Nervous energy filled me on my first morning at Rucker Records. I barely slept the night before, continually waking up and panicking about oversleeping. Once I was awake, my mind just wouldn’t turn itself off.

When I told Pete I had found another job, he didn’t seem too surprised. He told me that if I ever needed a job, I’d always have one at Lace. The only thing he asked of me was that I work out the rest of my shifts that week. I had no problem doing it really. I enjoyed my time there and I had a great relationship with not only Pete, but all the girls there. I was going to miss them.

At six-thirty, I climbed out of bed and began getting ready for my new job. Thus began a long debate about what to wear since I was unsure of what the dress code was. In the end, I opted for a sleek black pencil skirt, a pink silky tank top, and a super cute black blazer that had ruffles on the back at the bottom. My feet donned a pair of pink sling back peep-toe heels. And to cap off what I hoped was a professional look, I wore black framed glasses. I had bought the fashion frames on a whim awhile back because I thought they made me look smart and distinguished. I could use a little of that feeling today.

I pulled into the parking lot behind the building in Deep Ellum exactly fifteen minutes early. Since I had never had a “real” job before, I turned to Google for help in preparing myself. I had read it showed commitment and made a good first impression to be early.

Google had also been my friend when gleaming more information about Jay and Rucker Records. It was amazing the amount of information on there. Him, him and Nessy, him and the boys. There were millions of pages and pictures to search through. I had spent hours perusing them and getting as much knowledge as I could. I only wish I had thought to do it earlier.

I eyed the back entrance—wishing I didn’t have to walk around the block—but Keesha had said I wouldn’t get an access card until after I started. So instead, I walked around to the front and used the time to try and settle my nerves.

Rucker Records was located in a two-story brick warehouse on Elm Street. It was a hip and trendy building in a great part of the city that focused on artists and music. Windows made up most of the front of the building on both stories. Trees lined the sidewalk out front and there was a green metal awning announcing the entrance.

Walking in, I expected to be greeted by a cute, young receptionist. You can imagine my surprise when I saw it was a male model. Or what I assumed a male model should look like. He had dirty blond hair and blue eyes with perfectly symmetrical features. Stunningly gorgeous, yet still very masculine.

He stood up to greet me after we introduced ourselves. His khaki pants fit him perfectly, his white linen dress shirt was unbuttoned to the middle of his chest, and he wore a brownish gray fine knit vest. Every single cell in my body was aware of his swagger and appeal. Mmmm… great eye candy to help the days go by faster.

“Keesha’s been talking up a storm about you this last week. I just wanted to let you know how excited I am… well, we all are to have you here.” His eyes did a lazy perusal of me from head to toe. There was no subsequent shiver though. Instead, I felt absolutely nothing. Interesting.

“Well, thank you, Mark. Um… can you show me to Keesha’s office?” It was becoming slightly creepy the way he kept checking me out. Cute or not, he just met me. He had plenty of time to hit on me later. It wasn’t like a respectable girl would hook up with her coworker on the first day at a new job.

“Sure thing, doll.” I cringed at his cliché term of endearment. Looked like Mark was only going to be a pretty face. He could get his easy lays somewhere else. This girl wasn’t interested.

Keesha’s office was on the second floor. I knocked after Mark left me with a promise that I stop by and keep him company at some point during the day. Sure, like that was going to happen.

“Come in,” she called through the wood door.

I turned the handle and slowly peeked into the room. It was fairly large with a desk on the right, two chairs in front of it, and a couch with bookshelves on the left. Her windows faced out the front side of the building. The room was decorated in vibrant colors, but it wasn’t overboard. It was tasteful and inviting. I liked it.

She rounded the desk and enveloped me in a tight hug. “You look fine, girl. Wait until the boys get a look at you. Sex kitten for sure.”

I looked down at my clothes and then over to her cuffed shorts, blouse and wedge heels. Maybe I was a tad bit overdressed.

“I wasn’t sure what the dress code was.” I shrugged. There wasn’t much I could do about it now.

