Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

I enter my office and Shontae is standing with her hands on her hips. I know this is going to be a dramatic experience, the look on Shontae’s face says it all.

“Oh my God, what’s your problem?”

“Oh and I do have a problem.”

“Stand in line Shontae.”

“Oh I know, that’s why I blocked out an hour of your day so I would be first.”

“I guess you and Julian are on the same page.”

“Oh so you know what you did was fucked up?”

“What did I do?”

“Stop with your bullshit, Enya. The way you emasculated Julian in the meeting.”

“Are you freaking serious?”

“The word is fucking, and yes, I’m fucking serious! You gave him the reign and snatched ii back before he could guide the horse in.”

“I don’t have any idea of what you’re talking about.”

“Lies.”

“How is that a lie Shontae? How can you or Julian determine what happened in that meeting was an issue on my part? Mr. Grant addressed me, not you, not Julian.”

“Oh so since none of us was addressed, none of us gets to speak or address Mr. Grant when issues arise?”

I look at Shontae in disbelief. “That’s not what I meant.”

“No, tell me Enya, what did you mean?”

“You know what I meant Shontae. Mr. Grant doesn’t know the team. He knows me.”

“Shontae laughs, “Girl, that man saw and spoke to you for a millisecond. He don’t know you from the muffin man.”

If I wasn’t so damn mad right now, I’d probably burst up laughing. “He addressed me Shontae, he forgot Julian was even an employee. I reminded him.” I say in a lower tone so Shontae matches my energy.

“Whoop-di-doo, Enya thought of someone other than herself for once.”

I go still because I know she did not let that shit come out of her mouth. Yea, my blessings have definitely entered the block party.

“Wow, tell me how you really feel.”

“You know I will,” Shontae says mimicking one of our many conversations from this week. Only we’re not laughing.

“Well, I’m done with this conversation. I heard your concerns, and I will consider how to move forward from this issue accordingly.”

“Oh, okay Enya. I know where this is going.”

“Good, so you can follow it out of my office.” Shontae doesn’t hesitate. She leaves my office as Julian enters. There’s no hesitation on his part either, I see. He wastes no time before he starts to go in on me.

“You have crossed the line of disrespect Enya; I wasn’t trying to overstep my position or make you look bad. I was only trying to contribute to the resolution.”

“Understood, but I don’t think that I was disrespectful to anyone. I don’t think that I emasculated anyone. I?—, ”

“Not anyone,” Julian interrupts. “Me, Enya. Look I know you think that I’m your enemy, but I’m not. I’m here to do a job.”

“My job!” I’m pissed at what I’m being accused of. “My job that I’ve been working for a year, now, holding this place down. You’re here to do my job!” Julian steps closer to me so that we’re eye-to-eye. He’s taller than me, so his height is a little intimidating the way he is looking down on me. Intimidation isn’t what I’m feeling. The feeling is coming from my core and building. Julian’s scent doesn’t help at all as my breathing becomes labored. We are too close for comfort; my mind and body are both pissing me off. Julian’s stare has me in a chokehold, as I have to focus on breaking eye contact with him. Taking a step back, I do just that. The closeness is distracting me from why Julian was here in the first place. I think Julian purposely makes me uncomfortable, because he steps into my personal space again.

“I was hired to a job, my job. It was temporary for you. I’m sorry that the company decided to fill the position and didn’t consider you, and all of your hard work. What I will not apologize for is the lack of communication that you’ve been privy to.” Julian’s voice is low and husky, as if he’s trying to control his anger.

“Silence says a lot, I know that.” I say matching his tone to piss him off more.

“It is, and the next time you disregard my presence or direct any issues regarding this outage towards you, to be all about you; you’d better hope I stay silent.” Julian eyes me longer than I would like to admit before it became uncomfortable. He turns and leaves my office, while I stand in silence in wet panties.