Chapter7
The next two days at the office went much more smoothly, and Hector bought lunch for Celeste as she worked through her lunch hours getting the files done. He told her in no uncertain terms that she was not to be working through her lunches much longer. He insisted that she was given that hour to get away from the job and the desk and refresh herself and her mind, and he told her that past her first two weeks there, he wasn’t going to allow her to work over lunch unless there were extenuating circumstances.
She had gotten so adept at the work she had been doing that she was getting the files done with enough time to learn other tasks and things about her scope of work that she hadn’t yet learned. Hector continued to become more impressed with her, showing her that he trusted her more as he got to see her work and they got to know each other better.
Celeste and Kevin began to text each other during the day, talking more frequently than they had been and growing closer to one another. She tried to keep their texting to a minimum during the day at the office, though they did share a few messages.
‘How is it going for you in the job?’ he wanted to know.
‘It’s great and I have you to thank for that!’ she answered. ‘I had a great time on our date the other night, and I keep thinking about it.’
His response was almost immediate. ‘As soon as you’re done working both jobs, we’re going out on more dates together, especially on the weekends when we can stay overnight. I can’t wait to see you.’
The more Celeste got to know and love her new job, the more she hated the old one, and the more she wanted to leave it. She was growing increasingly exhausted by the day, and no amount of sleep made her feel rested and caught up. She was grateful that it wasn’t going to be longer than two weeks.
She was standing at her register in the grocery store two nights after her dinner with Kevin when Keisha finally started in on her. She had expected it right after her date, but nothing had been said until the second night after it.
Keisha eyed Celeste with a smug look and Celeste tried to ignore it, but Keisha made her way to Celeste and leaned over on the counter at her register.
“I sure am glad you decided to go for that uptown white boy,” she drawled in a smart tone.
Celeste only gave her a swift, silent look and then she turned away. She didn’t want to talk about Kevin with anyone in the grocery store, least of all Keisha.
“Did you hear me?” Keisha asked, pushing it further.
“I heard you, I just don’t have anything to say about it,” Celeste answered evenly.
“Well I’m glad that you went out with that white boy because I got to go out with Wendell; that hot-looking officer that keeps coming in here making eyes at you. You just ignored him, and so I took it upon myself to let him know he was wanted and that I would treat him right, and that’s just what happened!” She was overflowing with smugness.
“I don’t care, Keisha.” She was surprised, because Wendell didn’t seem to want to leave her alone, but she didn’t care at all, and in fact she was thinking in the back of her mind that it might be a big help to her if Keisha could manage to distract Wendell and turn his attention away from her.
Keisha just kept right on talking. “Well we went out in his police cruiser and we did things that should be so illegal! We had a good time! He is one fine man, and I don’t know why you so crazy that you just let him go, but I’m glad you did, ‘cause that means I got him, and I want him. He is a fine man!” She sounded tremendously proud, and Celeste turned to look over at her with a serious look.
“Good, I’m glad you were with him. I hope you keep him.” She said it and then turned her attention straight back to her work. She meant it, though she knew that Keisha was trying to derive some great satisfaction from having taken someone she thought was an excellent specimen of manhood away from Celeste, as if doing so made her more of a woman than Celeste was.
Celeste knew that in the depths of Keisha’s subconscious she was of the mind that Celeste could be the same as her on a social level, and that was fine, but she had no business being on what Keisha perceived to be a higher social level. That, in Keisha’s mind, was unacceptable, and it was why she was so constantly derogatory about Celeste trying to better herself. It was also why she thought it was a boon that she had gotten some part of Wendell. It was something Keisha thought of as an achievement; a betterment of her standing than what Celeste had. In her mind, Keisha was winning and had outdone Celeste.
As far as Celeste was concerned, it was a positive step forward in getting rid of Wendell, and a pitiable situation for Keisha, because Keisha was getting herself in bed with a man who was dangerous, possessive, controlling, and narcissistic. Celeste also strongly suspected that he could be abusive, if given the chance, or pushed to a level where he felt like he might need to make it clear to anyone else that he was in control.
