Going Down (9 page)

“What are you doing?”

“Returning the favor,” I replied and slid my tongue inside her. I spread her lips and tongued her clit. Linda grabbed my head and held it in place.

“That’s enough of that,” I said and entered her with a little force. I put the weight of my body on my arms. She arched her back slightly and began to rotate her hips. We began to move faster and faster like we were in a hurry, which we kind of were. Her body began to quiver and I fucked her harder until we both came. After a quick shower together, which led to more fucking, we got dressed and headed back to the office.

On the way there, I remembered that Linda said she wanted to talk to me about something. “So, what did you want to talk to me about?” I asked.

“You’re a good accountant, Tavarus. You’re sharp. You have a way with your clients. Too good to be wasting your talent here. Have you ever considered going into business for yourself, stop working for somebody else and opening your own firm?”

“Sure I have. I do a little bit of work on the side. I figured I’d get some experience here, build up a clientele, then break out.”

“Just how much more experience do you think you’ll need?”

“I don’t know. A couple of years I guess. Why?”

“Well, some of us have been talking about breaking out and opening our own firm. We’ve been feeling out some of our clients. Testing the waters, you know. I know that at least two of my clients will go with me if I break. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of paying the other mans’ bills with my talent. I look at it this way. I earn the money, why shouldn’t I make the money? We wanted to know if you were interested?”

“Who is we?”

“Robert and
Jamel
,” she said. They were the only other Black accountants at the firm.

“Sounds like a slave revolt on the plantation.”

“Not a revolt. More like runaway slaves,” Linda said smiling.

I took a minute to ponder the possibilities as we pulled into the parking lot. I’ve been thinking about going on my own for years. But I never gave any thought to opening a firm with Linda and them. There were definite advantages to throwing in with somebody, the least of which being cost. But I had questions. “What about Robert and
Jamel
? Do they have clients willing to go with them if they went on their own?”

“Yes. Robert is sure he can pull Allied Steel and Holt Construction and you know
Jamel
has a lock on Atlanta Communications, and he thinks he can get Sun Engineering.”

“Impressive.”

“You interested?”

“Maybe. What kind of timeframe we talking about?”

“First of the year. Third quarter at the latest. We plan to stagger our departure. In accordance with our client’s new fiscal year.”

“How long y’all been planning this?” I was amazed that this was going on and that it had progressed to this point. And they appeared to be well-organized and committed to making the move.

“About six months now, I guess,” Linda replied sheepishly.

“Six months!” I said in a combination of astonishment and attitude. “How come you’re just getting around to telling me about this now?”

“We were all set to ask you when Allan left. Me and Robert were talking in the break room about how it would serve them right, if the four of us were to go into business for ourselves right behind Allan, and Lester walked in on us.”

“Lester.” I frowned. Lester Richardson was one of the managing partners at the firm. Lester was an ex-Marine. He was the kind of guy who would argue a point tooth and nail, if he felt strongly enough about it. Curse you out and then invite you out for coffee when he was done.
 

“Yes, Lester. The next day they announced that you were acting office manager. So we pulled up.”

“Why?”

“Lester likes you, Tavarus. And it just seemed too coincidental that the day after he walks in on us that they stepped to you like that. Like they were calming you or whatever. Then, the way you handled the job, we didn’t know where your head was after that. “

“The way I handled the job. What are you talking about, Linda? What did y’all think, I sold out or something?”

“Not in so many words.”

“But that was the point, right?”

“But after a while, they began to see that you were really handling the job. You know what I mean. You’ve done an excellent job. You should be proud of the way you’ve handled the job. I know you made me proud. I made them see that we needed you with us.”

“Why tell me now?”

“We wanted our offer on the table along with theirs.”

“What exactly is your offer?”

“A partnership between the four of us, silly. What did you think I was talking about all this time?”

“I just wanted to hear it.”

“Well, there it is. We just want you to consider it.”

“I accept,” I said without hesitation. “But that has no bearing on whether I’ll consider their offer. If there is an offer to consider.”

“I didn’t think it would. None of us expect you to.”

“I didn’t think you would. My having the job only strengthens your position with the clients you plan on kidnapping.”

“Exactly.”

I had been pursuing a major prospect, which had the potential to generate four hundred thousand dollars in annual revenue for the company. Closing this deal would virtually guarantee my being Sales Representative of the Year, and the trip to St. Martin would be mine. And I’m ready to go, too. The closer it gets, the more Angelique asks how my sales are. Before this whole trip thing came up she would never care, but I ain’t sayin’ nothin’. I’m really looking forward to us going. But even if I don’t win, we’re going somewhere. I’m glad that she’s at least thinking about Rio.

