Page 2 of Heated
Another quirk of Levi’s. An almost obsessive dedication to schedules, and woe to anyone who dares to try and interfere with his.
God knows I love him. I mean, we shared a womb together for thirty-seven weeks. And despite his reserve that makes the guys on Mount Rushmore look like a group of zany court jesters, he’s ... mine.
But damn, sometimes I just want to set that stick in his ass on fire with diesel fuel and a blowtorch.
“Okay, how about this?” I narrow my eyes on him. “Since I have a client that should be arriving in the next five minutes, and I don’t have time to wrestle Miriam to the ground, could you at least talk with Dani and remind her that any changes—marketing or financialwise—must be okayed by me first?”
Levi cocks his head, studying me, as if trying to figure out my angle. Suspicious, that one. Finally, he gives me a sharp nod.
“Yes, I can do that.”
“Thanks. ’Preciate it.” I swear I try and keep the sarcasm out of my voice. But hell, I’m only human. And it’s fifty-fifty whether he catches it anyway. “If you’ll—”
A knock reverberates on the door, and a moment later, Deanna Lynn, our office manager, opens it and slants her upper body inside.
“Hi, Levi.” She smiles at my brother, and I mentally shake my head at the slight gleam in her eyes as she scans his tall frame. Oh, woman. Iflost causehad a face. “Hey, Zora,” she says, switching her attention to me. “Your eleven o’clock appointment just arrived.”
“Great. I’ll be right out to meet her. Thanks, Deanna.”
“No problem.”
She backs out of the office as I rise from my chair, closing out the files and programs I have open, and quickly pull up the intake form we have all new clients fill out before arranging a meeting with them. When someone requests any of our services—whether it’s a text or a dinner in a Michelin-starred restaurant—we require an initial appointment. Most of our customers are sincere in their intentions to end their relationships with zero mess or acrimony. But occasionally, we have those—well, let’s just call them what they are—assholes who either want to waste our time with ridiculous requests or the bitter ones who seek to humiliate and shame their soon-to-be exes. And that’s not what we’re here for. Hell, Levi, Miriam, and I lived that bullshit—still do when we can’t avoid going home for family dinners or holidays—andI’ll be damned if someone uses my company to intentionally inflict that kind of damage on someone else.
So yes, we require a meeting as a weeding-out process as well as to determine our clients’ needs.
Some people might find our company silly or even laughable, but we take what we do seriously. And laugh all they want; in the three years we’ve been in business, BURNED Inc. has enjoyed growth, and we’re firmly in the black. Not many new businesses can claim that. I’m damn proud.
“Okay, you return to your bridge or office or whatever. And don’t forget to speak with Dani.” I round my desk, striding past him toward my office door.
“I won’t. And don’t think I didn’t catch that reference to the troll under the bridge.” He snorts. “You’re attempting to insult me, but you’re not. Frankly, that troll got a bad rap. That was his damn bridge, and he had a right to eat anyone who tried to tread their happy asses all over his territory. It has stand-your-ground law all over it.”
Christ. Some of the shit that comes out of his mouth. Miriam came by her crazy honestly.
“Yeah, Leviticus, I don’t think that’s how that works. Not to mentionThree Billy Goats Gruffdidn’t take place in Colorado, much less the United States, so again. Not sure how that applies.”
And yes, I am arguing about a fairy tale with my brother as if it’s a legal case study.
After exiting before he can launch his comeback—because there’salwaysa comeback with Levi—I move down the corridor toward Deanna’s desk and the lobby. Mentally and physically, I shed the roles of sister and peacemaker and assume the mantle of president of a successful Black-owned business.
I’d like to claim that I’m that confident, self-assured, take-no-shit businesswoman twenty-four seven. But as my father would say, “The devil is a lie, and the truth ain’t in it.” Despite our differences inpersonalities, I love working with my family. But sometimes the pitfall is being dragged back to feeling like that twelve-year-old girl who would tremble and cradle her stomach against the ache that bloomed there at just the thought of contention or raised voices or arguments. And that twelve-year-old girl has self-esteem the size of a pea. Like the pea that delicate princess slept on. Small as hell.
“You’re a queen. And if you don’t feel it today, fake the hell out of it until you do.”
I smirk as I round the corner that leads into the lobby. If my mother ever retires from teaching, she might have a poetry gig waiting on her.
Shoving my parents and the circus of crazy that was my childhood to the back of my mind, I move forward to where a woman with a shining, thick sheet of long dark-brown hair sits on a tastefully upholstered couch. She flips through one of the magazines we leave fanned out on the cedar coffee table, and from the short distance that separates us, I note the flawless french manicure and flash of gems that circle her wrists and a couple of fingers.
Rich.
If the hair, nails, and jewelry didn’t tip me off, the red soles of her glossy pink patent leather pointy-toe pumps would’ve been a blinking neon-red sign. Louboutin. A classic So Kate with its almost five-inch stiletto heel. One hundred twenty millimeters, to be exact.
I know my shoes.
Remembering the name on the intake file, I curve my lips into my polite yet with-the-perfect-degree-of-warmth smile—and yes, I’ve practiced it in the mirror.
“Ms.Summers?” I say, pausing next to the end of the couch.
The woman turns her head toward me and stands. All that’s missing is the slow-motion panning and a backwash of golden light as she flips her light fall of hair over her shoulder. Because she isthatbeautiful. Only one other woman has made me question my devotion todick. Now, Valerie Summers can be added to that short list right under Jennifer Lopez.
