Brielle Whitman-Quintero proved to be a special case. AKA skittish as fuck. It didn’t take much for her to run. So, no, I didn’t use labels.
Bri: You’re so silly.
Me: Rude and completely disrespectful to your fellow educated adult.
Bri: You haven’t graduated yet.
Me: Burn.
Bri: LOL!
Smirking, I eased my feet off my desk and pulled up my executive chair.
Me: Anyway, you’re avoiding the initial topic of discussion. I’m treating you so I’m going to need to know your favorite places to go. We’ll go anywhere. Any place you want.
I wanted to know these things about her, and though I had learned a lot, I could stand to know more. I knew her favorite color was blue now. Her favorite food was poached eggs. Like the woman could eat eggs for days, but there were so many more things I wanted to know.
Bri: You don’t have to treat me. I can treat myself. Thank you very much.
A typical Brielle answer, and I loved that I knew that. I was getting a lot of information, understanding her. We still had a ways to go, but I felt we were getting somewhere.
Me: Make the list. And if you want, I’ll make one too. You can treat me. Show me off.
I waited for the telltale eye roll emoji or comment about me being arrogant. I was really starting to know this girl.
“Ramses, you have Mr. Johnson here to see you.”
My secretary left after I lifted a hand to her. Time to get back to business.
Me: Gotta go make that money, but I’ll get at you later.
She’d been in the midst of a text (probably with one of those eye roll emojis).
Bri: Okay. See you later. Miss you. *heart emoji*
And did I love seeing that.
I pocketed the phone after telling her the same, and by then, my door was opening again. I hadn’t seen Lance “LJ” Johnson since Royal and December’s wedding. He’d been one of Royal’s best men, of course, and even though I hadn’t seen him, that didn’t mean I didn’t constantly hear his name in the wind.
For starters, he’d been buying up all kinds of properties across town, real estate and small businesses. Actually, I figured him being here was only a matter of time, considering that was the game Mallick Enterprises played.
Why I’d been surprised to hear he wanted to meet with me today was because I knew the guy’s background. He’d come from poor, despite his rich friends Knight Reed, Royal Prinze, and Jaxen Ambrose. I’d heard LJ had gotten into the drug game for a while. (What can I say, people talked in this town). But I also heard, he’d put all that aside as of late and ventured into the stock market. He was apparently doing well for himself and that showed the moment he waltzed into my office covered head to toe in Armani.
The guy had always had one of those surfer-dude looks, even back in high school. I was talking bleach blond hair twenty different shades and a tan that damn near challenged mine. The dude was pretty, I’d give him that, and he had that long blond hair cinched back today. The moment he saw me, he thrust out a hand but did one better once he took it.
“Mallick, brother,” he greeted, slapping my back when he tugged me into a hug. “How’s the high life in the sky?”
I had to say, treating me well, and I grinned, pulling back and looking at him. He looked so different from high school, but not far off from the wedding. Fly as fuck, he rocked a diamond-encrusted Rolex and a gold chain in his gray suit.
My father’s voice in my head screamed “new money” at me, but I admired the guy. He wore whatever the fuck he wanted, self-expression as bold as the statement it made. People should be able to do and be whatever the hell they wanted to be.
“No complaints here,” I returned, and not many today. Things were starting to look up, and really, I had no complaints.
Our Court rings clanked when he slapped my hand a couple times again, and what a moment to be had. He and the other guys really were brothers to me. We shared a commonality, and like me, the others seemed to be rising above.
We talked about that for a moment, our days in the Court and high school a bit before sitting down, and I put my hands out to him behind the desk.
“How the hell you been?” I asked, smiling. “Seems like things are going well.”
Well, indeed. Like stated, he’d been buying up all kinds of shit.
It’d been enough to make a few people around here nervous, but mostly because they didn’t know his agenda. LJ was a new player, no ties to anyone in the inner circle. That naturally made people nervous. People doing rogue shit was nerve-racking. I’d never held concerns. I figured LJ would surface eventually with his objective, and even if he hadn’t, whatever. There was a piece of the real estate pie out there for everyone, and I knew something about this guy’s character. We’d gotten pretty acquainted during the wedding days, and he seemed like a stand-up dude, classy.
He folded his fingers. “I feel like you’ve expected me to come through.”
A shrug as I passed that off, which had him grinning. I did the same. “What you been up to? You planning on making your own city?”
He chuckled. “It’s been that obvious?”
Obvious enough, a flash of LJ’s smile when he tucked his hands under his arms. “I’m trying to get into the game. More specifically in Maywood Heights. This is home, and I want to start cementing some stuff here. Especially since we are graduating soon.”
I nodded, understanding. “I thought you were going into architecture?”
December had mentioned something during the wedding plans, and LJ also went to an Ivy League. He’d really been doing well.
“I am. Have a few internship offers. I’ll need that knowledge for what I’m going to do once I finish whatever program I choose.”
He had a guy bring in some documents then, like an actual guy holding his briefcase and stuff. He looked like nothing more than a college kid like us, and I smiled.
This guy had a legit entourage, only missing the women. Though, I knew him to be settled down romantically. I’d met his girlfriend Billie at the wedding too, of course.
With his stuff, LJ laid it all out on my desk. He had a business plan, one he slid over to me.
“I plan on looking out for the little guy,” he said, taking his seat while I thumbed through what he gave me. “I’m talking affordable housing, nice but without the markup. And also, businesses that are affordable and cater to regular people. It’s so hard to get a damn come-up in this town. The plans I have for the properties I’m buying will help with that and also provide safe neighborhoods for people to live.”
I saw that, all that, and surprisingly, his plans weren’t just altruistic.
The guy could stand to make an actual profit on the endeavor. He simply looked out for the little guy first, which was the exact opposite from how things were done traditionally.
“Some of these are Mallick properties,” I mentioned, which had LJ grinning wider.
He nodded. “Hence, why I’m here in front of your lovely face, brother.”
His manservant came back in, this time with an offer for said Mallick properties listed in great detail in a binder.
LJ had the figures listed under each property, and as I turned the pages, I actually chuckled at the sight of them.
But not because they were low.
“Shit, you’re not playing,” I said. At another exorbitant figure, my brow dashed up. “This is like triple what these properties are worth.” Anyone would have thought he’d lost his mind, mostly my board. “Does Knight know you’re doing this?”