A Curve Ball Called Love

There was something about the magazine that just seemed exciting. Most publications were either tailored for men or women, never both. Somehow, Entity had managed to pull in a female audience, male audience and even had a financial wing that managed to attract readership from yet another elite public. They’d crammed all that in one glossy magazine that had celebrities on the cover and that alone was something that piqued his interest more than he cared to admit. He knew that he was going to enjoy being at Entity. All he had to do was convince the staff to give him an office which wasn’t really going to be all that hard now that he was majority shareholder. But as soon as he met Tiffany Meyers, he just knew that it was not going to be as easy as he thought.

***

Tiffany was on edge ever since the meeting that morning. She’d been nursing a headache for the better part of the morning that had started when she found about Xavier Morrison and now, she—one of the biggest names in American public relations—had to play babysitter to some spoiled rich kid.

I did not work so hard to have this as my legacy, she thought as she sat in her office.

She wasn’t particularly sure what she was even doing in the office. She’d been sitting at her desk staring at her computer screen since she walked back into her office from the board room. Her brain cells seemed to have completely shut down. She looked at the pile of paperwork she was supposed to go through just sitting on her desk and she wondered what she was supposed to do next. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to work. It was that she just didn’t have the capacity to do so. She stared at her blank computer screen for a few minutes before she exhaled loudly.

This is bull sh*t, she thought before she pushed her chair back and stood up. She grabbed her bag and began walking out of her office.

“Errands, Miss Meyers?” Ian asked as she walked out.

“Yeah, you could call it that.”

“Anything I can help you with?” he asked as he followed closely.

Not unless you have a gift card to a massage parkour with bottomless alcohol, she thought. “No, it’s fine. This is something I need to do on my own.”

“Okay, I can take all your messages for you, then.”

Tiffany stopped and looked at him.

“You know, what?” she asked. “Why don’t you just handle my office for the day?”

Ian’s eyes suddenly lit up.

“Wait, does this mean what I think it means?” he asked and she nodded.

“Well, you’ve been angling to be my assistant for the longest time. Perhaps it’s time I gave you the chance.”

Tiffany could just tell that Ian was moments away from jumping up and down with joy. He’d been looking to be Tiffany’s official assistant for a long time. As the only black person in senior management, he used to say, it was probably for the best that he got to shadow one of the best minds in public relations. Apart from that, Tiffany also knew that he was pursuing a degree in community and public relations. She couldn’t think of anyone better to work with her.

“This is perhaps the best day of my life,” Ian said excitedly.

“Well, good for you. It’s one of my worst.” Tiffany forced a smile. “I’m going to clear all this with human resources but for today, I’m ‘on an errand’,” she added, putting up air quotes for emphasis.

The truth was that she was headed home. She had a forty-year-old bottle of wine that she’d been saving for a special occasion but she wasn’t really concerned about waiting for a special occasion. All she wanted to do was get home and marinate in that decades-old red in her pantry.

That meeting hadn’t gone as well as she would have wanted it to. Heck, she’d already had a meeting that she wasn’t prepared for and an assignment hat she didn’t care for. Now she had to make do with the new workload on her already overloaded plate. She rubbed her temple gently as she rode the elevator down to the ground floor. It was hard enough to force a smile when she ran into colleagues in the elevator and the lobby. Her headache only seemed to get worse when she tried.

I just need to get out of here, she thought.

Somehow, those words became her mantra. Her very reason for staying sober so long. Her reason for not having a vodka-filled flask in the bottom drawer of her desk.

When she finally got out of the building, she hailed a cab but when one pulled over, Douglas was standing next to her.

“Leaving already?” he asked smiling and she looked at him for a few minutes before she went back to trying to hail a cab.

“I should be asking you that. You’re the one who just got a new company.”

“Well, I’ve probably done everything that I was supposed to do today.”

Clearly, you have no concept of how the normal person makes an honest living, she thought as a cab pulled up. She turned to look at him and forced a smile.

“Well, as much as I’m enjoying this exchange, I’m afraid I have to end it here. I would love to stay and chat but so many places to go. Such little time,” she started sarcastically.

“This pleasant exchange doesn’t have to end just yet Miss Meyers,” Douglas said with a smile. “We could carpool. It would save me some time.”

Tiffany raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t even know what direction I’m headed.”

Douglas shrugged. “Does it matter?”

“Are you getting in or what?” the driver hollered.

At that time of day, she wasn’t exactly looking forward to being on the street for any longer. As far as she knew, she was already at risk of someone walking up to her for a free consult. It was at that moment that she regretted not taking one of the company town cars. That simple decision was the reason why she was now in the unpleasant conversation.

“Lady?” the driver called out again and Tiffany rolled her eyes.

“Fine,” she said to Douglas as he opened the door and held it for her. She looked at him and climbed into the back. “Village Grove.”

Douglas climbed in after and the driver took off. It was usually a short drive from her office building to her apartment complex but on that day it felt a little slower. Actually, it felt a whole lot slower.

“So, I just got the good news that I’ll be working with you,” he started as the cab began driving away from the office building.

Tiffany forced a smile as she looked at him. It was hard to give him a genuine smile considering he’d just failed miserably at his attempt in making a first impression. And the fact that he acted a fool in a meeting didn’t really command a lot of respect from her. At the back of her mind, she couldn’t help but wonder if that was how he got things done… because if it was, then he was going to make her work really, really hard. As if it wasn’t already hard enough.

“I guess it’s a good thing they gave me such an attractive person to work with,” Douglas went on. “I don’t think I would have been able to survive it otherwise.”

If there is anyone who should be worried about surviving it, it should be me, she thought.

“I have to ask, though, the way everything’s going… I’m not so sure I’m your favorite person which begs the question, why would you accept this new assignment?” he asked. “I’m sure you already have your hands full with everything going on at Entity.”