“Shhh.”
“What you mean, shhh? You mean she don’t know? You ain’t told her?”
“No,” Chris said, motioning me to keep my voice down.
“You think you might let her in on your little secret?”
“Yeah, but now just ain’t the time. You know she’s been through a lot with Manny. So she’s staying here while she gets herself together and she finds a place. I don’t want to drop that on her now. She don’t need all that right now.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“So what’s up with you? How’s the man of leisure?”
“That’s what I wanted to talk about. I know I don’t want to go back to working for the folks, so I wanted to know if you had any ideas about what I could get into?”
“You serio
us?”
“Deadly.”
“Hold up,” Chris said. “CJ. Hey, CJ!”
“Yes.”
“Come down here for a minute, please.”
“Please?” I said, with a smile. “Love. Nothing but.”
“What’s up?” CJ asked, as she sat down next to Chris.
“Zack said he’s not going back to work for the man. You think we could use a high-power salesman?”
“We could definitely use a him. Having a strong salesman opens up all types of possibilities. It would give you a chance to focus on what you need to focus on, instead of trying to drum up new business.”
“So what do you think, Zack? Would you consider coming to work with us?”
“What would I be selling?”
“I don’t know. Like CJ said, the possibilities are unlimited. This is what I’ve been talking about for years. Us combining our talents and making it happen. Once we decide on a direction, we put a strong plan together and go for it.”
“We put something good together, I mean, something we could really make some money with, I’d be willing to invest the time and money in making it work.”
Chris looked at CJ. I could tell that she was already thinking about the things they could do with me on board. They both stood up. “Welcome to Integrated Systems.”
We shook on it. “Congratulations,” CJ said, as she shook my hand.
“You know who else we need on this?” I asked.
“Tee. I been trying to get Tee to do some work for me for a long time,” Chris said.
“With his knowledge of accounting and business in general, and we could really expand our scope,” CJ commented as the doorbell rang. CJ went to answer it.
“CJ?” Tavarus said when she opened the door. I could tell he was surprised to see her there, but not shocked. “How are you doing?”
“Doing just fine.”
“That’s good. How’s Manny?” Tavarus asked.