Chapter 14
When Tristan had invited Tatiana and Nydia for a celebratory dinner, applauding them for a successful advertising campaign, Tatiana felt a strange sensation in her stomach, like fizzling Alka Seltzer. If she didn’t know better, she would’ve thought they were butterflies. Tatiana’s senses seemed to be heightened as she took in his subtle, masculine cologne and his every expression.
“Let’s have some drinks first,” he said. “I hope you don’t mind that Irma will be joining us. She’s running a little late.”
Tatiana’s fizzling stomach turned into a hard knot. She tried to make sure her face didn’t show how disturbed she was by this. Nydia smiled sympathetically at her.
Irma joined them shortly. As Tristan was toasting to Tatiana and then to Nydia, he looked to Tatiana and then to Irma. They both had black hair, dark eyes, and had more than a passing resemblance to Elizabeth Taylor.
What a coincidence, he thought.
.
During the next few days, Tatiana was hard at work trying to come up with a slogan for a new account when she received a call from Tristan. An Alka Seltzer sizzle swished in her stomach.
“What can I help you with, Tristan?” Tatiana asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
“Will you go to dinner with me tonight?”
“What?”
“Will you accompany me to dinner tonight?”
“What about, Irma?” she asked defensively.
“I’m no longer seeing her.” He had realized in an abrupt way that the only reason he had gotten together with Irma was because she was a dead ringer for Tatiana.
“You’re not?”
“No.”
“But—“
“Have dinner with me tonight, Tatiana.”
“Okay,” she blurted before her mind caught up with her fizzling stomach.
They made the arrangements. When she got off the phone, she rushed to Nydia's office, closing the door behind her and telling her about her upcoming date.
“How do I get out of it?” Tatiana muttered, her voice shaky.
“Get out of it?” Nydia questioned, a huge grin on her face. “Why would you want to do that?”
“He caught me by surprise. I didn't mean to say I'd go out with him.”
“Why not?” Nydia asked.
“I'm not sure I even like him.”
“You're making excuses. You do like him a lot, but you're scared of a relationship.”
“No, I—”
“Excuses, excuses,” Nydia chortled.
“For heaven’s sake, Nydia, he’s a client!”
“I really think you need to make an exception this time.”
“But—”
“Excuses, excuses. You're not breaking this date, my friend.”
“Who’s going to make me not break it?”
“I am.”
Tatiana chuckled. “I guess I'll have to go out with him then.”
“You can thank me later.”
Suddenly, the door swung open. “Why’s this door closed?” Bill snapped.
“Private account stuff,” Nydia shot back.
Bill grumbled. “Okay, whatever. I’m here to tell you that Suzanne wants to have a meeting with us.”
Tatiana and Nydia followed him to Suzanne's office where he closed the door as soon as they stepped in and sat down. Nydia looked at Tatiana who shrugged. She didn't know what this meeting was about either.
“I'd like to congratulate you on the Segovia account. Tristan is thrilled. He told me this was the best and most creative team he's ever worked with.”
“Thank you,” Nydia and Tatiana said in unison.
“There's another matter Bill and I would like to discuss with you. It's a delicate matter.”
“Delicate matter?” Tatiana questioned, uneasy curiosity in her voice. Nydia's eyebrows shot up. Tatiana had a bad feeling that the meeting had something to do with Augusta.
“It's come to our attention that Judith had an affair with Jack,” Bill blurted, frowning.
Nydia crossed her arms across her chest.
“We don't have to tell you what a grave situation this is,” Suzanne declared. “Jack Brewster is a happily married man.”
You've got to be kidding! burst into Tatiana’s mind.
“We were going to overlook this, even if it was a completely deplorable situation, since we heard he broke off the affair,” Bill announced.
“But,” Suzanne continued, “we heard Judith made a scene the other day embarrassing herself and Augusta in front of the whole office.”
“We don't feel she's a stable person. Maybe it’s because she's been sexually molested by her father,” Bill stated. “While we sympathize with her, we can't have an unstable person in our employee.”
