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She was fine, she really was, actually she was doing well. The sun was shining, it was a warm – but not hot – summer day in Chicago. She had just had her hair freshly relaxed over the weekend, so it had that extra shiny bounce to it. Her shoes were fabulous (red patent leather manolos), her dress, fabulous (Diane Von Furstenberg classic wrap dress). She had just gotten put in charge of representing one of the most cutting edge breakthrough artists in Chicago which meant huge fee coming her way. Yep, Audre Highsmith was having a good day. . .until approximately 3:45pm that afternoon.
“Ms. Highsmith, Lisa Reynolds is on line 1.” Audre smiled to herself, Lisa had been one of her best friends from college. She was Lisa’s maid of honor so she figured she must’ve been calling about wedding.
“Put her through please Dana.” When she heard the beep she picked up the phone still smiling. “Hey Miss Lady!”
“Hey Audre what’s going on girl?”
“Oh I’m great, just counting down the days until my girl gets married.”
“That’s right 4 days, 7 hours and 15 minutes until I am Mrs. Wesley Bradford the third!” They both screamed like schoolgirls. Audre felt proud that she had a hand in getting the two together, she had introduced them. Now 4 years later they were making things official.
“I can’t wait to get you down that aisle. You’re going to make such a beautiful bride.”
“I know I am aren’t I? You know, I still can’t believe I’m the first one out of us getting married, if you had asked me this time last year I would’ve thought for sure you and Greg would’ve had us beat.”
Audre’s smile tightened at the mention of Gregory Mason. Her mind wondered to thoughts of Greg while her friend rattled off details about her upcoming nuptials. He was Wesley’s best friend and best man at the wedding. He was also Audre’s ex, they had broken up 5 months ago, actually. . .fuck that, SHE had broken up with him. Audre had broken up with him because he was your typical commitment phobic male and after 7 years of dating Audre was tired of waiting for him to take the leap. During the months leading up to their breakup she was sure that they had turned a corner. Every time they had gone out she had chewed every piece of food 20 times (just in case there was a ring stuffed in), examined the bottom of every champagne glass before she drank, got her hopes up every time a violinist approached their table only to get them dashed when they went to couple next to them. So, finally she walked away. Hell, she deserved better even if Greg was the ideal black Ken to her black Barbie. There were other fish in the sea, and she paid no attention to those statistics that said black women were the least likely to get married and that the chances dropped as they advanced in education and age. Okay, so maybe she paid a little attention but she still had time, so what if all her white girlfriends had gotten married in the twenties and she was knocking on 30 (okay so maybe she was actually standing in the doorway of the 30s). She still looked good, she felt good. She wasn’t going to waste time thinking about her biological clock, or the fact that her ass was dropping a little more each day, or that she had just discovered a line on her face that didn’t go away after she stopped smiling.
“. . .So is that okay with you?” Lisa’s question bought her out of her foggy haze, she felt sheepish not wanting to admit she’d let her mind wonder.
“Sure sounds good.”
“Really? Because Wesley and I thought for sure you’d be pissed off about Greg bringing a date.” Audre’s eyes widened.
“Greg’s bringing a date?!”
“Didn’t you just hear a word I said? He’s been seeing this girl for 4 months-” What the fuck we‘ve only been broken up for five months! “-some chick named Cassandra Davis, he wanted to bring her to the wedding but I said no way at least not until I run it by you first.” Audre shut her eye’s tightly, silently counting backwards from ten.
“Audre? You still there?”
“I’m here. Lisa you know I love you girl for sticking up for me but you don’t have to worry. We’re all adults. We’ve all moved on and since I’m the one that broke up with him. It’s perfectly fine.”
“Great. Because the last thing we need is drama on my special day.”
“No drama, at least not from me!”
“Cool. What time are you getting into Atlanta?”
“My flight gets in Thursday night at 8:30, so I’ll just meet you in the morning for breakfast and our bridal spa day!”
“Sounds perfect! Okay well, I gotta go in for my final dress fitting, I’ll see you in two days.”
“Can’t wait to see you. Love ya.”
“Love ya too.” As they hung up the phone, Audre stared out of the window. Cassandra, where have I heard that name before?
She picked up her phone and dialed information.
