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“Talk to you later,” Valencia said, finally getting the file in her satchel, but in the process, she dropped her phone. “Great,” a frustrated Valencia said, and started to stoop down to get it.
A woman walked up behind her. “Here. Let me get that for you.” She crouched to pick the phone up and handed it back to Valencia.
“Thank you,” she said before both women proceeded toward the building.
Valencia looked over at the woman who was wearing a Ralph Lauren Collection WelElsie blazer double-breasted front dress and Gianvito Rossi leather ankle boots, with enough jewelry to make you notice, and didn’t recognize her. She had been to Prestige a number of times over the past year and thought that she had met all of the members of their senior management team.
Dressed like that, she must be somebody, Valencia thought, and then wondered how she would find out who this woman was.
“I guess I’m a little nervous,” Valencia said as they walked toward the building. “I have a meeting with Mike Black and I’m running a little late.”
“What time is your meeting?”
“Ten o’clock.”
“Oh, you have time. It’s only a quarter till.”
“I know, but I always try to arrive fifteen minutes early before appointments. I think that punctuality goes a long way toward making a good impression.”
“I see.”
“Do you know Mr. Black?”
“I do.”
“I met him once before, but I couldn’t get a r
ead on him. Any tips you can offer me on how to deal with him?”
“Be honest with Michael. He can see a fake from a mile away,” she said as they reached the building.
“Good advice,” she said, while the woman held the door open for her to go in. “Where are my manners? I’m Valencia DeVerão.”
“Good morning, Mrs. Black,” Lenecia, the receptionist, said as she stepped in. “How are you this morning?”
“Good morning, Lenecia. I’m fine,” Shy said, and then turned to Valencia with a smile. “I’m Cassandra Black. Michael is my husband.”
“Pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Black,” Valencia said, shaking Shy’s hand, feeling a little embarrassed, and thinking that the seduction of Mike Black, if it came to that, may have just gone out the window, but Valencia was still confident that she could bring him to the table. She had to. It was the only way that she could be free.
“Good luck with your meeting. I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Shy said, walking down the hall to her office as Valencia turned to Lenecia.
“Good morning, Lenecia,” she smiled as her associates, Drew Morgan and Christian Riviera, joined her at the reception desk.
“Good morning, Ms. DeVerão.”
“I have a ten o’clock appointment.”
“Yes, and if you would please have a seat, I will let Ms. Brazil know that you’re here.”
“But my meeting was with Mike Black.”
“Yes, it was, and I apologize, but Mr. Black was unavoidably detained,” Lenecia said, and Shy laughed as she went to her office because she knew that Black was in the building, just not excited about meeting with Valencia, “so you’ll be meeting with Meka Brazil in his absence.”
Shy was still smiling when she closed the door to her office, put down her things, and sat down. It had been a good year for her. She had given birth for the second time to an eight-pound, five-ounce baby boy, and his parents couldn’t be happier. The entire family was overjoyed with the new addition to their family. As promised, when the baby was born, Black sent Gladys on the Cessna to Saint Vincent to pick up Scarlet. And when the Cessna returned to New York, his father, brothers, along with their wives and children, were with them. They stayed for a month celebrating his birth before returning home.
In the past year, Shy had gotten her Masters in Corporate Finance from the Columbia Business School. CAMB Overseas Importers, the import-export company that Shy started, had expanded to where she now had a small staff of four employees.
She was still doing business with Cebrián Sandalio, importing medicinal and pharmaceutical products from India, and had negotiated deals to import women’s apparel from Honduras and Italy into the country. It really did seem as if they’d finally gotten what the two of them had always wanted. They were together, they were out of the game, and they were a family. All that Shy had to do was to name her son.
