The Company We Keep (8 page)

“Thank you, Teri,” Victor managed. Then he coughed, sat up straighter, and glared at Miguel Reyes, directly across from him.

Thirty-year-old Miguel handled all the media-related work that Teri couldn’t get to. He was almost as sharp and thorough as she was.

It was Miguel’s job to procure and set up additional interviews and to get the artists’ names mentioned in as many publications as possible, especially the weekly tabloids because millions of people read them on a regular basis. And it didn’t matter if all the news printed about the artists was good or bad. Bad publicity was better than no publicity. R. Kelly had been accused of having sex with an underage girl, but even though that disgusted a lot of people, his name stayed in the news. And his sales were still fantastic. Every person in the room was well aware of what bad publicity had done for Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and Lindsay Lohan.
They were more popular than ever because of all the bad publicity they received.

“Miguel?”

“Um, I’m still working on my report, sir. I will make a full report at our next meeting. I’ve been a little behind lately,” Miguel explained, blinking his piercing black eyes and looking nervous. He also wore his black hair in a ponytail like Victor, and he was probably the most handsome man on the payroll. He was just a shade lighter than Teri and almost a foot shorter. But his height didn’t hinder his popularity. Even though he was happily married, he still had to practically beat the women off with a stick. And he was so humble and charming it was hard for the men he interacted with not to like him. However, Victor was not one of Miguel’s admirers at the moment.

“You’ve been more than ‘a little behind’ lately. As a matter of fact, you’ve been behind for weeks.” Victor paused and made a sweeping gesture with his arm toward Teri. “See how easy it was for Teri. I suspect that she’s doing her job and yours. Hmm? How is it she was able to pull together such a succinct report and be so prepared to deliver it at such short notice? What is your excuse, if you don’t mind my asking. Hmm?” Victor folded his arms and glared at Miguel.

“I apologize, sir. I’ve had houseguests for the past three weeks and I guess I got caught up in the holidays,” Miguel explained.

Victor dismissed Miguel with a snap of his fingers. Then he looked at the next person, who gave a report as brief and glowing as Teri’s. Every other person who had a report to present did so with flying colors. But that was not enough for Victor. He grunted, made a few closing remarks, and then dismissed everyone except Miguel.

T
en minutes after Teri had returned to her office, Nicole burst in with her jacket and purse. There was a wild-eyed look on her face, like a woman who had just escaped from a chamber of horrors. “Starbucks” was all she said, looking at her watch.

“Sure. Why not? But if Tiny’s bar at the corner were open, I’d go there instead,” Teri said flatly. “Victor’s meetings usually make my temperature rise.”

“Well, when the bar opens at eleven”—Nicole paused and looked at her watch again—“we can hit it, too. That meeting was pure torture.”

“I’m buying. Let’s get the hell up out of here,” Teri told her. She rose from her seat and grabbed her purse. She was so hot she didn’t need to bring her jacket.

When they got to the elevator, Miguel Reyes was standing in front of it holding a moving box under his arm that contained some personal items. The fake green papier-mâché plant that his son had made in school was under his other arm. He had on his jacket.

“Miguel? What the hell is all this?” Nicole asked. Nicole and Miguel’s wife, Louisa, had been close for years. They’d once lived in the same apartment building in Encino. Miguel’s son was in Nicole’s son’s class and the boys were very close. Miguel, Jr., had
spent a lot of nights in Nicole’s apartment sharing the pullout sofa bed in her living room with her son, Chris.

“I’ve just been fired,” Miguel announced, his husky voice cracking as if he had suddenly developed a serious throat condition.

“For what?” Teri and Nicole asked at the same time, their voices sounding like an echo.

“Well, according to Victor, I am not doing what he’s paying me to do.” Miguel let out a deep breath and glanced at Teri with a hopeless look and shrugged. “He feels that I am more of a fuckup to you than a backup. Maybe it’s time for a change anyway. My wife even said so. There are a lot of jobs out there, so I’m not worried.” Miguel forced a smile. “I’ll be okay.”

