Page 15 of Differences

“Weston...what are you doing?”

Before he could answer, someone knocked on my office door. He leaned in, placed a kiss on my inner thigh, and stood to his feet. Adjusting his clothes, he had a silly smirk on his face.

My mouth was on the floor. I couldn’t believe that had just happened. I was stunned and stuck in place.

“Are you not going to tell whoever that is to come in?” he asked.

“C-come in,” I stammered.

Jay came in with a big smile on his face, and my entire soul left my body.

“What’s up, baby?” Jay asked, spreading his arms wide open with a greasy brown bag in his hand.

“Jay...uh...what are you doing here?”

I looked back and forth between Jay and Weston. Weston had his arms folded across his chest. He studied Jay, looking him up and down.

“Damn, you can’t even get up and hug your man? Are you still that mad?”

My eyes ballooned. “Jay, do you not see my boss standing here?”

Jay finally made eye contact with Weston. “Oh, my fault, T. What’s up, man? I’m Taja’s man, Jay.”

Weston nodded his head. “Weston.”

“Are you in a meeting or something, baby?” Jay asked, looking back at me.

“Jay, why are you here?”

“I’m here to bring my girl some lunch and to apologize for this morning. I’m sorry that I just went off with your car like that. I lost track of time. I ran into one of my homeboys and got lost in conversation.”

I looked over at Weston. He had a look of disgust written all over his face.

“Jay, you can place the food on the table. Thank you, but I need to get back to work.”

“Damn, baby, do you at least forgive me? I’m trying to do better, put my pride aside, and be the bigger person in all of this.”

Weston scoffed, and my head snapped in his direction.

“Ms. Walker, we will revisit the conversation from earlier. Please handle your personal business and get back to work.”

There was no emotion on Weston’s face. The once seductive eyes were nonexistent. He adjusted his suit jacket and walked out of the door. He didn’t bother to acknowledge Jay. As soon as the door shut, Jay looked at me with wide eyes.

“Damn, your boss is an asshole. Ain’t no way you sitting up here putting up with that shit. I know they ain’t paying you that much to deal with that. All skin folks ain’t kin folks.”

Rage crept from the tip of my toes to the top of my head. A part of me wanted to grab the greasy fast food Jay brought me and throw it at his head, but I knew this was my job, and I couldn’t show my ass in here, so just like any other time, I took the high road.

“Jay, thank you. However, I’m so busy with work, so you can’t stay and chat. There are deadlines that I have to meet. You understand, right?”

“Bet, you know I know how you feel about your job, the most important thing in your life.”

I raised a brow at his condescending tone, yet I didn’t have the energy to address it.

“Rain check?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Whatever, I’ll be back at five o’clock to pick you up.”

“Why not leave the car and you catch an Uber home? I’m not sure if I will be done by five o’clock.”

---