She waved me off. “Please, I wouldn’t worry about it. Like I said, you look hot. Let’s give you a tour and then I’ll show you to your office. I put you in a room down the hall, a few doors down from Jay. It was the closest I could do without totally rearranging things.”

I nodded and followed her as we toured the studios in the basement, the administrative offices on the first floor, and then the management and creative offices on the second floor. We ended the tour at my office.

My office.

God, I loved the sound of that. I never imagined this day would ever come. I was perfectly content with putting together fundraisers, shopping and golfing at the Country Club. My days were whatever I wanted them to be and I had no stress whatsoever. I had never pictured myself as a career woman. I had never needed to.

When I started at Lace I was scared shitless and not really focusing on the future. I was more worried with making it through one day at a time. Now all I felt was anxious and looking forward to this adventure.

“Okay. Jay is out of the office the next few days,” Keesha announced and I felt something wither inside of me. Like a flower wilting without the sun. I had just assumed that he would be here on my first day. We’d eat lunch together and then at the end of the day he’d praise all my heretofore unknown talents at filing and whatever else needed to be done.

“Oh. Okay. What should I do then?”

Keesha led me over to my desk where a giant stack of papers sat. “Jay’s last assistant sucked. And that’s putting it mildly. Ever since we let her go, things have been piling up. I thought we could start with organizing everything piled here and making folders for it all. And when that’s done, there’s more in Jay’s office. I have a feeling once you see Jay’s mess you’ll have plenty to keep you busy. When Jay’s here, he’ll have other things for you. When he’s not, I’ll expect you to help me keep this place a well-oiled machine.”

“Sounds good.”

She gave me a smile and headed for the door. “Oh, and we’re going to lunch later. I’ll come get you around noon.”

“Great!”

The door shut and I let out a long breath while eyeing the stack of papers like they were my biggest enemy ready to be taken down. This was going to be a long day.

Before diving in, I took stock of my office. The wood desk sat in front of the windows that overlooked the parking lot out back. Not exactly a room with a view, but it would do. If I got bored, I could spy on the people coming and going at least. In front of the desk were two leather club chairs and behind that against the wall was a credenza. To the right of the desk and taking a good portion of the wall was a two-sided gray filing cabinet.

I made a mental note to go shopping to get some pictures and knickknacks to fill out the space and personalize it. I wanted to make it my domain.

After lunch at the deli down the street, I decided to snoop… er… check out Jay’s office. Just to get an idea of how much work I had waiting for me of course. I needed to know how many more boxes of folders I was going to need. Yeah, it was strictly for professional reasons.

What I wasn’t prepared for was to walk into a sterile office. The only personal item was a picture of a little girl with puff ball pigtails and gorgeous blue eyes that looked identical to Jay’s. It appeared as though Jay had forgotten one tiny—strike that—huge detail about his life. Because if she wasn’t his daughter then I was Joan Rivers.

Peeved at the fact that he didn’t trust me with that bit of information about himself, I started slamming piles of paperwork in an attempt to sort through them. It wasn’t like it was a law or anything for a man to tell a woman he had children, but it was common courtesy. Shouldn’t friends share that type of information with each other? He had plenty of time to tell me. At some point during any one of our dozens of conversations he could have worked it in.

I hated holding grudges and I could feel myself inching towards that self-destructive behavior. Shaking myself out, I decided to take a break and text him. I would casually let him know I saw his office and maybe that would spur a reaction about the picture. And if it didn’t, I would give him an interrogation on it later. It was long overdue considering I was constantly offering him personal information and he seemed to be locked up as tight as a vault. Damn it, I was breaking this vault wide open.

I pulled out my phone and scrolled to Jay’s name, starting a new text message.

Me: Your office is sterile.

Jay: I’d be worried if you were calling me sterile.

Me: Gross. Seriously, where is the personality?

Jay: It’s an office.

Me: It’s a reflection of you.

Jay: Whatever you say.

Me: What are you doing?

Jay: Wondering why I’m paying you to text me.

Me: Ha ha! Seriously.

Jay: I’m sitting in a pitch from the A&R guy at my LA office.

Me: Oh. I should let you get back to it.

Jay: Text me anytime you want T.

Me: Okay. It’s just I kind of missed you today.

