To Each Her Own (The Swirl Book 1) (10 page)

She turned her chair to face the wall. “Listen, I have to go. I’m really busy right now.”

“I’ll call you later. Answer your phone.” His tone was demanding.

She wanted to ask if he was asking her or telling her. “Goodbye.”

“Bye, Shasta.”

She ended the call, wanting to call Tyson on his office line, but she knew Maya was there. She picked up her phone and prepared to call on his cell, but noticed a text.

Tyson Bain: Lunch today at 1:00 at Canoe on Paces Ferry. Be there. If not, his last day will be Friday.

At one o’clock on the dot, eager looking Tyson Bain and stone-faced Shasta Ann Gibson sat across from each other at the restaurant named Canoe.

He had a tall glass of iced tea in front of him.

She had nothing. She had refused a drink when the waitress offered.

He asked, “You won’t be having anything to eat either?”

“No.” Impatient about the entire love foursome, she cut right to the chase. “Do you love Maya?”

He looked at her phone that rested along the table. “Turn off your phone.”

“Whatever. I’m not recording you.” She did. “Turn off your phone”

He reached in his tan blazer pocket and pressed the off button, then placed it on the table, too. “No, I don’t.”

“Would you be with her if you weren’t married?”

“Not sure.” His face agreed. 

She took it in and added it up. “Then you do like her. I see. It’s more than I thought. And I can tell it’s more than she admits. But, just to make sure, you’re not saying you’re not sure because she’s . . .”

“No.”

“So you can care about someone black, when you’re married, but I can’t when I’m single?”

“I care for you. I don’t want to see you get hurt, get misled, end up with everything that goes against what you were raised knowing, and against all that you’ve planned.”

“How do you know what I planned?”

“I know that a black husband is not something you planned.” He drank from his glass.  

“I want a husband, a job I can come to and not feel harassed, and I want children, or even just one child, God willing. Just one.”

“You can do better than him. You’ve got too much going for you.”

“I don’t have a spouse. You do, so I don’t have that going for me. And besides, you are not my dad, or my man.”

“She can’t have kids. If I weren’t married . . .”

She shrugged and put her hand up to stop his words. A married man sat before her, wanting kids, imagining what would happen if. Her mind was stumped. “Stop. Where does this come from?” She spoke at a whisper. “You’ve never even been inside of my vagina, for God’s sake.” Now her voice got louder. “How did you end up so darn smitten, Tyson?”  

“I care.”

“If you cared, you wouldn’t have threatened to fire Ramón if I didn’t meet you.”

His face had a longing to it. “Stop seeing him.”

“Do what you have to do. I’ll do what I have to do.”

The perky young waitress jaunted up. “Are you two ready to order?”

Shasta pointed to Tyson, got up, and calmly sashayed out, switching her hips, stepping high in her teal slingbacks.

She looked back as he winked a blue eye, then she cut her blue eyes.
Jerk!

Chapter 12

Downtown Atlanta

Tuesday of the next week, after spending the previous weekend alone, sleeping, eating, and catching up on TV, Shasta had managed to ignore Ramón, and she had not talked to Maya, nor to Tyson other than the quick hellos and goodbyes at work. Tyson had not scheduled more of the “business meetings” between the two of them, or even a legitimate meeting with other departments.

Wearing her favorite polka dot dress, with coral pumps, Shasta had just returned to her office from a quick chat with the CFO regarding press release budgets, when she sat down and noticed that an email from Tyson Bain chimed in. The subject read that it was a companywide announcement.

Please join me in congratulating Maya Turner, who is now my Senior Executive Assistant and the company’s Administrative Manager. I plan to hire a second assistant, as the work load in this office has increased two-fold due to the growth of the company. Maya will handle my travel and expenses, and supervise the second assistant, as well as act as executive office manager. Maya will begin her role once we’ve identified the right candidate to assist her.

Under her breath, after snatching her eyes from the email, Shasta said, “Why am I’m not surprised? A little blackmail worked to her advantage. Or whitemail.” She forced a tiny laugh.

Her intercom sounded. “Sorry. Mrs. Bain is on the line for you,” Keisha announced.

“Mrs. Bain?”

“Yes. Shall I tell her you’ll call back?”

