Shay

twenty two

"No, it's alright," Laylah said for the tenth time in the past three minutes.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Shay! For God's sake!" I blushed because I was almost freaking out, making me cross my own line. Miss Smith turned out to not be at work today, even though my article was due today.

She hadn't reported herself sick, but attended some meeting which was, as everyone claimed, quite often, and since it was a "meeting" every once in a while, she got me surprised as Laylah would usually go to meeting that weren't as important or took place often.

Right now I was standing in front of Laylah, after I had to run op the stairs, because A: the nearest elevator to the entrance I had taken was broken, and B: all the others, well, had been crowded.

I felt the sweat covering my forehead and my back, and I needed a shower.

"Chill out," Laylah ordered, "Smith will love it!" She smiled at me with a big smile as she searched for my document on the USB stick, which she claimed that it didn't work. I was just about to jump out of the window, or just run down the stairs and quit.

If Jenna had been right with her worries, and she hadn't actually copied the file into the USB, then I was, sorry, fucked.

Because today was my deadline.

"Sit down," Laylah ordered as she squinted her eyes and searched for my article. We were in her office, which was much more chic than mine and Jenna's, and even Jenna's was more chic than mine.

"You look really exhausted."

"Yeah," I muttered as I sat down, "You're right there. I'm glad that I'm just not late."

"Thank God, Smith isn't here!"

"You're so right!" I told Laylah, and we laughed as she continued to scroll. I watched her and then the rest of her office. It would've been so much easier if Jenna was here now, but she had some "issues" with her computer, which led her to hire our technician and interrupt his work.

Whatever she meant with "issue", though.

"Are you really, really sure?" I asked one more time, expecting Laylah to yell at me and maybe, also, throw me out of her office.

"Yeeees!" She answered as she pulled the E long. She refused to look over my article again, making me beg her and ask her if she was really sure about it. I thought it was because she trusted me, but she said that she just was in a hurry and hadn't time to look through it.

I knew that Jenna and I had been tinkering with my article the past few days, but I couldn't remember anything. I just prayed that it looked just as good as when I had finished it on Saturday night before we had left to the party Jenna wanted us to go to, desperately.

I didn't even know why we were tinkering with it, but it sounded like one of Jenna's typical ideas to make something "perfect".

If Laylah kept refusing to open my article, in case she'd find it at all, the next person who'd see it would be our editor. And with him, my relationship was deeper than a zero.

"I think I got it," Laylah muttered before she used her dark hand to click on the mouse several times. "It takes a bit."

I just nodded and leaned forward as I put my hands on my lap and looked at Laylah impatiently.

"It'll be alright!" She reassured me before opening her desk drawer. "Do you need gum? Hand lotion?"

"Hand lotion?" I asked her and began to laugh.

"Different people need different sedatives!" She told me, "This here calms me!" Her voice rose, and to my surprise she pulled out a pink bottle.

"You have La Tentation de Nina!?" I pointed out to her perfume that she was just spraying on her neck, which made her black skin wet. I knew this perfume as Jenna used it, too.

"Only the best of the best, Antoine gave it to me," Laylah swarmed, pressing her perfurme to her cheek as if she was cuddling with it.

Antoine was her fiancé, she once told me that she had met him in Fredericton, where she had lived with her father after her mother and her elder brother died in a car accident.

"Antoine must be a really nice guy."

"Totally! Shay, we need to look for someone for you too! On Valentine's Day, Anto gave me these pretty ones!" She pressed her fingers together, holding them so that her nails were directed to my way and moved her hands forwards and backwards, signalising me that I should move backwards.

When I moved my chair back, my hands still resting on my lap, I looked down and spotted her dark red pumps which looked very sexy on her elegant feet. "Wow!"

I was amazed and smiled at her as I moved forward, again.

"Yeah, right? He would do absolutely anything for me!" She folded her hands and put her face on them as if she was waiting for something. "You need a boyfriend!"

I shrugged my shoulders and to my fortune, her computer finally made a sound.

"Oh, there's the article!" Laylah pointed out and distracted herself. She dragged it onto her desktop and sent it, I supposed, to everyone else who had to edit this article to put it into the magazine. For example, the idiot of an editor.

I wanted to ask Laylah again if she didn't want to look at my article but then heard a loud knock on the door.

Laylah shouted, "In!" while she was looking over my shoulder. I turned around and saw a black man my age open the door, wearing an elegant, expensive suit.

"Jo!" I heard Laylah greet him as she smiled at him and also got up from her chair but not moving from her place.

"Hey?" He greeted her, and then me, insecurely and took off his hat which he was wearing when he came in here. He stepped closer and offered me his hand while I was still sitting on my chair.

I stood up and shook his hand before he nodded to me nicely and walked around the desk to Laylah. He hugged her tightly and pressed a kiss on her cheek, leaving me surprised.

"This is my brother, Jonathan!" Laylah laughed, "He's looking for a job here and I think we need him somewhere, I have to persuade Miss Smith somehow,"

"Yes, I'd like to work here." Jonathan agreed, looking at his sister and then at me with my bright eyes before putting his hat on the desk and looking back at his sister. "Can we?"

I remember that we actually needed more people to attend our workshops as they would be offered a permanent working position here within the next two years. In my workshops, however, there were barely any people that didn't work here. But I was sure Miss Smith would accept him as he was Laylah's brother.

And, maybe, he was even just right for this place.

"I'm sorry, Shay," Laylah excused, while she didn't look at me but at her brother happily. Maybe, she hadn't seen him in a long time, or he hadn't had a good job that pleased him for some time.

I hoped that he would get accepted here as he was probably a nice guy and it'd make Laylah very happy.

"Oh," I just brought out, picking up my bag from the floor which I had put right next to my chair in the middle of Laylah's office.

"I want to show him around," Laylah explained to my understanding.

"Alright," I smiled warmly at the both of them. Just before I was leaving through Laylah's door, I heard her say something.

"Your article is absolutely great, I'm sure."

I held open the door when she said that and smiled at her brightly, leaving her office confidently.