Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
Kareem Sheffield
“First, I want to apologize for having you all here on a holiday weekend. However, this is big. K&K Solutions is most likely about to hit billion-dollar status.”
My best friend, Raymond, who was also the head of my marketing department, made the announcement that had everyone in the room turn and look at me.
The room erupted in claps and congratulations.
I never expected to take my company this far in such a short time span, but it happened without me even trying.
I was just another kid from the block a little while ago, yet now I was days away from being a billion-dollar CEO with a room full of people looking at me in admiration. I had everything. Well, at least everyone else assumed I did.
“Yes, give it up for Mr. Sheffield. He’s worked hard for this,” Ray continued.
“Our effort has to match that hard work. The rollout for this announcement must be huge. The plan is to hit all four of our major hubs on a 96-hour tour — Vegas, Paris, London, and New York. And we are doing it with a splash. I’ve contacted the major news and magazine outlets in every hub, and I have them on standby for photo ops, articles, and think pieces.
We want it all fresh off the press. Everyone is going to want to know everything about Kareem Sheffield when we are done with this four-day tour, and it is our job to frame the story. ”
“We won’t let you down, Mr. Sheffield.” Marjorie was the first to speak, and I nodded in acknowledgment.
Marjorie was one of my first employees. I met her while in the Army, and she’d been one of the many mentors I had as a private.
When I separated from service, I tracked her down and hired her on the spot.
I needed people like her, who not only cared about the mission but also the people, on my team then, and I still do now.
“Here’s your coffee, Mr. Sheffield,” Tyla sang as she strutted through the glass door and over to me.
“Thanks, but I’m good.” I pushed back from my seat and stood to leave. “Raymond, meet me in the office. Everyone else, thank you for coming today, and I will see you all in Vegas Monday morning.”
I wasn’t expecting so many people to meet us here this morning, but we had a room full.
The only purpose of this meeting was for Raymond to present his plan for the next four days.
Now that Tyla had come in with another cup of her nasty ass coffee, I’d met my quota of people for the day.
He could brief me alone in the office and turn the rest of that meeting into an email for everyone else.
“You know you don’t have to be so mean to Tyla, don’t you?” Raymond joked as he closed the door to my office behind him.
He knew how much that girl got on my nerves and decided to make a joke out of it every day. I would have fired her a long time ago if she weren’t actually good at her job. If she stopped all the flirting and shit, she would be the perfect assistant.
“Yeah, I do. If her ass knew how to take a hint, I wouldn’t have to keep reminding her. Whatever she thinks is going to happen between us, she needs to stop thinking that shit before the thought has her out of a job.”
Tyla was a beautiful girl. She was petite with a short hairstyle.
She put me in the mind of Jada in that movie A Low Down Dirty Shame.
She was actually funny like her when she wasn’t trying to push up on me.
However, I could spot girls like Tyla coming a mile away, and they couldn’t even get a conversation out of me, let alone some dick.
“Chill, bro. You could use a piece of pussy with your grumpy ass.”
“I’m not grumpy.”
I sat down at my desk and gave my attention to my computer instead of Raymond. I came in here to talk business, so any other conversation he wanted to have wasn’t on my agenda.
Raymond was one of my best friends, but I would be lying if I said he didn’t allow women to put him in messed up positions.
In fact, if it weren’t for Raymond, I wouldn’t have been in the last situation I was in.
If that situation taught me nothing else, it definitely taught me to keep my eye on the ball, not on a woman.
“If you’re not grumpy, then who are you saving yourself for? You got some kind of purity situation going on that I don’t know about because I damn sure ain’t seen you with nobody since that whole fake baby situation.”
“And can you blame me? The last ho tried to pin a baby on me, knowing damn well I never went in her raw.”
“Not every girl is like that, G. You got to move past that. I’m sure Tyla’s not looking to get pregnant or wifed up.”
“I have moved past it. How do you think we’re still able to be friends?”
I gave Raymond a knowing look, and he shook his head. He knew exactly what I was referring to without my needing to go into detail. I already told him multiple times about how he moved, so I continued with what I was saying.
“Besides, anybody I deal with now gotta sign an NDA. I’m not playing games with these hos no more. A nigga’s getting too old to still be fucking with randoms, so it’s a no on Tyla for me.”
“Oh, I know what this is about.”
Raymond started laughing in my face. Raymond was another person I met in the Army and had been my best friend for years, which meant he knew too damn much about me. He probably knew me better than I knew myself.
“What you mean?”
“This is about your long, lost love from high school.” He cracked up laughing like he knew what he was saying was true, even though I didn’t confirm it.
I don’t know how many times I had mentioned Karina over the years, but it was obviously enough for him to remember. Once another man knows your weakness, they rarely let you forget it. That’s exactly what Karina was for me — a weakness.
I scoffed instead of replying because he had hit the nail on the head.
I was still salty about how Karina had played me over Thanksgiving.
She agreed to hang out but then avoided my ass for the rest of the time I was in town.
That was some straight-up bullshit, but that was Karina.
She was always too fast for me to catch her.
“Man, whatever.”
“It is, isn’t it?”
“Nah, man.” I shook my head, letting it drop a little. Karina had my head fucked up for years, but being so close to her over Thanksgiving and still not being able to have her in my life was really killing me. “I saw her over the holiday.”
“And you’re just now mentioning this? That’s why you’re bullying that girl for offering you coffee.”
“First of all, her coffee is always nasty, and second, I don’t have to tell you shit.”
Two things could be true. Yes, I was salty about what happened with Karina, and Tyla’s coffee was nasty as fuck. I had been tempted to show her how to make it the way I liked it, but that would be just another reason for her to be in my personal space. I would rather just keep declining the shit.
“So, what happened?”
“What you mean what happened?”
“Kareem, I’m not about to pull this story out of you, man. What happened when you saw her nigga? How did y’all even end up in the same place?”
“I saw her grandmother in the grocery store, and she invited me over for Thanksgiving dinner. It wasn’t something I had planned. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. And how was I supposed to turn down somebody’s grandmother?”
I shrugged because I was really lost as to why Karina wasn’t with it. It wasn’t like I just popped up out of the blue. I was invited.
“A pop up is still a pop up, Reem, even if you use her grandmother as an excuse.”
“Man, Karina wouldn’t even look at me for longer than two seconds, and when I asked her out, she agreed, then stood me up.”
“Can you imagine that? World-renowned ladies’ man Kareem Sheffield was stood up.”
“You’re enjoying this, ain’t you, ol’ hating ass nigga?”
“You damn right I am. Come on, man. It’s just one girl out of the thousands that are on your dick every day. Don’t let this minor setback keep you distracted for too long. We can’t always have what we want, but you, my friend, you have options.”
That was the problem. I didn’t want options. I wanted Karina.
I let the conversation between Ray and me fade into a memory because I knew I wouldn’t like any advice he gave. I tried to focus on the business at hand, but my mind just kept wandering back to her.