Chapter 3
Saniyah
Iwoke up before my alarm that following morning and just lay there for a few seconds.
Getting out of my bed, I went to the bathroom to shower.
Once I was done, I wrapped myself in my robe and went to the kitchen to make a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast before heading back into the bathroom to curl my hair.
Once I was done with my hair, I applied my makeup, nothing too much, just a soft beat with natural tones.
Once I sprayed my face with setting spray, I walked back into my room to get dressed.
I slid into a pair of high-waisted, fitted, black slacks that hugged my ass and hips just right.
I paired them with a cream blouse, and I left the top two buttons undone to give a peek of cleavage.
I slid a pair of small gold hoops into my ears and a thin gold chain around my neck.
I placed a pair of black pumps onto my feet and sprayed myself with Kayali’s Vanilla Candy Rock Sugar and was ready to go.
At exactly seven forty-five, Nazuri was calling me to let me know she was outside.
I grabbed my purse and took one last look in the mirror before I walked out the door, ready to begin my first day at my new job.
When Nazuri pulled up to Blackline Security, she dropped me off out front.
This time when I entered, there was no hesitation as I walked through the door with my head held high.
The same woman was at the front desk. She glanced up at me and smiled.
“Good morning, my name is Saniyah Brooks, and I’m here for my first day.”
She nodded, telling me to have a seat and someone would be right with me.
I walked over and sat in the same seat from the day before and crossed my legs as I waited patiently.
I didn’t have to wait long before I noticed Kadeem walking toward me dressed in a dark gray suit.
I didn’t even know how it was possible, but I swore he looked even better than he did yesterday.
“Good morning,” he greeted the moment he reached me.
“Good morning,” I replied, standing to my feet.
“Follow me and I’ll show you around the building and where you’ll be working.”
I nodded and followed him down the hall. He pointed to every glass office we passed, letting me know whose office it was and what role they played in the company. We walked over to a huge black desk with a black leather chair sitting behind it.
“This will be your desk. Our clients will see you before they see either me or Crue. Here, you’ll handle calls, scheduling, basically anything that comes through before it reaches us. You think you can handle that?”
“I know I can,” I replied.
“I know you can too. I have faith in you. It might seem like a lot at first, and that’s to be expected. However, I know once you get the hang of things, it will flow easy.”
“Yeah, I’m not worried. I told you that I was a fast learner, so I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
Kadeem nodded then continued to show me around.
He showed me my own private bathroom, which was down a short hall behind my desk, letting me know that I could put anything inside the bathroom, and no one would touch it because it was only mine.
I’d never had my own bathroom at a job and had never even heard of anything like this.
I was already thinking of ways to decorate it in my head.
Lastly, he showed me the restaurant which was on the top floor of the building and had a wonderful view of the water.
He told me that we got free meals for lunch at the restaurant and could order anything we wanted.
After he’d shown me everything, we went back to my desk.
Crue was standing there, leaned against it with his arms folded.
He wore a black suit that I knew was more expensive than anything that I owned.
His locs hung freely and stopped at the middle of his back.
He looked at me for a moment before he finally spoke.
“Good morning. I see that Kadeem has already shown you around. I have a stack of folders, clients that need to be inputted in the system.” He pointed to a stack of manila folders that he had neatly placed on my desk before he continued.
“I’m sure Kadeem will teach you how to do it, and you should have these all in the system by the close of the day. ”
Crue didn’t even wait on a response before he walked away.
Kadeem motioned for me to have a seat and showed me exactly how to use the system.
It took me all of an hour to get it down, and I was good from there.
He’d already given me a phone script so that I would know what to say when I answered the phone, and from there, I was good.
By the time I made it down to the last folder, it was two-thirty in the afternoon.
I hadn’t taken a break or eaten anything yet.
I wanted to show them that I could get the job done even with it being my first day.
By two forty-five, I was done and decided that it was time for me to eat.
