by Nicole Falls
“Do solemnly swear…”
“Do solemnly swear…”
“That I am in a relationship with Ellis Stacey Taylor…”
“That I am in…” I paused.
Ellis just looked at me, with his brow still raised.
I smirked, “All right, all right, I’ll quit fucking with you. That I am in a relationship with Ellis Stacey Taylor…”
My heart damn near burst outta my chest after saying that line. Lord, it was something I never thought in life I’d be saying, let alone repeating in some crazy ass oath Ellis had me taking. Pretty sure that I was grinning like a loon at this point as well.
“Who is knocking the bottom out that thang.”
“I’m not repeating that.”
Outloud that is, because he was certainly knocking the top, bottom, middle and sides out of that thang. Whew.
“You know it’s true. I know it’s true. It’s fine. You don’t have to say it.”
“I can’t stand you.”
“Lies you tell, woman!”
Ellis left my house late that night, so waking up the next morning to get to work was a struggle. Part of me wanted to tell him to just stay and call off with me, but I knew that wasn’t logical because I was working on the creative properties for this project my girl Celena was managing. We were set to finalize the campaign by the close of business today, so I specifically scheduled the bulk of my day to ensure all of the deliverables were to the specifications that the persnickety ass marketing manager at Parker & Associates laid out for us. Celena was one of the first people who quickly welcomed me with open arms when I started at Jamieson & Weil, so I always made sure to deliver her goods without delay. Thankfully, I’d finished most of the difficult illustration work on the logo she needed for the client’s landing page; so today was going to be consumed with creating the look in about five different color ways because Robert Parker was unable to “fully see the vision” unless he saw it displayed in all five color combinations that he had been envisioning. A love for what I do and a hefty paycheck kept me from getting exasperated with these folks daily as they expected me to cater to their ridiculous whims.
I reached over to the nightstand to shoot off a text letting my manager Teresa know I’d be pulling in a little late this morning and noticed a text from Ellis. I fired off the text to Teresa and then proceeded to read Ellis’ text. Opening up the thread, I noticed it was actually a short video. Pressing play, I immediately broke into a grin. Ellis’ handsome face filled the screen while he talked about how he wished that he could have stayed the night and how next time he’ll be better prepared. Then the camera started to slowly pan as he kept talking about how he woke up this morning thinking about me and oh my god. Yep. Definitely his hand on his dick showing me how much he was thinking about me. The camera panned back up and Ellis was still talking, but I’ll be goddamned if I know what he actually said at the end. My mind was still stayed on that dick. Shaking it off, I sent Ellis a text.
You know you ain’t shit for that video right?
Did you get to the end? –Ellis Taylor
Yes I got to the end, fool.
So why am I getting words from you instead of a video in return? – Ellis Taylor
I pulled up the video again, fast-forwarding to the end to listen to what he was saying this time instead of concentrating on…other things. I chuckled as Ellis detailed exactly how I could show him I missed him, too, if I had the time.
I’m not sending you that.
Took you a minute. You thought about it, didn’t you? Probably watched the whole damn video again and over there playin witcha self right now. Nasty ass. – Ellis Taylor
Shut upppppp. No, I’m not. I’m actually on my way to the shower.
Word? Gimme fifteen and I can be there to share it. – Ellis Taylor
I bit down on my lip, the offer sounded tempting but I knew that if he came back I would certainly not make it into the office today.
Coulda saved that time if you’d stayed.
A brotha didn’t wanna wear out his welcome. – Ellis Taylor
Could literally never happen.
Noted. – Ellis Taylor
I breezed into work slightly earlier than I’d told Teresa and literally ran into Celena as I was entering the building.
“Whoa Cel, where’s the fire?”
“Parker & Associates. Just heard Urban Current might be tryna undercut us. So I’m on an ambush mission. Not on my watch!” Celena called over her shoulder, hot-footing it to the parking garage.
Celena had been dating the son of the owner of P&A, Jake, so I’m sure someone was about to get an unexpected and unpleasantvisit from his not so happy girlfriend. P&A have been clients of ours for years, certainly couldn’t be swayed by whatever tricks Urban Current decided to pull out the bag. I knew Urban Current’s focus has shifted a bit with their recent acquisition. I hope this doesn’t end up in any hunger games ass bullshit between firms. We were perfectly fine when their focus was national while ours was more local and grassroots. The last thing we needed was them encroaching on our territory. And the last thing I needed was unnecessary strife between Ellis and me. I sat my things down in my office and then headed over to Teresa’s office.
“Hey, what’s up with the P&A joint? I just literally ran into Celena on her way to ambush Jake. I thought we were good? I was gonna begin the final colorization of their logos today.”
Teresa ran her fingers through her already tousled curls. “Girl, we came in this morning and it was like a damn fire drill. I don’t know how, but somebody at Urban Current got Robert Sr.’s ear and will be submitting RFPs for the campaign we were supposedly locked in for.”