“This is insane!” Teri said, her voice rising hysterically. “Has Victor lost his mind? I depend on you now more than ever.” Before she could continue, her cell phone rang. She removed it from her purse and frowned at the caller ID. “Speak of the devil. Now he wants to see me ASAP,” Teri said with a snort. “If he fires me, I want you both to know that I won’t be responsible for my actions. Don’t move!” she ordered, holding her hand in front of Miguel’s face, then Nicole’s. “I want both of you to wait right here until I get back. This won’t take but a few minutes.” She whirled around and rushed down the hall to the stairwell.

Eclectic Records was still considered a novice company by some folks, occupying only two floors in the building that had once been occupied by a law firm. The other floors were occupied by a real estate company, a plastic surgeon, a temporary employment agency, and an insurance company. Victor’s massive office was one floor up, directly above Teri’s. Even after she had closed the stairwell door, Miguel and Nicole could still hear her Jimmy Choos clip clopping on the stair steps like an angry Clydesdale horse.

“Miguel, I am so sorry about this. If you want to use me as a reference, please feel free to do so,” Nicole said, gently rubbing Miguel’s back. “Call me soon. We’ll talk about you, me, the kids, and Louisa getting together for pizza or something.”

“That’d be nice. Let’s just make sure that wherever we go, they serve some pretty strong tequila.” Miguel managed to grin, but
there was still a sad look in his eyes. He set his box on the floor. “You know, I’d never worked for a gringo before I came to this company. After this, I don’t think I ever will again.” Miguel rubbed his temples with the ball of his thumb.

“If I didn’t need this job, I would have left this place a long time ago,” Nicole revealed with a heavy sigh. She looked toward the elevator as it stopped. The two young secretaries from the personnel department exited, and she greeted them with a smile. One was white, one was black. Nicole thought of them as Salt and Pepper. Both were plain, pudgy, and bitter. Neither could stand Nicole or Teri and talked about them like dogs every chance they got. They had even started rumors about Teri, everything from her sleeping her way up the ladder of success to her being a lesbian. If Victor was as smart as he thought he was, he would have fired Salt and Pepper a long time ago, Nicole thought, not someone as valuable and dedicated as Miguel.

“But it’s the same all over. There are a lot of Victors out there,” Miguel assured her. “We just do the best we can do, and when that’s not good enough…” He stopped and shook his head. He gave Nicole a pensive look before he released a loud moan.

Five minutes after Teri had left the area, almost to the second, they heard her footsteps on the stairs again. She emerged from the stairwell, looking as if she had just won the lottery. “Miguel, you can return to your office. Victor had a sudden change of heart,” she announced, intensifying the look of triumph on her face.

“Well, I’m scared of you,” Nicole said, arching both brows. “We just might have to start calling you the fix-it lady.”

A calm look appeared on Teri’s face. “I can’t fix everything,” she admitted, in as humble a voice as she could manage at the time.

“Your nose is no browner than it was before you went to see Victor, so we know you didn’t do any ass kissing on my behalf,” Miguel told Teri, looking relieved. “So what
did
you do or say?”

“Not much. He did most of the talking. He said the place wouldn’t be the same without you, I nodded, then he told me to call you back,” Teri claimed.

She didn’t feel that it was necessary to confess to Nicole and
Miguel that she had cussed Victor out for firing Miguel for such a flimsy reason and had dared him to fire
her
. By the time she got through with him, he was sweating like a stevedore and was as humble as the pope. It saddened her to know that she had so much control and power when it came to dealing with men she didn’t have an intimate relationship with.

“I know there was more to it than that, but you don’t have to say anything else. The important thing is, you got over on Victor,” Nicole said proudly. “I’d like to walk in your shoes just once,” she added, tongue in cheek.

