The Company We Keep (23 page)

“C
ompany?” Grandma Stewart asked, mumbling something unintelligible under her breath. She cleared her throat before she spoke again. “Is that what you just said?”

The next voice Teri heard belonged to her grandfather.

“Teri, you got company?” He spoke in a hurried tone of voice, as though he was afraid he’d forget what he wanted to say if he didn’t release the words fast enough.

“Not now. But, uh, a friend was with me. That’s all.”

“Well, it must be more than just a friend if you didn’t want to take calls or even get messages. Who?”

“Who what?”

“Who was your company? We know all of your friends.”

“I’ll tell you all about it when you get back home. How was the funeral?”

“The funeral is tomorrow. Mother helped pick out the burial dress—sky blue. Sister Conroy’s favorite color,” Grandpa Stewart said with a cough. “And let me tell you something, girl. These kinfolks of hers have already looted her house like those devils did after Katrina struck. I hate to think of how those stooges in our family are going to behave when me and Mother cross over.”

“Well, as long as there’s a breath in my body, you won’t have to worry about a thing. I’ll make sure of that,” Teri vowed.

For the next ten minutes, Teri’s grandparents took turns beating her over the head with mundane information she had absolutely no use for. What in the world made them think she’d want to hear the details of Brother Broadnex’s gall bladder surgery? Before they released her, they gave her an updated report on their own health. Had she believed everything they told her, she would have started planning their funerals as soon as she got off the telephone.

When they paused long enough for her to speak, she jumped in and said, “I think I hear somebody knocking on my door…”

“Sweetie, anybody lucky enough to have you in their life is blessed tenfold. I hope all your friends appreciate you as much as me and Mother do. Bye, baby.”

Monday morning when Teri returned to work, she was surprised at the stack of mail in her in-box. There were the usual industry magazines; several postcards from Victor, who was having an “awesome” time on vacation with his wife; and battered interoffice envelopes bulging with a lot of office riffraff that went no further than her trash can or shredder. At the bottom of the heap was a small envelope with no return information. She quickly opened it. It was an invitation to another party from Young Rahim and a scribbled “apology” at the bottom for his recent crude behavior in front of her and Nicole in the Eclectic conference room. His writing looked like that of a five-year-old, big and blocky.

Nicole arrived a few minutes later. She immediately peeked into Teri’s office. “Well, now. The prodigal sister returns,” she teased. “Things were pretty quiet while you were out so you don’t have to worry about cleaning up any messes.”

“Did Victor call? I received a few postcards from him.”

“Haven’t heard a peep from him, thank God,” Nicole said with a look of relief on her face. Then she added in a hopeful tone of voice, “If we’re lucky, the airline will go on strike and he will be stranded for a couple of weeks…”

“I doubt if we’ll ever get that lucky,” Teri said with a snort. “Hey, what are you doing this coming Friday night?”

Before Nicole replied, she held her breath, tilted her head to the right, and gave Teri a cautious look. “Why?”

“Rahim is having another party and the invitation says I can bring a guest.” Teri wanted to invite Harrison to go with her, but she thought it would be a good idea to take things more slowly. Now if he had invited her to go to a party with him, it would have been a different story. From her point of view, she didn’t want to appear too clingy or make it seem like she was smothering him so soon in the relationship. She’d already decided that she would let him make most of the moves until she knew where the relationship was going. However, if and when he made a move she didn’t like she would not hesitate to let him know, and in no uncertain terms.

“You would think that by now that numbskull would send me my own invitation.”

“Maybe he doesn’t think he knows you that well yet.”

“He thinks he knows me well enough to fondle me,” Nicole reminded.

“Oh, I forgot about that,” Teri said, exhaling a loud breath. “Maybe he wants to limit his guest list by killing two birds with one stone. He knows I’ll be bringing you as my guest, anyway.”

“Not this time,” Nicole announced. “I’m not available Friday night.” She had a tight look on her face, and that told Teri all she needed to know.

“You and Eric are going to do something? Again?”

“Again.” Nicole grinned with a sparkle in her eyes.

Teri wanted to wipe the look off Nicole’s face with a dirty rag. But since she didn’t want another friend to know that she was slightly jealous of her, all she did was smile and say, “That’s so nice.” Her voice was small and more than a little sad. She hoped Nicole didn’t detect that and feel sorry for her. The last thing she wanted was pity.

“Eric and me, and Miguel and Louisa. And all the kids, of course.” Nicole gave Teri a wan smile. “Eric’s daughter, Akua, is a little doll, and she and Chris hit it off immediately. Miguel took the kids to Disneyland on Saturday and now I want to repay the favor. I’m cooking dinner for us all this Friday. If you don’t go to Rahim’s party, you can join us.”

“Oh, I don’t think so. I wear a lot of hats but I never wanted to wear the same one worn by the ‘man who came to dinner.’”

