No Coincidence Part 3

[aDRUfan4LiFe]

“What?”

“Yes, it’s Dru Hill! I nearly peed on myself when I read that. I thought for sure they were going to be interviewed next month.” Kenji said as she laughed at the look on Khori’s face.

“Did you find this out before our assignments came down or after?”

“After. The list of the interviews came down a few minutes after the list for the assignments.”

“This is not funny.” Khori said as she shook her head.

“I told you, you and Scola gonna hook up!”

“Would you stop saying that? We are not going to hook up!”

“You can stop destiny, Khori.”

“I know, but I’m not God and I sure ain’t a psychic. So I won’t jump ahead. You know how us women are. We plan marriage from the first date. Matter of fact, I like being single now.”

“How long has it been? Four years since you did the you know what?”

Khori sighed. “What does that have to do with anything? I have been on dates.”

“You open, girl! You’re open!”

“Whatever. I’m not going to hook up with no celebrity. Too much drama.”

“But Scola’s cool. He don’t get down like that! He’s humble, from what I hear.”

Khori sucked her teeth. “I’m not going to go there!”

Kenji shook her head. “If Scola was after me, I surely wouldn’t resist!”

“I’m not going to even comment on that.” Khori said as she stood up.

“Where you going?”

“To Gray’s office. I’m going to see if I can switch with somebody.”
_________________________________________

“Why can’t I switch, Gray?” Khori said as he looked at her boss who was about in his early forties, clean shaven, and had long blonde hair and bluish gray eyes.

“Khori, It’s already done. Besides, I thought you liked R&B.” Gray replied.

“Yeah, but there’s a conflict of interest here.” Khori said.

“What’s that? Gray said.

“Nothing!” Kenji interjected.

“Huh?” Khori said as she looked at Kenji and then at Gray.

“She just wanted to know everyone was picked.”

“Random. We picked names out of a hat. So it wouldn’t be any favoritism. Is that alright with you?” Gray stated nicely.

“Yes.” Khori and Kenji said as they looked at each other and then back at Gray.”

“Okay. Is there anything else you wanna know?” He said as he reached over to his fax machine and pulled out a piece of paper.

“No. They said together.

“Alright.” Gray replied as he briefly looked up from the paper he just retrieved out from the fax machine.

Khori and Kenji headed started to walk toward the door, when Gray read something that caught his attention. It concerned Dru Hill.

“Khori, come back here for a minute.” Gray asked.

Kenji eyed her and left out of the office, while Khori turned around and headed back to Gray’s desk. She took a seat in front of him.

“Well, I just read that Dru Hill are going on a two week, east coast, promo tour.”

“Umm hmm.” Khori said nervously.”

“I don’t know if you know, but Reginald and I are considering making Dru Hill the cover story for next month’s issue.” Gray said as he looked at Khori for her reaction.

“Oh.”

Gray chuckled. “They are doing really good. And this would mark the first issue with an R&B group on the cover. But it’s still up in the air.”

“Okay.”

“What I would like to know is if it was to possible to hang with them on their tour, would you be able to make that commitment?”

Khori exhaled and bit her lip. She didn’t want to go, but she had nothing better else to do. She could learn a lot from this experience. “Yes.” She mumbled.

“Is that a yes?”

“Yes sir.”

“Alright now! Don’t get overly anxious. It’s just a thought. I have to still discuss it with Reginald.

“Okay.”

“I’ll let you know by the end of the week.”

Khori said okay and stood up from her seat.

“Khori, you are one of the best writers here and I know I can depend on you.” Gray said as he smiled.

Khori, knowing he says that to everyone on the staff, told him thank you.

“Loosen up a little.” Gray joked as Khori opened the door to leave his office. She smiled and shook herself.

Kenji , who was standing outside of the door, noticed when Khori shook herself as he left Gray’s office.

“What was all that for?” Kenji laughed.

“He told me to loosen up! After hearing that news, I was kinda tensed.”

“What did he say?”

“About Dru Hill going on a two-week promo tour and me possibly traveling with them.” Khori whispered as she and Kenji walked back to her desk.

“For real? I’m jealous!”

“It’ll be a good experience if it comes through, but I’m not going to jump the gun on this.”

“More of an opportunity to hook up with Scola.” Kenji joked.

“There you go!” Khori responded smartly.
________________________________________

Khori had just about cleaned out the clothing store that she came stepping out of in the crowded mall. The store was going out of business and luckily they had a lot of clothes on sale that were her size. She had two huge bags that could barely contain the clothes. She had another medium size bag with three pair of shoes. It was the day before Valentine’s Day and people were scrambling for last minute gifts. She decided to treat herself, but she planned on buying a few gifts for her friends.

