dance floor.
“Hey, look who decided to grace us with her company. It’s Stevens. What are you drinking, beautiful?” Always charming, Jeff gave Latonya his best dazzling smile. He’d removed his tie and rolled up his sleeves.
Jeff stood to greet her and gave her a hug. Latonya smiled in spite of the fact that she was there to tell him off and thanked God she considered herself playa-proof.
Latonya leaned into his embrace and the perpetual flirt pecked her on the cheek. “Don’t ‘beautiful’ me. I just got reamed out by the boss because of your half-finished report. He made me finish it.”
Jeff gave a shocked expression and opened his mouth to respond, but Stan chimed in first.
“No shit?” Stan rubbed his chin. “Wow, the boss really seems to have it in for you. It’s crazy, because you’re like the hardest worker out of all of us.”
Latonya cut Jeff a nasty look. “Well, at least you know it, Stan. And, Jeff, if you’re going to hand in incomplete reports, let a sistah know so she can get out of the line of fire.”
“That report would have been just fine for the old boss,” Jeff countered playfully. “I’ll tell you, I think Carlton Harrington III just has something to prove because he’s the boss’s grandkid. I say we all keep doing the caliber of work we did for Samuels and let him get used to our way of doing things.”
Jeff was using his charm to try to incite insurrection, but Latonya wasn’t having it.
“Well, I always make sure my reports are thorough. And since he didn’t have me finish anyone else’s report but yours, why don’t you step it up a notch?”
Pouting, Jeff shrugged before breaking out a sulking frown. “Oh, come on, beautiful. You’re bringing me down. It’s Friday. Let me buy you a drink and let’s just forget this. Come on. Sit down and take a load off. White wine, right?” The consummate charmer, Jeff knew when to give up a losing battle.
“Make that a gin and tonic with lime.” After her runin with the sexy ogre, something stronger was in order. Sliding into the booth, she occupied the spot Jeff vacated when he went to get her drink.
She moved over when he came back with her drink in hand and a mouth full of apologies. Deciding to forgive and forget, she slowly sipped her drink. Jeff rested his arm on the seat behind her.
“So, I guess we can thank good old Harried Tres for your presence tonight. If he hadn’t made you angry you would probably still be in your office working before you headed home, not to be seen again until bright and early Monday morning,” Jeff teased.
“It’s called having a work ethic. You should try it sometime.” She gave Jeff a sarcastic smirk before breaking into a smile at his nickname for the boss. Jeff had made up a funny way of referring to the Harrington men. While he alternated between Harry and Harried as a pseudonym for Harrington, it was always followed by Uno for the big boss and Tres for Latonya’s nemesis.
“There is nothing wrong with my work ethic. It’s workaholics like you and Harried Tres that need to reevaluate themselves. I believe in having a balanced life.” Jeff took a swig of his beer and bobbed his head to the salsa music playing in the background.
“Whatever. Some of us really need our jobs and some of us have to work twice as hard to make up for not being the right race or gender.” She didn’t have the privilege to buck the system like Jeff might.
Jeff feigned outrage. “Was that a white-male crack? Because some would say that as a white man working for a large black-owned company, I would face more than my share of discrimination. In fact, I may have it worse than you,” he joked.
“Well, as the only woman in a department full of men of all races, colors and creeds and with a temporary boss who can’t seem to stand me, I think I have it the worst. And I don’t have the luxury of being able to quit my job at any time and go work for my dad at the family empire.” She took a sip of her drink and gave Jeff a pointed look. His old money family hadn’t taken it well when he’d declined to join the family business and set out on his own. They were always trying to get him to change his mind.
“You know you could always quit this job and let me take care of you. I have a sizable trust fund. You’d never have to work again. All you have to do is say the word.” Jeff, the flirt, couldn’t go for five minutes without making a pass.
Juan saw that as his opportunity to jump in. “Hey, mamacita, you know I don’t have a trust fund. But if you’re taking offers, I’ll put my bid in. I’ll work ten jobs for you, bonita.” Juan was tall and slender and of Afro-Cuban origin. He had a face that could only be described as beautiful. His eyes were warm and expressive, and the longest lashes she had ever seen on a man framed them.
Stan snorted before adding playfully, “The sistah isn’t interested in either one of you. When she’s ready to stop working so hard she’ll coming looking for an African-American brother like myself.”
Latonya smiled sweetly before she lit into the three flirtatious devils. In their own way they were just trying to cheer her up because of her constant run-ins with their new boss. A girl could have worse things happen than a multicultural alliance of handsome men working together to lift her spirits.
“You know what I think?” She spoke in a sexy, sultry whisper before moving in for the kill. “I think that when I am ready to leave Harrington Enterprise, my sexual-harassment case is going to be so airtight against this department, I won’t have to work.”
“She’s playing the sex card! Okay, mamacita.” Juan laughed as he threw up his hands in mock defeat. “You know we’re just playing with you. Lighten up, bonita.”
“Yeah, girl! How are you going to do a brotha like Anita did Clarence? You know I was just joking with you,” Stan teased.
“Mmm-hmm, ha, ha, ha.” Taking another sip of her drink, she felt the stress from the work week slowly leave her.
Jeff let his arm drop from the seat to her shoulder and smiled. “I’m not playing. You just let me know when and I’ve got you, darling.”
“Please, stop playing. You know the company frowns on hanky-panky between employees.” She smiled at him as she took another sip of her drink, musing that the risk of censure hadn’t stopped Jeff from making his way through the other women on the staff. It would, however, stop her from even remotely considering the Ben Affleck look-alike and his offer.
“Who’s talking hanky-panky? I’m talking you and me forever, till death do us part. And you won’t even give me a chance. Tell the truth—it’s because I’m white, right? That’s discrimination. You won’t give a man a chance because he’s a little melanin challenged. That’s cold.”
Breaking into a fit of laughter, she playfully popped Jeff upside his head.
“Good, you’re laughing. I knew we could get you to smile sooner or later.” Jeff let his hand touch her cheek.
Just then, the sound of the younger Harrington’s deep voice interrupted her laughter. “It’s good to see my department getting along so well.” His eyes fell on Jeff’s arm draped lazily around Latonya’s shoulder and the hand that softly stroked her cheek. It became obvious what Carlton meant to imply. She almost shoved Jeff’s arm off of her. But against her better judgment she simply sat there and gave Carlton her best interpretation of a