“Yes can you connect me with Goldman Sachs Chicago please?” She drummed her fingers impatiently as the operated connected her.
“Good afternoon this is Goldman Sachs how may I direct your call?”
“Yes, um I’m just wondering I worked with someone on my account a few months ago, her name is Cassandra Davis is she still working there?”
“One moment please. . .yes we have Cassandra Davis in our legal division, would you like me to connect you to her.”
“No, that’s okay thank you.” Audre quickly hung up the phone.
Two Decembers ago, the Goldman Sachs Christmas Party
“Okay baby. So this is a big deal. We’re going to be with some very important people who can make my career.”
“I got this G, your promotion is in the bag.” As Audre smoothed down her dress, she grabbed Greg’s arm fully prepared to play the dutiful wife in training. She was dressed appropriately enough to be classy but the fitted black floor length dress said, I’m classy but my shit is still tight. Her hair was curled and pulled back in an artful, updo. She quickly straightened Greg’s tie before they went inside the ballroom. Audre smoozed with the high ups and Greg’s peers peppering their conversations with little anecdotes designed to show what a go-getter Greg was. She was sure that she had made a lot of leeway with Greg’s boss.
“. . .so that’s when I said Greg darling, we’re on vacation and if you work any harder you’re going to run yourself into the ground. I was so worried about him I had to figure out how to say ‘heart attack‘ in Portuguese before I could relax.” Everyone at the table cracked up, she was on a roll. Greg’s boss Mr. Doughty, or Bob as he told them to call him, nodded at Audre, obviously impressed by her.
“Audre you truly are charming, Greg is very lucky to have companion like you.”
“Yes I am, I feel very fortunate to have found such an amazing woman.” Audre beamed.
“Well with your positive attitude and this lovely woman beside you, there’s no stopping your rise to the top.” Audre’s grin got even wider as Greg’s boss turned and spotted someone a little ways away. “Greg, I’d like you to meet the newest addition to our team. We asked her to come tonight and meet some of her co-workers in a more casual atmosphere. We were able to steal her away from that other investment bank that shall remain nameless.”
He motioned to the person he’d spotted. Greg and Audre turned to look. Audre observed the stunning woman walking towards them and immediately began cataloguing all her good and bad points. Beautiful dark golden brown hair but her black roots were showing, her eyes were a gorgeous color but one looked kind of funny- perhaps she had a lazy eye, her dress was nice but her shoes were atrocious.
“Greg, Audre I’d like you to meet-”
“Cassandra Davis.” Greg and the woman hugged liked old friends while Bob and Audre looked at the two of them waiting for an explanation, Audre more so than Bob. They finally pulled apart 30 seconds later, Audre knew because she was counting.
“Gregory Mason look at you, I didn’t know you were here!” She turned towards Bob and Audre who was still patiently waiting for an explanation. “We knew each other from school. I went to Spelman and Greg went to school across the way at Morehouse.” Audre didn’t like her.
“Ah you went to Spelman. I went to a women’s college as well actually, Sweet Briar College.”
“Oh. Never heard of it.” It was official, Audre hated the bitch. They continued on with the idol chit chatter until after midnight. Audre couldn’t help but notice the two of them seemed quite chummy, and that Cassandra put her hand on Greg’s arm more than once, three times to be exact. But she played it cool , as they pulled up to Greg’s loft and went inside, Audre couldn’t help but ask what she had been dying to know.
“So you and Cassandra, how funny is that you two both ending up in Chicago at Goldman Sachs.”
“Yeah, it’s crazy. I haven’t talked to her in years.”
“Were you two close?”
“Um, we hung out in the same social circles.” He undid his tie, walking towards the closet. “Why? Are you jealous honey?”
“Jealous? No, I’m not jealous. Should I be?”
“No, not at all. She’s just a co-worker, like I said I haven’t talked to her in years. Besides, she’s not my type.” He came behind her and put his arms around her pulling her to his chest.
“Oh yeah? And what’s your type?”
“Pretty big eyes, beautiful brown skin, luscious lips and wearing the sexy la Perla thong I bought her.” Audre giggled as he snuggled against her neck. “Besides, I think she has a lazy eye.”
Son of a bitch.