Chapter 35
thirty-five
“Are you listening to me, baby?” Armon asked Kamilla, who indeed was not listening. This was the point in the conversation where he typically lost her. The talk of making things official, helping her raise her son – meeting families.
Truth was the idea of a traditional family, being married, and anything else faded away a year and a half ago when she decided that her waiting was in vain, and it was time for her to live.
Like she’d spoken it to the universe, and it answered, she bumped into Armon on a family work trip.
True to the set-up, she and Haddon were in planning mode while watching Kairo run along the beach.
Armon just so happened to break Kairo’s fall and used it to talk to his mother.
In Haddon’s book, it was a corny move but Kamilla held on to the ladies’ words from the hair salon. Get over one by getting with another. The absolute worst advice ever because the thought of letting Armon do anything to her outside of kissing her hand seemed treasonous.
“I’m listening,” Kamilla hummed as sweet as she could. “Lucci wants me in a meeting but I’m listening.”
Armon frowned slightly. A glint of jealousy she picked up on. Why, she couldn’t understand; Lucci was very much a married man.
“Haddon going to be there?” he quizzed.
Kamilla shrugged. “Possibly. He’s my boss.”
That was the source of this contention, Haddon. Someone else he had no business being jealous of when Haddon literally stepped into her life as a guide, an older brother, another uncle to her son.
Armon pushed out a sigh and drummed his fingers against the white linen of the table.
It took twenty-seven seconds to pull himself back into his representative.
Kamilla counted. There was a sinister familiarity in him, and she had to figure out the safest way for her to move out of this space with him.
“My bad, baby, I just,” he sighed again. “I’m developing these feelings for you and I’m protective of who you share space with.”
“I see,” she responded, going along with this farce for now. “Continue with what you were saying.”
“I really want you to meet my mother and my cousin. They hold a lot of weight in my life, and I really want their feedback on you. They can meet Kairo and…your grandfather.”
Kamilla frowned slightly. “Is this an audition?”
Armon laughed, pulling out a jewelry box. “No, baby. It’s the beginning of our foundation.”
“What’s that?” she asked. The tone wasn’t shock, moreso audacity. Getting into a fight with him, here or anywhere he thought he had advantage of her wasn’t her idea of ending things. She knew that evil and she knew how it ended the first time, mentally she couldn’t afford a repeat.
Armon gestured, “Open it.”
Opening it and finding a diamond band, she kept the curl of her lip nonexistent and forced a smile. “This is nice, but what’s it for?”
“A promise of my dedication to you. Yours to me. Here.” Armon took the box from her hands, removed the ring and adorned it on her finger. “It looks good.”
For the last three years, Kamilla had been around the glitz and the glamour, and none of it enticed her.
She was in a financial position where she could buy three more bands, triple the carats and not cringe at the costs.
This was a mark. For who? Possibly the competition he’d worked up in his head.
A faint smile just enough to get him to release her. “So, this dinner?”
“Yeah, they’re in town tonight. That works for you?” Armon posed.
She nodded her answer. Thankful the waitress had kept her card to charge and allow a faster escape. The bagged food arrived along with her card wrapped up in the receipt and tucked inside of the bag. “I’ll let you know what time works after this meeting. I have to go before Lucci starts calling.”
Kamilla stood, bag in tow, and graciously dodged a peck from Armon. He opted for her ring-adorned hand instead before stepping back.
“I’ll see you tonight,” he stated to her back.
When she was free and clear of him, she groaned, looking down at the ring and rolled her eyes.
Too small and shoved on her finger, Kamilla didn’t have the time or the patience to get it off.
Now in a rush, with five minutes to get back to El Jefe, she half-trotted half-sprinted to her Range Rover in heels and fought through midtown traffic.
Whisking inside of her office, finding Haddon, Charlie, and Lucci, she started before they could. “I don’t want to hear it. I come baring sweets.”
She dropped the bag in Charlie’s lap and rounded the edge of the desk, plopping down in her chair and swiping her week-old silk press with her adorned hand. A collective “woah” sounded off.
“What the fuck is that?” Haddon was the first to lead the charge.
Lucci’s lip curled. “That’s the best that cornball could do?”
“Did he at least pay for the cookies, cakes, and pies?” Charlie quipped, digging through the bag before Haddon snatched it.
“You ate all the raspberry bon bons last time. I’m not having it,” Haddon grumbled.
