Chapters (48)
- Cover
- PRAISE FOR ALEXA MARTIN’S PLAYBOOK SERIES
- Titles by Alexa Martin
- Dedication
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Epilogue
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- About the Author
- What’s next onyour reading list?
When he doesn’t continue, I look up to see him staring at me, waiting for me to say something.
“What, Quinton?” I can’t scrounge up the effort to hide my eye roll or mask the irritation in my tone when I answer. “Please, tell me. What were you wondering?”
“I mean, you seem smart.” He starts in the worst possible way ever. “I’ve just been trying to figure out how you let Mahler trick you into being the token Black girl. Why would you let him use you like this?”
Out of everything that I thought would come out of his mouth, that was worse than anything I could’ve possibly imagined. I’m stunned speechless.
“Did he convince you that you’re a meaningful part of his organization? Did he say something that convinced you he didn’t put you on me clearly for the optics of hiring a Black woman and supporting diversity?” He tilts his head to the side as if I’m some puzzle for him to solve and not a person he just insulted. “What even is your role in this?”
I try to take some deep cleansing breaths, to remember the coping skills that I had to use almost every day at my old job. The techniques I vowed I would never have to use again because of somebody making me feel small at work.
Yet here I am again.
“Here’s what’s going to happen.” I keep my words calm and measured as I slowly close my computer, afraid that all of the anger sizzling through my veins will cause a Hulk-like blowup. “I’m going to leave and try to forget that you ever said that. Tomorrow, you will meet me in my office when you get out of practice and we will only meet there unless we have to go to the venue for the launch. We will only speak when we need to speak or when you decide that you’re ready to apologize for insinuating that not only am I not qualified for my job, but that I only got it because of my skin color.”
“You really don’t think that he’s using you? So that when the press comes sniffing around, he can parade you in front of them and say that I’m misguided in calling out the racism in his organization because look at you. You’re Black and a woman.” He leans back in his chair, a sadistic smirk tugging on the corner of his mouth. “You can’t be that naive.”