Southern Love

by Synithia Williams

  Carol was stiff for a second, before returning the hug then pulling away. “Whatever. But I’m bringing out the damn bottle of wine. He can’t prevent me from toasting this happy occasion. Then everyone has to drink.”

  Kenyatta shook her head and laughed. “Fine, Carol. Whatever floats your boat.”

  Chapter 9

  Kenyatta arrived at the Marriott in Orlando, Florida, on Monday afternoon. The three-day conference started the next morning with her presentation following on Wednesday morning. She was anxious about presenting but excited about the opportunity. She knew the project inside and out so she wasn’t nervous about knowing the information. Plus, she’d spoken in public numerous times before, although never in front of a crowd as large as this one would be. The fact that Malcolm trusted her to represent their company meant a lot and helped to boost her confidence.

  While checking in, she asked the receptionist if Malcolm Patterson had arrived. They had not taken the same flight because her attendance was last minute, and she hadn’t asked him about his flight when she saw him Saturday for reasons she refused to let herself consider. But she knew they would need to get together before Wednesday. She had a few questions about some of the comments he’d e-mailed to her.

  The front desk clerk told her that Malcolm had not yet arrived, so with a disappointed sigh she headed to her room. The conference registration table was already up and running, but she decided to register and get her information in the morning.

  Once she reached her room, she tipped the bellman and quickly ushered him out the door. Richly decorated in shades of cream and pale green, the hotel room and bed looked comfortable and inviting after a day spent in airports. She couldn’t wait to take a bath, lie in bed, and watch television. She quickly unpacked her bubble bath, body lotion, and snacks.

  After lounging in the tub for at least an hour — she wasn’t sure how long since she dozed off — she got out of the tub and put on a pair of pajama shorts and a tank top. She checked the movie listings as she rubbed down with a lavender-scented body lotion.

  She was pleasantly surprised to see Cabin in the Sky playing on Turner Classic Movies. It looked like her night was going to be a good one.

  Humming happily to herself, she was getting a bag of microwave popcorn from her luggage when someone knocked on the door, and she frowned. She heard a muffled, “Housekeeping,” and sighed heavily. She hadn’t called for housekeeping and hoped there was nothing wrong with the room.

  She opened the door, and her pulse quickened when she saw Malcolm. He was dressed for traveling in khaki shorts, a red and white polo shirt and loafers. She was used to seeing him in business suits or slacks. Dressed casually, he looked much younger than his thirty-three years. He was also incredibly sexy. She self-consciously tugged at her shorts. Their kiss two days earlier flooded her memory. It was going to be a long three days.

  “Oh, Malcolm, I thought it was housekeeping,” she said. Of course you thought it was housekeeping, idiot. He said housekeeping, she thought.

  She watched as Malcolm took a deep breath before letting his eyes roam over her body. When they paused at her breasts, she fought not to squirm. She wasn’t wearing a bra and her arousal had to be on display as her nipples hardened.

  “I … ” He cleared his throat, “I wanted to check and make sure you arrived safely. I asked the concierge if you checked in, and she said you asked about me. I thought saying ‘hi’ would put both of our minds at ease.”

  “Oh, where are your bags?” She looked around.

  “I already took them to my room,” he answered. “I’m three doors down.”

  She looked down the hall where he pointed and swallowed. When she looked back at him, she resisted the urge to rub her sweaty palms on her shorts. “I was just about to watch a movie and relax after the trip.”

  “Were you going to eat dinner?”

  She hadn’t thought about it. She’d eaten a hot dog during her layover in Atlanta and the bag of popcorn she was going to make wouldn’t serve as a filling dinner.

  “No, I was going to pop some popcorn. I was so happy to be out of the airport, I didn’t think about dinner.” She shifted to lean against the door.

  “Can I persuade you to have dinner with me tonight? Just in a professional manner. I want to go over my comments I e-mailed before the conference starts. I’m not sure if we’ll have time to discuss it tomorrow.”

  Kenyatta hesitated. Although they both agreed to act as if the kiss didn’t happen, it did, and it would always be the elephant in the room when they were together. She didn’t want to make things more complicated by having dinner with him.

  She was about to say no when she noticed he looked completely indifferent to her answer. While her body was on fire just after he’d given her a few sweeping glances, he looked as if her answer didn’t matter one way or another. Once again, she reminded herself that she was probably one of many women he flirted with or kissed during a week. Okay, so maybe that was a bit of a stretch, but obviously, he wasn’t as affected by their kiss as she was. Just because he’d checked out her body twice didn’t mean he was ready to seduce her over dinner. Going to dinner with him didn’t put her in a similar situation as her mother twenty-some-odd years ago. He wasn’t actively pursuing her. He only wanted to discuss the project, and they both needed to eat.

  She pushed away from where she was leaning on the door and took a step back. “Just let me change my clothes.”

  He just nodded as if it were no big deal. “We can eat in the restaurant downstairs. I’ll go down and get us a table and see you in a few minutes.”

  “That’s fine.”