Shasta nodded but said, “Oh, no. I’ve got it. Thanks, Keisha.” Shasta pressed
Line 1
thinking,
Perfect. Maybe a little whitemail will work to my benefit as well
. She put on far more charm than she felt. “Hello, Mrs. Bain.”

“Hello there. Call me Misty, please.” Misty Bain spoke fast and cheery, as usual.

Uh, but you’ve told me that how many times now, and I never do.
“Misty. How may I help you?”

“Shasta, I just wanted to know if we could talk for a second.”

Shasta leaned back and crossed her legs. “Okay.”
Oh boy! The main confronts the side. One of them at least.

“You know, it seems to me that all of the employees at Bain see my husband more than I do, and I know he’s working later and later nowadays. But I just wanted to know if maybe you have time to help me with a couple of things, since I’ve asked him to help out and he keeps forgetting because he’s so busy. Do you mind?”

“As far as what? Bain communications issues?”

“Not really. You see, I want to get something very special for Maya being that she’s been promoted. Tyson told me you two are really good friends. I just wanted to know if you could suggest something that I could get her. Something nice.”

Part of her was relieved, but part of her really did want to get into something with the wife, having braced herself to go off with a confrontational reaction. “Oh, I see. That’s nice of you to think of her and want to do that. I don’t really know.”

“Oh, no rush. You can think about it and call me back.”

“I will.”
Not!

“Also, I wanted to know your thoughts on whether or not Keisha might be a good fit to assist Tyson, under the supervision of Maya of course. I’ve always admired her when I come in there. She seems very capable and pleasant. She’s such a pretty black girl. Of course, I wanted to ask you first before I suggest it to Tyson. But of course, I surely don’t want you to be out of a great assistant. It would be an increase in salary for Keisha. And I’m sure Maya would need to interview her to make sure the two of them mesh well. I hope you don’t mind me asking.”

“No, I don’t actually.” She was still stuck on the pretty black girl comment.
She must think she’s safe if her husband has black assistants.
Shasta fought to hold in a chuckle. She swallowed hard to chase it down. “You know, I think that would be a great opportunity for Keisha.”

“You do?”

“Yes. She’s been here for a couple of years now. She deserves it. Absolutely. Go right ahead and ask her.”

“Oh that’s great. Will you please let her know first, and tell her that you have her blessing as far as interviewing?”

“I will.”

“Perfect. I guess if it works out, HR would start recruiting for someone for you. Internally first, I’m sure.”

“I’m sure.”
Why do you sound like a chief operating wife?

“Okay, good. And like I said, let me know if you think of something Maya might like. She’s such a doll. I’m just happy to know she’s had my husband’s back all of these years.”

“Me too.”
Oh Lord. And his front.

“By the way, how is your dad doing?”

Why?
“Good. I plan to see him soon, actually.”

“Nice. Please tell him we said hello.”

“I will.”
Don’t hold your breath.

“Are you heading out to see him for a weekend?”

Hang up already!
“Maybe longer.”

“Oh? Vacation time?”

Jeez!
Okay, you’ve driven me to it, so here it goes.
“No. Actually, Mrs. Bain, I mean Misty, I resigned today.”
Okay, white lie coming
. “I emailed your husband just before you called. So actually, all of this regarding Keisha is working out just fine. Perfect timing.”

Her voice jumped into eager, sweet, hyper, fake concern mode. “Oh my, I had no idea. Is everything okay? Do you have another position?”

“Sort of. Well, nothing I can talk about just yet. But I’ll be fine.”

“Wow, I know Tyson is not happy about that.”

“He’ll be fine. Bain will be fine. The company is in good hands. The rest of my department can handle things until a replacement is hired.”

“Oh my. It’s so sudden. I’m sure he’ll want you to stay. Are you sure?”

Yes, he will
. “I am.”

“Wow. Okay. I know I’ll see you soon. Maybe we can do lunch one day. I just can’t believe it.”

Shasta pressed a button on the phone. “No, that’s okay. I don’t think that would be right. Because Mrs. Bain, I was messing around with your husband. And honestly, Maya has been, too. I actually think she loves him. So, you’ve got a lot on your hands right about now.”

