Arise | Jordan Poole

44 |loyalty pt. 3

"Do you want to watch the video now or later?" She asks.

"Are we going to watch both of them?" Amaria gave him an uneasy look, she didn't want him to see her like that.

"I don't think I can sit with you while you watch it." She adjusts in bed, Jordan places his hand over hers, giving it a light squeeze.

"I won't look at you differently. I've been avoiding watching it, but I can't keep running away from it and neither can you. I got you."

4 days ago...

All of the rental equipment sat in the U-Haul Alyssa bought for her event. The movers would be meeting them at the venue because she felt most comfortable transporting the stuff herself.

"When your friend says she wants to drive her decor herself but it ends up being you driving the U-Haul." Amaria joked as she recorded a video for her story.

"Like same thing!" Alyssa claimed.
"Be on the look out for Lys Looks content today!" Amaria ended the video tagging Alyssa.

Todays event was a charity sip and paint at a posh country club. The host being a real estate broker. Amaria had experience with this due to her previous job. Set up was fairly easy in comparison to jobs of the past. With a new budget and tax bracket, they were no longer doing it with just them.

"Is that Amaria Banks?" She had wondered why anyone here would know who she was but she granted the person beside her a smile.

Ah Ronald.

"Hi Ronnie, it's been some time."
"Yeah; how are you?"

"I'm absolutely great."

"Yeah, I've been seeing your work. Some of its really good." She looked at him choosing to bite her tongue.

"Still working in real estate?" She asked not really caring.

"Actually yes, after changing firms when I moved, I leveled up."

"Sounds great," she quipped, wanting to find an out to the conversation. "Well I need to get back to helping. You have a good day."

Amaria went to find Alyssa who had been talking to a few executives. "Ah, this is the videographer you've been speaking so highly about?"

"Yes, this is Amaria Banks, she's based in the Bay Area."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Frank Timmons."

Amaria shook the hand of the older white man in front of her, "Nice to meet you too Mr. Timmons."

"Call me Frank! You've done such a great job here. Would love to work with you in the future."

"I look forward to that."

Amaria and Alyssa were sitting outside for a moment before tearing down the event.

"Do you wanna go out tonight?"

Something in Amaria's mind told her they should stay home but she agreed to go out anyways. What's the worst that could happen?

Jordan sighed as he watched the semi viral video of him at the strip club last night. He left early but not before someone recording the team entering the building. He was the one who spoke to one of the dancers about the section they had and her hand was on his forearm for a brief second, but that was all it took to create a narrative.

He understood it now, how that thread about Amaria was to incite doubt and shame upon her, now he was experiencing the same.

"Kid, you good?" Steph asked sitting next to him on the couch.
"Bro, this shit is ridiculous. I can't catch a break. I didn't even do anything."