New Beginning

CHAPTER SIXTY SIX

Raya Simone

"Morning, morning," I walked in the studio with my dark tinted shades on. I had a photo shoot and video promo to showcase my new line of lip oils. We're doing a giveaway and all.
"Good morning Raya, your hair stylist is already set up waiting for you," Keke, my new assistant told me.
"Thanks boo, I'll be right out," I said to him. I went to check my face in the mirror to make sure I didn't look as tired as I felt. Chris really did keep me up all night. The man is a pure horn dog. Every time I called myself closing my eyes he was knee deep inside me before I knew it. It was all fun and games then, but I'm for sure paying for it now. I did my face hygiene routine and placed an eye mask under my eyes to reduce as much puffiness as I could in little time.
"Okay let's do this," I coached myself walking out of my dressing room. I greeted the young lady doing my hair and that was that.
While I was getting my hair done Dorinda walked in looking radiant as she always does.

"Hey beautiful people," she greeted politely.

"Hey girl," I smiled over at her. Dorinda has been completely awesome to me and I'm forever appreciative of her support. Always a pleasure to see her.

"How are you miss lady?"

"I'm doing very well. Just tryna get this wig laid now."

"I see. It's coming together too. You look good," she stepped closer to get a better view of my make up. "So I just dropped in to let you know I hooked you up with a good photographer friend of mine. His name is Kofi and the brother is cold behind a camera. Since this is your first promo video I just wanted to make sure it's done perfectly for you. His vision is always exceptional and I know he'll get you right."
"I love the sound of that. I'm excited," I told her.
"Of course. So have you decided on your ambassadors yet or are you still choosing?"
"No, I think I've made a decision. To start off, I've decided to choose in pairings. Two content creators, two celebrities, two LGBTQ representatives, . I want to keep as much as diversity going as possible because that's the foundation of this brand. Being your authentic, beautiful self."
"I like that. That's good. Perhaps, we should get some promos going in order for you to get that message out," she offered. I nodded in agreement.
"I'm all for it. We can discuss that in our next meeting?"
"That'll work for me. Alright, well I'll start getting on that for you and I'll let you get back to being fabulous. As always, it's good to see you my love. We'll touch bases by the end of this week. Sounds good?"
"Sounds perfect mama. See you later," she gave me an air kiss on the side of my cheek then say goodbye to everyone else.

"I just went in to speak with your photographer to let him know you're almost ready and baby let me just say this. That's a beautiful black man out there honey," Keke waltzed in chewing on some popcorn. His statement seemed to have peaked the interest of every person in the room, including mine.

"Shut up. Let me see," my make up artist Shanice got up out of her seat to be nosy. We all waited for her to return to see if Keke was being dramatic, but from the smile on her face when she returned we could tell he wasn't bluffing.

"Uhhhh... yeaaah. That man is fine as hell," she giggled.

"Now see, you got me wanting to look," Deseree, the girl doing my hair spoke up. "Let me dry this glue right quick."

When she finished my hair, everyone that was in the dressing room walked in with me to meet this photographer that had the girls going crazy. Once I approached him, I was definitely not expecting him to look as good as he did. The man was fine as fuck. Dark skinned, pretty teeth, perfect smile. He was the true definition of tall, dark, and handsome.

"Hello, how are you," I said in a light tone. "I'm Raya, lovely to meet you."

"Likewise Ms. Raya, my name is Kofi. Pleasure is all mine," he smiled down looking at me. My God. "I hope I didn't get too ahead of myself, but I was taking a look at the product and I had a great idea concept for what we could do."