AlTonya Washington - Provocative Territory

“What’s the second condition?” Linus asked.

Elias pushed back the Jazzy B’s folder across the desktop. “I deal exclusively with Clarissa David.”

Chapter 3

“How do you know about her?” Santigo blurted, his easy persona completely vanished. “Why do you get the best part of the deal?”

Elias pushed away from his desk, saying, “Because my name’s on the door.”

“And wouldn’t Mr. Evan be rollin’ in his grave if he knew that was only because you had a lucky night at cards?” Linus accused, his slanting amber eyes appearing thin as slits as they narrowed.

The partners had gone back and forth for weeks about changing the company name. They then went back and forth about what to change the name to. Elias apparently had no allegiance to keeping his family name prominently displayed on the building’s masthead. Linus and Tigo were no strangers to the tense relationship Elias shared with his father. Nevertheless, it didn’t sit altogether right with them to completely strip away every trace of Evan Joss’s existence.

When Eli suggested they settle the matter by a game of poker, Linus and Tigo figured it’d be the only resolution that would be agreed upon. Linus and Santigo often wondered who had been more perturbed when Elias won—them or Elias.

“Clarissa David lives in California, you know?” Linus folded his arms over his chest and moved closer to the desk. “She only comes back here a few times a year to check in on her aunt’s East Coast clients. She’s not even heavily involved in the construction end...”

“Yet you two have met with her, or am I mistaken?” Eli focused on the bridge he made with his fingers. He knew both men well. They’d have certainly made a point of meeting with Clarissa David during one of the few times a year that she visited Philadelphia.

“Is this about business or somethin’ more personal?” Tigo challenged, leaning against the desk.

“What difference does it make?” Eli countered.

Playful accusation brought a sparkle to Linus’s exotic stare. “You met her, didn’t you? ’Course you have.” He rolled his eyes.

“When?” Tigo finally moved off the desk.

“How?” Linus tacked on.

By then, Eli was rolling up his sleeves in an attempt to ignore the gradual mounting of his frustration. “When and how I met her is my business.” His tone was soft, yet cold.

Linus was undaunted. “It’s our business, El. We can’t afford for you to let a personal...”

“Ancient,” Tigo interrupted.

“...beef with the woman’s aunt to cause us to miss out on this deal,” Linus preached.

“I take offense to that.” Elias’s voice remained low but not quite as chilly. “I already okayed the project. Last thing I’d try to do is sabotage it.”

Linus and Santigo couldn’t argue the truth of Elias’s words. Despite the dramatics that made up their partner’s relationship with his father, they knew Eli was of a mind to see the business remain among the top construction companies in the country.

“At least tell us why you want her all to yourself.”

Tigo groaned over Linus’s question. “Idiot—he just told you that he met her. That’s all it’d take.”

Elias lost his battle against smiling and shook his head. “I met her while Stan was fitting me for a new suit.”

“Humph,” Tigo grunted.

Linus nodded and eased his hands into his trouser pockets. “She’s a real sweetheart, El—nothin’ like what we’ve heard and what you know about her aunt.”

“Apple doesn’t always fall far,” Eli muttered.

“Well, in this case, it fell and rolled right out of the yard,” Tigo championed.

“But don’t take our words for it.” Linus waved his hands. “Could you at least tell us what your plan is?”

Elias laughed. “What the hell, fellas? You think I’d hurt her?”

“I just don’t think it’d be good for anyone involved for you to hold Clarissa David responsible for what went down back in the day between your dad and her aunt.”

“That’s what I’m trying to prevent.” Eli’s words were genuine. “You guys went behind my back to put this deal together and had the chance to get to know her in the process.” He gave a one-shoulder shrug. “I only want the same chance.”

Linus and Tigo didn’t appear totally convinced. At any rate, they eventually gave their consent with a round of slow nods.

“You wanna keep that?” Linus looked toward the Jazzy B’s folder.

“Leave it with Des.” Eli massaged the side of his nose. “He’ll tell me if there’s anything I need to know, and I’ll sign whatever crosses my desk.”

Left with nothing further to argue, Tigo and Linus slowly retreated from the office. Alone, Elias’s relaxed expression was replaced by pensiveness.

* * *

“Do you really need to be doing this now? Mr. Cole already told us what happened.” Rayelle Keats’s round café-au-lait-toned face was a portrait of bewilderment.

Clarissa set aside another one of the folders that was in the tall stack of folders she’d been reviewing, to acquaint herself with the club’s most pressing local business concerns. “They should hear this from me.” Her manner was a smidge absent.

Rayelle took a deep breath, hoping her “soft touch” didn’t fail her then. “I understand what you’re saying, Clay,” she began, using her pet name for Clarissa. “But nobody expects you to jump mountains today, this week or this month if truth be told.” When Clarissa continued to shuffle through the files, Rayelle came over to put her hand over the folders.

“Jaz was like your mother and you just lost her yesterday.”

The reminder caused Clarissa’s lip to tremble and the folder’s contents to cascade to the floor.

“Honey.” Rayelle pulled Clarissa up from the desk and into a squeeze.

“I have to be involved in something, working on something. If I don’t—” she inhaled sharply “—I’ll lose my mind. I know I will, Ray.”

“I know, honey.”

Clarissa pulled back from the embrace. “No, you don’t.”

Rayelle, a former dancer and choreographer, currently served as manager for the Jazzy B’s clubs in the northeast. She was used to dealing with servers and dancers and the stressful situations they often encountered in the profession. Therefore, it was easy for her to detect the chord in Clarissa’s voice that had little to do with grief.

“You wanna talk about it, hon?”

Clarissa stooped to collect the papers that had fallen. If there was anyone she could or would talk to, it would have been Rayelle Keats. The woman had started working for Jazmina when she was eighteen. Something had always told Clarissa that Ray’s introduction into the world of adult entertainment had come much sooner than that, but Clarissa had never asked. Rayelle always said that her life began when she met Jaz.

Clarissa and her aunt accepted Ray and the circumstances of her life without question. Clarissa had taken an instant liking to the Miami-bred Rayelle, having met her during summer visits. They had been friends for almost twenty years.

“We’ll talk.” Clarissa nodded when Ray looked over at her from helping with the papers. Clarissa glanced at the silver watch adorning her wrist. “Later though, after we’re done with the girls, okay?”

“You only get to brush me off once,” Rayelle warned and then hugged Clarissa over the stack of papers.

Clarissa was slipping on a pair of clogs in time to meet the dancers. Jazmina Beaumont had established her first club in the late sixties. The seedy (or less nurturing) side of Philadelphia in those days was where Jaz was born. Who raised her had always been something of a mystery for Clarissa. All she had ever known of her aunt’s childhood was that when the Beaumonts picked up their roots and decided to start over out west, young Jazmina had refused to leave.