  He turned and walked down the hall. Kenyatta watched him go for a second before closing the door. If he could act as if nothing happened, then she’d do the same. She quickly pulled a pair of slacks and blouse from her garment bag. If they were meeting for business, she’d dress for business. That way there’d be no confusion about why she’d agreed to have dinner with him.

  • • •

  Thirty minutes later, Malcolm was about to give up on Kenyatta joining him when she entered the restaurant. He suppressed a smile when he saw her. She’d gotten dressed as if she were back at the office. She’d replaced her tank top — which perfectly accented her unbound breasts — with a peach button-up blouse, tucked into gray slacks. She even had her laptop and portfolio with her. Even though he knew she wouldn’t come down in the tank top and shorts, he’d hoped she would be a little less formal. He wanted to make her feel comfortable around him again, as she’d been before he’d mucked things up by kissing her.

  She quickly spotted him and walked over. When she sat down, she pulled her laptop out and set it up on the corner of their table. He was glad he hadn’t insisted on a table for two as he originally wanted and had accepted a table that would hold four.

  When she finished and turned to face him, he raised an eyebrow and eyed her from head to toe. “I’m glad to see you got comfortable.”

  Outwardly, she didn’t appear phased by his comment, but she shifted slightly in her seat. “I didn’t bring jeans.”

  “Why not? Do you plan on wearing business attire after hours?”

  “No, it’s over one-hundred degrees down here. I brought shorts and dresses for when I venture from the hotel and business attire for the conference.”

  “You didn’t think shorts or a dress were appropriate for dinner?”

  “No, now can we move on?” She began to pull up her presentation on the laptop.

  He laid his hand on hers. “Can we order first?”

  A jolt of electricity shot through his hand straight to his groin. She quickly pulled her hand away. His eyes met hers, challenging her to deny she’d felt it. She didn’t look away, and instead she licked her lips. It was going to be a long dinner.

  The moment was broken when the wa
itress came and asked what they wanted to drink. Malcolm ordered a beer and suppressed a smile when she asked for water.

  “No cocktail?”

  She shifted in her seat again. “I don’t drink during business meetings.”

  He shouldn’t have ordered a beer, but he needed something to ease his tension. He looked at his menu, and she followed suit. He’d had enough time to decide what he wanted while waiting on her, so he took the opportunity to study her instead. Her lips constantly drew his attention, reminding him of their kiss. She tended to bite them when she was considering something. That habit had caused him to lose his train of thought during various meetings and work sessions in the past. He laughed to himself when he thought about how surprised she’d be to know she’d been a constant distraction to him over the years.

  She looked up at him. “What’s so funny?”

  “Nothing, just remembering something a friend of mine said before I left,” he lied.

  She seemed to accept that and looked back at her menu. When the waitress returned with their drinks, he ordered potato skins for an appetizer, the twelve-ounce steak with a baked potato, a side salad and asked the waitress to bring back the dessert menu once the food arrived. Kenyatta ordered a Cobb salad. When the waitress left, she had an amused look on her face.

  “What?” He looked to see if something was on his shirt.

  “Hungry?”

  He smiled. “Starving, actually. I worked the entire trip down and ate mostly candy bars and sodas all day.”

  She laughed. “How do you stay in shape eating all of that junk?”

  “I go to the gym every morning. Then blow my workout by surviving on junk food between meetings.”

  She shook her head. “You need to start eating better.”

  He lowered his voice. “I will, when I find the right lady to come home to and sit down to dinner with.”

  Kenyatta cleared her throat and turned back to her laptop. “Do you want to look this over while we wait?”

  He wanted to say no, but didn’t. He’d asked her to dinner to discuss it, so he allowed her to change the subject. The waitress brought his potato skins, and he ate those while they reviewed the presentation. He was glad when she ate one.

  He didn’t have a lot of comments, mostly questions about her intent behind a few slides. He made a few suggestions, but for the most part, her presentation looked good and hit the highlights of the project. Her attention to detail didn’t surprise him; her work had always impressed him. She really was one of his best employees. It would surprise him if she still worked for him in five years instead of leaving for a more lucrative position either in or outside of H20 Environmental.

  When the food arrived, their conversation moved to talk about the job.

  “I’ve always wanted to know how you ended up doing environmental work.” Kenyatta said.

  He shrugged. “I don’t know, it just happened.”

  She shook her head and laughed. “Don’t give me that humble routine. You’re adamant that we lead by example in our office. And I know you work hard to ensure our projects have positive results. Your dedication has to come from somewhere.”

  Malcolm smiled. “If you really want to know, it’s because of my dad. He always took my brother and me fishing when we were younger. It was our male bonding routine, you know. We’d leave Mom at home, and just go out on the creek, in our small boat, and talk. Just sitting out there with the sounds and smell of nature, made me appreciate it. When I started at South Carolina in the engineering school, it only took one environmental engineering class for me to become hooked.”

  Kenyatta’s eyes grew wide. “You too? I was originally an English major but switched after an environmental science class. My dad didn’t take me fishing, but recycling lessons and episodes of Captain Planet turned me into a closet tree-hugger.”

