“Yeah, I never would've guessed that the players mix their business with personal pleasure that way.”
“Well, you have to remember we are expendable. We come a dime a dozen. Women would love to have our jobâwe get paid good money to just help out a millionaire with simple stuff. They know that if we don't play along, they will find someone else who will,” Debbie said.
“Well, with Nate, he's cool. I'm kind of like his tier-B girlfriend. He definitely takes care of me, so I'm not as bitter as Debbie here.”
“Why are you bitter?” Sereeta asked.
Debbie just shot Tamara a look; she didn't look angry, but just as though she didn't agree with the term
bitter
. “I'm not bitter,” Debbie said.
“She's with married Matt, so she's more like a secret mistress than a girlfriend. For me, it's nice. I'm single, I have nothing to lose. If I ask him to do something for me, he usually does. I sleep at his condo some nights and everything. For Debbie, it's always on the road at hotelsâlike there's no real bond between them,” Tamara explained.
“Damn, Tamara. You don't have to make me sound like a prostitute,” Debbie said.
“Well, at least Corey seems like he just expects you to be an assistant. You may miss out on the other perks from sleeping with him, but at least you won't get emotionally attached,” Tamara said to Sereeta, ignoring Debbie.
“What perks?” Sereeta asked.
“They're just more willing to lavish you with gifts and the perks of being an NBA wifey. They don't want you running to the newspapers or writing a tell-all book either, so they're going to do their best to keep things flowing between you once you enter that domain.”
“Interesting,” Sereeta said as she took a sip.
“I'm sure you will be fineâdon't let us scare you,” Debbie said.
Sereeta just laughed a bit.
Scared
wasn't the wordâshe was actually a bit insulted that Corey hadn't tried anything with her. She wondered if he wasn't attracted to her or if he was just that disciplined of a guy not to mix the two. She was finding it hard to believe that he was that disciplined. She wondered if the girls thought that maybe she wasn't good enough for Corey. She felt insecure for a moment and wanted them to know he wasn't strictly business with her.
“He brought me up to the skybox the other night to watch the game,” she said.
“Oh, that's nice. Which one, number twelve or eighteen?” Tamara asked.
“Twelve,” Sereeta said, feeling in-the-know.
“That's cool. Wait until he gives you a pass for number eighteenâthen you will really feel like you've arrived,” Debbie said.
“What's that?”
“That's where the NBA wives and girlfriends watch the game when they aren't sitting on the floor or something. Number twelve is typically for colleagues, family members, and friends they don't really rock with like that,” she answered.
Sereeta instantly felt stupid. Here she was trying to brag and still had to be put down.
“The players usually come up there afterward to get them or to hang out for a bit before going home with them.”
Sereeta quickly remembered how she'd felt the other night when she was hoping to see Corey after the game. She wondered if he'd gone to box #18 after the game, and she began to feel bad.
“It doesn't look strange for the assistants to be among the wives and girlfriends?” Sereeta asked.
“No, it's not just the wives and girlfriends. It's just like the VIP to the VIP, and most players have their significant others in there. So it doesn't look strangeâthey all know we work very closely with the players, so it makes sense. It's like when you're at a club and you're in VIPâand there is another VIP section where the actual celebrities sit. That's all,” Tamara said.
That's all?
Sereeta thought. Clearly it wasn't just “that's all,” or they wouldn't be praising it.
Whatever. I am Corey's assistant, not his concubine. I don't need to be in box #18,
she told herself.
It was at that moment that Sereeta decided she was definitely hanging out with Mark. She figured she would rather have her own man than be a mistress or a tier-B girlfriend anyway. She picked up her phone, texted Mark, and told him to meet her at her place.
Chapter 23
M
ark entered as if he owned the place. He was usually so humble and polite, but he seemed a bit more abrasive when he walked through the door and headed straight toward the couch without waiting for direction. Sereeta loved a man who took charge, but with Mark she was still trying to feel him out. The times they had spoken he was funny and charismatic but didn't like to talk much about himself. She was trying not to ask too many questions or seem too eager, because he gave off a vibe that he was the private type. She didn't mind that so much, but she was hoping he would eventually open up. She still didn't know his permanent place of residenceâhe referred to at least two places as home. She also didn't know much about his career or what he did in his free time. She still hadn't figured out which player in the NBA was his brother. Most people would brag and name-drop, but he hadn't brought it up since the first time he told her his brother played in the league. She was beginning to wonder if he had just lied about that to get some play.
