Chapter 5
CHAPTER
FIVE
TESS
“ I ’m dying. Literally dying.” Teyana leaned on our kitchen island, the tomato and salt sandwich she’d been making abandoned as she’d become engrossed in my story of the previous evening, particularly the parts about my mysterious one-night stand.
“Considering how often you say that, I think you might not have a good grasp on the meaning of the word dying and/or the word literally .” Often when she used the term, she was curled up in the fetal position with pain. Today she was bouncing with excitement. I was happy to see she was feeling better.
She rolled her so-dark-brown-they-were-almost-black eyes at me. “You know what I mean. I can’t believe you had such an incredible night. Good for you. You needed it.”
I resisted the urge to feel bad that I’d been having my incredible night while she’d been miserable and focused on enjoying the retelling for her sake. “You’re right. I did need it.” I reached over the island to grab a tomato off her plate. I’d already been to Kendra’s to drop off the dress and change before coming out to Jersey City, and I was only now getting an appetite. “Too bad I got so drunk. Best sex of my life, and I don’t even remember it.”
“How do you know it was the best sex of your life then?”
“Based on what I do remember, there’s no way it wasn’t. He knew exactly what he was doing. Three times.” Just remembering made my panties damp. Pretty Pussy, he’d said. I really should have named him Filthy Mouth instead of Blue Eyes.
Tey sighed dreamily. “I don’t think I could come three times with my vibrator. This man must be a god.”
“Or a devil. Is it possible to be both?”
“I think you’ve just described every man you’ve ever dated more than two weeks.” She smacked my hand as I reached for another tomato slice. “There’s too much salt on that for a healthy person, Tess. Cut up your own if you want some.”
Feigning a pout, I reached for a banana in the fruit basket instead. “He really was exactly my type. Which means it’s probably a good thing that I’m not seeing him again since my type always leads to disaster.”
Tey brought her sandwich up to her mouth and paused before biting into it. “Disaster is not inevitable with the guys you like. It’s just how it’s worked out.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I didn’t want this to lead to another one of her lectures about being patient, there were loads of fish in the sea. It was hard to hear it over and over, and not to be snide, but it wasn’t like she had a steady man of her own at the moment.
I also didn’t think it was a good idea to keep talking about Blue Eyes. Thinking about him did a number on my libido. I was already looking forward to alone time later tonight when I was back in Kendra’s guest room. For now, I needed to think about something else.
Maybe a banana hadn’t been the best choice.
I shook the thoughts about the phallic shape of the fruit in my hand and took a bite. “Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. I met a Sebastian.”
“You what?” She had to set down her sandwich. “Are you freaking serious?”
“Yep.”
“Which one?”
“No idea.” I quickly told her about my encounter with Green Eyes, including how he’d programmed his assistant’s info in my phone.
“Give it here.” Teyana reached her hand out for my cell.
I hesitated for a minute, wondering what she was up to, but curiosity won out, and I unlocked the screen before giving it over. “What are you going to do?”
“This.” She dialed the number and put it on speaker so we could both hear.
“There won’t be anyone there on Sunday,” I said as the phone rang.
“I know, but there will be a voicemail.” Sure enough, the ringing switched over to a prerecorded message that announced we’d reached Julie Sanchez at the Office of Public Relations for Sebastian Industrial Corporation.
“That wasn’t helpful.”
But she wasn’t done. She quickly clicked END on the call then pulled up my internet browser. Less than a minute later, she had the SIC website’s leadership page loaded. She scrolled through several positions filled by various Sebastians—Blue Eyes was right; there were a ton of them—until she landed on the name next to Vice President of Image and Outreach. “Scott Sebastian,” she read. “That has to be the head of PR. Dammit, there’s no image. Was he cute?”
“Scott Sebastian,” I repeated, trying to picture the man who’d wanted to talk shop. “I guess he looked like he could be a Scott. And yes, he was fine with a capital F. He was really flirty. If he hadn’t been hiding, I think I could have gone home with him.”
“Oh my God, you settled!”
I shook my head, laughing. “I wouldn’t have traded Blue Eyes for the hottest Sebastian in the world. Besides. It was risky enough going home with just another attendee at the party. If I’d gone home with a Sebastian and then he’d found out that I’d snuck my way in?—”
“He wouldn’t have found out, and if he did, do you think he’d really care?”
Yeah, she was right. I was being paranoid. “Better to be safe than sorry.” But now I was thinking about the other opportunity I’d been denied because of caution. “Why did I have to meet him like that, Tey? He’s looking for a charity for Sebastian Industrial to back. I could have pitched to them.”
“You still could. You have his number. Set up a meeting.”
“And then what? Even if they decided to go with one of the charities I presented, I wouldn’t be able to go anywhere after the initial pitch without Kendra.”
