Page 24 of Objection

Kaos

I hardly ever took on research gigs. If a client asked me to look into something, I usually had a paralegal do it.

This was too personal of a situation for just anyone’s eyes.

Though I trusted my team, I didn’t put anything past anyone.

If what Mayor Collins had me looking into was true, I didn’t want to risk anyone sharing the information with a blog site for a quick come up.

Mayor Collins was serving his second term as The Hill’s mayor.

He was a sixty-four year old Black man who had a hunch that his grandson was actually his stepson.

When he told me he believed his son had an affair with his third wife, a part of me wanted to tell him that couldn’t be possible.

However, in my profession, I’d seen more impossible things than I wanted to remember.

This wasn’t my usual area of expertise, but I agree to help as a personal favor.

The only other person who knew what was going on was my private investigator.

If it turned out that his son and wife had an affair, I had no idea what Collins was going to do.

When the door opened, I didn’t bother to look up as I said, “What do you need, princess?”

“Princess? You’ve never called me that before.”

My head snapped up at the sound of my mother’s voice. With a wide smile, I stood and rounded my desk to hug her.

“Hey, old lady.”

“Ugh. I think I liked princess better,” she joked as we hugged.

“Wassup, Mama?”

“I can’t stop by and see my only son?” she asked before giving me a kiss on my cheek.

“Of course, but you and I know you only stop by the office when you’ve got something to gossip about or you want me to do something.”

She laughed as I helped her into her seat. “I won’t take offense to that.”

Serenity lightly knocked on the door and stuck her head in. “Hey, Mrs. Montgomery. It’s great to see you again.” Her eyes shifted to me. “I was just letting you know I’m back.”

She’d left the office to grab some files from the DA’s office, which explained how Mama had gotten into my office without me knowing she was here.

“Serenity, come on in here and give me a hug, girl,” Mama said, standing with her arms wide. Serenity shyly made her way inside and into my mother’s arms. “How have you been?”

Serenity’s eyes locked with mine when she said, “I’ve been great, Mrs. Montgomery,” and I took pride in knowing I had a hand in that.

“Great, great. You are absolutely glowing!”

“Thank you. That’s what being loved properly can do,” Serenity announced as they released each other. “I’m going to give you two some privacy though. Mr. Montgomery, I’ll clear your schedule for the afternoon so you can spend some time with your mom.”

I didn’t realize I was staring at Serenity until Mama called me out on it.

“Mhm.” Her hands were on her hips when I forced my eyes off Serenity’s ass as she walked away. “That’s princess huh?”

I couldn’t stop smiling even if I wanted to. Nodding, I confirmed. “Yeah, that’s princess. Things started shifting between us in June, but we’ve been official since July.”

Mama clapped excitedly, making me chuckle. “Why haven’t you said anything?”

“I wanted to, and I’m not hiding her at all. I just . . . wanted her to myself for a while, you know?”

“How serious is this? I mean . . . it was serious enough for you to commit and you haven’t done that in years.”

“It’s as serious as serious can get. She’s definitely going to be my wife.”

Mama squealed as she hopped from her seat. Walking over to me, she grabbed my face and covered it with kisses until I laughed and pushed her away.

“I felt led to stop by since I was in the area and had no idea why. Now I know! I had to stop by so I could get this good news! You’ve got to bring my future daughter over for family dinner and tell me all about how this new relationship came to be.”

“Of course. Whenever she’s ready, I’d love to bring her over.”

“Oh, she’ll be ready this weekend. See you Sunday.”

After shooting me a wink, she gave me another kiss on the cheek.

When she left my desk, she lingered at Serenity’s.

I was going to go out there and save Serenity but decided against it.

She’d have to get used to my mother’s overly affectionate and emotional ass anyway.

As soon as I saw Mama hug and kiss her, I laughed. This lady was too damn much.

Mama pointed in my direction, and that was the only reason I stood to go see what was being said.

“Does this Sunday work for you?” Mama asked.

“Oh um . . . I mean . . . sure. I-if that’s okay with Kaos. I certainly wouldn’t want to impose.”

“Chile, please. It’s my house and you’re going to be my guest. Don’t worry about him.”

“Wow, Mama. Tell me how you really feel.”

