Harlem's POV
After shooting the next day, I ran as fast as I could to Lexi's nail salon. Well, drove actually. But it didn't matter if I looked like a crazy person to my co-stars, there was fire on the mountain. During shooting, I kept making mistakes, silly ones and Lucas and the other producers kept looking at me like someone else had transmigrated into my body. Preferably a 5-year-old.
I drove fast to the nail salon, saying a silent prayer I didn't crash and stumbled into the shop startling everybody. They all looked at me like I was crazy, if I wasn't about to go crazy I might have laughed at their expressions but there's no bone in me to laugh right now because I could feel IT burning a hole in my purse I clutched. I looked around me like the police was coming for me before I rushed to where Lexi works.
"Lexi? Lexi? Lexi!!" I kept calling like a mad person. She was finishing up an older woman's nails and when she saw me her eyes went wide. Yup, I for sure look crazy.
"What's going on? Are you okay?" she asks. I take a deep breath and try to slow my breathing. I smile to the woman who keeps looking at me like she might tase me and turn to Lexi again "Can you spare five minutes, no scratch that, 15 minutes for a life crisis?"
"Uhm, okay. Excuse me ma'am please you can go pay over there" The woman smiles at her and leaves giving me a wide berth.
Lexi leads me to the employee room and closes the door "Sweetheart, are you okay? You do realize you look crazy right?" I open my purse and bring out the envelope, so light you'd think there's nothing in there. Wrong.
I shove it at Lexi who barely holds on to it and looks at me and sighs. "What is this? I hope it's worth all this madness you're displaying" she unwraps IT from inside and reads it for a good three seconds before her eyes go wide.
"A hundred thousand dollars?!!!!" she shrieks. Good, I know I didn't see wrong. "From Who? Where? When? And how?" she says and drags me to sit.
I take a deep breath and calm myself down, then turn to her. "Ezra Roth, The Beatdown bar, Last Night and Compensation" I state like a robot. Lexi understands immediately, then a slow smile creeps up her face, almost devilish. "Wait THE Ezra Roth, came to your bar to deliver you hundred thousand dollars as compensation for what happened last time? And you didn't think to call me immediately?"
"I mean, I was going to tell you I just had to find out what was in the bag and I was speechless when I did. I did not expect it, I could barely sleep and then when I could, I woke up late. Had to rush for shooting and that took about 8 hours and you know, I'm here now." I state biting my lip.
This is all kinds of bad. I'm going to KILL Ezra when I see him, absolutely butcher him. Is that why he told me not to open it till I got home? And why he put it in a bloody paper bag? So, I wouldn't protest? Yeah right. But Fuck, why did I even listen to him?
"Okay, I don't know what's going on through your head right now and honestly, if I do know, it might end up pissing me off. So, I'm going to take an excuse and we're going to go to the bank to cash this money and you're going to get your compensation. No arguments." She stands up and I grab her hand quickly.
"What? No. I am not taking Ezra Roth's blood money." I say to her. She looks at me like I just slapped her across the face.
"Harlem Robin Tamrin. We are not doing this." She sits back down, looks at me and sighs.
"Yes, we are Lex. What do you want me to do? Take a hundred thousand dollars from some guy?"
"I mean yes. What is the problem there? It's Ezra fucking Roth. He has more to go around. Besides you deserve compensation for what happened, he's only doing the right thing"
"But he's not the one who did it. It's Miss blondie, so why should I take the money from him?" She sighs exasperatedly.
"So, what are you gonna do? Return it?" I stare at her. She sighs and then laughs. "Fine. Return it and if he doesn't accept, you're gonna take it back. Deal?" she asks.
I smile a little but I'm not too sure I'm going to win. "Deal."
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I walk towards the tall skyscraper with Briggs Corporation written on it. Wait, no. What am I doing? This has to be a bad idea. Maybe I should just mail it back to him? I don't really have to meet him. Right? Shit, but that seems a bit rude and probably not a good idea anyway.
Okay I'm doing this. I straighten my jumper and think that maybe I shouldn't have worn skinny jeans and knee length heeled boots but think better of it. I look good, as always.
I walk into the building and speak to the receptionist. "Good day, is Mr. Roth in today?"
"Good day. Please do you have a scheduled appointment or meeting with him?" I blink. Rich people problems.
"Uhm, no. Not really. But I came to return something back to him" she raises a questioning brow. "Okay, please a name?" she asks picking up a pen. "Harlem Tamrin" I reply. She writes and looks to me "Thank you, I'll let him know you're here please have a seat. It may be a while because he's in a meeting though" I give her a small smile and take a seat.
She presses an intercom and speaks into it. "Mrs. Marilyn, please can you let Mr. Roth know that a certain Miss Harlem Tamrin is here to see him?... Thank you very much" she looks to me warily, she probably thinks I'm one of his fan girls. No sweetie, I'm here to return 100,000 dollars.
The intercom beeps and she answers it. "Okay. Alright, thank you very much" she looks at me and smiles politely. "Please follow me" she says and I do. There's a bunch of security around and one stands in front of the elevator. He sees I'm with the receptionists and lets me pass. I also notice how homely the reception is with nice comfy chairs, a water dispenser, a vending machine, art on the walls and warm lights. The designer did great.
We go into an elevator and she presses 11th floor. We ride silently till we reach our destination. The floor is mainly empty apart from an older woman and some few people moving around. The older woman stops in front of me. "I'll take it from here Penny." She says to the receptionist. She smiles and enters back into the elevator "Good day love, you're Miss Tamrin?"
"Yes, I am ma'am" I say respectfully because I was brought up to be respectful to elderly people. "Please just call me Marilyn love. Right this way" I nod to her and follow.
We walk into an office and she tells me to sit and wait for him. "Thank you very much…Marilyn" she smiles sweetly at me and leaves. I look around the office with huge floor to ceiling windows, a security camera and a lot of space except for where the tables and chairs sat. I was sitting on the one directly Infront of a table that had an open laptop, a half empty cup of coffee and a lot of files. I also noticed a glass case. This is Ezra's office, right? I mean, I thought I was going to see something like a gold statue of himself he worships every morning or better yet a dungeon of some sort. It looks…normal and nice.
My heartrate picks up and I realise that I'm literally about to meet Ezra Roth again, twice in a week and I'll probably turn to salt at this point when my phone pings and I get a message from Lex asking how it's going.
I'm about to reply her when the door flies open and Ezra Roth walks in.