infatuation ↠ devanté swing

seven.

I was a nervous wreck sitting in Andre's office. This can't be good. I fall out with DeVanté and now all of a sudden I'm being called into the office.

Andre got up out his seat and began to pace back and forth through the room.

"Ms. James, I have to be completely honest with you. Of your short amount of time, you've shown so much growth here at Uptown. You've impressed me very much." he spoke, not caring to look at any of the people in the room.

"Thank you, I appreciate that." I nodded.

"I'm glad that you do. Would you like to grow more within the company?"

"Yes, definitely!" I said, a little too eagerly. I'm not sure if this was some kind of trap or something.

"It's wonderful to hear you say that. The new promotion will consist of you working right up under me, and you'll be working with Jodeci directly, replacing Sean. We will forever be grateful to him for helping develop Jodeci's sound and image, but he's moving on to bigger things now. I couldn't think of a better person to ask. What do you say?"

I glanced over at Dalvin, JoJo, DeVanté, and K-Ci. They all had smug looks on their faces, almost as if they were the ones to orchestrate this new shift of power.

"Uh," I hesitated for a moment. This would change everything. I'd have to put my pride aside and really do this thing. "I say yes." I smiled. The fellas began to clap and Andre nodded in approval.

"That's what I like to hear!" he smiled, showcasing more of his gums than teeth. Oh, y'all thought this meant I would like him now? Hell naw. "You'll have a brief orientation and start tomorrow morning. Be here at nine o'clock on the dot, not a minute later."

"Yes, sir." I gave him a soldier's salute and began to stand up from the leather chair that was placed in front of his desk. After making my way to the elevator, I pushed the down button a good ten times. Suddenly, my brain function had stopped. It was being distracted by a question, coming from a voice with mad bass.

"You get the flowers?"

I slowly inhaled then exhaled for a minute, before turning around to look at the man who changed my relationship's whole dynamic. "I did. And you can stop now. I made a mistake ever even talkin' to you. I have nothing more to say to you and I just wanna do my job." I was feeling a bunch of emotions at the moment, but calmness was the one being put on display, surprisingly. The elevator couldn't have come fast enough.

"Whoa, whoa. Calm down. I'm sorry, okay? I know that what happened was wrong. But don't call it a mistake." he replied back to me.

"Alright, DeVanté." I sluggishly sighed. I was over the conversation at this point. After what felt like years, the elevator finally opened. I stepped in with the intentions of pushing the "close door" button, but he slipped his way into the elevator too. Just jolly.