  “I loved that cartoon! My brother teased me incessantly for watching it.” They both laughed.

  “I won’t tell anyone, unless you break out into the theme song.” She teased.

  “You might like my singing voice.”

  She shook her head. “I doubt it. Smart, handsome, and a great singer. You couldn’t be that lucky.”

  His smile turned seductive. “You think I’m handsome.”

  Kenyatta cleared her throat and squirmed in her seat. “Anyway, where were you before H20? You don’t talk about your previous job much.”

  Malcolm watched her for a second before chuckling to himself. “Changing the subject?”

  “Yes, now back to my question.”

  He nodded, still smiling. “Okay, I was with D.C. Carter for three years before coming to H20. I started as an entry-level engineer, and busted my ass to be better than all the good old boys who thought I was there due to affirmative action. I was promoted to project manager after a year, but two years into it I decided to leave.”

  “Why?”

  He lifted his beer to his mouth. “Just time to go.” He didn’t elaborate. She opened her mouth as if to ask a question before closing it and taking a bite of her salad.

  “So, you didn’t harp on me about my affirmative action comment.” He said to break the silence.

  She looked up. “Why should I?”

  “Some people take that as complaining, or tying to blame ‘the man.’”

  She laughed. “You’re crazy. No, I understand. I feel that way sometimes myself.”

  He scowled. “No one in our office is questioning you, are they?”

  “No. It’s just … you know when I worked with some of these small towns that H20 has had contracts with for a long time, they’re always like ‘I’ll double check with Mr. Summers’ or ‘Why don’t you check with Malcolm.’ It really used to piss me off, because I didn’t know if they were saying that because I’m a woman, because I’m black, or both.”

  “I had no idea.”

  “And I wanted it that way. I didn’t want to run to you or Mr. Summers just because my feelings were bruised. I just nicely tell them that I am the one assigned to their project, and that I don’t need to run every idea by you two. And, I do bust my ass to be the best project manager you guys have. It took a few months, but now they all appreciate and respect my work.”

  Admiration filled his eyes as he stared at her for a second. “I’ve only gotten rave reviews about your work.”

  “Good. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

  The waitress came with the dessert menu and they stopped talking. Malcolm felt a strange sensation in the pit of his stomach. As if he’d just been on a roller coaster ride. One that thrilled and scared the crap out of him at once. Kenyatta was turning out to be everything he’d imagined. If he didn’t reign in his emotions soon, he’d be throwing his rule of staying away from coworkers out the window.

  “Do you still fish with your dad?” Kenyatta asked suddenly.

  He shook his head. “My brother and I still fish together when I can drag him home to visit my mom in Georgia. My father passed away when I was in college.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Thank you, but it’s okay. He lived a great life with my mom. It was a surprise when he had the heart attack, but we pulled through it. I think it hit my brother the hardest. Jared was at home when our dad had his heart attack. He doesn’t like to go home anymore and that’s been hard on my Mom. But, when I can drag him home, we do go back to the same place our Dad took us.”

  She smiled wistfully. “It must be nice to have a brother to do things with. I’m an only child. My best friends Angie and Carol are like sisters though.”

  “Jared is closer to me than anyone. That’s why I try to get him home more often. Our mom doesn’t say it, but I know Jared keeping his distance bothers her. The good thing is that he enjoys himself when we go back and relive the good times. The bad thin
g is that our fishing spot isn’t as nice as it used to be. There’s development all over the place in that part of Georgia, and it’s ruining the creeks. I would love to do a restoration project there. I hope I can meet with someone from that area during the conference this week.”

  Her eyes lit up with excitement. “That would be great! I’d love to help you.”

  He laughed at her enthusiasm. “I haven’t even secured a contract with anybody.”

  “But you will. You have the drive and determination that’s helped you succeed. How else can you explain becoming the senior project manager by the time you were thirty?”

  “I was in the right place at the right time,” he shrugged. “I landed a great deal with the city and had success with the majority of my projects. It just worked out.”

  “Don’t act humble with me. I only hope I can be that successful one day,” she replied.

  “You will be. After you present the work you did in Newberry, there will be all types of clients asking us to work with them. A few of them may even try to steal you,” he teased.

  She smiled. “I like that you encourage me. A woman doesn’t always receive encouragement to climb the corporate ladder.”

  He touched her hand gently. “I only tell the truth. You’re smart, hardworking, and determined. You’ve given your best since day one.”

  She didn’t pull away. “Stop before you make me get all big-headed. I’ll become so dependent on your compliments I’ll want to work for you forever and never move up.”

  Malcolm became serious. “I don’t want you to move up if it means I can’t work beside you anymore.”

  She grinned and her lashes lowered over her eyes. “Why? You could do your job without me.”

  “I could, but I enjoy working with you. I know I’ve never really said that before, it’s not my place to show favoritism with an employee, but you’re one of the highlights of my job. It wouldn’t be the same if I couldn’t come to your office and bounce around ideas.” Malcolm didn’t know where those words came from, but he didn’t regret them. When Kenyatta’s breaths quickened and she licked her lips, he knew he wouldn’t take them back for anything.