living in Detroit for six months, and before that I had been making regular business trips from New York, where I’m originally from, for the past three years. I already knew a lot of people here and had formed some great friendships and partnerships, but there were still a few elusive people that I hadn’t been able to make contact with. When I was told that they would be at the ball, I seized the opportunity.
Finding a date was never a problem for me, but it also wasn’t on the top of my priority list. I was tempted to go to the ball by myself, but my cousin Ace, who is more like a brother, and my personal assistant Lola, advised me against it.
“Ro, do you really want to go there alone and have to deal with the cougars and gold diggers trying to become Mrs. Mancini? You’d spend the majority of your time beating them off of you instead of getting business done,” Ace said in his heavy New York accent.
“He’s right, boss. Besides, it’ll look better to have a date on your arm. No one will question your sexuality, or your relationship status.”
I looked at Lola with a raised eyebrow and she simply shrugged her slim shoulders. “You pay me to stay in the know. I keep up with the social elite papers and articles, and this is the kind of stuff they write about in those gossip rags. We need to keep the focus on you and your business and the good you’re trying to bring to the city of Detroit.”
“Lo is right,” Ace chimed in.
Ace is thirty-five years old, about my height, muscular, and is the spitting image of his father. His jet-black hair is always combed back, and his naturally-tanned skin didn’t have a scratch on it. He was always called a pretty boy because that’s exactly what he is, but he always hated it because he wanted to be a tough guy like our fathers. He fell in love with boxing at the age of eight and pursued that professionally from the age of eighteen until his late twenties when a shoulder injury ended his career. The shoulder injury he endured was from a street fight, and it was vicious because he was jumped by a gang of dudes – over a girl he was banging. His dream of being the middleweight champion of the world remained exactly that - a dream. His career ended over a girl he banged once or twice and never saw again. But because she had a jealous, stalker ex-boyfriend, Ace paid the ultimate price when he was ambushed one night.
I took care of that idiot and his buddies while Ace was laid up, but it was still a pretty fucked-up way to have your dream and passion end. Ace went into a depression, got mixed up with some bad people, and almost landed himself in jail. I made him my right-hand man in my company, an advisor of sorts, and he’s been by my side ever since. Through the ups and downs I’ve always been able to depend on my cousin. It was Ace that convinced me to move to Detroit, and he came with me without a second thought. Like myself, he doesn’t have a wife or kids, so there was nothing to hold him back from packing up his life and moving with me.
Lola is twenty-eight years old, and she answered the ad I placed with a professional recruiter for a personal assistant. Her résumé was very impressive to me, and when I interviewed her, I liked her “go-get-‘em” attitude. Lola is a mixture of several races, which resulted in her having beautiful exotic features with skin the color of mocha. Her father is Black Foot Indian and her mother is half-black and half-Japanese. She has high, defined cheekbones, a small but slightly wide nose, full lips, and slanted brown eyes. Her hair is long and curly and hangs almost to her butt. She rarely wears it down; it’s always in some kind of bun or pinned up on top of her head. Her boyfriend keeps telling her to cut it shorter, but Lola is too afraid to. Ace is secretly pining over Lola, but his feelings towards her are so obvious to me. The old Ace would have swooped in and taken Lola from her boyfriend, but he wants to go about
Finding a date was never a problem for me, but it also wasn’t on the top of my priority list. I was tempted to go to the ball by myself, but my cousin Ace, who is more like a brother, and my personal assistant Lola, advised me against it.
“Ro, do you really want to go there alone and have to deal with the cougars and gold diggers trying to become Mrs. Mancini? You’d spend the majority of your time beating them off of you instead of getting business done,” Ace said in his heavy New York accent.
“He’s right, boss. Besides, it’ll look better to have a date on your arm. No one will question your sexuality, or your relationship status.”
I looked at Lola with a raised eyebrow and she simply shrugged her slim shoulders. “You pay me to stay in the know. I keep up with the social elite papers and articles, and this is the kind of stuff they write about in those gossip rags. We need to keep the focus on you and your business and the good you’re trying to bring to the city of Detroit.”
“Lo is right,” Ace chimed in.
Ace is thirty-five years old, about my height, muscular, and is the spitting image of his father. His jet-black hair is always combed back, and his naturally-tanned skin didn’t have a scratch on it. He was always called a pretty boy because that’s exactly what he is, but he always hated it because he wanted to be a tough guy like our fathers. He fell in love with boxing at the age of eight and pursued that professionally from the age of eighteen until his late twenties when a shoulder injury ended his career. The shoulder injury he endured was from a street fight, and it was vicious because he was jumped by a gang of dudes – over a girl he was banging. His dream of being the middleweight champion of the world remained exactly that - a dream. His career ended over a girl he banged once or twice and never saw again. But because she had a jealous, stalker ex-boyfriend, Ace paid the ultimate price when he was ambushed one night.
I took care of that idiot and his buddies while Ace was laid up, but it was still a pretty fucked-up way to have your dream and passion end. Ace went into a depression, got mixed up with some bad people, and almost landed himself in jail. I made him my right-hand man in my company, an advisor of sorts, and he’s been by my side ever since. Through the ups and downs I’ve always been able to depend on my cousin. It was Ace that convinced me to move to Detroit, and he came with me without a second thought. Like myself, he doesn’t have a wife or kids, so there was nothing to hold him back from packing up his life and moving with me.
Lola is twenty-eight years old, and she answered the ad I placed with a professional recruiter for a personal assistant. Her résumé was very impressive to me, and when I interviewed her, I liked her “go-get-‘em” attitude. Lola is a mixture of several races, which resulted in her having beautiful exotic features with skin the color of mocha. Her father is Black Foot Indian and her mother is half-black and half-Japanese. She has high, defined cheekbones, a small but slightly wide nose, full lips, and slanted brown eyes. Her hair is long and curly and hangs almost to her butt. She rarely wears it down; it’s always in some kind of bun or pinned up on top of her head. Her boyfriend keeps telling her to cut it shorter, but Lola is too afraid to. Ace is secretly pining over Lola, but his feelings towards her are so obvious to me. The old Ace would have swooped in and taken Lola from her boyfriend, but he wants to go about
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