healing-hearts (8 page)

~ML~

“Yassi, you need to come in here.” Leigh spoke into the phone when Yasmine picked up the line.

“Can’t you tell me over the phone?” Yasmine asked her friend, leaning over slightly in her chair and making eye contact with her across the waiting area.

“If I’d wanted to do that I wouldn’t have told you to come here now, would I?”

“Your butt was always too smart for your pants.”

“Are you coming?” Leigh questioned, cutting her off.

Yasmine’s answer was to hang up the phone. She rose from her desk and walked straight across the floor into Leigh’s office.

“You
rang,
your highness.” Yasmine performed a mock curtsy.

“See, it’s attitude like that which will get you nothing.” Leigh wagged her finger.

“So, what am I possibly going to miss out on?”

“Something that you, more than anyone else I know, needs.”

“You got me a millionaire to buy the orphanage for me?” Yasmine pasted on a fake smile to her friend.

“No, sweetie. But what I do have is this.” Leigh handed her a white envelope.

Yasmine took a moment to review the contents. “Wow, did you win a contest?” Yasmine asked, as she read the confirmation slip for weekend stay at one of the fancy oceanfront hotels, for two rooms and half-day treatment at the posh spa in the hotel.

“You remember Ernest, the guy I told you I met last week at the bookstore?”

“The one that was a professor at the college who wanted to sit by the fireplace and read Shakespeare to you?” Yasmine questioned.

Euphoric recall was evident on Leigh’s face for a brief moment. “I never knew a
brotha
that could make a sonnet come alive like he did, hmm.” Exhaling a breath Leigh continued, “But, not him, Ernest is the psychologist, who is divorced with two kids older than us.”

“Oh, Mister Mid-life Crisis.” Yasmine smiled, remembering the story her friend had told her. Leigh had the confidence and ability to get picked up anywhere, by all types of men.

“Exactly. Well, he called me a few days ago and asked if I wanted to take a weekend trip with him.”

“Leigh, I know you said no, having only known the guy barely over a week.” Yasmine cautioned her friend.

“Yassi, I may be a little freakish at times, but I’m not crazy. There are too many maniacs in the world. Well anyway, I told him it would have to be two separate rooms and I wouldn’t feel comfortable unless it was somewhere local. A girl never knows when she may need to make an escape.”

Yasmine looked back at the paper in her hand. “Well, I guess he didn’t have a problem with your request.” Yasmine handed the information back to her friend. “Have fun, hope the two of you enjoy it.”

“Yasmine, you’re coming with me.”

“Leigh, I don’t think Ernest will be happy about me joining your romantic get away—and even if he didn’t mind,
I’m
not that kind of girl.” Yasmine was insulted her friend would have suggested she tag along as the hopeless third wheel.

“Yassi, you’re crazy. You and I are the only two going. Ernest found out yesterday his daughter won some award or something.” Leigh waved her hand in the air in a dismissive gesture. “So, he gave me the information and he and I will get together another time. So, you’re going with me.” She declared.

“Leigh...I don’t know if I want to go away for a weekend.” Yasmine said guarded.

“Yassi, you more than anyone I know needs a break. A chance to relax and take stock of your life and a fancy hotel is just the place to do it.”

“I just—”

Leigh must have sensed that she was still unsure. “Okay, Yassi, you’re going and I will not take no for an answer. You have a month to come to terms with it.”

Yasmine didn’t know what to say to Leigh’s emphatic declaration, so she conceded. “
Fine
, I’ll go, but the next hospital briefing is yours and it’s on Monday.” Then turned and left the room as she muttered, “Some people can be so pushy.”

Yasmine could hear her friend’s laughter following her as she returned to her office.

~ML~

“...we’ll also have attendants carrying trays of your different products; like the suntan lotions and massage creams and oils, and so on. We’d like some of your company’s models to mingle with the guests in various styles of Scorpio’s new apparel—swimsuits and intimates. In addition, during the evening, the hotel has agreed to supply hors d’oeuvres offered by their staff around the room. The event would last from late afternoon to early evening, to include all types of contests and prizes.”

Jason finished pitching the promotional idea to the president of Scorpio; then sat down at his desk, giving Mr. Jordan the opportunity to absorb the information.

Jason observed Terrance Jordan as he sat quietly, the way he had been since he had begun his presentation on how Coleman and Weary were going to promote his business and get a jump on all of Scorpio’s competitors.

“I keep telling you, Jason, call me Terrance.”

“I’ll do that when the promotion is a success.” Jason sat at his desk watching the older man as he reviewed the information packet and boards in the room.

“A promotion party given in the most deluxe hotel by the sea, during the Neptune festival—which in it’s self will draw thousands of people. How could it be anything less than sensational?”

“I thought the same thing, sir. So is that a yes for my team to go forward in completing preparations?” Jason stood up and extended his hand to the other man.

Terrance Jordan rose along with Jason. “I have two conditions...”

“Which are?”

“One, my marketing team gets to sit in and participate in the meetings involving the setup.”

“The other one?” Jason never agreed to anything, until all of the information was out on the table.

Mr. Jordan beamed a smile at him. “You start calling me Terrance, because the entire idea you and your staff came up with is a success.”

“Deal.” Jason smiled and shook hands with a pleased Terrance. “By the end of the day, I will have a messenger deliver two copies of the contract including the change you requested. If you would please send one signed copy back, it will be official.”

“You got it.”

“I appreciate your confidence in Coleman and Weary, Terrance.”

