Page 99 of Only for Me

“This is all a game, Omiri. You know how it works. She has to look the part. A woman who loves her daughter, handles her ownbusiness enough not to be in your pockets, but is still attractive enough to hold your attention.”

“She’s all that; so fuck playing dress up.”

“I don’t know her nor do I know what she is. What I do know is what we want to present to the world to erase what they believe they know about her. Let me do my job, Omiri. Make sure she’s dressed appropriately and I have the rest covered.”

Avi crawled back to me and pushed her body between my legs so she was leaning against the sofa steady enough to put her arms in the air. I grinned at her wanting me to pick her up so I lifted her into my lap and she dropped her head on my shoulder and reached for my beard, raking her tiny fingers through it. Her mother did the same thing but it produced two very different reactions.

“Kari wants final approval of the questions.”

“As long as she’s dressed appropriately, she can have whatever she wants.”

“Bruh…” I chuckled and kissed my baby’s cheek.

“Don’t bruh me. I’m not playing about this. We have one shot. This can either go incredibly well or tragically wrong.”

“Aight, damn. We’re gonna be straight.”

“Yes, you are.” She paused and I heard clicking like she was typing. “She’s good though, so I’m not necessarily concerned.”

“What do you mean by she’s good?”

“Surely you don’t think I dropped the ball on doing my job the minute she entered the picture.”

I was annoyed at what Vanessa was implying. She was basically telling me she had picked Makari’s entire life apart enough to know the minute she was born and what doctor helped her escape her mother’s pussy.

All of which I paid Vanessa for. Her job as my publicist was to know the details of everyone attached to me in an effort to protect me from being exposed and hidden bullshit. However,knowing she had moved through the details of Makari’s life, dissecting and analyzing every single layer of her existence, annoyed me.

“You’re not warning me to stay away from her so I assume you didn’t find anything alarming,” I muttered.

“If I did, would you want to know?”

Would I?

“Nah, what she tells me is what I know.”

She snorted. “That has to be the most irresponsible thing that has ever left your mouth and you’ve said a lot of dumb shit since I’ve been your publicist.”

I chuckled at the sarcasm in her tone. “But I will say that regardless of how irresponsible you’re being with this woman I have absolutely no reason to believe that she will be a problem, now or in the future. I’m honestly rooting for her.”

“Why the hell are you rooting for her?”

“Isn’t that what this is all about? Convincing the world that she’s your one, deserving of the great Omiri Hayes.”

“You’re not the world, Van. You’re my publicist who doesn’t trust a gotdamn soul when it comes to my life or my brand.”

“Which says a lot that I trust her. Like I said before, I don’t know her but what I do know is since you found out about your daughter, you’ve been a lot easier to manage and anyone who makes my job easier is worth rooting for. I also respect the work she’s done. She’s good, hell, I’ll hire her if she’s looking. She can take over my social media division. I barely have time anymore.”

“Nah, that’s the last thing I need. I’m gonna stick with separation of church and state. The two of you together would be a whole fucking problem.”

“For you maybe, but for my clients, it’s a perfect solution to all the dumb shit that you guys do.”

I chuckled. “You sound just like her.”

“Good, tell her the offer is on the table.”

“Kari has her own thing. She’s not trying to work for anyone.”

I didn’t know that for sure but I damn sure didn’t want her working for Vanessa. She was enough of a headache as it was.