Page 8 of Merci

“Same, actually. You already ordered the meat?”

“Yeah, so all you have to get is your kimchi and that nasty-ass rice with peanut sauce.”

I laughed as she sat back down. “Not too much. You don’t know what’s good.”

“I do know what’s good, and that shit ishorrible.”

“Mhm. You just make sure you don’t ask me for any.”

“Oh, you will never have to worry about that.”

I giggled as I walked over to the small buffet area to get my kimchi and rice. Once I was done, I went back over to the table and got settled. We made small talk for a while before her tone firmed as she asked, “Alright, so what’s up with ya girl?”

“First, what do you know?” I checked because the posts had been deleted from social media.

“Well, she came to me asking for a job, which was red flag number one. I asked her why she was no longer working for you, and she said you fired her but didn’t want to tell me why. Eventually, she said it was because of Shyanne, and once she said that name, I decided to come straight to you because I knew she wasn’t going to tell the truth.”

Alia was an event planner like me, so I shouldn’t have been surprised to hear that Emmy had gone to her looking for work. What surprised me was her thinking Alia would want to have anything to do with her disloyal ass. By the time I was done telling Alia everything that had gone down, our meat had arrived, and she was playing grill master.

“Now, why in the hell did she think I’d give her a job after she’d done allthat?” Alia asked through her laughter.

“Chile, I don’t know. Maybe she thought you’d hire her without checking with me first.”

Sucking her teeth, Alia shook her head. “Damn fool. I’m sorry she did you like that, especially after you forgave her for her last stunt. Hopefully, this is truly the end of your friendship with her.”

“Yeah, it is. If you wanted to hire her?—”

“Oh, absolutely not. I have one assistant, and that’s more than enough for me. Even if I did need help, it wouldn’t be her. I would never trust someone who did you wrong. Not only am I loyal, but that would be unwise of me. That’s a sign of her character that can’t be ignored. As cool as y’all were, and as much as you’d done for her over the years, un unh. If she could do you like that, I could only imagine what she’d do to me.”

Silence found us for a while, but Alia didn’t let me sit in my hurt for too long. We started talking about a cross-promotional event idea she had. Alia would plan, and I would host. It was always a good time when I got to work with my girl, so I was all for it.

After lunch, I checked my phone and saw that David still hadn’t called. I decided to check in with his mom just for my peace of mind. They’d put me in their family group chat to plan their fall family vacation, so I had all of his immediate family members’ numbers, even though I didn’t talk to them individually.

“Hello?” she answered after a few rings.

“Hey, Mrs. Diana. I was just calling to see if you’d heard from David. His phone is off, and I’m trying not to worry.”

Diana chuckled softly. “That boy. I told him to charge his phone before he left here. He and his brothers passed out over here last night. They drank too much. He rushed out of here late for work this morning. He’s fine, baby. Just didn’t charge his phone. I’m sure he’ll call you on his lunch break.”

As much as I wanted to be relieved by what she’d shared with me, I was still a little irritated. A part of me knew there was a chance something had happened while he was with his brothers last night. Those niggas had no true responsibilities, no women to answer to, and they acted like they were sixteen instead of in their late thirties and early forties.

“Okay, thank you. I guess I can relax now.”

“Of course, baby. If I hear from him before you do, I’ll make sure to tell him to call you. He might stop by here for lunch. I’ll give him my charger.”

After thanking her again, I ended the call. Now that I knew he was okay, my concern was turning into irritation. This man had no regard for how his actions affected me and my mental state, and I was officially tired of his shit.

6

HAMMER

My conference call took longer than I thought it would. Combining my crisis management business with MPWG Law Firm had a lot of pros, but one of the cons was the workload. It didn’t help that I was also still practicing law, though my main goal was to eventually do crisis management only. Back in the day, going to law school was for self-preservation.

I’d already made up in my mind that I’d learn the law so I’d know how to break it without consequence, and if I did get locked down, I wanted to be able to defend myself. When Cujo and I left the family business, I still decided to go to law school, but it wasn’t what I was passionate about. I did, however, love crisis management. If I could, that was what I’d do full time. Every time I went to trial, I told myself that would be my last case, but then someone else would need my help, and it was always hard for me to turn anyone down.

As I headed out of the office, I returned Cujo’s call. More than an hour had passed, so I assumed Merci was free. I was going to call her when I made it back to the office after I grabbed a quick lunch. I’d already missed breakfast, and with my workload, I was pretty sure I’d end up skipping dinner too. Lunch would likely bemy only meal for the day, and I wanted to eat it in the peace and quiet of my car.

“Wassup, young one?” Cujo answered, lowering the volume on the music in his car. I heard the wind blowing in the background, not surprised by the fact that he was driving. He was almost always on the go, trying to keep his mind busy. What did surprise me was the sound of a woman giggling in the background.