Chapter 7 #2
I pulled the folder back toward me and looked at the number she'd circled.
Quarter million dollars. My father was probably going to have an opinion.
He had an opinion about every dollar that moved through anything with Stylez attached to it.
But this wasn't his decision. This wasn't the family business.
This was mine and Kaizleigh's family. There was a difference.
At least to me. Kaizleigh stood and walked toward the bar.
“What time we gotta leave?”
“About an hour.”
She opened the little refrigerator underneath it.
“You want water?”
“Yeah.”
She grabbed two bottles and brought one over.
I took it.
“You know Nyrobi don't know the amount, right?”
Kaizleigh stopped halfway back to the sofa.
“What?”
“She doesn't know it's two-fifty.”
“I thought you told her.”
“I told her over a hundred.”
“That's it?”
“That's enough when nothing was official.”
Her mouth slowly opened.
“What?”
“She thinks she's walking into that office to negotiate somewhere around a hundred thousand.”
“I don't know what she thinks.”
“And we're about to put two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in front of her?”
“Looks like it.”
Kaizleigh started smiling.
I already knew why.
“Don't.”
“I didn't say anything.”
“You wanna see her reaction.”
“Hell yeah.”
“You messy.”
“You don't?”
I thought about it.
Yeah. I kinda did.
“She probably gonna cuss.”
“She definitely gonna cuss.”
“And then ask if we're serious.”
“Probably.”
Kaizleigh sat back down on the sofa and opened her water.
“Then she's gonna ask a million questions.”
“Good.”
“Why you keep saying good?”
“Because I want her to.”
Kaizleigh looked at me.
I closed the folder.
“If Nyrobi sees that number and suddenly stops asking questions, I'm gonna look at her differently.”
“Why?”
“Because two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ain't worth signing your life away without understanding what the fuck you signing.”
“She wouldn't be signing her life away.”
“You know what I mean.”
She nodded.
“We're trusting her with something that matters more than the money. I need to know she can see a quarter million sitting in front of her and still think.”
Kaizleigh stared at me for a second.
“You really be studying people.”
“I study everybody I do business with.”
“Nyrobi ain't business.”
“Right now she is.”
Her eyebrows went up.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why you made that face?”
“I just don't think she's going to feel like business for long.”
I frowned.
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“She'll be carrying our baby, Billion. You really think we're gonna treat her like somebody we signed a contract with for nine months?”
“I didn't say that.”
“That's what it sounded like.”
I looked at the folder and thought maybe she was right.
Maybe there wasn't a clean way to keep business and personal separate when another woman was about to carry our child.
But boundaries were exactly why we had lawyers. Why we had contracts. Why Nyrobi had her own representation. The clearer everything was now, the less room there was for shit to get complicated later.
I stood and grabbed the folder.
“Go get dressed.”
Kaizleigh looked down at herself.
“I am dressed.”
“You're wearing house clothes.”
“This set cost eight hundred dollars.”
“And it still look like house clothes.”
Her mouth dropped.
“Billion!”
I walked toward the door laughing.
“Forty-five minutes.”
“Fuck you!”
“Love you too.”
I was almost out of the office when she called my name.
I turned around and she wasn't laughing anymore.
“You think it's gonna work?”
There wasn't no slick answer for that. No amount of money could make me promise her something a doctor couldn't. So I didn't.
“I think we're doing everything we can.”
She looked down.
I walked back over, bent down and kissed her forehead.
“And if the first time don't work, we figure out what's next.”
She nodded.
I hated that I couldn't give her more than that but I'd watched hope fuck my wife up too many times to lie just because the truth wasn't pretty enough.
I straightened up.
“Now go put some damn clothes on.”
She pushed me.
“Oh please.”
I laughed and headed out of my office.
The folder stayed in my hand, Kaizleigh's circle still wrapped around the number we'd finally agreed on.
$250,000.
In less than two hours, Nyrobi would find out exactly what over a hundred thousand meant.
And if I knew anything about that girl already, the number wasn't going to be the only thing she had something to say about.
I grabbed the folder off my desk and headed downstairs. By the time I made it to the foyer, Kaizleigh still hadn't come down…Of course. I checked my watch, looked toward the stairs, then checked it again like the time was going to change just because my wife had no respect for it.
“Kaizleigh!”
“I'm coming!”
“That don't mean shit when you been saying it for twenty minutes.”
“Shut up!”
I shook my head.
One of the housekeepers passing through the hallway tried her best not to laugh.