“No, you wouldn’t,” Teri assured her, shaking her head. Miguel and Nicole both noticed the profoundly sad look that suddenly appeared on Teri’s face.

T
he house that Carla and Reuben Andrews regarded as their dream home was the most attractive residence on their block. It was a two-story, light beige stucco house with a garage large enough to accommodate their twin Jaguars and a silver Range Rover that was so new it still displayed dealer tags. Transplanted citrus trees surrounded the property like a fort.

Teri parked her BMW on the street in front of the house behind several other high-end vehicles. About a dozen of the Andrewses’ guests, who had been invited to help celebrate Carla and Reuben’s thirteenth Valentine’s Day wedding anniversary, congregated outside on the spacious wraparound front porch.

The invitation had suggested casual attire but everybody, including Teri and Nicole, was dressed to the nines. Teri wore a blue suede pantsuit with a dangerously low-cut white silk blouse underneath.

Nicole, slumped in the front passenger seat of Teri’s car like a wet noodle, had on a yellow leather skirt with a modest split up the side and a matching jacket with black buttons. It was one of the few outfits she owned that had been purchased from one of the super upscale boutiques on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. And she had Teri to thank for that. Since Nicole’s birthday was two days before Christmas, it had been a combination birthday/
Christmas present. Teri had removed the eleven-hundred-dollar price tag, and she didn’t see any reason to tell Nicole that she’d bought it off the clearance rack, marked down by 40 percent. Hell, almost every designer outfit that Teri owned had come from the clearance community. But she was not a cheap woman by any means. She was a smart woman. She didn’t get to where she was by being frivolous and stupid. It was one of the many reasons Grandma Stewart assured her she would make somebody a good wife.

This reminded Nicole of the night of the New Year’s Eve party at the rapper’s house last month.

“I bet there aren’t too many of us in this neighborhood, either,” Nicole pointed out, shading her eyes with her hand to see more clearly. Then she checked the knee-high black leather boots she had on.

“There you go again,” Teri snapped, shooting Nicole a hot look.

“Well, it’s true. There are not that many black folks in this neighborhood.”

“There is tonight,” Teri chirped. “And by the way, you sure are working that skirt. A little short for a woman your age, with a son…” she teased. “You’d better be glad I didn’t wear my latest DKNY or you’d be outgunned.”

“This was the only thing I had that fit the occasion. And the only nice thing I had in my closet that
fit
my fine brown frame. I’m still trying to work off all of those Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve calories.” Nicole frowned, moaned, and groaned as if she were in pain.

“I feel you there,” Teri admitted, sucking in her stomach. “And to tell you the truth, if you hadn’t agreed to come to this shindig with me, I’d be at home on the sofa reading Carl Weber’s latest book and nibbling on some barbequed ribs.”

“I thought you loved spending time with Carla,” Nicole said, sounding and looking confused.

“I do. Carla’s a good friend. And as my shrink, she’s done a lot for me. In some ways she’s more like a spiritual advisor.”

“Then what’s the problem? Why did you even think about not coming?”

Teri shrugged. “No offense, but I’m getting sick of showing up at parties and other events with you as my escort.”

“Well, you don’t have to, you know. I thought you enjoyed my company. And I don’t have a problem escorting you to these functions that you always seem to get invited to. The last thing I got invited to was my family reunion.”

“You know what I mean,” Teri said, her voice rising dramatically. “The same people seem to show up at every event I get invited to. I don’t want them to start thinking I can’t, uh, get a date with a man.”

“Well, I hate to be the one to tell you, but I think you crossed that bridge a long time ago. You know how people talk at the office. You know about those two miserable secretaries in personnel with diarrhea of the mouth? Salt and Pepper? I’ve overheard them more than once wondering out loud why they never see you or hear about you being with a man. John’s cubicle is in front of theirs and he hears practically everything that comes out of their mouths. But I know you don’t care what gossips say. People are going to make assumptions no matter what. I know you’re not a lesbian…”

Teri gave Nicole a sharp look. “Is that what people are saying about me?”

