Page 11 of A Million Boss Kisses

CHAPTER FIVE

Yaseer Haynes

A s soon as my eyes opened, I was checking for a text message with the information on the woman from the party last night. I sent the information that security gave me to Nick in IT who was always down to make a few dollars with off the books work, but he still hadn’t hit me back.

I ordered room service because I wasn’t in the mood to rub elbows with all of my employees again. I’d done enough fake smiling last night to last for the next fifty years. The bacon, eggs, and toast with a tall glass of orange juice had me feeling less drained already.

Right after finishing my breakfast, there was a knock at my door.

It was Gina, her iPad, and the laptop bag she carried everywhere she went, all paired with a bright smile on her face.

I guess she got Zay under control last night because she was up bright and early knocking on my door.

After opening the door to grant her entry, she immediately got down to business, as usual.

I was actually sick as fuck when Zay came to my room with that shit yesterday.

Finding an assistant who could understand my demanding nature wasn’t easy at all.

“Good morning, Yaseer. I just spoke with the hotel’s management, and they sent over the final invoice for the event. It’s ready for your approval so I can have the finance department submit the payment,” she explained, passing me her iPad and pencil.

“Thank you. I didn’t expect you to be up this early ready to work after last night,” I noted, scrolling through the final invoice.

“We had a long conversation, and I truly don’t know how to take Zay right now if I’m being honest.”

I scribbled my signature on the line and passed the iPad back to her. “This is exactly why I had that no fraternization policy that y’all ignored.” Rubbing my temples, I took a seat on the chair adjacent to the couch in the suite.

“It’s not typical relationship drama. If it was, I would never discuss it with you.

But we got into it bad last night because he really wants me to quit working for you.

He said he doesn’t like the long hours, the fact that I cater to your every need, and how he can afford to take care of us, but I need my independence. ”

“Did you tell him that?” I questioned.

“Yeah, we came to a bit of a compromise and that’s why I’m bringing this up to you.

When I go on maternity leave, I will be resigning,” she lamented, tears welling up in her eyes.

“Zay is right, I won’t be able to commit to this type of schedule and give my daughter the same type of mother she deserves. ”

“Don’t cry, you good,” I pleaded, hopping up to grab a few Kleenex from the box on the counter across the room.

Claiming the seat next to Gina, I passed her the Kleenex and wrapped her up in a hug.

“Relax Gina, we had a good run. I already knew the chances were slim that you would return from maternity leave. We already had plans to find a temporary replacement when we get back to Tampa, and this is perfect timing. Now, when we meet the candidates we have lined up, we can let them know it’ll be a permanent position. ”

“Okay, I just hate it,” she spluttered.

“You good, and when baby girl gets older you can always return to the company in another capacity. You are family now so there will always be a position available for you.”

“Thank you,” Gina blubbered. “I’m not even this damn emotional. It’s the hormones.”

“Damn, so you saying you don’t give a fuck about a nigga?” I nodded slowly before we burst into laughter.

“You know I appreciate you for the opportunity. I wouldn’t have met my husband if it wasn’t for you.”

My phone vibrated on the table, and I stood to retrieve it. “It’s your husband,” I informed Gina before answering.

“Yooo.”

“Is Gina down there?”

“Yeah.”

“She slipped out of here while I was asleep, and her phone is sitting on the table looking at me. Make sure you put a bottle of water in her hand because she left her Stanley cup in the room, so I know she don’t have shit with her.”

“Your husband said get a bottle of water in your hands,” I teased her, walking over to the mini fridge to grab one.

Gina rolled her eyes again. “I have a mini bottle of water. I just didn’t want to carry my Stanley because you said you didn’t need me for anything, so I’m headed right back up there. Tell him I didn’t mean to forget my phone.”

“She is on her way back to y’all room now. I’m chilling today,” I informed Zay, and we ended the call.

“What do you plan to do today?”

“I’ll see if Amill wants to spend some time with her old man. But you know she gets down here with her mama people and act like she don’t know a nigga,” I responded, referring to my daughter.

