The Company We Keep (21 page)

T
he interview lasted only six minutes, and during that time the switchboard lit up. Ambitious young schoolgirls called the station to ask Teri to come and speak to their classes. The president of a book club called to invite Teri to her next book club meeting. An older white woman called in and congratulated her for being such a “credit” to the “Negro” race.

Harrison had asked some good questions, like how she’d gotten her foot in the music industry door. How she managed to deal with all the ups and downs she encountered. And what it was like to interact with famous musicians on a business level. Despite the fact that he’d wanted to go over the interview questions beforehand, she’d been more than prepared. She was sharp, intelligent, and witty. She was easy for the callers to talk to. She laughed along with them and Harrison when she said something funny.

Harrison knew he had hit on a good thing by the way his boss, Chuck, was standing outside the booth with his arms folded and a huge smile on his face. Most of the interviews that Harrison conducted usually went without a hitch. However, being that there were so many fools out there, every now and then one took a notion and called up to say something stupid.

“Hey, bitch, how would you like to suck my dick? I—” Harrison cut the obscene caller off before he could say anything else.

“That wraps things up with this session, and I’d like to thank Teri Stewart for taking time away from her busy schedule to join us this morning. Miss Stewart is the Publicity Director for Eclectic Records located right here in the great city of Los Angeles. This is your Morning Starr, Harrison Starr, signing off for a short break. Stay tuned for our news break because you know you need to know what’s happening in the City of Angels. And remember, if you don’t know where you’ve been, you don’t know where you’re going.” He cut off the mike, slipped on some Miles Davis, and turned to Teri. “You were great. Thank you so much for doing this. I know we’ll probably get more calls, not like the last one I hope,” he said, rolling his eyes, “but more like the others.”

“It was my pleasure,” Teri said. They locked eyes for a few moments.

“Teri, you were wonderful,” Chuck said as Teri exited the booth. “You’re everything Harrison said you were and then some.” Chuck gave Harrison a conspiratorial smile and a wink.

“I enjoyed doing this,” she said, hands on her hips. She looked so regal standing there in her cream-colored suit, Harrison decided. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on her again.

“If you have time, would you allow me to treat you to lunch?” Chuck asked, with an exaggerated grin that allowed him to show off his recently capped teeth.

“Thank you so much, but I’ll have to take a rain check this time. I have another important appointment this morning and I don’t know if I’ll be done by lunchtime.” Her appointment was to get her nails and toes done, and that was important to her. Her flawless appearance played a major role in the image she projected.

“Well, I’m going to hold you to that, and I know Harrison will make sure you keep it,” Chuck said, squeezing Teri’s hand. She didn’t like the fact that this man’s face was just inches away from hers. She had never been able to figure out why some men thought it was necessary to get that close up on a woman who they knew only on a casual level. And to make matters worse, the Altoid melting on Chuck’s thick tongue was not doing its job. The stench oozing out of his mouth from the breakfast garlic burrito he’d gobbled up was unholy. Teri had to hold her breath to keep from inhaling the hellish fumes.

She turned to Harrison and exhaled. “Do you have time to walk me to my car?” she asked him, releasing a mild cough. She could still smell Chuck’s bad breath and was afraid that if she didn’t get some fresh air soon, she’d have to be carried out. Harrison didn’t even answer. He just draped her shoulder with his arm and followed her out the door and down to the parking garage beneath the building.

“So I’ll see you tonight?” Harrison asked as Teri slid into her BMW and lowered her window.

“Five works for me, but you can come later if you’d like.”

“I’ll see you at five,” he told her. Just as he was about to lean over and kiss her, Chuck came trotting across the lot waving his hands like an orchestra conductor.