“Go ahead, she aint talking to you” I told her.
That made it worse. Kaizleigh finally came down a few minutes later wearing the same damn outfit she'd had on upstairs.
I stared at her.
She stopped halfway down.
“What?”
“You took forty-five minutes to keep on the same clothes?”
“I changed my shoes.”
I looked down.
She had.
“Let's go.”
“See, you don't appreciate shit.”
“I appreciate being on time.”
“We are on time.”
“We would be early if you moved faster.”
“That's why God made speed limits.”
I opened the front door.
“That don't even make sense.”
“It made enough.”
I let her walk past me.
Whatever the fuck that meant.
By the time we pulled up to the attorney's office, Nyrobi was already there. Her car let me know before I even saw her. I parked beside it and looked over.
Kaizleigh caught me.
“Don't.”
“I didn't say shit.”
“You looked at her car.”
“I'm allowed to look.”
“You were judging.”
“That car need prayer.”
“Billion.”
I got out before she could start.
Nyrobi was sitting inside the conference room when we walked in, and she wasn't alone. A Black woman sat beside her with a laptop open and a thick stack of papers in front of her. Nyrobi looked up first.
“Well, look who decided to show up.”
I checked my watch.
“We're early.”
“So am I.”
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
Kaizleigh hugged her before sitting down. I shook my head and took the chair beside my wife.
The woman next to Nyrobi stood and introduced herself as her attorney.
That was one thing I'd been firm about from the beginning.
Nyrobi needed her own representation and not somebody from our legal team who promised to be fair.
Not one attorney explaining shit to everybody.
She needed her own. If she was going to sign something this serious, I wanted somebody at that table whose only job was making sure she wasn't getting fucked.
Our attorney came in a few minutes later, everybody introduced themselves, and then the paperwork started.
I knew most of what was in it already. Kaizleigh and I had gone through our side.
The medical expenses weren't coming out of Nyrobi's compensation.
Neither were her legal fees. There were provisions for pregnancy-related missed work, doctor-ordered bed rest, additional medical needs and other shit that could come up along the way.
But knowing what was in a contract and listening to two lawyers explain every damn sentence of it were two different things.
About thirty minutes in, Nyrobi leaned toward her attorney.
“Can I ask something?”
“Absolutely.”
“Why y'all keep saying intended parents?”
Our attorney looked at her.
“Because that's the legal term being used in the agreement for Mr. and Mrs. Stylez.”
“I know who it's talking about. I'm asking why.”
Her attorney answered.
“Because the agreement needs to clearly distinguish between you as the gestational carrier and them as the intended parents.”
Nyrobi nodded.
“So basically, I'm pregnant, but they're Mama and Daddy.”
“In simple terms, yes.”
“See. That's all you had to say.”
Kaizleigh laughed.
Nyrobi looked at her.
“Girl, they making this shit harder than it gotta be.”
“That's what lawyers do.”
Both attorneys looked at Kaizleigh.
She raised her hands.
“No offense.”
“Some taken,” Nyrobi's attorney said.
I laughed.
At least the shit wasn't going to be boring.
We kept going.
Medical appointments. Medication. What Nyrobi agreed to do during the process. What we could and couldn't ask of her. What happened if a doctor placed restrictions on her. What happened if she couldn't work.
Nyrobi stopped them again.
“Wait.”
Everybody looked at her.
“If the doctor puts me out of work, y'all pay what I would've made?”
“Pregnancy-related lost wages are addressed separately from your base compensation,” her attorney explained.
“So it doesn't come out of my money?”
“No.”
“What if I'm out for months?”
“That's why the agreement establishes how qualifying lost wages are documented and paid.”
Nyrobi looked across the table at me.
“Y'all agreed to that?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
I frowned.
“Why wouldn't we?”
“I don't know.”
“If you're out of work because you're carrying our child, why would you be responsible for losing money behind it?”
She looked at me for a second.
Then nodded.
“Okay.”
Her attorney made another note.
We moved on.
By the time we reached the compensation section, Nyrobi had already stopped the meeting at least six times.
I didn't mind. I Actually, I liked it. She wasn't sitting there nodding because she was scared to look stupid. If she didn't understand some shit, she asked. If she didn't like some shit, she said it. And she hadn't even heard the number yet.
I glanced at Kaizleigh.
She looked at me and I knew she was thinking the same thing.
Here we go.
Our attorney turned the page.
“Next is compensation. The intended parents are offering base compensation of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
Nyrobi didn't move for a second.