“The who?”

“It’s an old movie,” Teri said waving her hands. “It’s not important. Okay,” she mouthed. “I’ll go by myself.”

“Aren’t we forgetting somebody else? I’m sure that that somebody else you know would probably love to go to Rahim’s party.”

“Your cousin Lola? I don’t think so. She’s been bugging me for months to bring her to some of the parties we go to.”

“I was talking about Harrison,” Nicole said, her tongue snapping brutally over each word. There were times when Teri exasperated her to the point of no return. “And you know damn well who I was talking about.”

“Hmm. Well, he probably received his own invitation, but I’ll mention it to him anyway.”

Harrison did have his own invitation to Rahim’s party, but he had other plans. That’s what he told Teri when she broke down and asked if he wanted to be her escort. He didn’t reveal to Teri what those plans were and she didn’t ask.

To her everlasting horror, Teri ended up going to the party with Lola after all. Lola had finally come by her condo to deliver the copies of the magazine article that Teri had been waiting on for more than a week and when she saw Teri all dressed up, she made it her business to find out where Teri was going. As soon as she found out Teri was going alone but could bring a guest, she wasted no time inviting herself.

“I don’t have time to go all the way back home to get cute, but I’m sure you’ve got something in your closet I can slide into,” Lola had told her, gushing like a teenager.

She’d had fun at Rahim’s party but she’d left early. She slunk out his back door and trotted across his spacious lawn to get to her car parked on a side street around the corner. Lola had already left with one of the musicians that backed up Rahim. Dwight had also been present, dressed like a tall penguin, with that oversexed Mia clinging to him like a grapevine.

Teri was glad to know that Harrison had not slept with Mia the
night he took her home from the Andrewses’ party after all. At least that was what he’d told her when she asked him that night at his place. And the only reason she’d brought it up was because he had asked her if she would ever get back into Dwight’s bed. And of course she’d told him that she would not. As a matter of fact, she’d told him that she’d climb into a bed of nails before she got back into Dwight’s. Hearing that had pleased Harrison so he’d dropped the subject.

Teri had danced up a storm with almost every man who asked her, but she had avoided Dwight like the plague. However, he’d still managed to corner her a few times, still trying to get her to agree to another rendezvous with him. His plea now included a “for old times’ sake” enhancement, but that made no difference to Teri. She had no desire whatsoever to see Dwight again. Especially since Harrison was back in her life.

Yvette had come to Rahim’s party alone, dressed like a low-rent hooker and sulking like a two-year-old. When Teri overheard somebody ask Yvette where Eric was, she said that Eric was at home in bed with a bad cold. Teri laughed to herself when she heard that and couldn’t wait to tell Nicole.

When Teri got home around midnight, Harrison was sitting in his car in front of her building, lurking like a bounty hunter.

W
hen Victor returned to the office he was glad to see that everything was under control. However, he was disappointed when Teri admitted to him that he had not been missed.

“Are you always so brutally honest?” he wanted to know, glaring at her as she stood in front of his desk updating him. He had spent so much time in the sun that he was almost as dark as she was. And he looked like hell. Even more so than usual. Teri wondered how long it was going to take for white folks to get it in their heads that the sun was one of their worst enemies.

“Well, you asked.” She grinned.

Victor gave her a dry look, then a smile. “I trained you well, didn’t I?” He paused and cleared his throat. Then he got serious. “There are a lot of things I’d like to cover in the next few weeks. I hope you don’t have a lot of plans because you are going to be working some long hours for a while.”

“I don’t have a problem with that,” Teri told him, already wondering how this was going to affect her newly restored relationship with Harrison.

“I’d like to see the last two reports on the numbers for every artist on our roster.” Victor shuffled a few papers on his desk. “Set up dinner for me, yourself, that blind rapper, and his people.
Something exotic as long as it’s not Italian. That dago shit makes me shit,” Victor said with a grimace. “And how are things with that photographer you were so determined for us to work with? Hmm?”

“Eric’s been working out just fine. He accepted our offer and he’s already signed a two-year contract. He’s a great guy and an excellent photographer. And since he’s just now cutting his teeth, he needs the work.”

“His work is excellent,” Victor agreed with a nod. “Are we getting a lot of play time on the locals?”

“Oh, yes. Harrison Starr is still one of our biggest supporters,” Teri said eagerly, with her face glowing like a firefly.

“Well, let’s keep him happy,” Victor advised. “Now!” He rubbed his palms together and smacked his lips. “I don’t want to be disturbed for the rest of the day. I’ve got hundreds of e-mails to plow through. Is there anything else?”

“Not at the moment,” Teri said, grateful that Victor had decided to conclude this meeting so soon.

“Then you can go,” he said. With that, he turned his back to Teri and faced his computer.

