Dirty Old Men [And Other Stories] (Zane Presents) (8 page)

“All
three
of you want internships?”

His secretary overheard him and grinned. It was her sentiments exactly.

“Yeah, we’re The Triple Threat,” Beverly stated. “We work well together.”

David looked back at his assistant. “What do you think about that, Bobby?”

Robert shrugged, wearing a sharp suit and tie of his own. But he looked much older than David. “Bobby” looked more like an older mentor.

He commented, “Put ’em to work.”

David then looked at his secretary. “C.J., get all their information and let’s see what they can help us out with this summer.”

“For real?” Treena asked him, surprised.

“That’s what you want, right?”

Treena was overjoyed by the speed of his decision. “Yeah, yeah,” she told him excitedly.

“Thanks!” her two girlfriends chimed in.

David nodded. “All right, so we’ll see you guys later. C.J.’ll show you around the office.”

And that was it. The man was out the door as if a hurricane had yanked him out.

“So…what does ‘C.J.’ stand for?” Beverly asked the secretary after the boss had left.

Instead of answering her, she held up her nameplate that sat on her desk. It read, “Cheryl Jackson.”

“Oh, it’s right there.” Beverly felt stupid.

And away we go,
C.J. thought to herself with a sigh.
They just made my job three times harder this summer.

“So, you have no idea what you want them to do today?” C.J. asked David in his office, after nine o’clock the next morning.

David gave it some thought while he sat behind his large, wooden desk.

He then blew it off. “We’ll think of something, it’s only day one. Have them run out and buy some donuts and orange juice for the office or something.”

C.J. held out her right hand and cocked her curvy hips for some money.

David smiled. “Don’t I pay you enough around here already?”

“No, not hardly.”

“Well, get forty dollars from Bobby to do it.”

C.J. stood inside of his office with the door closed and stared at him for a moment. “Do you want me to get
everything
I need from Bobby now?” she hinted at him with a smirk.

David chuckled. “You tell me. What all can Bobby give you that you’ll be satisfied with?”

C.J. stood for a few seconds and countered, “Watch yourself, Mr. Man. Or you’ll get the trouble that you’re asking for.”

David chuckled and let the warning die down as his sexy secretary walked out of the room and immediately straightened out her walk in her business suit.

Treena, Beverly, and Rocki quieted down in the conference room when C.J. returned. She then placed forty dollars on the long, oval-shaped table. “Okay, girls, your first big assignment is to go out and get donuts and orange juice for everyone at the office.”

Treena looked around at her friends, while Beverly and Rocki giggled.

“You’re kidding me, right?”

“No, I am not,” C.J. answered frankly.

Rocki stood up and was ready to go. “It’s only our first day on the job, Treena. It’ll all come.”

“I hope so,” Beverly added, still smiling.

C.J. had nothing more constructive to say to them. “Well, hurry up and get back with it. Maybe he wants to see how fast you can handle it.”

Beverly nodded. “Good point.”

Rocki added, “You see where I’m at already. I’m practically out the door. You just do what you’re asked to do.”

Treena retorted, “Yeah, and with no money,” while she grabbed the forty dollars from the conference room table.

Rocki told her, “Well, you do the accounting, I’ll do the selecting, and Beverly can do the driving.”

“Why do
I
have to drive,” Beverly complained as they headed out of the conference room.

C.J. shook her head. “I don’t believe he’s even doing this,” she mumbled.

By that afternoon, David had enough free time to interview each new intern in his office about her skills.

“So, what would you say are your strengths; leadership and initiative?” he asked Treena, who he had called into his office first.

Treena thought about it and nodded. “Umm, yeah, I would say so. Yeah.”

“So, what are your weaknesses; patience and high expectations?”

She began to smile and looked down bashfully. It sounded as if he had read her correctly before she even had a chance to speak. David had done deals with enough professionals to read them all quickly. It was a major part of his job skill to know who he was dealing with as quickly as possible.

“Umm…I guess you can say that,” Treena admitted.

He nodded. “So, I’ll put you in charge of projects and remind you to be patient with your friends.”

Next he called in Rocki to have a seat.

“So, what are your strengths and weaknesses; humor, speed, and a lack of detail and stick-to-itness?”

The question seemed loaded with the answers already.

Rocki looked at him and grimaced before she grinned.

“Well, what part of the question do you want me to answer?” she asked.

