Whirlwind

16

[Riley]

"Shit, shit, shit!"

There was no way that I was having a one-on-one battle with time this morning and especially when I had a meeting to attend in less than five minutes. To make matters worse, I couldn't find my lamented ID pass to enter the upper levels of the tower. If luck was on my side today one of my favorite security guards would be clocked in and willing to give me access to where I needed to be. If it weren't I'd be trapped in the lobby all while my second job, that I was beginning to love, slipped through my fingers the more the editors of XXL inquired about my whereabouts. My body has endured more strenuous forenoons than this so I wasn't going to write myself off just yet. Before Marco could pull aside well, I gave up on the exploration I was having in the apparent abyss my ID fell to inside my purse and exited from the truck without much of a goodbye. He was used to my unintentional rudeness some mornings though. I had places to be, he'd drop me off and we'd properly greet each other later when my stress from the day mellowed out. There was just an understanding.

Once I pushed my way through the revolving doors and stepped foot into the entrance, the guard saw my face and without a question opened the sliding glass doors.

"Thank you so much!" I blurted as clearly as I could, allowing any air to circulate into my lungs and calm my heavy breathing. The clacking of my heels amplified and was the only trace of me left behind as I raced my way to the elevator. A hand remained in front of the doors as a signal it was being held until I got on. I was so relieved that the New Yorkers amongst my trail today were polite enough to help me in my obvious distress, and because of that I had made it to conference room b on the sixth floor just in time for Vanessa Satten and her team to come in.

"Riley," she greeted in a blissful tone. "I'm so glad you were able to make it this morning. You're such a busy woman and I'm sure this stop had to be scheduled in."

"Oh it's no problem." I said while sliding out of my blazer that had my arms bustling with sweat. "Today is a slow day for me aside from doing the column for this month's issue so I'm all yours this morning if need be."

"Well, we won't need you that long my dear. This was just something that we rather had not discussed over the phone, it won't take as long as you may deem." she replied back before walking over to the seat across from me, placing a fresh brewed cup of coffee down on the table that played the role of a barricade between us. "That's for you, we want you as composed as possible right now."

That sentence and the one prior were both hard for me to digest. From the way things were beginning to sound, it seemed like I was brought here to be fired. I mean, what other reason would a person over an establishment set up a personal meeting with an employee if it weren't about discussing plans of letting them go? I've heard this story before and even witnessed it happen on several occasions. Therefore I knew for a fact I would be leaving here with one less job on my growing resume and no source to any potential writing opportunities in the future.

As both Vanessa and her senior editor Dan Rys gathered a few documents from their folders and scattered them across the table, I took advantage of the coffee cooling off as well as the condiments next to it. I was growing nervous with every action taking place between the three of us until the stiffness was finally cleared with Dan's discussion of my work previous to this moment.

"Now Riley, you've been with us for almost a year now and we appreciate you taking out time from your songwriting to come over to our magazine and write some eye opening editorials for readers. They love your work, the tone you present, the openness and they want more. We've received letters about making you an official member of our writing staff but we know that may not be possible since we're merely your pastime job." He uttered with a chuckle. "But we still brought you here today to present a proposition. We want to ask you to be in charge of two of the last cover stories for the year. How does that sound to you?"

"Me? A cover story? Wow. It sounds amazing! I didn't think my journalism skills were up to par enough to handle larger stories but if you think so..."

"We know so." Vanessa exclaimed with a smile.

"What she said. We want to go into 2015 showing readers that the magazine is taking on a different approach. We always present new music, give reviews but some feel like we're not digging deep enough. Some believe the artists we cover are lackluster and the ones with real talent are going unnoticed. They think it's our job to showcase those individuals to the world and we agree. Readers have also recommended that we become a vessel for authenticating hip hop again. There aren't many sources for the genre aside from the artist and with a lack of decency there, it's our job to help bring it back, bring back that real hardcore culture."