Nicole was on the telephone when Teri approached the reception area after she left Victor’s office. Nicole pointed to the small clock radio on her desk, motioning for Teri to listen. With a puzzled look on her face, Teri stopped and leaned over the desk. Now that Teri was involved with Harrison again, she rarely listened to his show. She wanted them to have a real chance and that meant not spending more time than necessary with him, or on him. She knew from experience that “overexposure” could have a devastating effect on a relationship. However, she kept up with Harrison’s shows anyway because it was the only show that Nicole and almost everybody else at Eclectic listened to during the morning.

Even with the mild static coming from Nicole’s five-year-old radio from a dollar store, Harrison’s voice was as smooth as silk. “
And coming up after our station break is Anita Baker with ‘Caught up in the Rapture,’ one of my favorite golden oldies. This one is a very special dedication to a very special lady…Teri, this is the Morning
Starr, and I want you to know that you’ve got me caught up in the rapture, too…”

“No he didn’t,” Teri said, embarrassed. She looked around the reception area. “I hope Victor didn’t hear that.”

“If he didn’t, he will. Harrison’s been mentioning you quite a bit lately.” Nicole turned her head to the side and gave Teri a look of approval. “In all the years that I’ve been listening to the Morning Starr, you are the first woman he’s showcased like this. Other than the artists, I mean.”

“Well, I am flattered.” Teri couldn’t stop grinning. “Uh, listen. Victor’s cooking up all kinds of shit for us. The way he talks, we are going to be attending back-to-back meetings over the next few weeks. We’ll probably both have to do some serious overtime.”

“Cool. I could use the money. Greg has been late with the last three child support payments,” Nicole hissed. Then her face froze. “Oh, hi, Victor,” Nicole said, turning toward the hallway.

He nodded at Nicole as he stopped in front of Teri waving a report in his sunburned hand. “Teri, I just read your comprehensive A&R report for black music,” he said, holding the report up to her face. There was a grim expression on his face but that didn’t mean anything. Victor was the only person Teri knew who could look that way and still be in a good mood. She was lucky this time. “Good work! I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, you are brilliant.”

“Thank you, Victor,” Teri said, trying not to sound too proud of herself. “I always set out to do my best.”

“And you always do,” Victor quipped, grinning through cracked lips. “How was Trevor’s last session?”

“It was very strong. I was thoroughly impressed,” Teri said, beaming.

“Good! I’m glad to hear you say that. I’d like to listen to the tracks myself later today. Which ones do you suggest?”

“Check out ‘Breathless’ and ‘Favorite Flava,’ please,” Teri suggested.

“Flava?” Victor replied with his head tilted to the side and one eyebrow lifted. “And what rap lingo is that? What are we talking about here?”

“It means flavor,” Nicole offered.

“Then why the hell don’t they just say flavor?” Victor snapped. There was a hard look on his face but not for long. He sucked in some air, and then he laughed, braying like a mule. “These kids. I guess we can’t all speak the Queen’s English. I suspect that life would be pretty dull if we all did.” Victor covered his mouth to muffle a belch and looked Nicole over as if she were up for inspection. “Nicole, that’s a lovely broach you’re wearing. It’s good to see that your taste is improving,” he said with a wink.

“So is yours. You brought this back for me from Paris,” Nicole reminded him, giving him a wink back.

“Oh. So I did, so I did.” Victor rolled his eyes and shrugged.

Nicole decided that whatever his wife had done to him on their latest vacation, it must have done the trick. He was a changed man. She and Teri had never seen Victor behave in such a frivolous manner. Even at the Christmas parties he usually wandered around looking like he was at a funeral. He was in a better mood than he’d been in in years, and he had every reason to be. His business was in good shape and his marriage was back on the right track. He’d been so frisky in the bedroom lately that he hadn’t even had to rely on Viagra or any other sexual enhancement. “By the way, Teri, I hear that you’ve become quite popular. That is, if you are the Teri that Harrison Starr mentioned on his show this morning.”

“Harrison and I have become very close,” she confessed, blood rushing to her face. One thing she didn’t encourage was mixing business with pleasure. At least not where she was concerned.

Victor gave her an amused look, leaning his head so far to the side he almost fell. “Aren’t you a dark horse. I don’t remember the last time you mentioned much about your personal life. As a matter of fact, I just assumed you didn’t have much of one!”

“I’ve been so busy these last few months that I haven’t had much time to date.” Teri had to press her lips together to keep from frowning. The last thing she wanted to discuss with Victor was who she was sleeping with.

Victor got the message. From the look on Teri’s face he knew that it was time to conclude this conversation. But he was compelled to end it on a “positive” note.

“Well, as long as you’re happy that’s all that matters. I’ve come to realize that as long as a woman is happy, she’ll stay in her place. And since we’re on the subject,” he mused, looking at Nicole, “send a dozen red roses to my bride.” He turned back to Teri and winked.