The Company We Keep (16 page)

“M
y annual pap test last week is the closest I’ve come to having sex in a whole year.”

Teri’s words didn’t surprise Carla. Nothing she said did anymore. “And that’s a damn shame. It’s been a whole year now since your breakup with Harrison, right?” Carla said in a gentle voice.

Teri nodded. “A year and three days actually.”

“So, other than your gynecologist, no man has touched you in more than a year?”

“Not unless I can count the hugs I get from Grandpa Stewart and Reverend Upshaw on a regular basis…” Teri didn’t have a problem being so frank with Carla. She felt comfortable sharing information with her that she couldn’t even share with Nicole. However, she didn’t like the fact that Carla had a notepad in her hand and was busy scribbling something after every comment she made.

“So how does that make you feel?”

“I’m horny as hell, and if I don’t get some soon, I won’t be responsible for my actions,” Teri admitted with a weary look on her face.

“Well, you can always invest in a few sturdy sex toys.” One thing that Carla’s patients liked about her was her sense of humor. But Teri did not find Carla’s bold suggestion the least bit amusing.

“Yeah. I just might do that,” she snapped, clearing her throat and looking away from Carla. She was too embarrassed to tell Carla that she’d already worn out a couple of vibrators. But Teri had a feeling that Carla already knew that. Especially after the conspiratorial look Carla gave her after the sex toys comment. This was one of the few times that Teri wished she didn’t know about Carla’s psychic abilities. She was so embarrassed her face felt as if somebody had stuck a match to it.

While Carla paused to write on her pad, Teri rose, stretched, and strolled to the large wall-to-wall back window. She parted the ivory-colored blinds and shaded her eyes with her hand. The early June sun was almost as bright and warm as it would be by the middle of August. Even with her eyes shaded, Teri still had to squint to see the backyard that the Andrews were so proud of. The kidney-shaped pool was still covered. Some of the lawn furniture was also still covered, but Pepe—the eager and thorough young Salvadoran who did landscaping chores on the Andrewses’ property—was busy mowing the lawn.

“You haven’t talked about work in a while. I assume that’s because everything is going well there,” Carla commented, talking with her back to Teri. Teri sniffed and returned to her seat, glad to see that Carla had stopped taking notes.

“It’s a job,” Teri said with a heavy sigh. “I’m working on a new album project right now.” She paused and gave Carla a thoughtful look. “I am worried about the recording session scheduled for tonight. These artists are difficult.”

“What artist isn’t difficult?”

“I’m waiting to hear if we’ve booked the right group they want to use to do backups on a couple of songs and the right models for the publicity photos. You know, almost every male artist—and a few of the females—want to fuck me at some point in the relationship.”

Carla drew in her breath, then scribbled furiously. “Oh? And how do you feel about that?”

“It’s kind of difficult to tell you this, but my first year at Eclectic, I spent more time fucking than a porn star. I am happy to say that that got old real fast.” Teri shuddered just recalling her wild youth.

“When did you stop enjoying sex? Being abstinent more than a year is a long time for a woman like you.”

“A woman like me?” Teri gasped and looked at Carla with her eyes stretched wide open. “What do you mean by that?”

“Calm down,” Carla suggested, holding up a hand. “You’re young, you’re beautiful, and you work in an industry that oozes sex. I’ve known you long enough to know that you are a sensuous woman. Well, you used to be.” Carla picked up her pen again and started tapping the top of her desk.

“I’m still a sensuous woman,” Teri said, her voice faltering. “I just got tired of jumping in and out of bed with the wrong men. Dwight’s got too much action going on in his life. I know I could never resume my relationship with him. And I feel sorry for any woman who thinks she can tame a professional athlete. Especially one as popular as Dwight.”

“What about some of the single men you work with?”

“Ssssss!”
Teri hissed, waving her hand as though she were shooing a fly. “Most of them are in the same boat with Dwight. The only single man that I work with who is worth his jockstrap is Eric. But our relationship is strictly professional. Not only is he a fantastic photographer, I am sure you’ll agree, but he’s also a great guy. I enjoy working with him, but that’s all.” Teri paused and rubbed the tip of her nose. “Besides, Nicole’s had her hungry eye on him and from what I’ve seen so far, he’s been eyeballing her, too.”

“What about Harrison?”