“Well isn’t that something.”
“Some bull is what it is. But that’s our bad. We took Jake at his word instead of having signed contracts in hand.”
“Wait. The renewals hadn’t been signed despite me working my ass off to create logo after logo? Please tell me that is not what you’re saying, Teresa.”
I’d spent weeks drawing and redrawing logos to the specifications of a very particular marketing manager for Parker and Associates, who also happened to be the other son of the owner, Robert Jr. It was my understanding that we’d had already signed renewal contracts. I was handling the Parkers with a baby soft touch because I knew they were one of our biggest contracts that brought us a great deal of revenue. If all of the work I’d done for the past six weeks was for nothing, I swear to God…
“So what’s the game plan? Beyond Cel bopping her man over the head until he rescinds his RFP requests from Urban Current?”
Teresa laughed, “Thomas wants the team to meet at eleven to come up with a plan of attack.”
“Now y’all know I do pictures; not words. Do I even have to come to this?”
“Yep,” Teresa said, “You need to know whether or not you should keep drawing on your little etch-a-sketch.”
“Hey!”
Teresa laughed even harder. I heaved a sigh and left Teresa’s office. A part of me didn’t want to even begin work on these color ways in the off chance that all of my work would be for nothing, but I also didn’t want to be caught with my pants around my ankles if this was just a scare tactic to ensure we were willing to fight to keep Parker as a client. I settled in, opened up Illustrator, and began working.
“Hey girl…you busy?” Celena popped her head into my office at a little before eleven.
“Nope, just getting ready to shut down and head to the conference room. What’s up?”
I went back to saving the logo drafts and closing down the program.
“Your boy works at Urban Current, right? Elliott?”
“Ellis. Yeah, why?”
“I need you to find out why P&A is all of a sudden waffling on what was sure to be a done deal.”
My hands hovered over my keyboard, about to lock it as I said, “You need me to do who and what now? Why can’t you ask Jake?”
“JP is…we’re…” Cele
na sighed, moving into my office and taking a seat in one of the chairs in front of my desk.
“Cel…you can’t come in here minutes before we’re supposed to be brainstorming asking me to be inch high private eye.”
“Look, we’ll talk about it after the meeting, but just know…JP isn’t a resource anymore.”
I stared at her, eyebrows raised.
“Ooooookay.”
“Yeah girl, this isn’t a conversation to be had here. Or without drinks. Actually, what do you have brewing this evening? Wanna go down to Imbibe and have a glass or three of wine?”
“Absolutely. I was just going to go home and do that same thing. Might as well do it with a friend…and hot gossip.”
Lowering her eyes, Celena heaved another sigh. Normally, Cel was an upbeat, perky lil somebody or other, but really looking at her now she seemed…defeated.
“Maybe we shouldn’t be having this convo at Imbibe. Why don’t you just come by the house after work, so we can really get into it.”
“You sure?”
“Sis. You look like somebody just stole your bike. I am absolutely sure that we need to have this conversation anywhere, but in public. Come on; let’s get into this doggone meeting before Tom sends someone for us. You know he trips if you’re thirty seconds late.”
I grabbed a notebook, rounded my desk, and headed toward the door.
When we got into the conference room, Tom sat there with a dour look on his face. I looked at the clock, we had thirty seconds to spare, so I wasn’t so sure why Tom looked so annoyed. As soon as everyone else filed into the room, however, I learned the reason for Tom’s disposition.
“As of 10:07 today, Parker and Associates is no longer a client of this firm. For reasons that they refused to disclose, they wanted to terminate their relationship with us effective immediately.”
People began to murmur about the abruptness of this news and Tom’s unusually calm demeanor. I was pissed, but tried not to let it show on my face. I’d spent weeks working with that jackass Robert Parker, Jake’s older brother and heir to the Parker throne for nothing. I glanced over at Celena and she looked shell-shocked. So she clearly had no idea this was coming. Oh boy…
“I’m sorry. Run that by me one more time.”
We were sitting in my den, TV on in the background ignored as we sipped our way through the second bottle of Petite Sirah.
“You heard me. I pull up to P&A thinking this was all a misunderstanding and I’d be able to get everything ironed out with JP. I’m barely through the revolving doors before I’m being escorted right back out.”
“Like, ‘ma’am can you please leave the premises escorted out’?”
“More like ‘I hate to have to do this to you, Cel’, but definitely a ‘we’re going to have to ask you to leave’ type deal.”
“I thought you were cool with that security guard dude, Petey, or whoever.”
I’d accompanied the sales and marketing teams to Parker and Associates a few times. Every time I remember Celena and that Petey guy having extensive conversations about everything under the sun as we waited for the Parker trio to be ready to meet. To know that he was the one who put her out seemed suspect as hell.
