Sonya spent the first night at a hotel downtown and he took her to a Broadway play the next day before they finally stepped foot in his townhouse. Then he didn’t want to fill her last couple of days with running here and there because she was already nervous about this new job. So, they stayed home and watched movies before they both reported to work this morning.
“I’m sorry. I just wanted her to get co
mfortable when we got in town. I’m sure Mom is going to have us over for dinner really soon.” His cell phone vibrated on his desk and he picked it up to see it was Sonya. She texted him that she was going out for drinks which I was happy about. Hopefully this meant that she was making friends at work.
“She will.” His father then got a more serious expression so Antonio braced himself. He felt as if his father was going to give him hell for leaving from work for as long as he did. “Are you well rested from your trip?”
“I am.”
“And now you are ready to jump right back into work? Fully focused.”
“Yes Dad.”
He smiled at Antonio and nodded his head. “Good. When are you going to head out to the upper New York store opening?”
Antonio knew that the store was close to opening and he knew that he didn’t want to leave Sonya so soon. “I planned on sending Dominick to the opening.”
“I don’t want you to get used to sending Dominick everywhere just because Sonya is here. She is a lovely girl and I am happy that you found someone that you like and want to build something serious with, but you still have a job to do.”
“I know. It’s just this one time.”
His dad stood to his feet to leave. “All right. Good having you home. I miss that handsome face that I contributed in making.”
“Ha ha and thanks.”
Antonio turned his attention back to his computer for an hour before he picked up his phone to let Sonya that he was running late. She didn’t sound like she was having the best of days so he told her he would grab a pizza and meet her at home.
After a quick conversation with his brother about him and Sonya coming over to his place to hang out sometime soon, he finally made it out of the office and was able to pick up his pizza in good time before heading to his home. Antonio was looking forward to hearing about her first day but as soon as he entered the house, he could tell by the glass of wine in front of her, that it wasn’t great.
“Is it a dumb question to ask how your day was?”