“We know you two are close to her,” Suzanne declared. “But I know you must see the logic in what we're telling you.”
“It'll be for her own good that she faces her demons outside of here,” Bill asserted.
Tatiana looked over to Nydia who was tongue tied in fury.
“Am I hearing this correctly that you're going to fire Judith?” Tatiana questioned, shock and anger visible in her voice.
“We wanted to tell you first because we know how you feel about her,” Bill remarked.
“Tell us first? What bull is that? Augusta already knows, doesn't she?” Nydia, having untied her tongue, asked Suzanne directly.
Suzanne looked flustered. “I . . . Er, no, she . . .”
“That's why she's been cocky all day. She managed to get Judith fired!” Nydia snapped.
Bill cleared his throat. “Let me reiterate that this is for Judith's own good. She needs therapy and —”
“Are you firing Jack Brewster?” blurted Nydia.
“Well, no,” Suzanne muttered.
“Why not?” Nydia questioned sarcastically. “Is it because you think he's the victim in all of this? That Judith being a grand seductress seduced him into straying from his supposed strong marriage? When are his marriage vows the strongest, Bill? When you join him and Kenneth in the titty bars or when he's busy hitting on nearly every woman in the office?”
A few days ago, Tatiana and Nydia had learned that after the break-up with Judith, Jack had been trying to cozy up to most of the females in the agency. Tatiana and Nydia have been trying to get the women to speak up.
Suzanne shifted in her chair. “They're taking it wrong. Jack is a very friendly guy. He—”
“If there is any truth to this, we have to do something about it, Suzanne,” Bill snapped.
“But Bill—”
Bill eyed Suzanne sternly and then shifted his sight to Tatiana and Nydia. “Rest assured. I'll look into it.”
“I wouldn’t ignore this screwed up situation,” Nydia shot back, disgusted fury in her tone. “There are laws against sexual-harassment.”
Tatiana looked straight at Suzanne. “Even if Jack wasn't hitting on anybody, I would think you'd want to keep Judith before keeping him. He's lazy, uncreative, and clients don't like him while Judith is hardworking and is liked by almost everybody except for certain people, people who are either despicable human beings themselves or who are misinformed.”
“Judith told Augusta off in front of the office because she deserved it,” Nydia retorted.
“We can't have that kind of commotion in the office,” Bill pointed out.
“Then why do you have the prime person who creates that commotion still here?” Tatiana asked, trying not to snap.
“Since you won't handle the problem, what do you expect us as employees to do? Put up with Augusta’s rudeness, incompetence, hatred, and cruelty? We're not here to take her abuse,” Nydia snapped.
“All Judith was doing was defending herself from Augusta's vicious nature. It's not fair of you to fire her because she got in the way of your favorite employee, Suzanne,” Tatiana declared.
“She's not my favorite employee,” Suzanne rushed to say.
“I care about everybody in this office.”
Nydia rolled her eyes. “How much do you care about your agency? This office is turned upside down because of her and yet you still practice blatant favoritism when it comes to her, forgiving her for everything and ignoring the horrible atmosphere we have to put up with in your office. Instead of facing the real problem, you point the finger in another direction.”
“I don't—”
“You need to realize once and for all that you need to do something about her, and you need to do something about Jack not Judith,” Tatiana declared.
“That reminds me,” Nydia announced. “You've already covered this with Tatiana, but I feel you need to cover it with me. There's a rumor in the office started by your head administrative assistant that Jack gets paid much more than Tatiana and me. Is that true?”
Suzanne's eyes darted throughout the office.
Bill cleared his throat. “We can't discuss people's paychecks. You know that.”
“Augusta spread it throughout the office to demonstrate how unimportant Tatiana and I are around here. How little our work is valued,” declared Nydia.
Suzanne shifted in her chair. “I've said it time and time again how much I value you. I'm sure Augusta wouldn't say—”
“She said it, Suzanne!” Nydia snapped. “I heard her with my own two ears but if you want to call me a liar…”
“No, of course, I wouldn’t call you a liar but you might’ve heard wrong.”