I picked up the lead at a convention in Chicago four months ago. I overheard these two guys talking in the men’s room about how dissatisfied they were with their current supplier and were thinking about making a change. I heard one say that he told Cabot to start shopping around for a new supplier. Now I had a contact name. Somebody named Cabot. All I needed now was the name of the company. So I followed them through the hotel and around the exhibition hall until I could get a good look at their nametags. Carlton Banks, President,
Bandexx
Corporation, San Diego, California. I immediately made a mad dash back to my room to follow up. Within an hour I had spoken to Dean Cabot and had e-mailed him information.

It had been a particularly busy day, as days after holidays usually are. I spent the entire day in the office. Around eleven o’clock I had a free minute, so I called Angelique, but she was away from her desk. I left her a message and I called Tavarus. He had called earlier, but I was in a meeting. “Just wanted to know if you wanted to meet me after work for happy hour at the Double Tree on Peachtree Dunwoody.”

“Can’t do it. I’m supposed to be meeting Lana tonight.”

“So I’ll see you there, ’cause you know she’s lying. Some people steal, some people gotta drink. Lana gotta tell lies. She can’t help herself.”

“I’ll talk to you later.” I hung up the phone and got back to work. I skipped lunch for a conference call and ordered Chinese food around three, half eating it between calls. It was six o’clock before I realized it. Everyone in the office had gone or was leaving for the day and I still hadn’t heard from Lana.
No surprise there,
I thought, while I finished my paperwork and called it a night. When I passed the receptionist’s desk on the way out, I noticed that there was a message slip in my box. It was from Lana, saying she wouldn’t be able to make it tonight. “She’s getting better. At least it was the same day.”

I got in my car and decided to meet Tavarus at the Double Tree. When I got there, Tavarus was already there and had found a table close to the buffet. As soon as he saw me come through the door, he stood up and started laughing. All I could do was smile and drop my head. “Okay, so she stood me up.”

“Correction, again. She stood you up again.” Tavarus stuffed another shrimp in his mouth. “She stood your dumb ass up again. I don’t know why you bother making plans with her. She’ll call you when she wants you.”

“Yeah but, this time it was her idea.”

“Yeah but, she didn’t make it,” Tavarus said, as the waitress arrived. “Bring me another Long Island Tea.”

“Make it two,” I said, getting up to hit the buffet. I got back to the table just as the waitress arrived with the drinks. Between mouthfuls I asked, “So what’s up with you and Carmen? Y’all gonna make it?”

“It’s not looking that way. These days the only thing that we can agree on is that we disagree on most things,” Tavarus replied. “Said she was unhappy with the way I was treating her.”

“How were you treating her, Tee?”

“Wasn’t spending enough time with her. Said she was tired of being last on my list. Said I made her feel like everybody else was more important than she was.”

“What’s wrong with you, Tavarus? I’m ashamed of you. Don’t you know women take quality time very seriously?” I said, chastising him with my finger.

“I know that, man, but dig, the way she sees it, when she’s got something to do that’s her time. But when she doesn’t have anything to do that’s her time to spend with me. If there’s anything I wanna do, I better be doing it with her.”

“Right. Any questions?”

“Oh, say, man. That’s not how it works. At least not from where I’m sitting. This is a two-way street. I guess I was supposed to do what I wanted to do while she was off doing her thing?”

“Right. Any questions?”

“You a trip, man. Then she tells me that I could have included her in my life.”

“I know. She probably said that you were ashamed to bring her around your friends.” I throw in between bites.

“Yeah! How did you know? She been talkin’ to you?”

“Angelique used to go through the same trip before we got married.”

“Not Angelique, say it ain’t so.”

“Yes, Angelique.”

“Really, Angelique says the same thing, huh?”

“It’s a girl thing.”

“I feel better now,” Tavarus said sarcastically. “I was starting to think it was me. I was beginning to think that maybe I was doin’ something wrong. ’Cause Cynthia and Gerri used to tell me the same thing, too.”

“Come on now, Tavarus, those are standard lines. They all read the same self-help books,” I said, and flagged the waitress down to get another round. “But you were doin’ something wrong.”

“What’s that?”

“You weren’t spending all your time with her.”

Tavarus laughed at me. He stood up, shook his head, and hit the buffet again. When he got back to the table, he said, “So Angelique goes through them changes too.”

“What, do you think she just lets me run wild? Any time I get too far off the chain, and you know I can get out there sometimes, she knows how to put me back in check. She’s just protecting her interest.”

“That’s different; Angelique’s put in the time. Carmen came through the door trying to call some shots.”

“See, it’s different with Angelique. I enjoy spending time with Angelique. We have a lot of fun together. So to me, it ain’t like an obligation to be with her. That’s where I wanna be. You’ll meet somebody that you wanna spend your time with. Until then, don’t let them sweat you about that shit, Tee,” I said and felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I took out my phone and saw that I had a missed call. I looked at the number, it was Angelique calling from work. “I missed a call from Angelique.”