She thought about it for too long, the expression on her face saying she was taking this way too seriously.
“Whatever you’re thinking, Tey?—”
She interrupted me. “If you pitched them the Dysautonomia Foundation, you could do it without Kendra. Didn’t Sarah offer you a job there? You could quit working for Kendra and work for them directly instead of being the liaison.”
“Okay, no. No.” There were so many immediate problems, I couldn’t let myself entertain the idea. “First, they’d have to choose the Dysautonomia Foundation from the portfolio of charities I offered. If they chose any other, I’d be screwed.”
“You could make them pick it. Your enthusiasm would sell it alone.”
I ignored her. “Second, I wouldn’t even know how to do a pitch meeting. I’ve only been on the backend.”
“You could wing it. I saw you ace several projects in school that I know you put together on the fly.”
“Third, I don’t want to quit working for Kendra.”
“Don’t you?”
Here, I hesitated. The thing was, I could wing it. And I did have a passion for promoting the Dysautonomia Relief Foundation. I’d been trying to get Kendra to hook them up with a major sponsor for over two years now, pretty much as soon as Teyana got her dysautonomia diagnosis. But it wasn’t just because of Tey that I supported the foundation. It was a good organization with lots of promise. I was convinced the only reason it hadn’t been picked up yet was because Kendra wasn’t selling it right. If I were the one presenting it, I knew I could sell it.
And one day Kendra would let me pitch it. She would. I had to believe that. Otherwise, all the years I’d stuck by her side were just a waste of time. “If I wanted to leave her, I would have taken the job Sarah offered.”
“You’re too loyal,” Tey said with a sigh. “Kendra does not deserve that kind of loyalty.”
“Maybe not.” But I was loyal to Teyana too, and I couldn’t risk the foundation's chances of being chosen by doing this underhandedly.
I expected the discussion to be over. It’s certainly where it should have ended.
But Teyana didn’t give up that easily. “Then you’d stay with Conscience Connect. That works too. Land the Sebastians, and there’s no way Kendra can let you go. Plus, she’d get to see what you can do, and she’d have to give you more responsibility. Win-win all around.”
“I don’t know…” I could already imagine a plethora of things that could go wrong. I’d seen Kendra work on deals that signed instantly. Others required weeks and weeks of hardcore negotiation. I’d learned enough from the sidelines that I was fairly sure I could seal up the former with no problems. I wouldn’t know the first thing about how to handle the latter.
Maybe if I knew I had enough time to work it out...
Tey read my mind. “How long is Kendra out of town?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“She was gone, what? Two months when she broke up with that guy three years ago.”
“But only two weeks when she broke up with that girl she was dating last year.”
I watched her fingers tap on the counter. She wore fingerless gloves, even though the air conditioning wasn’t on and it was well in the nineties outside. Her particular syndrome made it hard for her body to regulate temperature, and often her extremities were blue and icy regardless of the weather. Other symptoms that accompanied her illness prevented her from working a full-time job, yet she wasn’t bad enough to file for disability. Without help from the Dysautonomia Relief Foundation, she wouldn’t be able to afford to live.
How many other women could be helped by the DRF if they had corporate sponsorship? Could I really try to fight for it?
“This latest disappearance wasn’t even due to a breakup,” I said, wondering if Kendra was distraught enough to keep her away for long. “She said she’s torn between two lovers and needs time for her heart to decide.”
“Yeah, that sounds like her prosy bullshit.” Her tone was spiteful. She’d apologize eventually. That was how it usually went, anyway.
I chewed on my lip, giving her a few minutes to eat her sandwich and brood in silence.
I understood why Teyana was so bitter toward Kendra, but it still made me sad. Once upon a time we’d all been friends, when we were in school and our social statuses were on a more even playing field. That was before Tey got sick. Before we realized just exactly how well-off the Montgomery family was. It wasn’t until after graduation that we discovered that our education, though exactly the same on paper, wasn’t equal in the real world. Kendra Montgomery had doors opened for her at every turn. Tey and I had to fight from the ground up, and six years later, we hadn’t gotten very high up the ladder. And it wasn’t about the color of our skin since I was the whitest of the three of us.
At first Kendra seemed to care. She’d given me a job. She’d donated money to the DRF in Tey’s name so she would be guaranteed funds. But she also stopped hanging out with Teyana all together. Seemed a friend with an ailment was too much work for her. She preferred to write a check and walk away.
I’d been stuck in the middle. I appreciated that it was Kendra who made it possible for Tey not to have to work full-time, but I hated how she’d broken Tey’s heart and destroyed her self-confidence. I couldn’t admit out loud that I still hoped they’d patch things up one day. It was another reason why I wasn’t ready to leave Conscience Connect. I was still holding out for the dream ending all around.
