Page 13 of I Accidentally Hired a Shadow Walker
“Hey, you just had half your team walk out the door, right? What good would it do either of us if we sign a contract while my team is on the way out? I had to make sure we could do what you needed.”
“Smart. Thank you.”
“I did question why you would come to Rose instead of one of the other firms in the area. I mean, there are a few, not major ones. Honestly, you're probably at the top of the list in terms of size and capacity. Surely one of them would have been a better fit for partnership.”
I shrugged. “They're all owned by men. I was only the second woman to open the round here, and I would have been the first had it not been for Rose. Actually, because of Rose, I had to work about ten times harder than I should have just to solidify my name in this space. She screwed over a lot of people, and, because we're both women, everyone assumed I would do the same thing. I made a lot of enemies because of Rose since she allegedly name-dropped me to so many people she screwed over. When I finally got into the room with them, they didn’t trust me.” I sighed. “So, my first thought was Rose. She’s not that great at business, she’d be less of a threat to try to steal my contract from under me, and, well, she owes me.”
“Look, I’m in if you are.” Raymond stood, unbuttoned the sleeve of his shirt, and rolled it up, revealing the tattoos on his arms. They reminded me of my own, but where I had vines, he had what looked like smoke trails. “You said you haven’t eaten. Maybe we can go to dinner together to celebrate.”
“Dinner?”
“Yes, unless you were lying about that just to try to rushme out of here.”
“I would never do that,” I lied. “Actually, I—”
Just then, there was a knock on the door. For a moment, I thought I’d been saved from having to cover my ass, but instead, I turned to see the man now known as Bathwater standing outside the door. Great, now I go from trying to avoid dinner to explaining why a stalker is at my door.
“Are you going to let that guy in?” Raymond asked.
“One moment.” I flashed a quick smile before heading to the door.
Please don’t let this man cause a scene and cost me this deal!
I took a deep breath, channeling my most professional self, then unlocked the door. As soon as the damn thing opened, Deonta started the most pathetic display of begging I’d ever witnessed from a man.
“Please, Jericha, you won’t answer my calls or anything.” He clutched his hands together as if pleading for food. “Tell me what to do. I’ll do anything you want. You know I will.”
“This is new,” I muttered.
I’d never had a man actually come to my job before, and if it hadn’t been for his ass following me, he wouldn’t have even known where I worked. The one thing I made sure of was to never let a man know where I laid my head or made my money. Hell, most of them didn’t even know my real name. I always went to them, and I always made sure to keep meetups at least ten miles from home. It was just my luck that when Deonta followed me, I was going to the office and not to my house.
“Stop this.” I lowered my voice to talk to him. “I’m not interested in continuing anything with you. Accept the rejection and go away.”
“I need you. How am I supposed to exist now?” He placed his hand on the door to stop me from closing it. “Doyou know how much you’ve changed me? I can’t do anything without thinking about you. I crave you, Jericha. What do you expect me to do now?”
“Therapy is a suggestion.” I rolled my eyes. “I really don’t have time for this right now, and all this begging doesn’t make you look any more attractive. You get that, don’t you?”
“Jericha…” I could see the panic in his eyes as he searched for something more to say, but there really wasn’t anything he could possibly say to me to make me change my mind.
“Is there a problem?” Raymond’s voice sounded in my ear at the same time I felt the heat of his body against my back.
“I—” Deonta looked up at Raymond, who was at least four inches taller than him. It was like he hadn’t even realized I wasn’t there alone, even though he had been well within view.
“No, there isn’t,” I answered for the befuddled man. “He was just about to leave. Weren’t you, Deonta?”
“You’re with someone else already?” Anger flashed across his expression. “It hasn’t even been a few days since I last saw you, and you’ve already moved on. Did I mean so little to you?”
“That is none of your business.” I refused to entertain whatever it was he was imagining. Deonta wasn’t my damn man. I owed him no explanation.
“Look, buddy, this looks bad.” Raymond moved around me, placing himself between Deonta and me. “You realize that, right?”
“I don’t care. This is what I want.” Deonta had the most pathetic expression on his face.
Even though I was ready to knock the man upside the head, Raymond kept his cool. He put his arm around Deonta’s shoulder and casually moved him away from the door, giving me a quick, reassuring glance. “Now, I don’t know you, butIknowyou’re better than this. You gotta be. What man comes to a woman’s place of work and begs for her attention like this? Trust me, I know, Jericha has a way of getting under your skin. She makes you think about her when you don’t want to. And then, she has that attitude that should make you hate her, but instead, you find yourself more intrigued. You want to solve the riddle that is this woman. Right?”
“That’s exactly it,” Deonta responded, as if relieved someone finally understood. “I can’t get her out of my head no matter what I do. I try my best to move on, but I can’t.”
“Trust me, take a long vacation, drink plenty of water, and you’ll flush that flu right out of your system.” Raymond patted Deonta’s shoulder and once again looked back at me, this time with a wink that made me want to slam the door in his face. “But you have to be strong here. Don’t show her your weakness, especially if you want any other woman to ever be attracted to you again. That type of desperation sets in under the skin, and it stinks. Women smell that stink, and they go running in the other direction. You feel me?”