She was eighteen, in her senior year of high school, and I was dreading the day she’d walk across that stage for graduation.

My baby girl was born when I was just eighteen, so we practically grew up together.

The thought of her stepping out into a world this dangerous made my chest tighten.

Amill was smart, outgoing, and resilient.

Everything a father could hope for, but that didn’t stop the fear from creeping in.

Especially knowing her mother’s history.

Janna, Amill’s mother, was my high school sweetheart and got pregnant during our senior year.

Neither of our parents were ecstatic about it, but they supported us nonetheless.

Amill was born a week after our high school graduation.

I still went to Atlanta to attend Clark two months later when the fall season started.

I wanted Janna and Amill to come with me to Atlanta, but her parents weren’t having it.

They didn’t think it was best for the baby and wanted Janna to have support.

Since I didn’t know shit about taking care of a baby, I didn’t put up much of a fight.

I thought monetarily taking care of my daughter was enough.

She showed my ass though, Janna was offered a modeling contract a year later and left Amill with her parents while she moved to California.

It didn’t sit right with me that our daughter was being bounced between our parents, so I moved back to Miami to care for Amill while attending the University of Miami.

Our parents assured us that they had Amill, but the first time I heard her call her maternal grandparents mama and dada , it was a wrap for me.

This wasn’t that. What I thought would be a temporary arrangement quickly became permanent, because Janna got to Cali and started living like she didn’t know me or Amill existed.

Janna still lived in Cali, had her own clothing line, and married a man in the fashion industry.

She was in her second year on some reality TV show, so we saw her face all over the blogs.

Even after all of these years had passed, she didn’t include Amill in her life.

For that, it was forever fuck that bitch.

Amill wasn’t invited to her wedding and would only know what the interior of her home looked like because of a scene on that reality show.

She despised me for leaving her with a newborn and going to college, and I guess that trickled down to my daughter as well.

I still carry a small sense of guilt for Janna’s strained relationship with Amill.

If I weren’t so immature, maybe I would’ve stayed in Miami to help with the baby or fought harder to bring them with me.

I wasn’t cheating while I was away or anything like that, but Janna let it be known that it was the fact that I had my freedom that ate at her every day.

I had done everything in my power to protect Amill from her mother’s bullshit and fill in the gaps she left behind, but no amount of wealth or strategy could fix the fact that her mother never showed up for her.

I doubt her high school graduation would be any different.

And now on top of carrying that truth, I had to face the reality that my daughter was stepping fully into adulthood and I couldn’t stop it.

“You in your head again?”

“A little,” I admitted, and a sly grin spread across my face.

“What?” Gina narrowed her eyes on me.

“I need you to do one thing for me.”

Gina emitted a dramatic groan and collapsed onto the couch like a rag doll. “Come on, Yaseer. You just said you didn’t need anything.”

“It’s something you can do real quick. After you left last night, there was a woman who came up to me,” I started, clicking around on my phone.

“I just texted you her license plate number, plus the make and model of her car. I think she’s staying here, but I’m not sure.

I just need you to find her. She was saying something about me talking shit about her son. ”

“Was it from that video that’s going viral?”

“Shit, I forgot all about that shit,” I smiled. “That’ll make it even easier to find out who she is. She gotta be the mama of one of them sorry ass niggas that play baseball at USF.”

“You said this would be quick and this sounds like I’ll need to pull out my super sleuth skills. What’s quick about that?”

My phone chimed, and a text came through from Nick from the IT department.

I took a moment to read over the summary of his findings while Gina stared at me.

“Scratch that, you don’t even need to do the searching.

Nick already found her name, social media accounts, and address.

I just need you to see if she’s here, and if she is, I want access to her room. ”

“What?” Gina yelped.

I leaned my head to the side. “I need that and you need to get back to Zay. Hit me when you get the job done.”

“Oh lord,” she huffed on her way out of the room.

I FaceTimed Amill, and she answered with a bright smile on her face.