Tatiana stood up from her chair. “This is the same conversation we've had over and over before. Suzanne, you'll stick your head in the sand as always. And you Bill, you'll let her do it because you don't like dealing with problems any more than she does. This time, however, I'm not going to let you put a Band-Aid on a gushing wound. You want that human crab, Suzanne, then you deal with her, but I won't stand here and watch you sacrifice anybody for her. If you fire Judith, I'm gone too.”
Nydia also stood up. “The same goes for me.”
Tatiana and Nydia stepped out of the office sensing both Suzanne's and Bill's eyes boring into their backs. Augusta’s sight landed on them with overflowing triumph. It was the haughty look that said, I got Judith fired.
“You're the devil,” Nydia snapped at Augusta.
Augusta sanctimoniously put a hand over her heart as if she was extremely offended. “I can’t believe you said—”
Nydia’s voice spat fire. “You’ve graduated from being a lowly demon to pure devil!!!”
“How dare you—”
“Shut up!” Nydia stood in front of her challenging her face to face until Augusta blinked and rushed to the bathroom. Tatiana shook her head at the person who thought she was such a tough person but was a coward instead.
Once they were back in Nydia's office, both flopped down in the chairs. “I really hate working here!” Nydia exclaimed.
“Me too,” Tatiana murmured.
That evening, Tatiana dressed and undressed about five times. What to wear? Tatiana didn't want Tristan to think she was head over heels for him, so she made certain not to appear overly sexy. Yet, she didn't want to wear one of the suits she'd use for the office. Tatiana got bored dressing like that all the time. She decided to use the process of elimination. No toos—too sex pot, too board meeting, or too granny.
This might be her only date for a long time, so Tatiana decided to wear something she felt particularly exceptional in. Tatiana wore her favorite black dress. It was simple, but it was comfortable and had a good fit. Tatiana let her straight, black hair loose. She didn't often wear it that way but when she did, it reminded her of the other sides to her, not just the professional.
As Tatiana was applying her make-up, she kept telling herself everything would be fine. There was nothing wrong with dating Tristan. But then the other side of reason hit her and she wondered if she needed a head examination? She had never dated a client. How could it possibly be a good idea? Calm down. Calm down, now! Tristan knocked on her door as she was applying the last brush of lipstick.
Good timing.
Tatiana took a deep breath and opened the door to find not the arrogant jerk she half expected, but a handsome man with an array of flowers in his hands. Tatiana smiled, and he did the same.
“Hi,” he said simply.
“Hi,” Tatiana answered back.
An awkward shyness took over them. They didn't say anything for a few seconds.
“I hope you like flowers,” he finally said, handing them to her.
“I love them.” Tatiana took them from his hands and turned around. “Come in so I can put them in water.”
Tristan followed Tatiana inside her apartment, and she asked him to sit down on the sofa as she put the flowers in a crystal vase.
He looked around. “I like how you have your apartment decorated, Tatiana.”
“I love Southwestern combined with Mexican,” Tatiana said.
He pointed to her dining area. “And that frame on the Frida Kahlo print is very attractive.”
Tatiana smiled. “My mama gave it to me for my birthday.”
“I'm a big fan of Frida Kahlo's work. I also appreciate Diego Rivera's paintings but I prefer hers.”
“I do too,” Tatiana said. “Even if they were married, their styles were always so different.”
“I know she wasn't appreciated like she should’ve been during her lifetime, but we really see her genius now. We're lucky she left us with her art.”
Maybe this date would turn out well after all. When he asked Tatiana where she wanted to eat, she told him she wanted Chinese. Tatiana had never gone out on a first date to a Chinese restaurant, and she wanted to start this possible budding relationship with newness. Why overload it with baggage at this point?
They went to the China House and decided on the dinner buffet. Tatiana overloaded her plate with a little of everything. He might as well know she didn't eat like a bird, she thought.
