me & tomfoolery

Privacy pt. 4 | Jayson Tatum Short Story

"Aye, c'mere." Jayson was doing his third inventory check of the day and since Reagan wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, he enlisted her help at the most inconvenient times. Reagan had just gotten on a Zoom call with Javier and for some reason Jayson kept asking for her assistance when he didn't need it.

Turning off the camera and her microphone, she walked away from Al's desk to where Jayson sat. The voices of her clients filled the background as once again, she was giving him the attention he desired. "Yes Tate?" Her tone was nice, but a mean nice.

"I told you, you don't have to call me Tate." He insisted she called him by his first name and she refused. "Boy, what did you call me over here for?"

"Can you look over this right quick?" She adjusted her eyes to the screen and reviewed the excel sheet. "Everything looks in order." She quickly tried to leave but there was a hand on her wrist. His hands were softer than expected and she wondered what impression she gave for him to touch her in the first place.

"Aye! What y'all want for lunch?" Grant asked with Mel not too far behind him. Reagan made her escape back to her Zoom call as Jayson gave Grant and Mel, the look. "I'll take a caesar salad. Salmon preferred but chicken if you must." She added before sitting down.

"What you want Tate?"

Jayson shrugged, he didn't have a taste for anything specific and it would be a waste of his time to yell out something and in return not eat it.

"Get him what I'm getting." Grant and Mel looked between the two before Grant spoke up, "It's like that?"

"He gone act like he don't wanna eat by shrugging it off. Just get him that. He'll eat it." Reagan went back to her meeting, completely tuning them out.

••••

As predicted, Jayson ate the salad. He was the first one done and disappeared somewhere in the club. It gave Reagan time to lurk around and see parts of the place she never been. It was going on the fourth straight week in Boston and it seemed never ending that every week she would leave for a few days and somehow Al, Grant or even Mel would call her back.

Malcolm had sourced some equipment through Clover that improved the ambiance. It seemed like things were working out for everyone business wise. It was close to the time Reagan would be leaving and she wasn't sure where her destination was. Javier said he would get back to her and no one else had contacted her this week for new inventory.

Jayson opened the door from the loading area, walking into Reagan. "You gotta stop bumping me sir." He chuckled helping her stand straight. "You gotta stop being in my path Rea."

"Just because you told me I could call you Jayson doesn't mean you can call me Rea." Being firm with him came out harsh but Jayson was flip floppy and it was annoying trying to build a working relationship, let alone a working one.

"Okay Reagan, you done now?" Her phone rung which didn't allow her to respond to him. "Hello?" She asked dismissing her previous conversation.

It was Javier, she put him on speaker as she walked back to the main room, Jayson not far behind her. He was nosey in general but every time that familiar accent came through a speaker, he wasn't far.

"I've got good news and bad news Princesa." Reagan didn't like bad news. "Good news is you get to see me this weekend. Great news is, we'll be in Mexico." She loved the sound of sun on her skin, tequila and the ocean breeze, but there was something off about this that she didn't yet know.

"What's the bad news?"

"My father won't source anything else to Boston unless he meets one of the owners this weekend."

"Oh that's not bad. I'll talk to my main contact. I'll put you on hold." Reagan and Jayson both re-entered the office to see Al getting off a phone call of his own. "What brings you both in here, standing like that?" Jayson went to his desk while Reagan approached Al.

"Reuben wants to meet with us this weekend in Mexico."

Al eyes widened because he knew he couldn't go to Mexico this weekend. He needed to be in LA. That meant Jayson had to go.

"Mitch..."
"No, please do not tell me."

"Tate has to go. I gotta go to the West Coast." Reagan looked behind her to see Jayson working on something on his iPad, not paying them any mind.

"Tate." He looked up to see the worrisome look on Reagan's face and the remorseful one on Al's, "What now?"

"You gotta go to Mexico this weekend."

••••

"My birthday is this weekend Jayson, what the fuck do you mean you're gonna be in another country?!" Brianna planned on getting the birthday treatment at Clover and she expected the man who wasn't her man to be there and showering her with love.

"Just like I said Bri, I have work I need to do."

Jayson wasn't happy about it either. He hated to be away from his prized possession and leaving it to Grant or anybody for just a day bothered his spirit. But he had no choice but to keep this distributor in his back pocket. He heard a lot about Reuben and knew he meant business. He also did his research on Javier and wasn't his biggest fan, solely because of his advances toward Reagan.

"You're not even paying attention to me! This is so fucked up." Brianna went on her rant for another twenty minutes. He felt bad, just a bit. Brianna was loyal but he didn't foresee anything going past their hookups. She just didn't see things like he did.

Reagan 💰
Can you be ready by 10 am tomorrow?

He could be ready by 10 pm tonight. The club wasn't open so they could leave as soon as possible.

Yeah, if you wanna leave earlier
we can.

She read over the text a few times before locking her phone. She huffed in discontentment before plopping on Malcolm's couch.

"You really are upset about this?"
"Yes!"

Malcolm didn't think her issue with Jayson was that deep but then he realized they both had an immaturity about them and it would be difficult to surpass their sexual attraction to each to work professionally.

"At this point cuz, you might as well let him hit."

Reagan couldn't believe that Malcolm uttered those words, "Are you insane?!"

"No, cause that's exactly what the problem is. You're mean to him when he gets too close in private but you're nice to him in public and he's mean to you in public but nice in private. What else is it?"

"It's not that!" She defended. "I can't believe I have to go on this damn trip with him."

"It's the way it goes sometimes. That's business. Make sure you bring me back a mug from a gift shop and not a niece or nephew."

"I'll throw that cup over your head if you say that again. I'm not letting that man touch me. You're crazy."

But was Malcolm really crazy?