“In a perfect world, he’d be perfect for me,” Teri said with a dry laugh. “I don’t know what he thinks, though.”

Carla gave Teri a mysterious look, wondering what she would say if she told her how important she was to Harrison.

“Tell me the one thing you think contributed the most to your breakup with Harrison.”

“The fact that he was, and probably still is, so fucking high maintenance. And he had the nerve to tell me that I was high maintenance.” Teri chuckled. A somber look swept across her face like a veil. “Men like him need a woman around twenty-four seven. Like a mama or something.”

“That’s because when it comes to the opposite sex, men will be
boys. And
baby
boys at that. They need to be taken care of. And as far as they are concerned, that’s what their women are for. First their mama, their sisters, and any other females in the family. Then as soon as they come of age, their needs become the responsibility of the girlfriends, wives, and mistresses. It’s been that way from the dawn of time. I laugh when people say that prostitution is the world’s oldest profession. The world’s oldest profession is just being a woman. Our work is never done.”

“Carla, I just want to be happy,” Teri lamented. “I want what every other woman wants. I’ll be thirty soon. Once my grandparents are gone, I’ll be virtually alone.”

“You’ve got other relatives,” Carla reminded. “They are scattered all over the place.”

“And I hope that’s where they stay.” Teri laughed. “I can do bad by myself, if you know what I mean.”

“I do. I do know what you mean,” Carla assured her.

T
eri was still thinking about her session with Carla the next morning when she arrived at work. She had two meetings scheduled before lunch and a conference call with the blind rapper and his diva of a manager. She had no idea what they wanted to demand or complain about this time so she was not looking forward to the call.

Another disturbing issue she had to keep on the front burner was her boss. Victor was all over the place, fussing and cussing up a storm. The rumor around the office was that his latest wife wanted to leave him to be with another man and wanted to take a huge chunk of his money with her. So in addition to acting like a scalded rooster, he was looking like hell these days, too. Since he was already homely, a lot of people didn’t even notice a difference. But to the more observant people like Teri and Nicole, they noticed how bad their boss was looking. The heavy blue bags he’d had removed from underneath his eyes a couple of years ago had returned and this time with a vengeance. He looked ten years older. His dyed, black hair, with the gray roots of every single strand showing for the first time, looked thinner. His ponytail resembled a beaver’s tail—flat and stiff.

“Keep as far away as you can from Victor today. He looks like
hell and I don’t want you to get caught up in the crossfire,” Teri told Nicole with some concern as soon as Nicole arrived.

“I take it he’s in a bad mood this morning?” Nicole asked casually.

“What’s that dragon’s name that breathes fire?”

“What are you talking about? Some
Harry Potter
shit? What the fuck has a fire-breathing dragon got to do with Victor?”

“Victor is that dragon this morning.” Teri lowered her voice and leaned closer to Nicole’s ear. “I heard his wife is leaving him for another man,” she reported.

“No shit?” Nicole said, cursing under her breath. “He has my sympathy because I know how that feels. Well, thanks for the warning.”

“Have you spoken to Barry Conover about his boy Trevor?” Teri wanted to know. There was a grave look on her face. “I tell you, some of the agents and tour promoters and managers are just as much trouble as their artists. Barry’s a major thorn in my side. And I thought that blind rapper’s manager was a bitter pill to swallow. Sheesh!”

Nicole nodded as she turned on her computer. “I told Barry to make sure Trevor is on time for the meeting. He has a nasty habit of missing planes. I saw another meeting on your Outlook calendar for this morning that I don’t remember setting up. Didn’t say who with, though. What’s up with that?”

“I did that before I left the office last night. It’s with—well, look who’s here,” Teri said, revealing one of her warmest smiles as Eric entered the reception area, lugging one of his cameras and a briefcase that had seen better days, and approached Teri. “I hope we didn’t have a meeting scheduled for this morning that I forgot about or that someone forgot to tell me about,” she said, rubbing Eric’s shoulder and looking at Nicole at the same time.

“I don’t have an appointment with you this morning, but I was passing by and was hoping I could catch you free. All I need is five minutes.” Eric grinned as he gave her a brief embrace. Then he turned to Nicole and smiled. She grinned so hard she bit her tongue. She had not seen him since his last visit to the office a week ago. “Nicole, how are you doing?”

“I’m fine,” she managed.