Jay: I miss your sweet face too.

That generated all sorts of butterflies in my stomach.

He thought I had a sweet face.

And he missed me.

I was beginning to think I might be a lost cause where he was concerned, soaking up his attention and praise.

Me: I better get back to work before the boss catches me. ;)

Jay: Have fun and behave.

Me: Always. TTYL.

I set my phone down and bit my lip. Even though I knew it was counterproductive and not something the new, responsible Tori should be doing, my fingers itched to keep texting him.

Three hours and what felt like a gazillion folders later, I stretched my fingers and looked at the clock. A smile took over my face and I did a little jig. I totally made it through my first day at a grown up job.

Take that Annabelle! It was sweet revenge to know that she wasn’t accomplishing anything with her bullshit tactics. She thought I couldn’t hack it on my own, and she was doing me a disservice. Boy was she wrong about me! Not only was I surviving, but I was thriving too. I made great friends, had a solid job, and a somewhat decent place to rest my head. Pretty soon I could afford my own car and give Jeff back his Bentley.

There was no way that bitch could survive without spreading her legs for someone with money. She wouldn’t be able to hack this or even waitressing at Lace. It just proved to me that I was a better person than she was. The sad thing was I almost wanted to thank her for waking me up to this whole other world I didn’t know anything about.

Still feeling victorious, I grabbed my purse and walked down the hall to Keesha’s office. Her door was open so I went right in.

“Hey, I was going to head out if you didn’t need anything else.”

She looked up from her laptop screen and smiled. “Go. Have a good night. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Sounds good. You too,” I called out as I walked away and headed to my car.

First stop—the mall. Second stop—Lou’s Pizza for dinner. Then home to relax after a day of hard work.

* * *

My phone rang and I cracked one eye open. All I could see was the dark purple of my comforter.

I had spent several hours shopping for stuff for my office after work and was exhausted by the time I got home. Which was why I probably crashed after scarfing down two slices of pizza.

It was a productive trip, though. I picked up a beautiful picture of a young girl on a horse riding through a pasture. It reminded me of how free I used to feel whenever I rode my horse, Magpie, growing up. I also picked up a heart-shaped paperweight that said “The best way to predict your future is to create it”. It seemed fitting. A blue clay vase and matching bowl, along with some other decorative items rounded out the purchases that would brighten up the top of the credenza.

I even splurged on a gorgeous black and white framed print of Yankee Stadium for Jay’s office. Not the new overdone stadium, but the original. It cost way more money than I thought it was worth, but I knew he’d adore it. One of the few personal things he had shared with me was that he was from Harlem and grew up a diehard Yankees fan. He even had the chance to do a sold out show there back when he was performing more. You could tell how proud he was to be able to go back to his roots as a success.

The shrill ring of the phone went off again, and I slapped my hand around on the bed looking for the damn thing. I smacked my Kindle off the bed in the process and cursed when I heard it hit the dresser with a thud. That shit better not be broken or whoever woke me up was going to get a serious tongue lashing.

A triumphant cry came from my lips when I finally did find my cell phone. The screen said Stallion and my heart leapt seeing that Jay was calling me. I quickly swept my finger across the screen so I wouldn’t miss the call.

“Hey,” I said with a sleep still in my voice.

“Hey, baby. Did I wake you?” He asked, and dear God did his voice sound sexy over the phone.

“I must have dozed off while reading. I’m not used to day shifts yet.” I swiveled around on the bed and put my head on the pillows, getting comfy.

“You’ll get used to it soon enough. How was your first day?”

“Really good. Everyone I met was nice and I totally kicked file folder ass. Seriously, they didn’t stand a chance against me and my mad skills.”

Jay laughed into the phone, and I smiled, knowing that he always seemed to smile or laugh whenever we were together.

“Mad skills? You do know you’re fucking nutty, right? I never know what’s going to come out of that mouth of yours.”

“I have heard that a time or two. And don’t act like you don’t love my mouth.” I slapped my hand on my forehead as soon as the words left my mouth. Here I told him we had to be friends, and I was practically dangling myself in front of him thanks to my innuendos.