It was not a place that she ever wanted to be in again herself, and it was not a place where she would ever want one of her friends to be, but Keisha was a grown woman and she could make up her own mind.
Seeing that nothing she was saying was going to impress Celeste, Keisha gave her a smug look and walked back to her own register.
Celeste was relieved to get rid of her. Just as she was thinking that there wouldn’t be any more repercussions about her involvement with Kevin, Tonia came to her at her register partway through her shift, and leveled her with a cold and hateful gaze, which was something that Celeste hadn’t expected at all. Tonia was never one to be confrontational, but it was clear as Celeste looked into her eyes that Tonia had been holding back all kinds of things that had been going on in her heart and mind.
Tonia spoke in a low voice, just about a grumbling growl, as if she was an animal with a deep and bitter anger.
“You from this place, you from this neighborhood. You act like you better than all the rest of us here. You going to school pretending that you’re going to learn your way out of this hellhole we’re in, but you can’t do that. This is where you from and who you are, those crappy apartments where we live, this pathetic store where we work.
This is your home, and you can’t ever leave it. You keep trying, thinking you’re better than all of us, but you’re not, and you sleeping with some white man from the other side of the tracks in a fancy car isn’t going to do it. You a ho now. You ain’t his woman. He ain’t never gonna make you his woman. Hell, he probably got a white wife and two or three white kids in a big house in the rich neighborhoods, and he just getting himself a little bit of brown sugar on the side, screwing you when his wife thinks he’s working late.
You ain’t nothing to him and you ain’t ever going to be. You pinning your hopes and dreams on that white man, you a fool. You trying to go to school, trying to work in some office downtown, you trying to pretend like your life ain’t crap, but it is. Just like my life, just like Keisha’s life, it’s all crap. We ain’t never gonna have it any better than we have it right now, and there’s nothing that we can do about that.
So, stop trying, and stop acting like a street walker and screwing some rich white man from the other side of the tracks. That ain’t who you are. You need to remember who you are, remember your place, ‘cause you ain’t in it right now.” Tonia was being as serious as a heart attack.
Celeste was torn. She wanted to say something. She wanted to say several things, but she knew that it wouldn’t really do much good because she was leaving the job. She was slowly, brick by hard brick, leaving the life that she had been born into and wanted so much to get away from. She knew where she was from and she didn’t want to stay there. It wasn’t who she was and it wasn’t who she wanted to be for the rest of her life. She wanted to change her life and she was willing to work for it, no matter what, it was going to happen.
Her first instinct was to tell Tonia all of that; all of her reasons and plans and about the faith she had in herself, but then she stopped because she knew that Tonia really believed what it was that she was talking about. She really believed that once a person was born in the gutter, there was no way for them to get out of it. Celeste knew that if she believed that, it was probably going to be true for her.
If Tonia didn’t believe she could get out, then she was right, she would never get out. If she believed that she could get out, like Celeste did, then there was a chance that she could. Tonia wasn’t willing to make the sacrifices necessary to make it a reality. Talking to her would do no good. Reasoning with her, explaining to her, arguing with her; none of it would make a difference. None of that would change her mind, and Celeste knew it, so she let it all go.
“Get back to work Tonia.” It was all she said. There was no reason to say anything else.
They had their lunch break and Tonia and Keisha went out to Tonia’s car while Celeste stayed in the staff room to eat. She was nearly done with her break when Keisha came back in and confronted her.
“Tonia told me what she said to you earlier. You don’t have anything to say to her or me about what you’re doing?” She was angry; as angry as Tonia had been.
Celeste had had it with both of them. They were pushing her hard and she was too tired and fed up with all the crap she was going through to put up with them. She stood up and walked over to face Keisha where she stood beside the door.
“You know what, I didn’t want to talk with either of you about it because it’s none of your damn business!” She sounded as fierce as she felt. “Just like whatever you want to do with Wendell is your own business, though I would warn you about him. He’s not a good man, Keisha.”
