Going Down

“Yes, you.”

“Why me?”

“Because whether you know it or not, you have Ivan wrapped around your little finger.”

“As much as I like to, Chris, right now I’m involved in the server conversion. I barely had time to do the work you got me doing. I’ll have more time once it’s over, but who knows when that would be.”

“Tina was getting good at the technical aspects of the job, but Ivan intimidated her too easily. She practically jumps out of her skin every time Ivan says anything to her.”

“I think that eliminates her, don’t you.”

“Yeah. So it was going be Kim, that or I’ll have to hire somebody and that wasn’t about to happen.”

“We can’t really afford to bring somebody in just go over reports with Ivan. And then there’s the time and expense it’s gonna take to get who ever you hire trained. I agree. There’s no way we’re going to hire somebody just to talk to Ivan.”

“I’m glad you agree, partner. Only problem is Kim is a real sistah, with a real sistah attitude. Don’t get me wrong, Kim’s cool, as long as you didn’t get on her nerves and I know Ivan will.”

“But maybe that’s what is needed here,” CJ said. “A real sistah, with a real sistah attitude. Somebody to put old Ivan in his place.”

“So it was settled, I’ll start bringing Kim up to speed on the reporting functions and involving her in the meetings.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“I know you’re tired of hearing me vent, so what’s up with you? How are you and your boy doing? I hope you two are playing nice together.” I lied. CJ didn’t deserve what he was putting her through.

She paused a moment before she answered me. As if she was considering how honest she was going to be. “We’re alright.” The way she said it told me that there was more to it and she didn’t feel like going into it. I felt that it would be best if I didn’t push it. She would tell me when she was ready.

“So, are you still gonna met me tonight?”

“Sorry, Chris, I can’t make it. I’m gonna be here working on this project for a few more hours at least. I’ll call you when I’m done to see if you still there.”

“I’ll be glad when you can come on board full time.”

“Believe me, so will I. That’s the kind of event that I need to be at so we can bring in new business so I can effort to quit.”

“I’m just glad that I didn’t have to be the one to say it.”

“I know, I know, and as soon as this is over, I promise to get more engaged in the business.”

“I know you will. Call me when you’re done. If nothing else, maybe we get together and I’ll tell you how it went.”

“Sounds good,” CJ said and ended the call.

I hung up the phone and left the building, thinking about blowing off the networking event and calling Ebony. Last nights sex was off the chain as usual. But if I was going get business moving in a positive direction, I had to handle business before pleasure. And Ebony was definitely pleasure.

The event was being held at Marriott downtown and was better attended than I thought it would be. For the next hour, I wandered around, handing out my business card a getting a stack of other peoples. Engaging in several interesting conversations as people told me about their business and me telling people what I could do for them. I even had a few strong possibilities that I could follow up on.

I thought about CJ, she should have been there. Not only because of the questions only she would think to ask, and the answers that only she could give, but because I enjoyed her company. This was the type of thing that she and I could share that Manny had no knowledge of therefore he would have no part in. That would only bring her closer to me and drive the wedge deeper between them. I knew I was wrong for thinking that way about a married woman, but I couldn’t help myself.

At that point my feet hurt and I was ready to call it a night. I took out my phone and was about to call Ebony and tell her to ready when I got there, when I saw a very pretty woman coming my way with her business card in hand and a smile on her face. I put away my phone and took out one of my cards.

“I didn’t mean to rush you off the phone,” she said with her hand extended.

I accepted her hand. “That’s okay, it wasn’t that important a call,” I said to her and in the larger scheme of things fucking Ebony wasn’t.

“Tyhedra Crawford.”

“Chris Rosier.”