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Chapter Four

SORAYA ‘YAYA’ CRAWFORD

Crazy how life worked. Yesterday, I walked into my office building, still a married woman.

Today, I walked in, and I was now a single woman.

I decided that I didn’t want to drop my married name, ‘Crawford’.

I’d achieved too much with this last name.

This name was tied to a lot of clients, different contracts that I’ve signed off on, and it was tied to my business.

Also, the biggest one of all was that I wanted to keep the same last name as my children.

Even though Sevyn and I were no longer married, it was still a legacy that the two of us built, and out of spite, or just being petty, it wasn’t in my plans to ditch the last name.

When I walked into the building this morning, my team almost had me on the verge of tears.

They all knew that yesterday I wasn’t going to be in the office, due to me having to go to court, and finalizing the divorce.

The second I got to my office, there was the most beautiful flower arrangement that I have ever seen before in my life, sitting on my desk for me from my team, and a note that read, “To new beginnings”.

I needed that little ‘pick me up’ because heading to work this morning, after dropping the boys off to school was a pain filled one.

Sevyn, coming over, and fuckin me like that yesterday only made things worst. Last night, after vibing with my sister, drinking wine, and eating some good food, I had been fine for the most part, but once Shai left, and I was home by myself, waiting on my boys to get back from their night out with their dad, that’s when that reality that Sevyn had told me about of being single had hit me and boy did I feel that shit.

It was hurting me now, but I was a strong person, and I knew that I was going to kick this shit, and I would be just fine.

My best friend Milan couldn’t make it to our little girls night. Her ass was in Cali, still laid up with a dude that she was messing around with out there, so she didn’t hop on her flight when she was supposed to.

I was behind my desk, with my Starbuck s drink in my hand.

My order from Starbucks never changed. I would always get the ice brown sugar oat milk shaken expresso, and you couldn’t tell me that this wasn’t the best drink on the menu.

My reading glasses were on because I was tuned into the document that was on my screen.

I was looking over a press release preview for one of my new clients that I was representing.

His name was Coolio. He was a young artist. Only nineteen years old, and he was an R&B singer.

He had all the ladies in a choke hold right now.

He was from Miami, a little rough around the edges, but my team could work with him, and get him PR trained, just as we’ve done with so many artists.

A lot of his singing videos had gone viral, so it wasn’t long before he signed a big deal with a very popular record label here in Miami.

The label that he signed to, I work with just about all their artists, so I wasn’t surprised when they reached out, wanting to get Coolio added to our list of clients.

I was tweaking things from the draft that was sent to me, when there was a knock at my door.

“Come in,” I responded, not bothering to take my eyes off the screen.

My office door opened, and I quickly glanced up just to see who it was.

It was my executive assistant, Michelle, walking in.

I loved Michelle with every piece of me.

Even though this was my business that I started from the ground up, and it was my blood, sweat and tears that went into this business, it was Michelle that was the key player in my empire.

She’s been with me from the very beginning.

I’m talking before I got this beautiful office located in downtown Miami, just a couple of miles away from Miami beach.

She’s been here before the high-profile clients, the six and seven figure contract deals, and before this company was even a name.

Six years ago, is when I started House of Sorya Strategies.

After high school, I went right into college.

It’s like I had everything planned out, but by the time I was in my junior year of college, Law had gotten my ass pregnant.

I remember being so distraught when I found out that I was pregnant with the boys because I felt like my life was over, and the career that I was chasing was going to be over with.

My friends from college were telling me that if they were in my shoes, they would have dropped out, and just waited for Law to finish with college, and go off to law school, so that he could take care of me, and our babies, but it just wasn’t in me to sit around and be a mooch towards a man.

That’s not the way that my mom had raised my sisters, and I.

Even with me being pregnant with twin boys, I still took my ass to class, and I graduated when I was supposed to.

The boys had just turned one when I graduated.

After I graduated in the summer, Law went and graduated from law school in the fall.

Literally after he walked the stage, and had gotten his degree, he proposed to me.

Back then, I knew that I didn’t want a big wedding, and because Law was the kind of man to give me whatever I wanted, we’d gone down to the courthouse to get married, and I didn’t have any regrets.

When the boys turned two, that’s when we put them in daycare, and that’s when I started working.

I worked for a PR firm, where I started off as a coordinator, and over the years, I moved up in the business, where I became a junior publicist. The years that I put into that firm, it helped me build big connections, learn everything that I needed to about crisis control, and just perfecting my craft.

By the time I turned thirty, that’s when I started itching for change.

I had such big ideas on what I felt needed to be changed in this industry, but when you’re working for someone, and you have someone over you that has the final say, it’s like my voice had to be limited.

It was becoming a business that I was working for, that felt like it was just about the money that could be brought into the business, and the way my boss could boast about the high-profile clients that we were representing.

I wanted more. I didn’t like the way that black people were being managed, and presented, so I battled with leaving the company that I’d put in so much hard work, and effort into.

I would share my thoughts with Law, my friends, and family, and most importantly, I would share it with God, asking Him if He would lead me to make the right decision, and He did.

I ended up leaving, and six years later, it wasn’t a decision that I’d come to regret.

The way Michelle and I came into contact was six years ago.

I’d gone to one of those fancy balls that Miami would put on for all the attorneys out here.

The event was live streamed, and one of the reporters that were there had given me a quick interview, wanting to know what I had been up to these days, and I shared with her my newest adventure on opening my own PR firm.

The interview had gone viral across all social media platforms, and that’s how Michelle ended up getting in contact with me.

She reached out, and she basically sold herself to me in my inbox.

She told me about her history as an administrative coordinator, her organizational skills, how well she works under pressure, and just convincing me how she knew she would be a great asset for my business.

It was just something about her, and how we instantly clicked, where I felt like she would be a great fit, so we exchanged numbers, got to know each other a little bit, and I shared with her my vision.

She was hungry to work with me, and this has been my girl ever since.

I didn’t play when it came to my Michelle.

“The fact that your sitting there so calm, drinking coffee, just lets me know that you haven’t been on social media yet, and you haven’t seen these viral clips from late last night of Autumn on Instagram live, acting a damn fool,” Michelle said to me the second she walked in, and closed the door behind her.

She was holding a pink iPad in her hands, and I’m sure she had the footage pulled up of whatever it was that Autumn was doing.

“That girl is going to drive me the fuck crazy. What did she do now?” I asked, minimizing the document page that had been pulled up, so that I could focus my attention on what Michelle was getting ready to show me on the iPad.