“Hey, what's up, little lady?” he said on his way to the couch.
“Hey, Mister,” she said back.
“We watching a movie? You cooking for me? What we doing?”
She loved his cute but cocky sense of humor. “We chilling,” she replied.
He sat in the middle of the couch, so unless Sereeta was going to sit on another couch, she was going to have to sit fairly close to him. She was dressed in a pair of black fitted Victoria's Secret Pink sweat pants, a cut-off white T-shirt, and some fuzzy socks. She didn't want to be too dressed down in front of him because it was his first time coming over to her place, but she had been home for a couple hours and wanted to get comfortable. He was wearing a white T-shirt, jeans, a pair of Air Force Ones, and a Yankee fitted cap: the hip male's safe but cute outfit.
Sereeta chose to sit beside him on the couchâno need sitting a few feet away on another couch, as if they were in high school.
“A'ight, chilling works,” he said.
“What, are you in a rush or something?”
“Not at all. I'm yours all night,” he said. “Unless one of my other honeys calls me up. Then I'm going to have to bounce,” he said with a big grin.
She reached over, grabbed a pillow, and swung at his chest.
“Shut up,” she said.
“I'm kidding with you. I'm here for as long as you will have me,” he said.
She had to admit she liked the sound of that, but she wished he meant it with regards to life and not just for this one night.
She jumped off the couch with a quick motion, like she had just got real excited about something.
“OK, great. Well, let me pick a board game we can play,” she said.
“A board game?” he asked. “We can't just watch a movie or something?”
Sereeta giggled. “What, you don't like games?”
“I'm cool with games, but just not right now. I don't feel like thinking all that much, and I'm competitive, so I don't want to start no fights on our first date.”
She laughed. “This is not a date.”
“Right, and you are not one of my honeys.” Sereeta sat back down and placed her hands by her side.
“OK, OK, you win. We will watch a movie,” she said.
She picked up the remote and turned on the television.
“Let me see,” he said as he removed the remote from her hand.
“Excuse me,” she said.
“After you were trying to play a board game, I don't trust your judgment anymore,” he said.
Sereeta just laughed. She wanted to take the pillow again and hit him, but she opted against it. She had been told in the past by her exes that she hit too much. Sereeta was trying to ignore the little excited fireflies inside her belly, but she knew she couldn't ignore the fact that she was feeling him. There was something about himâit was as if she'd known him for years. He made her feel so comfortable. He was secure in himself, and it didn't hurt that he was fine, too. She liked his height and built, and she was loving his almond-shaped brown eyes and his smooth complexion.
I could definitely see myself having a baby with him,
she told herself. She knew she didn't want to jump the gun because she was well aware that this could possibly not go anywhere. That wasn't going to stop her from wishing and enjoying it along the way.
He was surfing through movie options on the movies-on-demand channel.
“Don't go picking no horror flick, trying to get me to jump into your arms or anything,” she said.
“Oh, you stuck on the old tricks. The new one is to watch a chick, romantic, lovey-dovey flick and then you get all emotional and sappy and vulnerable,” he said.
“Damn . . . y'all are horrible.”
“I'm just schooling you to the new game. You still stuck in the eighties.”
“I see,” she said.
“Or the dudes you been messing with are lame,” he said.
“The problem is I haven't been messing with anyone. Lames would be better than nothing probably.”
“Oh, so you are just settling for me? I hope not, 'cause I ain't no lame.”
“I am not settlingâknock it off. I'm just saying I haven't been dating,” she said.
“Why?” he asked. “You're such a pretty girl, and you're mad cool. You can't just keep yourself from the world like that.”
Sereeta laughed. “From the world? You're crazy.”
“Nah, but seriously, why don't you date? Your last boyfriend beat you up? You were a lesbian before?”