“Teri, wait!” Chuck yelled. He looked from Teri to Harrison as he approached her car, his thick belly shaking like Jell-O beneath his shirt. He was out of breath by the time he stopped next to Harrison. “You are so awesome!” he hollered, looking at Teri as if she were something good to eat. Chuck looked as nervous as a high school nerd trying to make time with the homecoming queen. “Uh, Teri, would you think I was being too forward if I asked if it was okay for me to call you sometime? Dinner and a movie, maybe?” There it was again. Men couldn’t stop hitting on her! Chuck was not only Harrison’s boss, he was also some woman’s husband! And apparently he didn’t know that Harrison was not just interested in doing interviews with her.

“Harrison’s got my number,” she said as casually as she could. Then without warning she pulled Harrison toward her, holding his head in place with her hand. When she kissed him, he was more stunned than Chuck. His legs almost buckled when she slid her tongue inside his mouth. Harrison felt so lightheaded when she released him that he had to lean against her car.

“Oops,” Chuck said, his face burning with embarrassment. “Why you dog you.” He chuckled and slapped Harrison on the back. “I should have known you wouldn’t let a gem like Teri get away.” Chuck let out a deep sigh and looked at Teri. “Be good to him and he’ll be good to you.”

“I know,” Teri said, her eyes on Harrison’s face. “Five o’clock,” she told him. She turned to Chuck with a warm smile and an
apologetic shrug. “Sorry, Chuck. You take care.” And then she drove away.

“Damn!” Chuck snapped. “Harrison, I didn’t know you and she were, you know,
that
serious.”

“I didn’t either,” Harrison admitted, blinking. He slid his tongue across his bottom lip, hoping to prolong the taste that her lips had left on his. “That’s something I just found out myself.” He stood in the same spot until Teri’s car was no longer in sight.

After Teri’s appointment at Marie’s Nail Shoppe near Westwood, she stopped at the liquor store and picked up some more wine. And, recalling that Harrison preferred the harder stuff, she picked up some more Rémy Martin, a small bottle because she didn’t know if he’d be around long or often enough to finish it.

“Now I’ll tell you the same thing you told me the other night, ‘get some for me.’” It was Nicole on the other end of the line. Teri had waited until last night to even tell her about the interview. And today to tell her about her upcoming date with Harrison.

“Don’t you go there now. This is just dinner and a few drinks. That’s all.”

“That’s all, my ass. Like my countrified cousin Lester would say to that flimsy shit you just said, ‘if that’s true, pig pussy ain’t pork.’ Woman, you are way way overdue to get yourself a doggie biscuit. How you’ve managed to go without it this long is a mystery to me.”

“Well, we can’t all be as lucky as you. I am very particular about what goes inside my body. Very particular. You know how picky I am even when it comes to tampons.”

“And that’s why you have such bad muscle tone. If you don’t use it, you lose it,” Nicole warned, giggling as she said it.

“Is that another one of your countrified cousin Lester’s sayings?”

“No, that’s coming straight from me. Seriously now, I hope it works this time.”

“Aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourself? He’s the one who told me that he just wants us to be friends. I don’t think our rela
tionship will go beyond that this time. I’ll probably never sleep with that man again.” Teri didn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth, and Nicole didn’t either.

“You can tell yourself that shit if you want to. But if you don’t get you some more of that prime beef,
pig pussy ain’t pork
.”

“Girl, please!” Teri yelled, trying to sound angry and exasperated, which she was not. She just didn’t want Nicole to know that what she was saying was getting to her. She knew damn well that Harrison would not resume a relationship with her and not want to sleep with her. And the way she had practically swallowed his face before she left the station earlier that day, there was no telling what she’d do to him in the privacy of her own home and with the assistance of two bottles of Chardonnay. She wasn’t fooling Nicole or anybody else, not even herself. “How are things between you and Eric?”

“Eric and I are heading in the right direction, I think.”

“You don’t sound too certain.”

“He’s got to get that heifer out of his life before we can go public. You know I don’t want to end up being somebody’s backstreet piece.”

“Oh? What about what’s his name? Your married standby? Does he ever take you out in public?”