“Hey!” Keisha snapped back at her. “At least he’s a black man from this side of the tracks! I’m not doing what you’re doing, going over to the rich side and screwing some white guy who will never stay with you! You need to remember who you are and where you’re from instead of pretending to be someone you’re not on the rich side of town! You’re letting that rich guy take you to bed and use you, like a hooker!”
“How dare you talk to me like that! You don’t know what’s right for me!” Celeste shot back angrily.
“You don’t know what’s right for yourself!” Keisha fired back. “You could have had Wendell but you threw away a damn good man, and now I’m gonna get him and he’s going to be mine, and then you’ll be sorry about it but that’s your own loss.”
“Keisha, I keep trying to tell you, Wendell is a bad, bad man. You don’t need to be with someone like him. He’s dangerous!” Celeste felt compelled to try to talk some sense into her friend.
“Oh, he is not either, you just don’t know how to handle a real man! That’s all there is to it! Maybe it’s true… maybe all you good to be is some white man’s late-night ho.” Keisha shook her head in disgust and then turned and walked out of the room, leaving Celeste to walk out after her.
Celeste was furious, but she didn’t want to talk about it any longer. It wouldn’t be much more time that she had to be there, and then everything she was going through would be a distant memory and she would be focusing on her new life. She would be working at the office with no need for a second job, and she would be able to move away from the dark side of the tracks. Everything would be different. Everything would be good. All she had to do was reach the end of her two weeks.
A little while later her phone buzzed and she looked down at it, seeing that it was Kevin. A grin spread instantly over her face and she felt her body warm and her heart skip a beat as she touched the message to open it and read it.
‘I can’t stop thinking about you. Can I pick you up later?’
It amazed her how those few simple words could make her feel so hot, so hungry for him; for his embrace, for his body, for the overwhelming happiness and pleasure that he gave to her and she realized as she was answering his message, that she was falling for him. She stopped midway through her sentence and stared at her phone, thinking about it carefully.
The truth filled her and wrapped itself around her. It was real and there were no two ways about it. She was falling for him. She knew as she stood there that there was nothing that she could do about it, and there was nothing that she wanted to do about it. She was loving every bit of it, and she decided that she wasn’t going to fight it, she was going to let it happen and enjoy every second, whether he was falling for her or not.
She was almost ready to send her message to him when she stopped again and looked surreptitiously around her at Tonia and Keisha who were both talking with customers in their lines.
She knew that they would have a fit if he came back into the store. She almost told him no, but then she thought about how she was going to be gone soon, and she thought about how happy he made her and how much she wanted to see him.
‘Yes, I’d love that. Thank you,’ she replied and sent it off to him.
‘Wonderful! I have something special for you.’ He teased her and sent a little winking emoji at the end of his statement. It made her heart beat a little faster and her cheeks warm. She wondered what it might be and decided not to ask.
‘I look forward to finding out what it is and to seeing you!’ She sent him one last message and then tried to turn her attention back to her work at the register.
When he came in later that night to pick her up, he walked in as he had before, wearing a good suit and looking like a gentleman from a magazine. Tonia and Keisha both gave him crusty death glares, and though he ignored them inside of the store, when he and Celeste went outside and got into the car, he broached the subject.
“What was that all about?” he asked with a note of consternation in his voice. “Neither one of your coworkers seems to like me. Did I do something?”
Celeste sighed. “No.” She shook her head and tried to make it sound better than it really was. “It’s nothing. Just work drama. It doesn’t matter at all.”
He looked as if he didn’t quite believe her, but he didn’t want to push it further. “If it’s nothing then we’ll just forget all about it and focus on our night ahead. This is going to be a great night.” He grinned and winked at her.
Celeste was intrigued. “What are we doing? Where are we going?”
Kevin shook his head. “I’m not going to tell you. It’s a surprise.”