“With a slogan like, ‘Scorpio: so bare it stings’, I couldn’t resist,” Terrance Jordan headed toward the door.

“Well we’re glad you approve. Thanks again.” Jason followed the older man out to the reception area.

Jason watched Terrance get on the elevator, when the door closed he turned to his secretary. “Call Kyle and tell him I’m e-mailing him the changes to the contract and I need it at least an hour before the end of day. Then order some food for tomorrow from one of the local restaurants for lunch and let my staff know we will be meeting at eleven thirty and tell them to bring plenty of pencils and paper, we’ve got a lot of work to do. Also, later on today, call Scorpio and have their marketing department send over the people who will be working on the promo this summer.” After he made sure his secretary had all of the information written down, Jason headed back into his office.

Jason paused before closing the door. “Make that lunch order from the deli, Jeannie.”

“Good choice, Mr. Richardson,” Jeannie assured him.

I guess it wouldn’t hurt to begin implementing some changes,
Jason thought to himself as he returned to his desk, picked up the phone and called his house to catch his part-time housekeeper before she went to the store.

~ML~

“
Ei
,
Yasmine como
são
você
fazer
?”

Yasmine smiled at the sound of her sister Laura’s voice on the phone, even though she hated it when her sister chose to speak to her in Portuguese. Laura knew Yasmine had trouble carrying on a full conversation with it. They both spoke perfect English, because their father was black and understood very little Portuguese and no one on his side spoke it at all. Yasmine bit her tongue and struggled through it.

She had just gotten back from visiting the twins at the orphanage. The phone rang while she was in the kitchen getting ready to prepare dinner.

“I’m doing good.” Yasmine added a light touch to her voice.

“Oh, yeah, then why does your voice sound phony?” Laura sounded unconvinced.

Yasmine wondered,
if it is so apparent to my sister, who lives at the bottom of the eastern coastline in Florida, then how visible is my misery to the people around me everyday?

She knew how obvious it was, that’s why Leigh had pressured her into going away for the weekend, soon.

Yasmine avoided the obvious. “Everything is going well at the office, Leigh and I have really grown our clientele by working some programs with the local hospitals.”

“That’s great, I always knew you guys would make a success of it. But, how’s the personal life since you so craftily left that out?”

“I have some potentials on the horizon.” Yasmine didn’t tell her sister that it had to do with trying to become a single parent of twins.

The sound of expectancy entered her sister’s voice, “Want to talk about him?”

Yikes
! Yasmine knew she should correct her sister assumption, but she chose not to because she didn’t want to worry her. “No, I don’t want to talk about that—but, I have great news.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m going away this weekend for a mini vacation, including a trip to a spa.”

“Wow, someone must really care about you.”

“Yeah, they really do.”

Yasmine had reluctantly agreed to go on the trip, but more and more she was glad Leigh had pressured her to go. She needed a chance to get away, clear her mind, and come up with the realization she probably wouldn’t end up with the twins.

“I’m glad to hear you’ve found someone who cares about you. I’ve been worried about you since your divorce from Blake.”

“Can we not bring his name up, Laura?”

“I know you don’t like to talk about him, but all I was trying to say was that I was worried he may have ruined any chance of happiness you could have with someone else. I was afraid you would close yourself off from a relationship because of him.”

Boy, her sister didn’t know how on the mark she was about her personal life. Yasmine would keep it to herself as she always did. She and her family weren’t extremely close; they all preferred to live their own lives. She and her parents had been estranged since her divorce. Her parents never believed things were bad enough to warrant breaking wedding vows. Even when she tried to explain to them that Blake was trying to hurry along the ‘til death do us part’ vow. Her mother told her that he just had anger issues that counseling could have fixed. Her father never said anything, one way or the other.

“How are you doing, Laura?”

“Great, I’m dating this guy that works at the school and it looks like marriage may happen for us.”

“How long have the two of you been dating?”

“Three months, but the relationship is going so well. We’re always with each other, or on the phone talking.”

That was always her sister’s story. She was the oldest by five years, a kindergarten schoolteacher that had never been married. Every guy she dated for more than three months looked like marriage was going to happen. She didn’t know why her sister had never been asked, she was sweet and would probably make an excellent wife and good mother.

But maybe the guys she dated were wrong for her, or they could sense her eagerness to get to the altar and it scared them away.

Her sister was also different from her in that she completely submerged herself in the Portuguese culture and traditions. When she, found a small little community in Florida, she had been delighted. All of the guys that she dated were of Portuguese descent—her music choices, the food she ate and she attended a Catholic Church, which was their mother’s original practice. Until she fell in love with their father and started to attend his Baptist church, the denomination Yasmine attended still. Her mother had always told them that it didn’t matter what church you worshipped in as long as God’s presence was there. As children, but they still went to Christmas mass and celebrated the season of Lent and if she or her sister did something wrong, they still had to go to confession.

Yasmine still practiced many of the traditions her mother had instilled in them; nothing but fish on Fridays was a big one.

“Laura, I hope it happens for you. I know how much you want it and I think you’d make a wonderful wife and mother.”

“You would have too.” Her sister’s voice held a sincere note.

Yasmine knew she didn’t realize her blunder. Sometimes her sister talked and didn’t think about the impact of her words. Having just left the orphanage, not to mention thoughts of the child she’d lost, she felt too raw to continue this conversation.

“Laura, I need to get going.”

“Okay, I just wanted to say “Hi” and let you know you were on my mind.”