“You're going to eat all that?” asked Tristan, chuckling.
“After I finish with this, I'll probably go back for more,” Tatiana said, smiling.
He nodded. “I love that you are so you. You do whatever you want to do and not what you think you should do.”
“Thank you.”
As Tatiana was forking the fried rice in her mouth it occurred to her that she was sitting in front of Tristan, on a date, and falling into a very heavy crush.
Woe girl, put the brakes on.
Tatiana pulled at her memory banks to review the way he treated her when she first met him. She told herself that his arrogance would come out again, and she had to be ready for it.
“How long have you been working for Suzanne?” he asked.
“One year.”
“You don't like it there, do you?”
Tatiana dropped her fork. “I . . . Well, sometimes . . .”
“Nydia doesn't like it there either. Has it got something to do with that Augusta?”
“How do you know we don't like Augusta?”
“Does anyone except Suzanne like her?” he asked nonchalantly.
“Maybe one or two people.”
“That's what I thought.”
“Let's just say it gets difficult to work around her, and there are also other ugly things happening in that office.”
“Like the Jack situation?”
Tatiana gasped. “How did you know?”
“The jackass tried to get me to switch from you and Nydia to him.”
“He did?” Tatiana burst furiously.
“I set him straight. Anybody can see he's all slickness and no talent. What an ego. It's got to be hard working around that peacock.”
“You can see what I'm up against.”
“There's a complete lack of leadership in that agency. Thinking of another job?”
“Both Nydia and I are.”
“I imagine that because you're such a powerful partnership, you'll make
sure to work together.”
“We've decided we'd need to be hired as a team.”
“I'll give you both a high recommendation. Not only that but Segovia foods will go with you wherever you go.”
“But Johnson Advertising is in your building,” stated Tatiana.
“I don’t care. I’m sticking by you and Nydia.”
“Thank you.”
“I want you to understand that I'm not saying this because you're my date tonight. It has nothing to do with it. I would've jumped ship with both of you even if tonight wouldn't have happened. I'm a businessman. Unlike Suzanne, I know what side my bread is buttered on.”
“I appreciate that, Tristan.”
“Even if you decide you'll never go out with me again, the offer still stands.”
“Thank you.”
Is he for real? Tatiana asked herself. How do I stop myself from going deeper into this guy?
For the rest of the evening, they talked about their favorite travels into Mexico. Tatiana loved the state of Chihuahua. Tristan, it turned out, had been to most Mexican stated. Tatiana was fascinated with his description of various attractions in and around Mexico City, including the Aztec pyramids.
As they stood outside her apartment door, Tatiana was nervous. She had to admit to herself that she wanted him to come in with her. Tatiana really, really wanted him. She could only imagine what a night with him would be like. She'd probably see stars. Tatiana was practically seeing them right now. But reason won out.
“I'm not going to invite you in,” Tatiana murmured defensively.
What do you have to say about that, buster?
He nodded. “I know. It's too soon.”
“Yes, it is.”
“We need to get to know each other better before we make that kind of a commitment,” Tristan declared.
Did he say commitment? “What did you say?” Tatiana questioned.
“I'm a little old fashioned in that I believe that if you take someone to bed, it's a commitment of some kind. I'm no longer a boy. I'm a man. I don't like sex for sex's sake.”
Again, is he for real?
“I agree,” Tatiana stated.
“Good, we're both in agreement,” he said gliding his finger across her cheek. “I think I neglected to tell you how breathtaking you are tonight.”
“Thank you.”
And then it came. His lips gently landed on her own and allowed her to give back to him instead of taking her everything as Randy had done. He didn't try to desperately swallow her up, but instead there was an innate promise that this was only the beginning.
“I'll call you tomorrow, if that's okay?” he asked.
“Call me,” Tatiana said somewhat breathlessly.
Tatiana entered her apartment almost like a zombie. She told herself to take it easy because none of this might’ve been real. Men had fooled her before.
Watch out.