“I am. Which is why it wasn’t more of a scene. Pete tried to be as discreet as possible. Told me that I was flagged in the system as high risk. Whatever the hell that means.”
“And Jake isn’t answering your calls?”
“Not a single one. I’ve called him at least twenty-seven times. Even went by his house before I came by here and…” Celena broke off, looking away, tears welling.
“I can’t believe the nerve of this motherfucker. You were with him for three years and he just up and pulled this mess? No explanation and has the audacity to fuck with your livelihood? Cel, you know I’m a lover not a fighter, but if you want me to let that nigga know these hands are rated E for everybody, just say the word, sis.”
Celena remained silent, still staring off into space with a slight grin on her face.
“I don’t even understand though, Dev. We were good. Hadn’t seen each other in a few days, but that wasn’t unusual. We still talked every day. He just told me last night how much he loved me and now today I’m a fucking risk?”
Slowly, a tear trickled down her cheek. She didn’t bother brushing it away, just let it roll until others joined it. She began sobbing softly and I immediately pulled her into a hug. As her body rocked with sobs, I felt so powerless. My friend definitely did not deserve this kind of treatment. Somebody needed to put a foot up in Jake’s ass, honestly.
“I’m so serious, Cel. Where’s his place? I’ll roll up; hit him with The Stevie. Here’s your fade, baby. Signed, sealed, delivered—it’s yours! Or The Oprah if he got a new ho in there. You get a fade, you get a fade, everybody gets a fade.”
Celena pulled back from my embrace, laughing hysterically.
“Why are you so foolish?”
“There we go. I accomplished my mission. I got you to laugh. Fuck him, Cel. I know you’re hurting. I know you want answers, but you deserve better than this mess he’s pulling.”
“I just wish I knew what was even going on in his head.”
We finished the bottle of wine, while I caught Celena up on the happenings between Ellis and I over the past few days. I was hesitant to even bring it up, but Cel asked and refused to let it go until I caught her up. She knew about the fight at his house, so I brought her up to speed about the apology and subsequent relationship declaration and oath. She teased me mercilessly about denying my destiny, citing that trite ass “if you love someone let them go; if they come back they’re yours” saying. I brushed her off, but was really amazed. Her love life had just been blown to smithereens and instead of languishing in the misery; she was over here encouraging me to go all in with Ellis. I’d never been the hopeless romantic type chick, but that was Celena to the core. I hope she got the answers she sought from this shitbacle with Jake and eventually would be able to find someone who deserved all the love she had to give.
“Don’t you think it’s about time you settled down, Scoot?” my mother asked as we sat around the table, eating. I nearly dropped the platter containing the oven-fried chicken that I was passing to Everett. I steadied my grip and passed the plate to my left to a smirking Everett. That smirk let me know that his wife obviously clued him into whatever intel she had on me and Bee.
“Aw, ma, don’t start.”
“Aw ma, hell. I’m sick of it. These two,” she said, gesturing to Everett and Cassidy, “refuse to gimme anymore grandchildren. I love my SophieBug, but it would be nice to have more than one set of photos to pass around when I get together with the girls.”
“Mama, you the only one with photos to pass around at this point. Auntie Berta only got sonograms,” Everett chimed in.
“And Imogene has none,” my father piped up.
“And none of that has anything to do with why this boy thinks he’s the black George Clooney. You gonna wait until you’re fifty to get married too, Scooter?”
I just shook my head and let her keep talking. It did no good for me to even try to reason with her when she got on a roll. Not only had she regressed to calling me my childhood nickname, but she also had a bug up her butt about some damn grandkids. She’d spend the next twenty minutes outlining all of the reasons that I needed to get my life together, find a girl to marry and pop out some kids in the next six to eight months. This became the topic of conversation about every three weeks at our weekly family dinners. It was so cyclical it was a wonder that she didn’t get tired of hassling me about my dating life.
“Ma. I’m only thirty-four, calm down.”
“Boy do you know where we were at thirty-four? We’d been married for twelve years and both of you knuckleheads were in elementary school by then. To my estimation, you and your brother are slow.”
“Hey! At least Cass and I have a kid already,” Everett laughed.
“Speaking of, where is Cass? She n
ever misses a chance to eat some of mama’s cooking.”
“She’s with Devorah today. But nice try to change the subject though…”
“Thanks, bro.” I said, rolling my eyes.
I knew exactly where Cassidy was. Bee was hosting some sort of ladies brunch thing with her friends today. I was hoping Everett would see the comment for the oop it was and slam down that subject change. As usual, my little brother enjoyed seeing my ass get fileted by our mother.
“I’m just saying, I’d like to be mobile when you decide to bless me with my first grandchild is all.”
“Yeah, yeah…”
