Page 6 of Mr. Big Stuff

From the moment I walked into his office, I’d been tongue tied over his beauty. Yes his beauty. There was no other way to describe the fineness of him. His broad shouldered, husky but athletic build might have intimidated a lot of people. He was at least six three or four, over two hundred and fifty pounds of deep dark chocolate goodness with a voice to match it. The size of his hands and feet alone told me a lot about him, even though many would say that was a myth and a poor way to judge penis size. Myth or not, there was some real-life experience under my belt that said chances were, thatallof this man was large and not just his limbs.

He cleared his throat, and it was then, I realized I was staring and hurried to get myself together. His delectable lips spread into a grin.

“Yes, I am. I should have the report of grocery store start-ups in markets similar to Pittsburgh to you by this afternoon.”

“That’s great. I do need your assistance on something else. My previous assistant had trouble getting me connected with Khalil Berry of KIB. Heard of him?”

When I nodded wondering where this was going, he continued.

“Good. I need you to find a way to get him on the line to discuss a potential sponsorship of the Mr. Black Juneteenth Black Gold Block Party I’m organizing. I’ll give you access to the shared folder on the network with all the contact information in it. Can you take over?”

No way I could say no, even if I wanted to.

“Yes, I can manage that, Mr. McCullough.”

“Perfect. I have a meeting with a client at eleven, so I’ll be tied up until about lunch time. Feel free to message me on the messenger if you need anything while I’m on the zoom.”

“Sounds good.”

Even as I admired the breadth of his back as he left to go back to his office, my mind was on my dilemma., I leaned back in my chair with a feeling of defeat. Everything in my life always came back to KIB.

It was one of the best jobs I’d ever had, honestly, and luckily for me, I burned no bridges there, so calling and getting a hold of anyone I knew, wouldn’t be a problem. It’s just that I wanted to move on. I wanted to be able to leave where I felt stuck at and show them and anyone else, I had elevated and now here I was a temp assistant calling there to beg for Khalil Berry to call Mr. McCullough, my new sexy boss.

Chewing on my lips, a thought occurred to me. And I picked up my phone and placed a call.

“Hey, Carina, girlfriend,” I cooed when she answered.

“Hey, girl. How is day two going?”

“It’s great. It’s really quiet here and he gives clear instruction on what he needs done. What about you? You have a good day?”

“Girl, it’s jam packed, but you know how it is.”

I hesitated to agree. I knew how itused to bebecause she and I worked alongside each other for years. But she moved up several floors and her role in management was very different than the one we shared running audits on the system.

I sought a way to move the attention away from my past.

“I hear you. Did you and your sister finally agree on your dress for her wedding.”

I heard her hard laugh. “Girl, that’s going to take at least another two committee meetings. Tori has been under a lot of stress and needs to take a chill pill quick, but Mama said I’ll be the same way when it’s time for me and Salik’s wedding next year.”

I swallowed my feelings and put on a smile so she could hear it when I said, “I highly doubt you’ll be as frazzled as your sister. You’re the calm one.”

“Tell that to Salik. He seems to think the opposite lately.”

That made me sit up straight. Were they having trouble? Those two seemed to be inseparable last we spoke, and I knew it would be no time before they were married and starting a family. But she shared less and less about them so maybe they were having problems. I needed to identify why I would be so interested in whether there was trouble in paradise but not now.

“Everything okay?”

“Of course, love. All is well. Now tell me what’s up or did you just want to hear my voice?”

Her dismissal was swift, leaving me with no way to come back to it so I moved on right along with her.

“That too. But I need a favor.”

“Shoot.”

I spent a few minutes explaining what I needed.

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