Sereeta cracked up laughing. She remembered they said when a guy kept you laughing, the guy could tell you liked them, so she was really trying to contain her joy.
“You are so stupid, I swear.”
“Alright, tell me. What is the reason?”
“Just working all the time,” she said. “I have been a workaholic lately. Corey keeps me real busy. Then I enjoy, alone, the little free time I get, so I just don't go out much to meet anybody.”
“So your last boyfriend wasn't a crazy ax murderer?” he said.
“No, my last boyfriend was sane and respectable. We just went our separate ways because he was fond of the ladies, I guess you could say.”
“Mmmm. I know what that means. Sorry to hear that,” he said.
“It wasn't a loss in my family or something. Geez. No need to say sorry to hear that.”
“Hell, the way y'all females be acting when you get cheated on, it seems worse than a death in the family.”
There was Sereeta laughing again. She wouldn't be surprised if he had counted all her teeth by now. She couldn't seem to help herself. Mark's wit was just too much for her. His mannerisms and characteristics were even funnyâhe made amusing facial expressions every time he said something.
“Pick a movie, damnit,” she said.
She hit him with the pillow again.
“
Sooorry.
Did I hit a sore spot?” he said.
“You are just a nut, that's all.”
Mark chose a movie from the menu and set the remote down. He sat back and extended his arm for Sereeta to lie back on him. She nestled under his arm and felt at home. She couldn't believe how nice things felt with this guy so soon. She was impressed that he hadn't tried to turn this visit into a booty call, or at least not yet, and he seemed just fine with cuddling up to a movie. Sereeta was hoping he was enjoying her just as much as she was enjoying him. She couldn't remember the last time she'd just hung out with a guy she was actually interested in and had that much of a good time from doing nothing. In the back of her mind, she was really hoping he could be her boyfriend one day. She just hoped that after she found out everything there was to know about him, she still felt the same way.
Chapter 24
I
t had been a long week, and to Madison there were still fifty things to do before the end of the day. It was Friday, and although the music meeting was usually on Wednesdays, the week was so crazy she had to reschedule it for Friday. The music meeting was where the programming department got together and looked over research to see which music was no longer hot and needed to come out of rotation. More importantly, the meeting was to listen to new music to see which songs should be added to the rotation. Some weeks the meeting took less than fifteen minutes, and others it took hours. It all depended on how much new music was out there and how many hits were already on the station.
This particular meeting, Madison was hoping to be in and out. She still had to meet with the sales team, take a conference call with the West Coast programmers, and try to leave at a decent time so she could go to a very important dinner with some music business executives. It was already one fifty-five and she was regretting moving the meeting from Wednesday. She had sent out an e-mail that morning letting the department know the meeting would be held at two PM, and Madison had put her work aside to get ready. When the hand was on the two and there was no sign of her staff, she instantly became annoyed.
“Hello!” she shouted from her desk.
Quickly, Alexis appeared in the doorway with all the needed material in hand. As a part of Alexis's assistant duties, she was responsible for making the folders for everyone that contained all the research data needed for the meeting. Seconds later, the rest of the department began to trickle in: Jocelyn, Keith, and one of the department interns. Madison allowed the interns to take turns sitting in on the meeting to learn the process, while the others tended to the phones and the department's visitors. It was 2:04, and everyone was sitting in a seat in her office; the door was closed. Madison was irritated, so she got right down to business.
“We don't have time to listen to a lot of music today, so everybody pick your favorite song, and we will listen to one song from each person.”
She noticed a couple glances, but she ignored them as she turned to her computer to open her e-mail.
Jocelyn began giving the data on the songs in rotations. As she went through each song and where they ranked, Madison would call out whether to leave it or remove it. Usually, this was something that was open for discussion among everyone based on other factors, but Madison was in no mood for all that, and time was of the essence. By the time they got finished with the power records, which were the songs with the heavy rotation, Madison could tell the room was a bit uncomfortable.
“Everyone OK? Any disagreements so far?”
The hesitation was extremely obvious. No one really wanted to speak up with the tension as it was. Eventually, Jocelyn spoke up.