“Everyone relax. It’s nothing and I can’t get it off, so it’s here until I can,” she huffed, opening her laptop and signing into their system. “Now, what did I do that all three of you are in here breathing my purified air.”
Lucci looked over at the silent air purifier in the corner that Daysha gifted everyone last Christmas to help combat the seasonal allergies and sickness. Upon spotting it, he inhaled deeper just to get a reaction out of Kamilla.
“You’re a child,” she playfully fired back.
“Says the baby in the room,” Charlie added.
Lowly, she flicked him off. “I hope you choke on a chocolate chip.”
“If I do, you going to give me mouth to mouth?” Charlie asked jokingly, making kissy faces before Haddon popped him across the head. “Aight, aight. I’m playing. My bad. I know you with Armon.”
“I’m not with anyone,” Kamilla corrected, before snapping her fingers. “Focus.”
Lucci waved Charlie off and took a wrapped cookie from Haddon. “We’re sending you to La Bega Fest.”
She frowned. “I thought the A&Rs went to that? I’m just an assistant to the A&R.”
“As of today, you’re the assistant A&R and if you find me a producer, artist, and writer, you can drop the assistant,” Lucci announced.
“Where are y’all going?” Kamilla asked Haddon and Lucci. For the last three years, he’d given her all the insider information before it was announced.
“My babygirl is coming any day now and I won’t miss it,” Lucci stated. “Plus, it’s too hot to be going to the desert, y’all know I get irritated quick.”
“I got a project to tackle in The Hills with Zaim and the Beatsville crew ahead of the tour in the spring,” Haddon shared. “Why you look scared, big dawg?”
“I’m not scared,” Kamilla retorted. “I just…why?”
Lucci, mid-chew of his confiscated cookie, looked at her and said, “Because you deserve it. Do you know how hard you work? Plus, Haddon is starting an umbrella label under El Jefe positioning him as a president. Until he decides he needs an A&R you’ll be serving both sides.
First focus is El Jefe and when Haddon gets his shit up and running there’s a whole lot of underground talent to tap into. So what you sayin’ big dawg?”
Big dawg was a running joke amongst them.
Kamilla, compared to everyone else in upper management, was the smallest and the youngest but never allowed herself to be silenced when it came to her ideas and what she brought to the table.
In the beginning, she struggled to find her placement and Haddon would stop every meeting and say, “big dawg got something to say, y’all niggas shut up. ”
“When do I need to be in La Bega and who is coming with me?” she asked.
Her response made the trio smile.
Charlie spoke up, “You got Big Kwan, he’ll escort you to and from the festival and wherever else you need to go. I already secured your transport inside and outside of the festival.”
“And Day is giving you CiCi for assistance. She’ll have your schedule and all the shit that goes with that,” Lucci shared.
“All the sections they gave me from the festivals to the clubs and after parties are yours. And that big ass hotel suite,” Haddon groaned, the last part earning a side-eye from his brother. “Nigga, before Day, you was spreading it.”
“Nigga, I wasn’t spreading shit,” Lucci popped back.
“Alright, children, calm down,” Kamilla laughed. “Are all the details emailed to me?”
“Yeah, and CiCi. Day confirmed everything has been sent. She’s not doing any more work for the next couple of weeks if I can help it,” Lucci replied. “If I can get her to stop working for six weeks, it’ll be a miracle.”
“You know your wife, she’s not going to stop. I promise she’ll call me the minute I land. Speaking of which, can we tell security to check their guns? I don’t want the issues we had last festival,” Kamilla announced.
“Uh nah,” Charlie spoke up. “You’re flying private.”
“And we probably forgot to mention the media team will be there. You got interviews, wardrobe, and all that shit, so shine bright with your little diamonds,” Haddon joked, making Lucci laugh.
“Now that we got all the business out the way, where’d that bullshit come from?” Lucci asked, pointing to the ring Kamilla had spent the duration of this meeting trying to wiggle off with no luck.
She rolled her eyes. “A mark. A symbol of dedication or something like that.”
Charlie curled his lip. “Did you tell him you don’t like him for real?”
“I’ve tried. While trying not to activate whatever it is when you men folk get rejected,” she replied.
“Hell nah,” Haddon blew. “If the nigga can’t take rejection like a man, you need to hightail it. Ghost his goofy ass, otherwise he’ll get dealt with.”