“That’s different. I don’t want to be seen in public with him. Sex is the only thing we ever had in common. That dumb-ass punk has never read a book, and his idea of a classy drink is that Mogen David shit that all the senior citizens drink.” Nicole laughed. “I’m going to be honest with you—all I want from him is his body.”

“You always know how to make excuses, don’t you?”

“
Pfft!
Who, me? I am not making excuses, I am telling you like it is. What about Harrison? Is he, how can I say this, uh, available?”

“He’s not living with anybody if that’s what you mean. And, according to him, he’s not seriously involved with anybody right now.”

“Well, I can’t say for sure, but I’ve told you before, I doubt if Harrison’s been sitting around getting all his pleasure from self-service. He doesn’t even have to go looking for pussy. It comes to him. What woman could resist a man with a big dick?”

“You nasty thing, you!” Teri said with a horrified gasp. “How would you know what that man’s got in his pants?”

“Well, unless that’s a sock he’s got stuffed down in the crotch of his trousers, or unless I’m delusional, my guess is he’s hung like a jury.”

“Nicole, you need to behave yourself,” Teri scolded. “We are both old enough, unfortunately, to know that that size thing is a myth. The size of a man’s dick doesn’t matter.”

“No, the size of a man’s dick doesn’t matter,” Nicole agreed. “But it matters when you’re fucking him.”

H
arrison had arrived at four, not five like she had suggested. But he had sat in his car two blocks away from her building for an hour before he rang her buzzer. He was in a fever of anticipation as he awaited her response.

She had on a pale yellow hostess gown when she opened the door. “Right on time,” she said. Her smile was so radiant her face glowed. Her freshly painted toenails called attention to her bare feet. And she smelled like a rose, which he knew was one of the fragrances that Vera Wang endorsed because he was the one who had given her the perfume.

“I meant to ask if you wanted me to bring something. Like a bottle of wine.” He felt like a schoolboy about to get his first piece. She felt like the Whore of Babylon.

There was no time for games so she cut to the chase. “Fuck a bottle of wine. Did you bring some condoms?” she said bluntly, with lust about to consume her.

Her question and eagerness caught him off guard. Had he known it was going to be this easy, he would have rung her buzzer an hour earlier.
“What you say!”
he mouthed, using a well-worn phrase that the elders used when they got excited about something.

“Did you or did you not bring some condoms?” she demanded.

“Uh, yes, I did,” he told her. “But I
always
carry them with me. Habit from college…”

“Good!” she whispered in his ear, licking it for good measure. She was in the mood to get loose and she wanted him to know that. Like with everything else she did, she would leave no stone unturned. Right after she licked the tip of his ear, making him tremble and moan, she massaged his dick with both hands.

Before he knew what was happening, she had him by the arm, leading him to her bedroom, and that was where they remained for the entire evening.

She couldn’t get enough of him. She felt safe in his long, muscular arms, and he loved the way she wrapped her legs around his waist. She thought her body would break in two when she arched her back and lifted her pelvis to make it easier for him to get as deep into her as he could. And he did. He slid both hands beneath her butt and pulled her even closer to him. He slammed into her so hard, the head of the bed banged against the wall. He could tell from how tight she was inside that she had not been with a man in a while. That was a damn shame. She felt almost like a virgin.

He had been with somebody just a week ago but the way he was jackhammering into her, she was convinced that he hadn’t been intimate in a while himself. That was what she wanted to believe and that was what she did believe. But she didn’t want a confirmation, so she did not ask.

They came together, and for her it seemed to go on for so long she was afraid that it would be fatal. Finally, when it was over for her, too, she slid from beneath his body, breathing so hard it made her lungs hurt.

“It’s been a while for you, huh?” Harrison asked, still gasping for breath. He leaned off the bed and scrambled around on the floor for his pants.

“Uh…yeah. It’s been a little while,” Teri admitted, breathing through her mouth.

“Do you mind if I smoke a joint?” He had already lit up and taken a few hits.

“No, I don’t mind,” she said, reaching for it herself. Smoking
weed was something else that she hadn’t done since her last time with him.