“Actually, I think we should leave Fantastic Four in power rotation because it's still real big in the clubs and the video is just starting to rotate on BET.”
“But the research says it was ranked fourteen out of twenty,” Madison said.
“Yeah, but I think because it is fairly new and people are just getting used to it.”
“So then why were we playing it so early?”
“I really wanted us to break this record because I think it's going to be a huge record.”
“I am not playing a song that is testing badly as a power.”
“OK, well, can we keep it in the B category and slow up the rotation?”
“That's fine, but if research isn't better next week, it's coming off the air altogether or going in very light rotation.”
Everyone started jotting down the notes from the conversation. That was the first challenge of the meeting, and everyone knew that Jocelyn was hoping she wasn't wrong about the song becoming a hit. As the music director, her opinion of music was supposed to be her value to the position, and Madison thought it damn sure better be sensible if she was going to challenge the program director.
Once the notes were taken, Jocelyn continued going through the songs and their rankings with the audience testing and SoundScan, etc. Madison let the rest of the meeting flow as usual; she let Keith and Alexis make any comments about the songs and express their like and dislike for them. Instead of speeding up the entire meeting, she limited everyone's commentary by making final decisions quicker than usual. There were only two more categories to go through before it was time to play the new music, and Madison looked at her watch to set a goal to be done with the meeting by two thirty. Jocelyn went through the next category with ease; the next songs were researching about the same and were all new, so it was easily agreed to leave them in the same category for another week.
Just as Jocelyn was getting ready to start reading the next list of songs, there was a knock at the door. Madison gestured for Alexis to open it because she was sitting closest to it. Alexis stood and opened the door slowly. Once she saw a familiar face, she backed away so Madison and the rest of the room could see who it was as well. It was Kristin, the promotional representative for Intheloop Records.
“Hey, missy,” Madison said. “We're in the middle of a music meeting. Give us, like, ten more minutes.”
“On a Friday?” she asked.
“It's been a crazy week, so, yes, it's right now.”
“OK, well, I was just bringing a visitor by to see you,” she said as she waved her hand to someone.
Madison looked down at her watch and back up, and standing in her doorway was Polytics.
“Whassup, y'all?” he said, as he stepped in the room to give a pound to Keith.
“What a surprise this is!” Jocelyn said.
Madison looked at her to try to read if she meant anything by what she'd said. She wondered if Jocelyn knew, or if he had been flirting with Jocelyn, too. Hell, Jocelyn was the next best thing if his only goal was to get in the bed with someone powerful at one of the most powerful stations in the world.
“I see you guys are busy. I was just in the neighborhood, and we figured we would stop by.”
“Lucky for you, Kristin has a great relationship with us, because we don't just allow artists to pop upâthat's an extreme privilege,” Madison said.
“Really? I can't get any special privileges?” he asked.
Madison felt her stomach melt. In her mind, she felt like the entire room could read through his subliminal message.
“Lucky Kristin is with you,” she responded before her nervousness began to become too obvious.
“So because I'm privileged, can I sit in on the meeting to see how this works?”
Keith began to scoot over on the couch to make more room for Polytics and all his muscles. The entire room looked prepared for his participation, and Madison didn't want to be the bad guyâshe damn sure wasn't trying to bring any extra attention to herself, so she just giggled and added no response. He made his way across the room to the couch and sat down.
“I'm going to go speak with Jasmine,” Kristin said. “I'll be right back.”
“You are welcome to stay, too,” Madison said.
“No, these meetings make me too nervous and antsy. I'll return when it's over.”
“OK, it will be over shortly,” Jocelyn said as Kristin walked away.
Once Kristin walked out of sight, Madison didn't want to miss a bit, so she got right back to the meeting.
“So how are the songs in the G category?” she asked.
Jocelyn quickly fumbled through her papers to find the research. Once she found the information, she began to read out loud how the songs were testing. Madison tried to remain calm and natural despite the fact that Polytics was sitting a few feet away from her. She felt as though he was watching her every move, but she was trying to avoid eye contact. As normal as she may have appeared, she couldn't help but think about all that had gone down the last time the two of them were in her office.