“All of it.”

She paused and tried to gather her thoughts. “Well, I guess I do like to lighten things up with a little bit of humor. And yeah, I just, you know, do what I’m supposed to do. But if it’s something that takes a long time…”

She smiled and didn’t feel the need to fill in her answer. Then she added, “Beverly is good with that part. She’ll do it until it gets done.”

David called Beverly in to have a seat in his office last.

“So, are you the most dedicated?” he asked her.

She looked into his eyes and felt stunned.
Dedicated to what?
she thought.

“Ahh, I guess you could say that. I don’t tend to give up easy.”

“Oh yeah? So how long have you been with your present boyfriend?” he asked her out of the blue.

The question threw the young and attractive college student for a loop. She suddenly felt hot and clammy, wondering if he could read her nervous body language.

She giggled. “Actually, we recently broke up, right before I left school. Honestly, I think he
planned
it that way,” she added.

“Well, why would a young guy wanna do that to you? Didn’t he know what he had on his hands? You would do anything for him, wouldn’t you?”

With that comment, he made the young intern feel even hotter.

“He, umm…wanted other girls, I guess,” she reasoned.

“Do you
guess,
or do you
know?
” David pressed her.

She paused. “Umm…I
know.
”

He nodded at her. “You have to learn to be more confident. Sometimes attractiveness can mask insecurities. But you have a good heart. So learn to go with what you feel and be strong about it.”

At the end of their first full day of work at his office, all three women were even more impressed with him. They sat and ate at a Burger King restaurant and discussed their separate observations of the boss.

“He is a very smart man,” Rocki commented.

Treena nodded over a burger and said, “That’s why we all wanted to work for him, right? So why would we expect anything less?”

All Beverly did was smile while eating fries. She didn’t want to express what
she
was thinking about him.
I think we like each other,
she mused. It was as if he was using code words to let her know, ever so cleverly. But to hell if she was going to tell her girlfriends.

“So, what did he ask
you
, Bev?” Rocki asked, eating fries of her own.

“Umm, you know, about my career aspirations and stuff,” Beverly lied.

“And what did you tell him?” Treena quizzed.

“I mean, I told him that we all want to learn how to plan events or whatever.”

“Well, he didn’t ask
me
all of that,” Rocki commented. “He must like you more,” she joked.

Beverly shook her head. “Here we go with that again.”

Rocki argued, “But it’s
true.
A lot of guys be liking your little ass.”

“I’m not little, I’m just smaller than
you,
” Beverly countered. “Besides, that man is married and about to run for mayor soon.”

“And what is that supposed to mean, that he can’t like you?” Treena questioned. “Because I can tell that something’s going on with him and
C.J.,
” she assumed.

“Oh, yeah, she’s on fire for him, and be trying to play it all off. Do you see how she try not to look at him around us?” Rocki brought up. “Like, she would really do that shit if we weren’t there.
Please!
It’s all a damn
act
. And it’s obvious that she don’t want us all up in there. But I got news for her ass, this internship is a lot more important to me than her little
hurt
emotions.”

Beverly only smiled again. But she didn’t like the conversation about C.J. and David having feelings. Even though she assumed as much herself, if C.J. was able to bottle up the majority of his attention at the office, then where would that leave her?

“What do you think, Bev? You think C.J. got the heat for him?”

Beverly turned the question around and asked her, “Do you?”

Treena didn’t hesitate. “Hell yeah!” she answered frankly.

Rocki broke up laughing and spit her soda back down her straw. She held up her right hand to high-five Treena across the table. She bragged, “I would give his ass
back
spasms in a
hot
minute.”

Beverly shook her head and grinned passively. “Y’all crazy. That man is married.”

“Like that ever stopped a dick from getting hard,” Rocki noted.

Beverly said, “Rocki, people are eating in here.”

“And they eat in the bedroom, too,” she joked.

Treena laughed. “What about
you,
Bev? You didn’t feel anything crazy when you were in the room alone with him? I mean, we’ve seen this man all up on television and in the newspapers
plenty
of times. And he looks and smells
way
better in person.”

“Duuuhhh, you can’t smell his ass through the TV,” Rocki stated.

“Well, that’s my point. Now we’re all up close and personal with him. But the internship is still most important to me though,” Treena established for them.

Beverly nodded in agreement. “Right.”
But if he ever wanted to
…she contemplated.