Scandalous Desires

Chapter 29

Fifteen minutes later Julie was putting the final touches on Micah's makeup. It was light and natural looking with slight touches of golden bronzer. She was already dressed semi casually cute, in a red cross tie flared dress with red heels and gold bangles and earrings.

It was way more than she expected. If it weren't for MsGalloway she would have rejected the whole thing from the beginning. Where was Elliot?

"Ms. Rae, you are done. Elliot had an urgent matter to attend to but he said there's a driver named Zack outside of the building waiting to take you where you want to go."

This was way over the top just for her to go and meet her friends. "How much do I owe you?" Micah grabbed her purse to pay.

"Oh no, dear. No payment required."

No payment required?

"But…"

"Please, let's get you to the car so that you won't be late. Elliot would have a fit if he thought we didn't finish with you on time."

Before Micah could say anything else, MsGalloway gathered her things and ushered her out the door and to the car where Zack was waiting.

"You look stunning, Ms. Rae," he said before closing her door of the back passenger seat.

Micah barely got to say 'thank you ' before Zack pulled off. Micah could see her and the four ladies standing at the curb with MsGalloway waving.

"Hey Zack!"

"Ms. Rae"

"Any idea where your guy went? He just up and disappeared on me."

"I have no clue. He doesn't share his schedule with me. Only the times and locations where he wants me ready for pick up."

"So what about after you drop me off?"

"He told me to be at your service until I drop you at your home, Ms.Rae. You have me all evening." He smiled into the rear view mirror.

"Elliot… " Micah shook her head. She couldn't believe him.

Micah arrived at Cherry's right in time to meet her friends at their usual table. Except there were a bunch of balloons tied together at the only empty chair left including one that said, 'Congrats'. A bottle of champagne sat chilling on the table along with copies of the Daily Times. They all stood up and threw confetti at her.

"Watch out! Look at you all dolled up and smelling delicious!" said Roni with a hug and kiss. "Congrats, Hun".

"Thanks."

"Um… I'm coming to get my dress from your closet next time I visit, ok!?" said Cassie.

And finally, she got to Alex. "I'm just waiting for you to spill all this tea you got. The cover story, guy number one and now number two, this outfit, you're glowing - are you pregnant too!?"

"Alex!"

"I'm just saying the day has been super shocking across the board…".

"Indeed,"

They all sat as the waiter came with their drinks and champagne glasses.

"Y'all ordered my cherry mocktail with extra cherries. Y'all really do love me…" said Micah with big grin. She took a sip.

"Ok, so we've waited all day… give us the play by play of how this," Ronnie pointed at the paper, "happened in less than 24 hours…!?"

"This was such the dramatic day. But the whole thing really started last night at Howard's with Alex,"

"You and Micah were at Howard's last night?" Cassie said with shock in her voice.

"Me and Ursula were at Howard's last night," she put her hands on Micah's shoulders when she said the name and wiggled her eyebrows.

"Ok. I have to hear this… why were you and Ursula there?" said Cassie.

"Wait wait wait…" said Ronnie, waving her hands in the air. "Before we even get started with any of this there's something we've gotta do first…"

Ronnie grabbed the champagne bottle and poured it into the four glasses on the table.

They each grabbed one as she said, "A toast to our friend, our sister, who has, in her first week,

"Less than five days!" Alex shouted.

"Less than five days," repeated Cassie.

"...Made the cover of The Daily Times! We celebrate and congratulate you for your hard work. May you continue to shine…"

"...and give us more reasons to drink more wine!" Cassie added.

The three looked at her…"Get it? Shine, wine…" she said

"But this is champagne,"

"But… that doesn't rhyme with…".

"Nevermind, Cass…" Ronnie clinked her glass into theirs and they did the same and they all took their sip.

"Ok… now let's hear this crazy story…"

Micah told them about everything that happened the night before, being careful to refer to Russell as her 'whistleblower'. She even talked about her lap dance, her making a fool out of herself and tripping and falling on top of him."

"But he still wanted an encore after that!" chimed in Alex. "So she must have been doing something right!" They laughed.

Finally she recounted the shocking story of the plans to get rid of all the South City residents. It chilled her to her bones even speaking about it. She recalled stories in the news over the last year of pregnant women with deformed babies, children dying, and the elderly dying. Many people were still ill and in the hospices waiting to die. It was scary to think that this was done on purpose.

"Wow… like some Tuskegee Experiment type mess!" said Cassie in anger.

"Yeah. Something like that," said Alex.