“Omph! Baby, that was pure ecstasy. It was well worth the wait,” he told her, turning onto his side. He propped himself up on his elbow and looked at her. “Woman, you are amazing and you know it, don’t you?”

She smiled demurely. “It’s tacky to brag, but what the hell. I’m hot.” She laughed, pinching his arm. Then a serious look slid across her face. “Harrison, we really need to talk. I don’t know where this is going this time, but it’s something I need to know before we get too carried away.”

“I want you to be my lady, Teri. I can’t think of a woman in this city I’d rather be with more than you.” He looked at her with so much affection, she shivered. “I am so proud of the way you turned out.”

His last remark made her giggle. “You make me sound like a table leg,” she told him.

“I mean, I am proud of the woman you are. You were at the top of your game when I first met you. And to be honest with you, back then I didn’t think there was anyplace left for you to go but down. You are still at the top, and that’s where you are going to stay, lady.”

“Would you mind explaining yourself, please?” she said, sitting up. Her face was so close to his, his hot breath stung her eyes. “I’m the same woman I was a year ago.”

“Uh-uh. For one thing, you are more beautiful now than you were then. And that body, girl, if you get any hotter I will have to turn a hose on you.”

“You say all that now. But what will you say tomorrow?”

“Teri, all kidding aside, you are a beautiful woman, inside and out. You are strong and successful and smart. And, you got balls. Other than Rosie O’Donnell I’ve never seen a woman kick ass the way you do. Where do you think Eclectic would be without you?”

“Everybody is replaceable, Harrison. If and when I do leave Eclectic, I am sure that the company won’t go out of business.”

“Do you ever think about leaving?”

She shrugged. “It’s crossed my mind. Recording artists aren’t
the easiest people to deal with on a regular basis. Then there’s Victor, vying for the ‘boss from hell’ title. I will admit that my job gets on my last nerve from time to time and sometimes I wish I was back working the counter at Burger King. But, to be honest with you, as far as a job, I am where I want to be. Why do you ask?”

“Because I’d like to know if a job is all you want.”

“No, that’s not all I want, Harrison. I want a whole lot more than a job.” She paused and let out a heavy sigh. Then a thoughtful look appeared on her face. She shared that thoughtful look and a smile with him before she spoke again. “I want to be a stay-at-home mom someday.” This was the last thing he expected to hear from her.

He was practically speechless. But after he cleared his throat, he revealed what was on his mind. “I see. Well, some guy is going to be a very lucky dude someday. I’m jealous already.” This was the
last
thing she expected to hear from him.

“I can tell,” she said, a touch of melancholy in her voice.

Was this his way of telling her that that “lucky” man wouldn’t be him? That was what it sounded like to her. Damn him to hell! What had she gotten herself into? Suddenly, she felt profoundly sad and was sorry she had behaved like a video vixen. What did he think about her now? They hadn’t been together in more than a year, and the first time they did get together again she practically raped him. What kind of woman was she? She knew how the men she worked with talked about women who came on too strong, or who were too easy. If she ever got married it would be to a man who didn’t know how nasty she really was. Why would Harrison want to marry a woman like her? As far as she was concerned, she had a royal mess on her hands now.

They didn’t talk for a few minutes. When Teri finally spoke again, he didn’t answer.

“Harrison, I just asked if you wanted a drink or something,” she said. He still didn’t answer. She nudged his leg with her foot. His response was a resonating snore.

The broiled salmon that they had not even touched was still on the platter on the counter in the kitchen when Teri rolled out of
bed the next morning. But the Rémy Martin was gone. The wine was gone. And Harrison was gone.

She found a neatly written note from him stuck on the front of her microwave in the kitchen. I had a great time. Will call you…the note said. She scratched her head and bit her bottom lip. This was not what she had wanted to wake up to. Not after all she’d been through the night before. Was this what she had “saved” herself all this time for?

“What did I get myself into?” she asked herself out loud.