It was refreshing to hear this coming from the editors or one of America's top urban magazines. One people ran to for the newest hip hop music, one I've seen the best and worse prosper from. It was each of our responsibility as well as readers and listeners of the genre to shift what was happening, good or bad. Hip hop as well as R&B music have always been solid outlets for our people but if they continued to be guzzled with trash as they have over the past years, what would be left for the future generations? Nothing. Nothing would be left for them to even start over from or repair. So I was more than honored to be apart of this deed and help put it into action.

"Our first assignment would be to have you to discuss the state of hip hop today. You can take whatever direction and stance you please on this issue. Dan and I trust you here and know that whatever you decide to write will be eye opening." Vanessa detailed while looking over the notes she had typed out. "We've seen your work as far as songwriting and examined how you dig deep into old school R&B and even hip hop to add that reminiscence to the radio music today. We know from that and even some of your editorials that your feelings are similar to some of our readers, so this would be that chance to catch those same eyes and help generate that first step to change."

With a sip of my coffee I nodded and as she passed me the first outline that included a deadline and some extra sources if I needed them. "I love the sound of this. I just had a conversation about this same topic with a friend of mine."

"So I guess that was you speaking it into existence eh?" Dan jested. "Well let's see what you think about this next one? We interviewed this guy back in 2010 for our freshmen cover and ever since he has been one of the few to go far and is, what many think, one of this generation's best MCs."

As he slid a photo of a more trimmed up Lamarr Cole across the table my heart plunged into the pit of stomach in what seemed like slow motion. Out of all the rappers, and those who made up that freshmen class, it was sure to be him; the one they find interest in and want me to work with.

"He's been under the radar for a moment but a little bird from his label may have told us that he's releasing an album in December. Cole is someone we'd hate to ignore, he deserves a front page for himself and we think you would be the perfect person to sit down and get his attention enough to talk."

Is that so?

"So you want me to get info on the album?" I questioned, not wanting to sound too displeased by the assignment and just a smidge of interested.

"More so mirror his steps. Take a look into how he works, his mindset and how he comes up with the amazing work he has under his belt so far. We want to get the story of the MCs we know are impactful or are on the road to impact and he is one of them. With him being almost invisible when he's not doing music we're curious about who Cole really is. The album being made is just a plus, it would be cool to see how he creates it. I told Vanessa it's going to be a classic, I just know it." The two of them found themselves in a fit of laughter from Dan's declaration while I sat still and a bit bewildered. It was startling to me how even if Lamarr didn't force himself on me, the cosmos somewhere aligned in the sky thought it was necessary to do it for him. I couldn't escape this man if I tried to.

"You can take your time on deciding if you want to do both or either for that matter. The look on your face tells me it's a lot which we understand. We just wanted to talk this all over with you in person and not barrage your phone with a conference call. We really hope you consider it."

"Oh I'm sorry, I'm just thinking it all through." I fibbed while trying my best to force a smile that seemed genuine enough in response to Vanessa's discovery of my shock.

"Here is his contact info. An Ibrahim Hamad would be who can connect you two together and help set something up. We've spoke before and he's a nice guy so it should all come together smoothly."

A nice guy, she said? There were so many lies in that statement. I didn't even need his number since I knew Mr. Cole himself and if I did call Ib just to keep this all professional we'd both be sure to curse each other before anything could be set up. I could see it now as we speak, us both choking each other out without even much of getting a good look at each other.

"Well, it all sounds really exciting. I'll look over my schedule and make sure I can do it for sure before I promise anything." I assured them both as we all stood up to part our ways.

"And that's all we want for you to do. We'd love to see these both published and written by you." While I grabbed my blazer and tossed it over my arm, Vanessa held out the second outline that belonged to Lamarr's cover story. Taking this piece of paper, even without a direct okay, was an automatic yes to them. If I wanted to back out, the moment I saw Lamarr's photo would have been the time to do so. I knew by now it was too late and I would just have to deal with this the best way that I could. The only problem was these ways I spoke of barely existed.