"Well, with the Tuskegee Experiment the government deliberately withheld treatment of syphilis - giving placebos instead - for a group of Black men, without their consent, until they all died. But, it was a government organized mass murder nonetheless," said Micah.

"And that's not the only bipoc targeted mass g******e by the government. There have been hundreds of cases over just the last hundred years," said Ronnie. "You can Google it and see for yourself."

"Google me this though, batman… why the hell have they been doing this to us though?" asked Alex, with anger in her voice. The question was more rhetorical.

"And here we go again with this toxic water scandal. I hope they pay for their crimes!" said Cassie.

"I heard they've already made some arrests. In fact…" Ronnie pulled out her phone. "This was about an hour ago…" She passed around a video from the local news showing Mr. White in handcuffs being escorted to a police car.

"Wow… your story is already making an impact, Mi! This is awesome."

"Get 'em, girl!"

Micah was glad, but more relieved that they were taking these men into custody. Hopefully there would be no more casualties in their scheme. The evidence sent in by Russell was enough to get arrest warrants for all of the people in the videos and the emails.

"So we finally ended the night with a police raid!" said Alex. "And now I'm looking for a job. Anybody got any openings?"

"A… what?"

"Yup, someone tipped the police off about some underaged drinkers at Howard's. You'd think with the chief of police being a member they'd have been less dramatic about it."

"I think they planted those guys there. Maybe someone knew about my meeting with the whistleblower and wanted to stop it. But they clearly were not fast enough with their plan."

"Wow…"

"Yeah, I guess I'm also a casualty. They messaged me saying Howard's is shut down until further notice. Which is why I'm here and not there tonight," said Alex.

"Well… I have an opening. With more new clients coming in I've been bugging my boss about us getting another Admin Assistant for the office. She agreed, so… you can come work with me," offered Cassie.

"That is super sweet, Cass. But with your OCD ass, we'll drive each other crazy!" Alex said. The girls all laughed because they knew it was true.

"Well if you don't find anything else…" she said with a shrug of her shoulders. She continued sipping her drink.

"So that was yesterday's crazy situation. Today was wild as well. They held an unscheduled meeting this morning, called all the staff saying that we needed to gear up for a rush print of Rick's article, which was really my stolen article research with his name on it."

"Wow…they were gonna print your stuff as if it were his?"

"Luckily, I had new information that made what he had look like crumbs compared to my four course meal so to speak!"

"He was livid when I stood up in front of everyone and insisted that my article be put on the front page today instead. And even angrier when they listened to me. They had to confine him to his apartment to keep him from sabotaging the article."

"Wow…"

"Y'all need to pay up though," said Alex putting her hand out.

"For what!?"

"Our bet. Rick clearly hates Micah. There is no way he could do all that to her and be liking her. In fact he even has his friend trying to woo her for info…".

"Say what now?"

"He never asked me about work," said Micah in almost a whining voice.

"How much you want to bet he will start digging for info?" said Alex.

"Let's test that. If he starts asking work questions, you tell him fake info and see if Rick starts following your fake leads. You'll know he's been passing it along."

"Good idea, Ron. So either way it's a win win. He either is genuine and you can keep getting to know him or… he's a sneaky conniving snoop and you use him to keep Rick sniffing in the wrong direction," said Cassie.

"I'll think about it."

"She has a date with him on Saturday."

"Perfect."

"But… wait a minute! Who did you have a date with today?" said Alex.

"Inquiring minds want to know."

Micah took a deep breath before she said, "Elliot."

"Elliot?"

"Who's that?"

"He's the Artistic Director at Belle Magazine…"

"Wow… cool," said Cassie.

"Wait… there's more," said Alex reading into her friend's facial expression.

"And...He's my boss' brother."

"Say what now?"

"Your boss' who?"

"No, no, no, girlfriend. He is totally off limits!"

Cassie, Alex, and Ronnie said at the same time.

"You are playing with fire. You can't. It's like… messy. If things don't go well between you two what does that mean for your work relationship with your boss'?

"I know…" said Micah. She shivered thinking about their time at the lake. She could still feel his lips on hers. "But we have great chemistry and he kisses so well though…"

"You kissed him already?"

"And …he took me on a date to his family's lake and he tricked me into a spa, and make over."

"Micah… I'm not even going to ask the details about the kiss, lake, or spa. It's messy. End of story."

"I know. I had to stop him before it went any further."

"Good."

"Thumbs up for that!"

"Your milkshake is bringing all the boys to the yard but that doesn't mean they all get to have some!"

The three said at the same time.