As soon as Jocelyn was done with the current music, it was time to listen to the new music.
“Remember, we are listening to only four songs, so choose wisely,” Madison said as she looked around the room to make sure everyone got her point.
There had been plenty of meetings in which the goal was to keep it short, but everyone always tried to squeeze in one more song, so she was reminding them today that it was four only. She was happy she had planned to do that because there was no way she wanted to sit through a dozen songs with Polytics sitting in on the meeting.
“Well, let's start with Tryme's new song âFloating. ' It's about time to get on this record,” Jocelyn said.
She passed the CD to the intern and said, “Number seven.” She said nothing more because the intern knew what to do. He placed the CD in the CD player and pressed PLAY. Madison instantly thought to herself that Tryme wasn't necessarily a friend to the station right now, but she didn't want to open that conversation with guests in the meeting. The room sat back and listened to the track. Jocelyn and Alexis bopped their heads a bit, while Keith and Madison just twiddled with their pens. Polytics tapped his foot and observed what everyone was doing.
When the song was done, the intern stopped the CD.
“What else is there?” Madison asked.
Keith replied, “I think Lotus's mix-tape record is something we should at least be spiking; it's catchy, and they are playing it in the club.”
“This is radio, not the club,” Madison said.
They had all heard that line before, so Jocelyn and Alexis just giggled that he had set himself up for that one. Polytics looked Madison in the eyes as if her assertive, bossy side was making him feel a certain way. She didn't know if it was a turn-off or a turn-on.
“I know, but as a hip-hop station, I think this record is one that adds to our credibility.”
“I agree,” Polytics said.
Jocelyn turned to look at Polytics, as did Alexis and Keith.
Madison was so tempted to flex her muscles on him to let him know who was in charge, but she wasn't willing to risk putting herself in the middle of a challenge with this man when she really didn't know what he was capable of.
“Put it in,” Madison said.
“Put what in?” Polytics asked.
Madison shot him a look of shock. She knew damn well he had meant that in a perverted manner. She was very tempted to ask everyone to leave the room so she could talk to him, but she decided to leave it alone.
“The CD,” Jocelyn answered as she handed the intern another CD. “It's the first track.”
Madison looked at Polytics one last time to let him see how displeased she was with his comments. He gave her a smirk back, and for a quick second she really felt like she was being held at gunpoint and forced to comply. As she turned away, she caught him winking his eye. She looked back, and he turned away. He was playing cat and mouse right in the middle of the meeting. That was when she wondered if he was just flirting with her or if he was subliminally threatening her. Either way she knew she would have to talk to him when this was over. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt so defenseless.
The song began to play, and the room sat silent as they listened. They had all heard the song before, but this was the format to review all songs. However, midway through, Jocelyn told the intern to stop the music. Even after the song stopped, no one spoke. Jocelyn sifted through some CDs and handed the intern one more CD. As he placed the CD in the player, Madison looked over and realized this hadn't been discussed first.
“What is this?” she asked.
“ âRumors,' ” Jocelyn replied.
Before Madison could reply, the music had begun playing. It took only a second for her to recognize Polytics's voice coming from her speakers. From the look on his face, he recognized it as well. Jocelyn turned around to see his expression, and his smile said it all. Madison wasn't sure why she got so angry, but she felt her heartbeat start to race. Madison didn't know if she felt that Jocelyn was flirting with him or was trying to get on his good side, or if Madison was just pissed that she'd chosen to play it without running it by her first.
“Turn that shit off,” she said.
The look on everyone's face was the same. The intern quickly turned off the CD. Everyone just looked in shock and waited for her next words.
“Alexis, do you have a song you want to recommend for this week?”
Alexis was so nervous she didn't know what to do. Madison could feel Polytics looking at her, but she kept her eyes on Alexis.
“Um, I had one,” she said as she looked through the CDs on her lap.
“What was up with that?” Polytics said.
“With what?” Madison asked. She looked right at him and asked the question in a strong enough tone to let him know, whether they had slept together or not, he didn't want to push her much further.