“You have no idea how much I love that mouth. I could show you the next time I see you if you want.” His voice dipped low and took on such a sensual quality, I found myself squeezing my thighs together to alleviate the ache that swiftly built between my legs.

“No that’s quite alright,” I croaked out past my suddenly dry throat. My mind raced with ways he could possibly worship my mouth.

“That’s what I thought,” he murmured.

A strange silence settled between us. I searched my brain for something to talk to him about. Jay didn’t strike me as the type of man who would tolerate just sitting on the phone listening to the other person breathing, and I wasn’t ready for him to go yet. That’s when I remembered his daughter, so I figured there was no time like the present and decided to give him the third degree.

“So, I saw the picture of your daughter today.”

“Yeah?”

Yeah? That was it? Hmmm… seemed this was going to take some more finesse.

“She’s adorable with those crystal blue eyes and her cute little pigtails. How old is she?”

He grunted. What was that all about? Was he not going to answer me?

“Jazzy’s five,” he finally replied.

“Jazzy?”

“Yeah, Jasmine. Called her Jazzy since she was born.”

Ugh. I felt like reaching through the phone and plinking him on the head. Hard. How dense could he be that I was fishing for information here? It was like pulling teeth to get more than a short answer out of him.

“Oh yeah. Do you see her often?”

“As often as her bitch of a mother lets me.” He paused and I debated about pushing him further. No pain, no gain, right?

“That’s horrible, honey. I can’t imagine how awful that must feel to not see her as often as you like. Were you with her mom long?”

He sighed this time. “You aren’t going to let this go are you?”

“Um… no?” I asked even though the answer was resolute.

“Like a dog with a bone,” he muttered partially under his breath. “Here’s the deal. I met Monica seven years ago at a party. We hit it off. She became a regular on my tour that year. By the end of the tour, she found out she was pregnant. Like an idiot, I let her talk me into getting married when she was six months pregnant. For the sake of my child, I decided to go for it. It was a dumb move. Monica became a bitch the second my ring settled on her finger. All she cared about was spending my money and rubbing elbows with famous people. By the time Jazzy was two, I had enough. I divorced the bitch and moved to fucking Texas where Monica insisted on raising Jazzy. Now I’m stuck paying her money every month so she can go shopping instead of using it to build a better life for our daughter. Bitch is living in a house I paid for and she still hits me up for extra money on a regular basis for things like utilities and insurance.”

“Wow. That’s… I don’t know what that is other than fucked up.”

“About sums it up, baby. Now you see why I hate to talk about that shit? ‘Cause then I have to give her headspace and I hate doing that shit.”

“I get it. How come she has custody if she’s such a bitch?” This Monica person did not seem like someone I would want looking after my child twenty-four seven. Then again, maybe she was a good mother. Other than the not letting Jazzy see her father bit, anyway. But then again, no good mother would do that if the father wasn’t a scumbag, so I was back to my original assessment of her.

“Wanted my daughter to grow up with her mother. Jazzy calls me when she needs to. She’s a smart kid.”

Silence settled between us again, but this time I knew just what to say.

“Thank you for telling me, honey,” I whispered sincerely into the phone. I felt like I had just won the lottery by getting him to open up to me.

“That right there’s why I don’t mind.”

“What is?” I was slightly confused by his line of thought.

“The sweet way you thanked me for sharing. Makes it worth thinking about that shit.”

A warm feeling settled around my heart knowing I could do that for him. I wanted to be that person for him. The one that could make the bad a little less bitter by showing some compassion. The thought was terrifying.

I heard someone call his name in the background. I couldn’t make out who it was, but it sounded like Zeke. I knew that meant he was going to have to go, which made me a little sad.

“I gotta go, baby. Sleep tight and have a good day at work tomorrow.”

“You too, honey. Night.”

The call disconnected and I stared at my phone for several minutes. Jazzy… it was a cute name. It suited her. Or at least I assumed it did by the cute bubbly smile she had in her picture. As I got ready for bed, I wondered if I’d get the chance to meet Jazzy. And for some reason, I was afraid that if she did, she wasn’t going to like me.