She continued checking her phone as she moved around the room. She eventually ended up standing a few feet besideEdmund’s chair, although her face was buried in her phone and she didn’t notice him.
But Edmund noticed her. And because it was the closest she had been to him, he glanced over at her body. She was killing it in that dress she wore as it hugged every curve of her slender frame. And her ass wasn’t flat like a lot of the ladies in that house, but hers was full and tight. Just like he liked it. And those legs. He couldn’t get over those legs. Unlike the skinny, birdlike legs all over the place, hers was tight and full and shapely like her ass, and they looked so velvety-smooth that he knew everything else beneath those clothes were too. He couldn’t take his eyes off of those legs.
But when she glanced over and caught him looking at her, she rolled her eyes with thatget lost, creeplook on her face. Then she turned her back to him and leaned her shoulder sideways against the wall. And continued to check her phone.
He smiled. He was caught in the act! But he didn’t give a shit. He was just admiring the view.
“Hey Maude.”
Two of her female colleagues came and stood against the wall on either side of her. Edmund looked at them both. They were attractive ladies too. So her name was Maude. It fit her, he thought, but it didn’t fit her too. Because it seemed to him to be an old lady’s name although she was far from old. But she had that old-school look about her.
“What are you up to?” the second reporter asked her.
“Waiting for a source to give up the goods.”
“That’s what we do,” said the second reporter. “The absolute worst part of the job.”
“And the most rewarding if it works,” said Maude. Then she waved her phone around. “But nothing so far.”
“Maybe I should text him,” the second reporter said.
“Will you give it a rest for two minutes, Maude, my goodness,” said the first reporter. “It’s always work with you. Work. Work. Work. Your ass need a man. You don’t know how to turn it off.”
“But this is different,” said Maude. “This could be the biggest story of my career if it checks out.”
“You’re always saying that,” said the first reporter dismissively.
“Always,” agreed the second one.
Maude felt the sting of their dismissiveness, but decided to move on. “What do you guys think about our new editor?”
“What do you think about her?” asked the first reporter. She wasn’t employee of the month three months running for nothing. She knew how to turn a question around.
“She’s aw’ight,” Maude said.
“She seems kind of stuck-up to me,” said the second reporter. “Like she’s better than us. Like we’re down here and she’s way up there.”
“That’s how she seems to me too,” said the first reporter as if she turned that question around to get Maude on record as the odd one out. In addition to employee of the month, she was also the queen of triangulation. She was no friend of Maude’s.
Maude, instead, texted her source anyway.
“Who are you texting?” the first reporter asked her and before Maude could respond, she snatched her phone out of her hand to see for herself.
“Give that back!” Maude yelled and attempted to snatch her phone back.
But it was too late. Her colleague saw the name and the number. She looked at Maude with fire in her eyes. “You stole my source!”
When she spoke so loudly at Maude, Edmund looked over as Maude snatched her phone back from her colleague. “Girl get out of my face. I didn’t steal anything.”
“But he’s my source! Why would you call my source?”
“I didn’t call him. I didn’t even have his number. He called me. And how would I know he was a source of yours? He never mentioned you!”
“That’s all y’all good for is to steal. Always stealing!” the first reporter said and then violently pushed Maude so hard that Maude stumbled backwards until she hit the arm of Edmund’s chair and falling over. She ended up slamming down, seated sideways, onto his lap.
But Maude didn’t hesitate. As soon as she landed, she was about to jump back up and handle that woman. But Edmund immediately placed his arm around her waist, with his big hand resting on her stomach, and effectively stopped her from moving. “Don’t you go down to her level,” he said to her. “Don’t you dare.”
“What are you talking about? That heifer pushed me!” Maude said it angrily as that heifer, along with the second reporter, hurried away from her. She slung her dirt and left.