She was walking up the mall looking for some more sales when she spotted her best friend Tamara, her husband Russell and Russell, Jr aka Binka. Russell was looking at a cd in his hand and Tamara was looking at it also. Binka, who had just made two years old, has made his way to the window of the store and had his hands and his face on the window. He was breathing on the window and was staring at as it appeared.

“Will and Jada, Ya’ll betta watch little Binka!” Khori shouted.

Russell sucked his teeth without looking up from the cd and Tamara said hey and came over to Khori to give her a hug. Binka looked up from the window when he heard Khori’s voice. Binka walked over to his mother and held his hands out toward her. She picked him up.

Khori put her bags down and started to talk to Binka and he soon wanted Khori to hold him. Tamara gave him to Khori and Tamara went back to her husband and she peeked over his shoulder to look at the CD again.

“What’s up Binka!” Khori said as Binka talked in his baby language.

Russell looked up from the CD and handed it to Tamara. “You need to stop calling him “Binka” where did ya’ll get that crazy name from anyway?”

Tamara and Khori looked at each other. “Long story!” They both said and laughed.

“Whatever! He’s not going to respond to Junior. Ya’ll needs to stop it!”

[aDRUfan4LiFe]

Tamara gave him the evil eye and said, “I’ll call my baby anything I want.”

Russell shook his head.

“Whose cd is that?”

“Dru Hill’s. They are having an autograph signing today! Perfect gift for Valentine’s Day.” He said as he winked at Tamara. Tamara laughed.

“I didn’t need to see that! Right Binka!” Khori said as Binka smiled.

“Anyway, It’s a very good cd. I heard some of the tracks on the internet.” Russell said.

“I’m surprised you didn’t know.” Tamara said to Khori.

“No, the only thing that brought me down to the mall was the sale at the Jeans Company. When I heard they were going out of business, I was here as soon as the doors opened.

“Ooh girl, I gotta hit ‘em off! Are you going to go to the signing?” Tamara asked Khori.

“Is that the line?” Khori asked as Tamara and Russell looked in the direction she pointed.

“Dang! The line got long fast!” Russell said. “But I’m not surprised.”

“Nah! I’ll pass.” Khori said as she gave Binka a juicy kiss on his cheek and tickled him.

“Girl, you betta go! I saw Scola and I told him I was you’re friend and he lit up like a Christmas tree!”

“Stop lyin!”

“She ain’t lying! I was about to steal ol’ dude because he was smiling from ear to ear. Tee was all drooling over him. I thought he was giving my wife some play until she told me what happened.” Russell said.

“Stop being jealous! You know she ain’t going nowhere!” Khori said. Binka landed a wet kiss on her cheek.

“I know, I was just a little worried!” Russell said as grabbed Tamara and gave her a hug and kissed her on her cheek.

Binka gave Khori another juicy kiss and she replied, “This the only love I get from a man!”

Russell and Tamara laughed. “Girl, if I was you, I’d make my way to the front of the line somehow! Give me Binka so I can go to the Jeans Company for all the clothes in my size are gone.”

Khori gave Binka a quick kiss and handed him to his mother. Tamara hurried to the Jeans Company with Binka clinging to her hip and waving goodbye to Khori. Russell started pushing the stroller when he stopped near Khori.

“You betta go git your man!” He joked and Khori hit him on his arm.

“Ouch!” Russell said and he winked his eye at her and went into the store behind his wife and son.

Khori picked up her bags and proceeded to the exit of the mall. She had to walk pass the record store to get to the exit. She noticed the line was inside the store and was outside to the front of the next store. She came past the record store to get into the mall, but she hadn’t noticed the signs saying that there was going to be an autograph signing until she looked on her way out. One particular sign, a picture of the Dru Hill’s cd cover caught her attention. She observed it and she thought how nice they all looked. Little did she know that she had caught Scola’s attention inside the store.
__________________________________________

Scola had looked up from signing an autograph out of the window on the side of the store. The window faced the inside of the mall and they were sitting at a table inside the store. Jazz was sitting the closest to the window, Scola, Sisqo, Nokio and then Woody. Scola was staring for a minute when he caught Jazz’s attention.

“That looks like Khori, you know the girl who found your dragon!” Scola asked as he continued to stare.

“For real? She has a hat on, but I’m going to take a closer look.” Jazz said as he got out his seat and looked. He was staring for a minute when Khori saw someone staring at her out the corner of her eye.

“Jazz?” She said to him, but he could only read her lips.

