CHAPTER TWO
1347 Words
The conference room was tensed up. Rita sat directly opposite Jennifer while Maya sat at an angle between them. Together, they formed a triangle. The table between them was white and had a recorder on it.
‘Why are you doing this?’ Rita asked; her voice calm and menacing.
‘I beg your pardon?’ Jennifer said. She clutched her bag and stood up, getting ready to leave.
‘Why are you giving this testimony about a man you supposedly loved and cherished?’
‘I never said I loved him. I was going to. Maybe I would have loved him if he treated me right.’
‘But what you are doing right now can be said to be character assassination. Do you know that?’
‘I am not attacking someone I did not know. This man knows me, wooed me, and dated me for almost two years.’
‘Did he promise to marry you?’ Rita asked.
‘We were getting there?’
‘Then what went wrong?’
‘Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It is what he does. When he has used you for a certain time, he just breaks off the agreement.’
‘Was there an agreement? What was it about?’
‘I am feeling molested by these questions. I want to stop. ‘In fact, I don’t want to do this anymore. I have to go.’
Jennifer stood up and walked to the window. I pressed the recorder on the table and sat back in my chair.
Maya walked to Jennifer as she fished for a cigarette in her purse and a lighter.
‘Jennifer, these are standard questions. Every journalist in this city will ask you these same questions and worse. They wouldn’t care about your side of the story but how to take the most advantage of the interview. A story like this is what they want. But we don’t see it that way. We believe in your story and want you to just speak up and tell it. And the best way for us to serve you is to ask these difficult but important questions.
Jennifer took a puff of smoke, looked at Maya and back at Rita, and then took another puff of smoke.
‘Okay. Let’s get to it. And tell the sadist lady here to take it easy on me.’
‘Let us all sit and have a deep breath.’
‘Tell us of the first time you guys met.’ Rita’s voice was the same as before. No sign of acknowledging what had just transpired. She had pressed the recorder to resume the interview.
‘It was at a party. It was my girlfriend’s birthday, and he accompanied his friend to the party. I don’t know how my girlfriend knew him, but he came with gifts and our eyes met. It was love at first sight. ‘
‘What happened after that?’
‘We went out a few more times, and he started to ask me to accompany him on his private jet out of New York and to private parties in Manhattan. Then he announced on i********: that I was his girlfriend. And then I thought it was the beginning of a relationship that would last.’
‘Did he promise to marry at any point?’
‘No. He evaded the subject entirely whenever I brought it up.’
‘Did he abuse you at any time, physically or emotionally?’
‘I feel emotionally abused now.’ Jennifer broke down into a sob.
‘Pardon me, Jennifer. I mean during the period that your relationship with Mr. Andy Solomon.’
‘Not exactly.’
Rita looked questioningly at Maya and said to Jennifer.
‘Jennifer, this story doesn’t constitute a problem. Unless there is a clear case of physical abuse, we have no story here.’
‘There is a story here, lady sadist. And the story is that Andy is mean and uses girls for his pleasure and dumps them. He would be so nice and controlling at the same time, telling me what to do and what to wear. He was seeing other girls at the same time we were dating. When I complained about it, he would tell me I was making things up. He always made me feel I wasn’t up to his standard. And then one day, he called it off. He said he felt bored. Can you imagine that, like I am a toy that he can use and dump? So, I am here to tell the world the kind of person Andy Solomon is, so that he can’t use girls like me anymore.’
Maya looked at Rita, who looked at her and both sighed. Jennifer reached out for her purse and brought out a napkin. Then she lit a cigarette.
Rita’s POV
‘Excuse me please.’ My phone was ringing now. I left the conference room where Maya moved over to Jennifer’s side, both of them conversely in low voice.
‘Hello!’
‘Hello.’ a lovely voice said at the other end of the line.
‘Are you Rita Banks?’
‘This is she.’ I knew where this call was coming from.
‘We just wanted to tell you that the payment for your father’s treatment is overdue. You were supposed to have made payment before the treatment started, but we relented because of the condition he was brought in. We need you to make payment before the end of the month.’
‘I know.’ I sighed. ‘I promise to pay it. Please don’t take my father off the experimental drug. I don’t want to lose him.’
‘I am sorry ma’am, but if we don’t get payment by the end of the month, we will have to do that because the company selling the experimental drug is demanding payment.’
‘Please don’t do it. I will pay up.’
‘It is out of my hands, ma’am. Thank you for your time.’
‘What do I do?’ I thought as the phone line went dead. ‘Where do I find two thousand dollars before the end of the month?’
My legs could not hold me anymore, so I found a chair and sat down.
‘Rita, what’s wrong? We are waiting for you.’
For a moment, I had forgotten about Maya, Jennifer, and the interview with Solomon. I rubbed my face with my left hand and walked back to the conference room with Maya.
‘So what do you say, Rita? We are doing the interview. Yea?’
I looked at Maya and Jennifer and tried to recall the last conversation before the call.
‘Of course. Of course.’ I said.
‘Jennifer is ready to give us all the information we need to ace this interview, and we will do brilliant work at it. Right?’
‘Right,’ I nodded and gave a tight smile.
Jennifer hugged Maya and walked out of the room.
‘You seem a little off. What’s up?’
‘They are going to take my dad off treatment if I can’t pay two thousand dollars by month's end.’
‘What? That’s sad.’
‘How do I raise two thousand dollars? I can’t lose him.’
‘You won’t lose your dad, believe me. That is why we need to have this interview so that we can increase our traffic to our news and attract sponsorship. Then we can make two thousand dollars and more, for your father’s treatment and more. You are a brilliant journalist for this Rita and you will do this story right.’
I sighed. There was no other choice to make except to go borrow. Where will I get someone to give me two thousand dollars, if I don’t work for it? Walking back to my office, my phone rang again.
‘Hello?’
‘Hello. Good day.’
‘Is this Rita Banks?’
‘This is her. Who are you?’
‘I hear that you are the best for this job and everyone listens to you.’
Who are you please?’
I heard nothing for a moment, and then the voice came on again.
‘This is Andy. Andy Solomon and I want to meet with you.’
- Writer