He drove her in his BMW into the heart of town, exactly the same way that he had driven her earlier that week. When they neared the Atlanta Grill she looked at him with a funny smile. “Are we going back to the restaurant?” she asked curiously.
Kevin shook his head. “Not unless you’re hungry. Are you hungry?” He looked over at her seriously.
“Not for food.” She gave him a coy look and a sexy grin formed over his face as he chuckled softly.
“That’s such good news.” He pulled his car up to the building that the restaurant was in; the Ritz-Carlton. A valet came out and held the doors open for them, assisting them as they got out of the vehicle. He hopped in then and drove the car away.
“What are we doing?” Celeste asked, looking from Kevin toward the big hotel behind her.
He walked to her and wrapped his arms around her. “We’re finishing up the other half of our date from the other night. Remember that I told you if we had the whole night, we would go upstairs?”
Her eyes lit up. “We’re getting a room here?”
Kevin laughed softly and kissed her. “Not just a room.” He took her by the hand and walked her into the fanciest room that she had ever seen. It was the penthouse, and it was enormous and looked as if it might be the focal point of a fashion magazine.
“This is amazing!” She breathed in wonder as she walked around it and looked at it all, especially the view of the city stretched out all around her in every direction.
He watched her, taking in her wonder and delight, taking in the shape of her form, and looking ravenous for her. Walking up behind her, he closed his arms around her and began to kiss her neck.
Flames shot up inside of her and she closed her eyes and sighed. She felt his body hardening against the curves of her bottom and she grew wet for him. His voice sounded in her ear, husky and low.
“I can’t wait. I need you now. Right now,” he murmured against her skin as he both kissed her and breathed her in.
Moments later he was sliding her dress up until it was over her hips and her panties had been pushed to the floor. She bent over slightly and set her palms against the window that looked over the city.
Before she could take another breath, he thrust himself inside of her, crying out loudly as pleasure overwhelmed them both. His hands were tight on her hips as he moved in her, and after long minutes of him filling her, he brought his hands to her breasts, cupping them over the material of her dress.
Urgency drove them both to a breathless and swift ecstasy, and it wasn’t long at all before they both shuddered with their tremendous releases. He held her tight against him as they began to regain their breath, and a little while later, he finally let her go, turning her to face him.
“Now I’m going to take my time with you, and then I promise I’ll take you home.” He closed his hand over hers and walked with her from the great room where they had started to the massive bedroom where he took his time peeling her clothes off of her, kissing her body everywhere that he could as she did the same back for him, until they were nude together, warm and sweet and on fire once again.
“You didn’t have to get such an expensive room. We could have gone to the same hotel where we go,” she told him after they’d lost themselves in one another again.
He shook his head and looked at her almost in disbelief, and she thought she saw a flash of humor in his eyes. “It’s nothing at all, Celeste. You’re so worth it. You are worth every single second of it.”
He closed his mouth over hers and held her in his arms once again. When the morning hours were brand new, he finally let her get dressed and he drove her back to the store so she could pick up her car.
By the time they reached the supermarket parking lot, the wide smile on his face was gone. “I don’t like you living here. I want you living somewhere nice.” He looked around at her neighborhood with extreme disapproval.
She sighed and shook her head. “Well I can’t afford it yet, but I will, and when I do, I’ll get out of here for good. I’m working on it. It’ll happen soon.” She gave him a smile and he nodded his acquiescence.
“What if I get you a condo downtown, close to the office? I could do that. I want to do that for you. It would give me so much more peace of mind if I knew that you were in a better place.” He meant it, that much was perfectly clear in his eyes.
She blinked in surprise and it took her a minute to clear her mind. “We can’t… I can’t do that. I don’t want to be bought like that. I’m going to earn my own way.”
He sighed in frustration and shook his head. “It really wouldn’t be like that. I’m not buying you. It’s not like that at all.”
Celeste shook her head and pushed the door open, getting out of his car. “No, thank you. I appreciate it, but I can’t. Good night.”
She left him and got into her old junker of a car and drove herself home.