“Yes.” He said and he waved for her to come into the store.

“I can’t! Long line.” Khori said as she pointed to the line. By then Scola and Sisqo were looking at Jazz.

“Who is that?” Sisqo asked.

“It’s Khori.” Jazz replied and Scola started to smile. Nokio looked up from signing his autograph.

“Oh, that’s the girl you’ve been yapping about!” He said.

“Whatever.”

“She ain’t trying to come in.” Jazz shouted back at them as he was still trying to communicate with her through the glass.

Scola stood up and started waving for her to come in. Then Sisqo and Nokio even got in on it. Some of the people who were standing in line got restless because they were paying attention to Khori and not signing their autographs.

When Khori saw them asking her to come in, she decided that she would come in and just stand over to the side. So she pushed pass some people, like she wanted to go to buy something and she and her three bags made there way in front of the autograph table near Jazz.

She noticed how good they looked in blue! They had on different outfits, but they still had that same shade of blue.

Jazz just got finished signing an autograph and gave a fan a hug and he saw Khori. He told her to come behind the table and he let security know it was okay.

He stood up and gave Khori and big hug. He showed her the now repaired blue sapphire dragon that was now repaired and shining brightly. “I gotta thank you again for saving my @$$!”

“No problem!” Khori said as she smiled. The next person who stood up was Scola. He gave Khori a warm hug and asked her how she was doing. She said that she was fine and both of them started to smile at each other.

“I see somebody went shopping!” Sisqo spoke up and he gave her a hug. Nokio pulled his seat from under the table and stood up and gave her a hug also. Woody followed Nokio and gave Khori a hug.

“I’m getting all this love!” Khori thought to herself. Nokio told her to stand behind them, because he wanted to talk to her. She stood beside what had to be Nokio’s brother, because he looked like a fine clone of him.

“What’s up girly?” Nokio asked after he signed an autograph.

“Nothing much. I wanna know why are ya’ll so nice to me?”

“Why not! If Jazz would’ve lost that dragon, we all would’ve been out of luck! Those are special made dragons. We are the only ones that have them.” Nokio replied.

“Yep! That’s right. We’re friendly people anyway!” Woody said as he smiled.

“Okay.” Khori smiled back at Woody.

“You got the cd?” Nokio asked Khori.

“No, not yet.” Khori replied.

Nokio digged in his pocket and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill. He handed it to his brother.

“See if they have any cd’s hanging around. Treating this lady to a cd is the least I can do.” Nokio said.

Nokio’s brother found the cd and paid for it. He came back and handed it to Nokio. He opened the cd and scribbled some words in it and passed it down to Sisqo. The cd went through the hands of Scola, Jazz and it ended with Woody and he handed it to Khori.

“Thanks, ya’ll!” Khori told to them.

“You’re welcome.” They mumbled as they signed others autographs that were lined up.

Scola looked up from his autograph and told Khori to come near him. He wanted to ask her a question.

“You wasn’t trying to come in here to see us?”

“I didn’t know that ya’ll were having a signing today.”

“You didn’t?”

“No! My best friend and her husband came and got a cd. I ran into them as I was leaving and they told me what was going on.”

“This is crazy. I keep on seeing you and it’s …it’s just crazy!” Scola said as he shook his head.

“Tell me about it!” She said as she smiled back at him. Scola turned his attention to a crazed fan wanting an autograph and a picture.

Nokio had a fan with a low cut top that was showing her tattoo of Nokio’s name on her chest.

“Whoa!” Nokio laughed as she put her chest near his face.

“Come to dada!” Sisqo shouted to her. She went to Sisqo and gave him a hug with her chest in his face. The fellas broke out in laughter.

“I love it, I love it!”Sisqo said with a big smile on his face, after she let him go.

[aDRUfan4LiFe]

It was so many crazed fans, little girls hugging Sisqo and Woody, women slipping Jazz and Scola their phone numbers and men giving them pounds and saying they like their cd and that they were fans of their music. Khori observed all this in the fifteen minutes she was standing behind them.

She was looking at her watch because she had a four o’clock hair appointment and it was now pushing three fifteen, when her cell phone, which played the opening bars of “Mary Mary’s song “In the Morning” sounded. She looked down at the phone and her office number came up.

“That’s Mary Mary’s song, right?” Woody asked as she put the phone to her ear.

“Umm hmm.” She responded.

“Hello.” She said as she answered the phone.

“Khori?”

“Yes.”

“This is Reggie. I’m just calling to let you know that you have to attend a meeting tomorrow, at twelve o’clock, concerning the Dru Hill story. Alright?”

