Page 76 of I Love to Hate You
“Hold on, hold on,” Denver says, raising his hand in the air to get everyone’s attention again. “As incredible as this news is, there actually is more to it. However, I think it would be more appropriate if our director of marketing came in and told you himself.”
Right on cue, the bald man from yesterday comes into the room, followed by a small army of people, who all have bright smiles on their faces. These are the employees of Bell Liberty. They filter into the conference room and take up all of the space around the head of the table as the bald man stands next to Denver and addresses us.
“Good morning. I haven’t had a chance to meet you all yet. My name is Wyatt Conner, and I’m the director of marketing for Bell Liberty,” he says, gesturing with his hands. “I’m ultimately the decision maker on who gets hired here, among many other things, and I just have to tell you both that the pitch you did for Nasir Booker’s novel was one of the best ones I’ve ever seen, and I don’t just mean for interns. It took a lot of guts to arrange a pitch for an author whose books are clearly marketed toward women, and flip this one to be marketed toward men. I can admit that by the time I was finished listening to Denver in there, I was ready to go pre-order the book myself. You two did a phenomenal job, and I just wanted to be the first to tell you that you are no longer interns here at BLM. After securing one of the most prestigious clients we’ve ever had, Maya Valentina and Kendrick Kennedy, you’re both officially hired. Welcome aboard.”
“Holy shit,” Kendrick exclaims, just as everyone in the room applauds.
Every hand in the room claps for us as cheers break out. Mr. Conner shakes both of our hands, and I feel like I’ve just entered a dream-like state. We receive pats on the back and enthusiastic congratulations from everyone, and even Chad manages to shake hands with Kendrick and show genuine happiness for us.
Once it all dies down, Denver lets us know that we will immediately separate ourselves from the intern group and begin working on the Nasir Booker campaign tomorrow. It’s going to be a lot of hard work coming up with ideas on what to do now that it’s real, and we’ll be busy as hell going forward, but none of that matters right now. All I can think about is how I managed to lock down this job with Kendrick as my partner, and I feel nothing but joy in my heart. We did it. Both of us. We accomplished thistogether, and I couldn’t possibly be happier.
My only wishes are that my father would care enough to be proud of me, and that my mother could’ve been here to see it. With the ten-year anniversary of her passing coming tomorrow, I hope this brings me and my dad some light on a day that’s usually our darkest.
Kendrick
Forty-Four
~ KENDRICK~
I’ve never been an optimistic person. When you grow up where I grew up, you learn not to get your hopes up for things because nine times out of ten, the feeling of being let down is just around the corner. It took practice as a kid to teach myself not to get too high over things, because being dropped made me sick. Over time, I mastered the art of being a realist on most days and a pessimist on the rest, and it protected me from the pain of the let down. Today, however, feels like a good day to start being optimistic.
My heart still hums from the rapid beating it unleashed when we found out that our marketing strategy was being picked up by Nasir Booker and his team for his next novel. Even now, as I drive toward my mother’s house to tell her the good news, I still can’t believe it’s real. A New York Times bestselling author saw our pitch and loved it, and now Maya and I have been hired full-time at Bell Liberty. What a dream day we just had.
The look on Maya’s face is frozen in my memory. She was so happy when she heard all of the good news, and I loved hearing the excitement in her voice when we embraced and she showed me her true emotions. With as much kidding around as we do, it’d be easy to assume that she takes everything as a joke, but Maya has depth—she just doesn't trust anyone enough to show it. Except me.
I can’t believe how far we’ve come from the days of hating each other at Temple University, and now that we’re at this place, I wouldn't change a single thing about how we started. The beginning is what got us here—all the hatred, passion, anger, and confusion about our feelings led us to everything we’re experiencing now. It has been an insane ride, but I’m so glad I’m on it, and I have no desire whatsoever to get off.
As much as I wanted to celebrate our victory tonight with Maya, she was adamant about having a conversation with her father. I’ve only met him once, but it doesn't take a psychic to know that their relationship needs mending in a big way, and I could tell that Maya is holding out hope that this good news will be what the two of them need to change their relationship’s trajectory. I hope so, too, because now that Maya and I are together, I won’t stand anyone dragging her down, and her father is absolutely no exception. On the other hand, something in my gut tells me that everything is trending up for us.
When I pull up to Mom’s house, I’m pleasantly surprised to find her sitting on the porch. She’s dressed in a black and white floral-print top with black pants, her makeup done and her hair neatly put together. She’s radiant, and so is her smile when I park and get out of the car.
“I haven't seen you out here in a while,” I say, climbing the three steps that lead to the porch. “I guess I can’t say anything to you about locking doors if you're sitting outside.”
Mom chuckles. “Boy, please. I’ve lived in this house for a long time, and instead of hiding behind locked doors, I’d much rather sit on my porch and sip this lemonade.” She picks up a sweating mason jar full of pink lemonade and sips it before putting it back in its place on the floor.
I smile as I take a seat in the empty wooden chair next to her. “It’s nice to see you out here. I take it you're feeling pretty good. How did your appointment go this morning?”
Mom grins as her eyes wander up to the sky. “It was fine,” she says placidly. “How wasyourday? You texted that you had some big news.”
“I do, but I want to hear about your appointment first,” I say.
Mom raises her hand and interjects. “Do you have somewhere else you need to be?”
“No, why?”
“Okay, so then we have all evening to talk about everything. Right now, I want to hear about the news you have. So shut up and spill it.”
I scoff and shake my head. “How do I shut up and spill it at the same time, Ma? Anyway, do you remember the assignment pitch I told you we had to do during our first week? Well, it turns out that we didn’t just impress the marketing coordinator. He took our pitch to his superiors, and they loved it so much that they decided to pitch it to Nasir Booker himself.”
“Wow, that’s incredible,” she says, her eyes lighting up. “So, when is that happening?”
“It was this morning,” I reply, and before I can even finish, Mom is already smiling. “Yeah. They loved it. Our pitch won the account, and Maya and I have been hired full-time to run the campaign for Nasir Booker’s next novel. We did it, Ma.”
“Oh, my god!” she shouts, jumping out of her seat to give me a hug. “I’m so proud of you, Kendrick. I always knew you had it in you. We all knew. All of us in the family and the neighborhood, we knew you had it in you. I’m so proud.”
Tears fill my eyes as I think about Simon constantly telling me that I was destined to be the one to succeed out of the two of us, and I wish more than anything that he was here to learn that I achieved my goal—our goal.
“Thanks, Ma,” I say as Mom steps back. She stays standing in front of me looking stronger than she has in a long time, and it just adds to my joy. “Thank you so much for believing in me. I couldn't have done this without you. I know there’s a lot of hard work ahead of me, but I feel so good about how things are going, and I just know this is the beginning of happiness. This is the start of the life I think I’ve always wanted deep down. I can’t even tell you how excited for the future I am.”