“It’s been mentioned a time or two. But like I said, I know you don’t give a damn what gossips say. And you shouldn’t. I know the real deal. So do John and Miguel. But Victor couldn’t care less if you are a lesbian or an aardvark as long as you continue to make the company look good.”

Teri turned so Nicole could not see the hurt look on her face. But what Nicole had just said about her was true. She didn’t care what people said about her most of the time. But what bothered her was the fact that she was losing her perspective in some areas. She had asked herself more than once lately if she had lost interest in men completely. She knew that that wasn’t true just a few moments later when a silver Jaguar drove up and parked across the street. Nicole was absolutely dazzled. She wasted no time giving it an appreciative glance. Harrison Starr, looking better than ever, was in the driver’s seat. Teri had not seen him since the rap
per’s party on New Year’s Eve. But he’d been on her mind quite a bit since that night. Her heart started to beat so vigorously, she could hear it.

“Daaamn!” Nicole howled, fanning her face with both hands. She’d just experienced a severe hot flash. “Is it hot in here or what? I like
that
.” She nodded toward the Jaguar.

“The car or the driver?” Teri asked, trying not to sound too interested. Despite her close relationship with Nicole, there were some things that Teri preferred to keep to herself. One was the fact that she wanted to be with Harrison again in the worst way. She just didn’t know how to go about making that happen on her own. Her hope was that he would. “He’s just another brother.”

“Oh? Give me the goods on him. What’s his story?”

Teri sucked in her breath, which tasted especially sour all of a sudden. “That’s Harrison Starr…as in the FM station 98.6.” Teri watched Harrison climb out of his car rocking the hell out of the black suit he had on. He looked more dapper than ever with his wavy black hair cut short. He didn’t even notice Teri and Nicole sitting there staring at him like two magpies. “Don’t you remember him from the rapper’s party?”

Nicole squinted her eyes and stared at Harrison for a moment before responding. “Oh shit! I listen to his show every morning. Is it my imagination or is he twice as fine as he was on New Year’s Eve?”

“The man does look good,” Teri allowed, gripping her steering wheel.

“And he looks as good in person as he sounds on the radio. First time I heard that deep sexy voice, I thought I was listening to a younger version of James Earl Jones. I wonder why
he’s
rolling up here alone. Didn’t he come to Young Rahim’s party alone, too?”

“He did. But he didn’t leave alone,” Teri said with a grimace.

“Well, I have no room to talk. I didn’t leave that party alone either, remember?”

“I remember.” Teri’s mouth tightened and her eyes began to itch. For some reason it annoyed her to see Harrison looking as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Men didn’t know how good they had it when it came to affairs of the heart. She wondered
why couldn’t things have worked out between her and Harrison the first time so she wouldn’t have to put herself through so much uncertainty now as far as he was concerned.

“I know you had a secret little ditty with him last year, but what’s the rest of his story? How is it that a luscious brother like that can be running around loose? What’s wrong with you, girl?”

“There is nothing wrong with me,” Teri insisted, tired of defending herself. But she knew that if she didn’t, people would never stop drawing their own conclusions about her. “Why does something have to be wrong with me because I am not chasing a man?”

“Well, I don’t blame you for not chasing a man. But Harrison Starr is not just a man.” Nicole looked straight ahead because she didn’t want to see Teri’s reaction to what she said next. “If I knew it wouldn’t bother you, I’d go after him myself…”

“You can do whatever you want with Harrison. It’s none of my business,” Teri said, grinding her teeth.

“Teri, please! You know I’m just pulling your chain,” Nicole declared. “For one thing, you know I don’t go there.” Nicole touched Teri’s shoulder. “And if it really bothers you, I won’t bring him into the conversation again.”

Teri looked at Nicole with a mysterious smile on her lips.

“No…bring him up as often as you want to. I can’t think of another man I’d rather discuss more.”