“Yeah sure.”

She pulled the phone from her ear and a frowned showed on her face. She didn’t want to go to that meeting. She wanted to relax. She was ready to leave because she was just standing around. She told everyone goodbye and thanked Nokio again for the cd. She couldn’t get to Scola because he was chatting with someone. So she just gave him a light pinch on his arm and she turned around to leave. She was half way to the door when Scola looked around to see if she was there. He was disappointed to see she had left.

Jazz noticed that Scola had a disappointed look on his face when he sat down from talking to a fan. Khori walked past the same window where Jazz saw her and she stopped and waved. Jazz tapped Scola so he could see her wave.

Scola looked and had his hands out and said “What’s up?” He wanted to give her his number, but she was gone before he could.

Khori shrugged her shoulders, pointed at her hair and pointed to her watch. They stared at each other for a minute and then she headed out the mall to her car. She didn’t even wanna to go there with him.

“What if I never see her again. I would’ve blew my chance to a least get to know her!” Scola whined to Jazz.

“Well if it’s meant to be, ya’ll see each other again!” Jazz said.
__________________________________________

After seven hours of sitting getting her hair done in individual braids with human hair last night, Khori woke up at ten o’clock to get ready for her meeting. She didn’t get in the house until almost midnight, so she was tired. She dragged herself out of the bed, laid out her black suit that she had purchased yesterday from the Jeans Company and headed for the shower.

She was in the mirror observing her now size fourteen figure. She had lost 25 pounds and three dress sizes. Her doctor still wanted her to lose more.

“I look good!” She said to herself as she pulled her hair in a ponytail. She didn’t wear makeup, she put on some lip gloss and lined her eyes. She put on her silver bangle, rings and necklace, and she hurried out the door to her car.

When she arrived at the office she met Reginald, Gray and a man she didn’t know standing with them. He was a tall, big man. He looked like he played some football back in the days. Gray introduced him to Khori as Kenneth Crear, Dru Hill’s manager.

“I don’t know if I should take her on tour with us. She might be a distraction to the fellas.” Kenneth joked as he shook Khori’s hand.

Khori looked at both Reginald and Gray. “So it’s official? I’m going with them?”

“It’s a done deal.” Reginald respond as he pearly whites and his bald head were shining.

Khori sighed. “So I know a man’s coming with me, right?”

“Yeah. Damon West…”

“No…not Damon Dash. He’s annoying!”

“Oh now, I’m annoying! You didn’t say that last night!” Damon said as he approached with his black turtleneck and super small conrows.

“See!” Khori looked at Gray with pleading in her eyes.

“He’s the only person available.” Gray said as he lightly laughed. He knew all about Damon.

“What’s up Khori!” Damon said as he slid his arm around Khori’s shoulders.

“Nothin, now that you came!” Khori sighed.

“Umm hmm…” Damon said as he winked his eye at her. Khori frowned.

“Well, I guess we can go in the other room and discuss the specifics.” Reginald said .
__________________________________________

Dru Hill had heard yesterday that a reporter was going to accompany them on the mini promo tour. They were sitting in the conference room pondering who this person would be.

“Maybe some old fartknocker type of dude.” Jazz joked.

“Maybe a fine young thing that I can get my freak on with!” Sisqo said.

“Your head’s always in the gutter, man!” Scola said.

“I want my head to be somewhere else!” Sisqo joked. Nokio shook his head.

“Whoever it is, I hope we can get along with them!” Woody said.

“Amen to that my brotha!” Jazz responded and everyone agreed.

They heard some people approaching the conference room, so Sisqo told everyone to be quiet. They all waited anxiously to see who this person was.
__________________________________________

Khori didn’t know that Dru Hill was sitting in the conference room. She thought that the room was empty because she didn’t hear a peep. She was the first person in. She felt like her heart got caught in her throat when she saw the group sitting there nice and quietly. Sisqo, Jazz, Nokio, Scola and Woody all had looks of surprise on their faces. Sisqo was the first one to speak.

“It’s you again!” He said as he smiled from ear to ear.

[glow=pink,2,300]Part 4 Coming Soon![/glow]

[CarolinaCutie]

Ooooooohhh...gettin' good, girl, gettin' good!

[Jewlnmbr1]

C'mon girl! Don't stop there! It was just gettin betta! LOL...keep it comin!

[sexysmile]

talk about fate!! i can't wait for the rest!!

[VirgosAngel19]

Yeah girl, that's getting really good. I definitely have to say that fate is steppin in. Look at me sounding like that chick off of Passions. Anyway, good good.