Disclosure

Beneficial Part 2

*That Same Night*
August 2
Beyoncé Knowles POV

I continued to pull up the perfectly intact wood flooring, much to my disdain as I waited on Mrs. Harris to come back. When she did, she was all but falling over trying to carry a pretty large box. I jumped to my feet and ran over to relieve her.

"Why didn't you just ask me to get it for you?" I asked with annoyance. I hated to see feminine women lifting a hand at all. My father would fall over if he was to see this.

"I got excited. Sorry." She grabbed the box cutter I was using to slit the box open. I felt like she was going against all the safety protocols we followed at the company right now, but I let her have it.

Once the box was open, she started to pull out a variety of books and.... sex toys.

"Okay what is all this?" I laughed before picking a book up. She quickly took it out of my hands.

"I'm being beneficial in our arrangement. You're doing me a favor so i'm going to teach you how to keep your someone happy." She shrugged as she flipped through the book's pages.

"I know how to keep her happy. Besides, it's not a favor if you're paying me." I debated.

"It is a favor if you're sacrificing sleep and free time, regardless of pay." She responded. "Also, you do not know what you're doing. I can tell." She looked me up and down.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I laughed it off and got back to work. I wasn't insecure at the slightest so her little comment did nothing to me.

"It means that I want to bring something to the table.... and also that I need someone to practice on before I go back to work." She reluctantly admitted, making the both of us laugh.

"So just say that. Don't try to insult me Mrs. Harris. You can use me or whatever.. but.. how are you going to teach me?" I asked her slowly.. Did she mean..?

"Don't get your hopes up or your little... I'm not having sex with you. You're way too young plus—" She held up her ring. It was a big ass ring, couldn't lie.

"I'm just going to teach you theory you know?"

"Mhm. Go for it." I shook off the "little" comment. She was definitely using reverse psychology to see if it offended me.

"Pick a flaw." She blurted out.

"What?"

"A flaw. Something you could be better at. Doesn't have to be sexual. Do you stimulate her mind?" She asked me.

"I don't talk much Mrs. Harris." I told her again.

"Clearly. But why not?"

"You're about to ask me a lot of questions aren't you?" I said as she smiled and looked through her items in the box.

"I don't know. I just don't think it's necessary sometimes. Or maybe I haven't met anyone that "stimulates" my mind enough for me to have anything to say." I used air quotations.

"You're saying it's surface level? No stimulating dialogue at all?" She frowned.

"Nope. It's just not that deep for us. We're friends with benefits like I said."

"I don't believe that. I don't believe that's all she wants it to be at least. I believe you're short with her the exact same way you are with me. You don't give her a chance." She confronted me. I sighed heavily before I looked up.

"Short?" I eyed her tiny frame and laughed to myself.

"Yes. Short. You're being funny but you are."

"Okay. Open me up doctor. What do you want to know?"

"What do you like? What interests you?" She hopped onto the desk again, crossed her legs, and her little nightgown rose up a little. Little did she know, she had answered her own question.

"Art." I chose the safe route and she hit the desk.

"See.. that's what I mean." She started to get frustrated before I groaned lightly and followed up.

"Crayons and paper were the only toys my sister and I had growing up. Never had a bike, never learned to ride one. Never had a playstation or anything like that either. When I got older and wanted more supplies to draw, my parents didn't have it, so I took it from school and perfected my craft." She stared at me intensely while I went in my pocket, grabbed my phone, and opened it to show her the portraits I had made of my family.

"Your family is beautiful... these are... wow." She stared.

"Thank you. I would've became an artist but .. an architect is more respectable."

"You can still be an artist. You don't have to give up one dream for another." She advised me.

I nodded." I don't crave it the way I use to. Focused on school. You can look through the rest of those portraits if you'd like though." I offered as she continued to scroll.

"How's that for short?" I then asked her while the portraits consumed her. It was petty of me, I know.

"Quiet." She whispered as she looked deeply into the portraits. "I'm going to help you find the artist in you again. This is a big deal. This is a big part of you. THIS is why you've stopped expressing yourself." She finished as she handed my phone back to me.

"Speaking of expression.. this house lacks it." I admitted to her bluntly.

"Well that's why we hired you all. Once you guys are done it'll be extravagant." She defended.

"No I mean.. even my parent's house had expression and we were dirt poor." I explained to her timidly. I didnt want to step on her toes, but she was the one who asked me to open up.

"So what are you saying?" She looked at me.

"I'm saying you're going to practice on me and help me find myself right? You said you stopped practicing because you had lost yourself. It doesn't seem like that's past tense though. By expression I meant love. That "home" aura. Your house lacks that. Forgive me, but your marriage lacks that."

"You're too young to understand how something like what we're going through affects marriages. It's not that we don't love eachother. It's just hard." She shrugged.

"I understand. It's just if my wife were going through something like that, I would love on her more. I would be here more." I candidly told her. "I'm just wondering what building this study and practicing on me will do for you if you still haven't figured things out for yourself?"

She sighed before picking up her wine glass again.

"I'm still a work in progress. By the time you're done building everything i'll have figured it out.... Hey i'm supposed to be helping you not the other way around." She playfully nudged me with her foot.

"It's a beneficial arrangement Mrs. H, we'll help each other." I told her before I stripped the last bit of the flooring section I was working on.

"Mhm. By the way, your someone texted you while I was holding your phone. You better get going." She hopped down from the desk.

"Oh shit. What time is it?" I looked at my phone.

12:31 am.