My phone rang on the kitchen island where Tey had left it. She was closer, so she glanced at it first. “Speak of the devil.” With a scowl, she pushed the phone toward me.
I looked at the screen for confirmation. RESTRICTED, it said. The only person who called me from restricted lines was Kendra. I let out a sigh then, knowing she’d hear it in my voice if I didn’t, and put on a bright smile and answered. “K! How’s the vacation?”
“It’s not a vacation when you feel like I do.”
Tey came around the island so she could stand close enough to listen. Her bitterness did nothing to dampen her curiosity where Kendra was concerned.
“I’m sorry you’re so miserable.” It was hard to know what else to say when Kendra wasn’t forthcoming about either her relationships or her emotions these days. It had been years since she’d told me the name of anyone she dated, let alone how she felt about them.
Luckily, my guess was right on the nose. “ Miserable is exactly the right word,” she said.
At my side, Teyana huffed. “She wouldn’t know real misery if it bit her in the ass.”
“Shh,” I mouthed. God, I hated this. Hated the war between them. Hated not knowing how to push forward with my boss. Hated that I had an opportunity for our company and nothing I could do about it.
Except, I could do something about the last thing. “Hey, I’m glad you called,” I said, making my decision to bring this up on a whim. “I had an opportunity come up for the company that I wanted to pass on. I was…” I paused, deciding how to dance around the truth. “At a party last night—friend of a friend of a friend—and I happened to meet someone there who works for the outreach division of Sebastian Industrial. He said they’re looking to back a charity right now, and even gave me a contact so I could set up a meeting for you when?—”
“No,” she snapped. “No meeting. I am not pitching to Sebastian Industrial.”
“Then let me do it. I know it might be uncomfortable for you since they’re family friends, but since they asked for the hookup, and if I’m the one meeting with them, it’s not like you’re pushing anything on them they don’t want.”
She made a noise that sounded like a bit-back laugh. “You’ve never pitched before.”
“Because you’ve never let me.”
“I’m certainly not letting you pitch to the Sebastians on your first go around. That would be setting you up for disaster. I care too much about you to just feed you to the wolves like that.”
“Care about you my ass,” Tey whisper-hissed.
I gave her a stern look, and while I was suddenly wishing she wasn’t there for this conversation, I also realized I wouldn’t be charging on without her there to support me. “So then I’ll put them off for six months or so. When you get back, you can show me the ropes?—”
Kendra cut me off. “I said no, Tess. I said no last time you brought them up, I’m saying no now. What part of no is it that you aren’t understanding?”
Now it wasn’t just Teyana sneering. She was right—Kendra didn’t deserve my loyalty.
Part of me wanted to hang up on her right then. But acting rashly would only feel good in the moment. “Wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t at least pass on the opportunity,” I said with gritted teeth.
“You’ve done that now. Moving on. I called you for a reason. I’m getting a new bed. It’s special order and won’t be there for another three or four weeks. I gave them your number to arrange delivery. Make sure the old bed is disposed of, please.”
That was something else Kendra always did after a big breakup—replaced her bed so she wouldn’t have to deal with the “memories.”
“What a waste of good furniture,” Teyana said with disgust.
I was usually put-off by how she squandered her money as well, but right now I was focused on the other information she’d given. “Will do. So you’re still planning to be gone for another month then?”
I could practically hear her eye roll. “I don’t know, Tess. I’ll be gone as long as it takes to figure out which one I want to break up with and which one gets to have me. These decisions take time. Hold on a sec, will you?”
I exchanged a look with Tey while Kendra had a muffled conversation with someone else. Did she realize how self-important she came off? It was cringeworthy.
It was only a handful of seconds before she returned. “Gotta go, Tess. My concierge is here to take me to my mud bath.” She’d hung up before I even had a chance to say goodbye.
I frowned as I threw down my phone. It wasn’t fair. Sure, Kendra’s life had started out hard. She’d been three years old when her parents found her in an orphanage in South Korea while there for a philanthropic visit. But she didn’t remember anything from then. All her memories were of the spoiled, first-class life she currently lived.
Meanwhile, Teyana was the smartest, most genuine person I knew. Her ambition was as big as her pockets were shallow. If it weren’t for her illness, she’d have made it to where Kendra was, without any handouts. That’s how amazing she was.
But here we were. Kendra lived like a princess, Teyana faced chronic physical limitations, and I was once again being pushed back down the ladder I so badly wanted to climb. If I were at the top , I thought not for the first time, things would be different. There was so much good I could do.
And if Kendra refused to help me, I’d just have to do it without her.
I could feel Teyana studying me. “You better be thinking what I think you’re thinking, Tess Turani.”
“I’m thinking it’s going to be a late night,” I said. Good or bad, my mind was made up. “I have a pitch presentation to prepare.”