ꨄThe Debutanteꨄ

44.

...

Wednesday

...

One Week Before The White Party

...

Over the past two days, the tension between Tori and Anika has been continuing to rise. Every time Anika turned a corner, instead of seeing Cookie she'd see Tori.

No matter how many times the two of them 'ran into' each other, Tori would still look at her with that same subtle expression. It seemed like nothing but pure friendliness, but Anika knew the truth. She was the only one who could see through those black eyes.

...

Today, Anika had a speech to give to the press regarding the upcoming plans for the Empire company as a whole, and what next moves they plan to make to help the company to grow. It was a big step for Anika, because she and Lucious have been really adding new things into the company without altering the budget. Even though they hated each other, they could do some good work together when Lucious had no other choice but to put his controlling mindset aside in order to get a task done.

...

Andre, Lucious, and Cookie sat in Lucious' office, discussing how they plan to handle the event for later today. "Okay, so Anika is giving the last speech, Cookie you're giving your speech after mine, then Andre is after you, and I'm first. We got that down, that's already set." He said.

Andre was currently on the phone behind them with some of the press and interviewers coming to the event.

Cookie raised an eyebrow. "Well since we're all talking about our speeches and this event and all that, why isn't Anika in here?" Cookie asked. Lucious waved the thought of Anika away. "She's busy working on organizing Jamal's interview after the white party on Wednesday. Her, Jamal, and Tori are about to be spending damn near the whole day together working on that." Said Lucious.

"Hm." Said Cookie, nodding her head a single time. She licked her teeth, her thoughts starting to roam.

"What do you mean no?" Andre asked into the phone. He released a sigh. "Yeah...Yeah. Alright, I understand. Okay, Have a good day, bye." He said. His parents didn't pay much attention to his conversation until they suddenly heard the sound of the cell phone crash against something.

The turned to see the phone being thrown against the wall in front of him, Andre with face of frustration and releasing a slight growl of expression. Cookie and Lucious quickly got up and walked over to him. "Baby what happened? Andre? Are you okay?" She asked, quickly going up to him and looking him in his face.

"The press. One of the companies said that they decided to pull out of the event with us. Now we're one group short. Why did I choose to confide in them? Stupid, stupid-" Andre suddenly hit his forehead with the palm of his hand.

Cookie released a small gasp, reaching out her hand to cup his face. "No, baby. No, don't hit your head. Don't do that. Look at me, okay? Everything is going to be fine- It's not going to be fine- Andre..!" Cookie said, making him give his full attention back to her. "It will be fine, baby. You know why, because we still have plenty of other outlets coming. There are still more than enough outlets coming." Said Cookie.

"Yeah, son. They're not putting us at any disadvantage just because their asses couldn't keep their word. We still good." Said Lucious, a serious look on his face. "And actually, whoever the hell that was that decided to bail at the last damn minute, I'm going to give their CEO a piece of my damn mind." Said Lucious, turning away and walking back towards his desk, one of his hands in his pocket while he pointed one of his fingers in the air.