Chapter 19
Sade
“I came there to work… not care about his attitude.”
Laila and I sat in my car outside the project site waiting for nine o’clock to hit so we could go inside and deal with Vaughn. I was finishing my coffee while she fixed her lip gloss in the mirror.
“You still ain’t told me about last night,” she said, turning toward me. “How was the date?”
I smirked a little. “It was actually good.”
“Actually?” She laughed. “Damn, the bar was low.”
“It was,” I admitted. “I was gonna go home and go to bed after work, but Marcus called and invited me out, so I went.”
“And?”
“And… I kissed him.”
Laila gasped dramatically and grabbed my arm. “Oh my God, you kissed him?”
I laughed. “Yes.”
“Bitch!” She started laughing. “Wait, hold on. You really like him?”
I looked down at my coffee for a second before shrugging. “I think I do. I was distracted on our first date because Vaughn came to the table acting all… Vaughn. But after our date at my office, I actually started liking him.”
Laila smiled at me genuinely. “I’m happy for you.”
“Thank you.”
“You gon’ finally let somebody tap that?”
I laughed. “I ain’t say all that.”
“You kissed him. That’s step one.”
I shook my head, still smiling. “You’re annoying.”
“No, you’re scary. That’s what you are.”
I looked toward the building. “Speaking of scary… should I apologize to Vaughn for having an attitude yesterday?”
“Fuck no,” Laila said immediately. “That attitude gon’ get the job done.”
I laughed again. “I was kinda mean.”
“And he was kinda irritating. Y’all even.”
I checked the time on the dashboard.
9:00 AM.
“A’ight. Let’s go.”
We got out of the car and headed inside.
The energy already felt different.
Usually, Vaughn acknowledged me immediately, even if it was just some smart comment or long stare, but this morning, he was occupied. He stood near the back of the space on the phone, pacing slowly while his personal assistant, Vanessa, walked behind him with a tablet in her hand.
He barely glanced at me.
I didn’t think much of it.
Probably stressed.
“Morning,” I said while passing.
He looked over for half a second. “Morning.”
That was it.
No smirk.
No slick comment.
Nothing.
I frowned a little but kept walking.
The day started moving fast after that. My crew and I got straight into work while Vaughn stayed tied up with calls and meetings for most of the morning. Instead of dealing with him directly, I ended up talking mainly to his site assistant.
A beautiful older Black woman named Denise.
Sharp as hell too.
“Vaughn approved this already,” Denise told me while showing me something on her tablet.
“Well, Vaughn approved wrong,” I said, looking over the layout again. “This setup is gonna crowd the entrance.”
Denise looked at it another time before nodding slowly. “You might be right.”
“I know I’m right,” I replied, making Laila laugh behind me.
By noon, I was fully in work mode, calling shots left and right, moving crews around, fixing placements, and changing small details that would matter long term. Vaughn finally started working with us later in the afternoon, but something about him still felt… off.
He answered questions short.
Barely joked.
Barely looked at me.
At one point, I walked over while he was reviewing numbers with Denise.
“You still want the lighting fixtures moved to the west side?”
“Whatever works.”
I blinked. “Whatever works?”
He finally looked at me. “You the expert, right?”
His tone caught me off guard a little.
I crossed my arms. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means do what you paid to do. I didn’t pay you to ask questions.”
I stared at him for a second before taking the paperwork from Denise and walking off.
The tension stayed weird after that.
Around hour seven, things got worse.
A delivery arrived at the wrong place, and everybody started looking around, confused, while the workers stood there waiting for directions.
I looked at the invoice immediately. “This is the wrong material.”
“No, it’s not,” Vaughn said without even checking first.
“Yes, it is,” I replied calmly. “This isn’t what I ordered.”
He grabbed the paper from me, looked over it quickly, then sighed hard through his nose.
“It’s usable.”
“It’s also wrong.”
“Sade, every time something happens, it doesn’t gotta turn into a whole production.”
My face tensed instantly. “A production? I’m trying to do my job.”
“And I’m trying to finish my project.”
“Our project,” I corrected.
That made him pause.
Everybody around us got quiet again.
He stepped closer, lowering his voice just enough.
“You always got something to say.”
“And you are always rushing. We just fuckin’ started.”
He frowned.
For a second, I thought he was about to snap for real.
Instead, he looked away from me and rubbed the back of his neck before speaking again.
“Just do ya fuckin’ job, lady. This ain’t yo’ project. This my shit.”
The way he said it that time irritated me more than if he had yelled.
Like I was exhausting him.
The rest of the day stayed awkward after that.
By the time we wrapped up, I was mentally over it.
I barely spoke while packing my stuff up.
Laila looked at me once we got in the car. “You good?”
“Yeah.”
“You crying?”
“I’m not crying,” I said quickly, wiping under my eye anyway. I was.
Laila stared at me before laughing softly. “Girl…”
“It’s just my period making me emotional,” I muttered, looking out the window. “He was talking to me crazy today, and Mother Nature ain’t like it.”
“You can tell he was irritated, too.”
“Well, he can stay irritated.”
She started the car. “Let’s go have a smoke break at my place. My husband already rolled up.”
That actually sounded perfect right now.