She sucked her teeth and gave me a dismissive wave of her hand.

“You sure you’re okay with this, baby?” Serenity asked.

“Positive. If you’d like to go Sunday, that works with me.”

“I guess we’ll see you Sunday,” Serenity agreed, causing Mama to gush and hug and kiss her all over again.

I ended up walking Mama outside and telling her what I wanted to eat Sunday, then checked on Taylor before going back up to my floor.

“Sorry about that,” I said, leaning against Serenity’s desk. “I probably should have warned you that Mama is very affectionate.”

“It’s cool. I love it, and now I see where you get it from.”

Chuckling, I nodded my agreement. “Yeah. I definitely grew up with love and affection.”

“It shows, and I’m glad I get to reap the reward of that. There’s nothing worse than a man so hard he can’t be soft and affectionate with his woman.”

“Oh, you’ll never have to worry about that. Don’t get it twisted; I’ll lay a nigga out by day and use these same hands to hold you close by night.”

She giggled and leaned forward and was about to kiss me until Eva frantically jogged down the hall. Eva always had anxious energy, so I didn’t bother to try and figure out what she was obsessing over now. If she needed my input, she’d come.

“That was close,” Serenity whispered as she sat back down. “I’ll be glad when I can love on you freely in here.”

“Well, when you find a building and come on freelance, you’ll be able to. Or, I can still go to HR now. That’s still on the table.”

Serenity sighed as she considered the options. “I appreciate you wanting to go to HR for me, but I don’t want to feel like we’re breaking or bending rules that were put in place for a reason just to benefit us.”

Chuckling, I grabbed her hand and lifted her from her seat. “Aight, that settles it.”

“Settles what?”

“I think sometimes you forget who I am.”

“How?” Not bothering to respond, I led her over to the elevator.

We rode it down to the first floor in silence.

When we stepped off, she tried to release my hand, but I held it tighter.

“Kaos,” she whispered, tugging my hand. “Ah!” she shrieked when we made it in front of the head of HR’s office. “Oh shit.”

Chuckling, I knocked on Dupree’s door. When he granted us entrance, I pulled Serenity inside.

“Mr. Montgomery, what can I do for you?”

“Serenity and I are in a relationship. I know that goes against the nonfraternization policy, but I need you to find a way around that.”

Sitting back in his seat, he touched the pads of his fingers together as he looked from her to me.

“Yes, sir. There’s an amendment in the clause for partners that says as long as the relationship isn’t forced, an abuse of power, or a stain on the company’s image, managing partners do have permission to date an employee.

” He turned his chair and grabbed a blue binder.

“However, there were some stipulations put in place by the board. One personal relationship per partner, so as not to encourage incessant dating and relationships within the firm. The staff must be notified. And there are to be no public displays of affection. If at any point the relationship begins to affect the firm negatively, the board has permission to request it be ended. If it isn’t, both parties will face performative reviews that could lead to termination of employment.

” Dupree pulled out two pieces of paper.

“All of that is outlined here. You’ll need to look it over and sign within seventy-two hours. ”

“Thanks, Dupree. The no public displays of affection won’t work for us, but everything else will be fine.”

He nodded as he smiled.

After grabbing the papers, I handed one to Serenity, then we left. She was quiet as she looked over the contract while we headed back up to our floor.

“After you sign it, I’ll take it back down to Dupree,” I told her. “Then, I can kiss you and hold you whenever we want.”

Her eyes rolled playfully as she smiled. “I actually love the sound of that. You almost gave me a heart attack, but that was far easier than I thought it would be.”

“I told you I got us. Do you believe me now?”

“Yes,” she purred. “Thank you, baby.” After giving me a kiss, she wiped her lipstick off my lips then signed the contract.

“Now you know you’re not supposed to sign anything without looking it over thoroughly and having a lawyer look it over for you too.”

Serenity giggled as she handed the paper to me. “I trust you. If you’re going to sign yours, I have no reason not to sign mine too.”

“Let me sign it now so I can take you in the bathroom and show you how much hearing you say you trust me turns me on.”

She laughed, but I was dead fucking serious. I went in my office and looked that shit over expeditiously before signing and telling her to meet me in my private bathroom.