I set the answering service up to take the calls.
Kadeem told me that any time I was away from the desk, even if it was just to go to the bathroom, I had to set it up.
After that, I took the elevator to the top floor and walked into the restaurant.
I was shown to a table immediately and began looking over the menu. A waitress dressed in black pants and a white button up walked over to me and placed a glass of ice water with lemon on the table.
“Can I start you off with something to drink, while you look over the menu?” she asked.
“No, thank you. Water is fine.”
She nodded before letting me know she would give me a moment to decide and would be back shortly. She walked away, and I continued to look over the menu. I was debating between a seafood pasta dish or the grilled chicken when Kadeem walked over to the table.
“I thought you might be up here when you weren’t at your desk. Do you mind if I join you?” he asked.
“Sure.” I nodded to the empty chair.
He sat down just as the waitress made her way back to the table. She looked at him and smiled.
“Mr. Price, how are you today?” she greeted. “Will you be having your usual?”
“Yes, I will,” he replied.
Then, the waitress turned to look at me, ready to take my order.
Now that Kadeem was sitting here having lunch with me, there was no way I was going to order either of the two meals I was debating over.
I wasn’t about to look greedy in front of him.
So, I ordered a salad before handing the menu back to the waitress.
She told us she would be back with our order shortly before walking away.
We sat there in silence for several moments before he finally spoke.
“How’s your first day coming along? Are you getting the hang of things?”
“Yeah, I’m done inputting the folders, so I just need to know what else I’m supposed to do until the end of the day.”
“You’re done?” he asked, clearly shocked.
I nodded. “Yeah, I got done right before I came up here to get lunch.”
“That’s impressive. I for sure didn’t think you would get all of those done in one day. Well, after we have lunch, Crue wants to see you in his office.”
The look on my face must have said it all because Kadeem chuckled slightly before he spoke again.
“Relax, you haven’t done anything wrong. Crue is not as bad as you think. He’s a little rough around the edges, but he don’t mean no harm.”
I nodded my head, already nervous. We sat and ate lunch together while making small talk.
When we were done, Kadeem walked with me to Crue’s office.
I knocked on the door, and he called out for me to come in.
My heart beat fast, and my hands shook slightly as I turned the knob.
I walked inside slowly and just stood there for a moment.
“Close the door and have a seat,” he spoke dryly.
As fine as this man was, I had no clue why he was so mean.
I mean, the nigga was a millionaire, fine, and had everything he wanted in life, yet somehow, the muthafucka was still mean as hell.
I closed the door and walked over to one of the black leather chairs that sat across from his desk.
His office had the same color scheme as everything else in the building with the same floor to ceiling windows across the walls.
He stood there, leaning against his desk with his arms folded, as if he were about to chastise me for something I’d done.
I folded my hands and placed them in my lap as I looked up at him, waiting for him to tell me why he called me in here.
“You did well today,” he finally spoke.
I blinked a few times, and my mouth damn near fell open.
I just knew he was bringing me in here to complain about something I’d done.
I could tell from my interview that Crue wasn’t as laidback as Kadeem, and to be honest, I didn’t think he liked me too much.
However, here he was, standing here telling me that I’d done well.
“Thank you.” I smiled.
“I see you inputted all the folders, and everything was done correctly. Looks like I was wrong. You might really be able to handle things around here.”
I watched as Crue walked around his desk and pulled a document from his drawer before sliding it across the desk toward me.
“Read that.”
I glanced down at it, and when I saw the words Non-Disclosure Agreement written across the top, my stomach shifted. I picked it up, scanning the first few lines, as I read legal language that I didn’t even understand. I looked back up at Crue, confused.
“All this to work for a company? Is this even necessary?” I asked as I glanced back down at the paper.
“Very much so. We deal with high-profile clients – business owners, public figures, entertainers. People who can’t afford for their information to be mishandled. Discretion isn’t optional here. It’s expected. Everyone here has signed one.”