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Joy’s heart dropped. Two to three weeks? But she didn’t trip. Why should she? He wasn’t going to change his plans. “Promise me we’ll talk when you get back,” she said. “For real though.”
She had such a sincere look in her eyes that he placed his hands on the sides of her face to make sure he was clear. “Yes, I promise,” he said. “We’ll talk.” And then he kissed her with a kiss so passionate that it made him hard again. But time was not on their side. “Now get dressed,” he said as he stood up too.
She knew those were just words to move them forward. But at least he knew how she felt. At least he promised they would have a conversation. Because she knew he wasn’t about to let his clients down.
“I mean it, Joynetta,” he said when she was just standing there. “Finish getting dressed.”
She gave him a playful salute. “Yes sir, Boss!”
He considered her and her sometimes childish antics. “You’re a junior executive, young lady. Which means you can be dismissed summarily, on the spot, by your department head. And I won’t intervene if that ever happens.”
“It won’t happen.”
“I’m already going against everything I believe in by allowing you to work there at all. You’d better not embarrass me.”
“I won’t be late,” Joy said as she placed her hands on his chest, “and I work harder than everybody in my department combined and they all know it. I’ll never embarrass you. Or myself.”
William smiled. That’s my girl, he thought. “So what are you waiting for? Get your ass to work!”
Joy laughed. But when William slapped that ass, she got her ass to work.
CHAPTER TWELVE
THREE WEEKS AND FOUR DAYS LATER and Joy was excited.
William was coming home.
She got out of bed refusing to pretend she wasn’t excited about it too. She was elated. Her man was coming home today! That was all she needed to get her motor going.
She emersed herself in her Japanese soaking tub for nearly half an hour, got out, got dressed, and made her way downstairs singing a tune. When she made it into her gourmet kitchen, Tess and Cory, her two best friends in the world, were seated at the center island laughing at her.
“What in the world are you singing?” Cory asked her.
“The Sheep song,” said Tess. “Because that’s what she sounds like: a doggone sheep.”
They laughed again.
“Very funny,” Joy said with a smile of her own as she stood between them and hugged their necks. “And look at this spread,” she added as the looked at the bacon and eggs and hash browns and Danish on the countertop. “Why do y’all keep disturbing William’s chef every time y’all come over here?”
“We didn’t disturb him,” said Tess. “The butler disturbed him. He answered the door, let us in, and then he asked if we wanted breakfast prepared. All we said was yes.”
“I’m sure you did,” Joy said, and they all laughed as she made her way around the island and poured herself a cup of coffee.
“The chef told us to ring for him when you came downstairs,” Tess said. “He’ll pour the coffee for you.”
Joy looked at Tess. “Girl please! It wasn’t that long ago when me and you both were pouring coffee for our customers at Maylene’s. What I look like disturbing William’s chef by asking that man to come all the way upstairs just to pour me some coffee? Girl bye!”
They laughed.
“But you do realize,” Cory said, “that he’s your chef too. Not just William’s chef, as you call him. And the same with William’s butler. He’s your butler too. Don’t you forget that girl.”
Joy shook her head. “I never even imagined! What I look like with a chef and a butler?”
“You look like William Skeffington’s wife,” said Cory. “That’s what!”
“But I know what she means,” said Tess. “She was poor as dirt just a year ago. It’s a lot.”
Both Tess and Cory looked at Joy. Because Joy did have a bewildered look on her face just thinking about it.