Teri bit her bottom lip and glanced at her watch. “Well, if I don’t meet with Trevor Powell soon, the shit is going to hit the fan big time. I was going to have to talk to you about him anyway. His album cover bid is too high.”

“You’re telling me
now
,” Eric said, his smile gone.

“Come on, Eric. Work with me,” Teri pleaded, folding her arms. She wore a navy blue skirt and a bright yellow blouse. Not only was the blouse just a little too snug, it was low-cut. It was difficult for Eric to keep his eyes on her face. And that was another issue. He often wondered how the men that Teri had to work with could continue to maintain their composure when they had to deal with her face to face. He liked Teri, but he liked Nicole even more. She was more his speed. Teri was too ambitious and way too high maintenance for a simple hot-dogs-and-beer dude like himself.

Now Nicole was a different story. Eric didn’t know that much about her, but he knew enough to know that she was more his speed than Teri. The way she looked and acted around him revealed a lot about her. If only he didn’t have that loud-ass bitch Yvette in his life!

“Wasn’t the bid approved already?” Eric questioned, shaking his head. He glanced at Nicole, then he turned back to Teri. “Do you want to continue this in your office?”

“I wish I could,” she replied. “But it would take more than a few minutes and that’s more than I can spare right now. Look, why don’t you work with Nicole and get on my calendar as soon as possible, later today or even this evening after hours. If you can’t come to me, I will come to you.”

“Cool. But before I leave I just want to know one thing—wasn’t that bid approved already?”

“Yes it was, but only if it can be cut by 5 percent.” Teri held her breath as Eric thought this over.

“That’s not the way I do business, Teri,” Eric said, looking thoroughly disgusted. “That’s not what we agreed to.”

“I approved your budget, Eric. The changes were made over my head. I can’t do anything about that. You know I love working with you and I want to continue doing so. I enjoy it, and I know you need the work. But—and I know you don’t want to hear this—but my hands are tied. Victor made it clear that if you didn’t
agree to this, he’d go with another photographer. Nicole, did Barry finally settle on what model he wants featured on the album cover with Trevor? I want Eric to shoot her.”

Nicole responded, “Yeah, but I just found out a few minutes ago that she violated parole. Something about her slapping a waiter at McCormacks. But we’ve got her look-alike sister to fall back on.”

Teri rolled her eyes and slapped the side of her head. “That’s one less headache I have to deal with.” She released a huge sigh of relief.

“And I’m sorry to be one of the headaches that you do have to deal with. But this is not fair, Teri. I’ve worked with Trevor before. His last album went gold and I shot the cover for that album. If anything, I should be getting more money this time, not less! Where is the logic?”

“This isn’t about logic. And honestly, it’s not even about Trevor. It’s about power, who has it and who doesn’t have it.” Teri was silent for a few moments. “Enough said. You do me a favor and go with this, and I will pay you back.”

“I see,” Eric said. From the look on his face, he was through with this conversation. Nicole was glad to see that he was a man who knew when to quit. But as far as she was concerned, he was still in a good position. How many other struggling photographers, with just a few credentials to their credit, got to work with some of the top recording artists in the business? And Eric didn’t seem like the kind of person to push his luck. She liked that because she wasn’t, either.

People often asked her why she’d settled for being “just a secretary” when there were so many other opportunities available these days. But she was happy being a secretary. She was already where she wanted to be. She wouldn’t trade places with Teri for all the money in the world. Or her cousin Lola. That magazine that Lola wrote for had just about sent her screaming to the nut-house. She was always stressed out about one job assignment or another. Last year after she’d interviewed a group of rowdy Hells Angels, she’d had to take the next two weeks off to recover. No, Nicole had gone as far as she wanted to go. She had a steady job, a son she loved, and almost everything she needed to be happy.
Now if she could just get herself a do-right man like Eric she wouldn’t have to die to find out what heaven was like.

“Can I call you later in the day to set up an appointment?” Eric asked. Nicole didn’t realize he was talking to her until Teri cleared her throat and shot Nicole an impatient look.

“Oh! Yes, please do that,” Nicole chirped, looking and acting flustered. She started straightening papers and pads on her desk, but her eyes were still on Eric’s face.

He handed her his business card. “If I don’t call you, would you please call me?” he asked.

Teri excused herself, rushed into her office and shut the door.

“I’ll do that,” Nicole said, blinking.