“Excuse me. I didn’t hear you. Are you still there?”

She pressed the button again. “Yes. I apologize. I pushed
Mute
by accident.”

“No worries.”

“Lunch one day would be fine, Misty.”

“Cool beans. Please know that I wish you the best. Talk to you later.”

Cool beans? Square and naïve
. “Yes, we will. Bye.”

Shasta hung up, took a huge breath and let it out slowly, then turned to face her laptop, and began to type two sentences:

Mr. Bain.
This serves as my official letter of resignation, effective this Friday. Sincerely, Shasta Ann Gibson
.

She hit
Send
.

Chapter 13

Atlanta, GA

As Shasta drove home from work that evening, a call came in that she was expecting. She put it on speaker. Ready. “Yes, Maya.

“Shasta. We need to talk.” The sound of traffic backed up her voice.

“Yes, we do.” Shasta sat at the red light, ready.

Maya sounded like her old self. “Tell me. Why did you quit?”

“Well, Maya, I did it because I have zero respect for your boss. I can’t work for him. He’s playing games, transferring Ramón and threatening to fire him. It’s just ridiculous. I can’t let him control me like that.”

“I know. And I totally agree.”

The light turned green and Shasta proceeded. “Anyway. Congrats on your promotion. I see you made out.”

“I had no choice but to threaten him.”

“I know. It’s just not cool that you had to do it that way. Bottom line, Tyson is cheating, and we’re part of it. It’s on us, too. But for what it’s worth, you can have him, the job, Ramón, whomever. I’m fine. I’ve got to move on from it all. I’ve wanted to start up my own PR company for a while, and now I plan to do just that.”

“First of all, I don’t want Ramón.” She sounded certain.

“If you did, I’d have no say anyway.”

“No say? You’re the one seeing him.”

Shasta said with what she felt was certainty. “Maya, Ramón was a play thing. Nothing serious. He should’ve never lied.”

“He didn’t. Shasta. I did.”

Shasta stared forward, turned a corner onto a main highway, and blinked fast. “Maya, please. I know he did.”

“He did not.”

She merged lanes and sped up. “You’re saying he didn’t lie?”

“No.”

“So Maya, what you’re telling me is that you lied to me about him lying to me?”

“Yes, I did. I know. Messed up, huh?”

She gave a deep sigh in the fast lane. “Damn, Maya. Was that really necessary? All of this over a man?”

“I’m sorry. I really want you to know that I think Ramón’s okay. There has never been anything between us. And think about it. You know me. If I had slept in a bed with a man, somebody would’ve gotten fucked, plain and simple. Bottom line, I lied. Your love interest is single as a dollar bill, and seems like a good dude. My interest is married. I guess I got a little jealous, I don’t know. But still, no excuse. I told a lie when I said we slept together in his bed. There was no sex, and I did not sleep in the bed with him because he was on the sofa all night. Sleeping. I was knocked out, and when I woke up, he was in the kitchen. So, no, we didn’t sleep together, literally or any other way.”

She wanted to slap her. “Whatever, Maya.”

“You can be mad at me, but don’t be mad at him.”

She shook her head. “Whether I’m mad at you or not, I’m just done with dating. Trust, no trust. Wondering if they’re for real. Black, white, whatever. Tall, short, job, homeless. I have to be fine with no kids and never being married.”

“But look, at least you had a good job. But now you’re walking away from that. Are you sure you want to resign? That’s what I want to know. Was it impulse?”

“No. It’s a fact that the only way I can keep your boss from trying to control me is to leave the company.”

“I’m just shocked that he was so bothered by you and Ramón. I say he really likes you. Damn, girl.”

She slowly merged to the right to prepare to exit. “Oh please. He just wants to have his cake and eat it too. It has nothing to do with who I am or him wanting me for anything other than playtime. Jobs are replaceable. My old boss from Texaco has a position there. A marketing job if I want it. She offered it to me not long ago. But, it’s in Augusta. I just don’t want to go back there. But I will if I have to.”

“You can’t do that. You belong in Atlanta. And I say you stay at Bain.”

“I can’t, Maya. You just enjoy your promotion and keep moving up. I’m just wondering what would’ve happened if you did make good on your threat to him, and tell his wife.”