Bria was staring past her computer monitor towards the double doors of the office boardroom. She had zeroed in on a minuscule space from one of the doors left open ajar. It was just enough to see the shadows of the Human Resources Representative, a handful of lawyers and the CEO of Tidal himself Sean Carter, otherwise known as Jay-Z. She squirmed behind her desk straining her eyes and biting her lip as she visualized her boss silently sitting in the boardroom getting interrogated by the HR Rep. about the rumours of his inappropriate conduct with employees - one employee in particular. 

As the volume of the private meeting intensifies Bria notices that her fellow colleagues begin to appear around the corner attempting to ease drop. They are all clamouring, pushing and shoving like wild dogs trying to get the last morsel of raw meat. All the commotion eventually leads to one of the faceless, nameless lawyers getting up and slamming the door completely closed. Everyone abruptly scurries back to their respective desks and the office descends into a gradual hum. 

Just as Bria relaxes back into her seat her anxiety rises again as she contemplates what she should do next. She is desperate to find out the details of this meeting.

Think Bri. Think! She scorns herself.

It finally comes to her when she realizes as the Assistant her phone can conference into any desk or office within the building. She would have to be stealth about it though as it makes a loud beep when it becomes connected.

Think Bri. Think! She repeats.

"Hi Mr. Carter I apologize for interrupting, but I was wondering if you were still planning on attending your lunch meeting with Mr. West this afternoon? I normally wouldn't be interrupting about a lunch meeting except that Mr. West gets pretty upset if we don't give him at least an hour regarding any rescheduling and.."

A deep voice abruptly interrupts her, "Yes please cancel ALL Mr. Carters' lunches, meetings and washroom breaks for the day. Thank you!"

"Alright. Alright. You don't need to come at her like that!" Jay Z pleads.

The sound of the phone receiver clicks but as she suspected they don't realize the connection is still live and every voice in the room is clear as day. Bria tip toes towards her door and closes it ever so slowly. As she inches back to her seat she hears the HR Rep. chastising  Jay.

"See it's things like this that will get you into a lot of trouble!" She exclaims

"Things like what? This is my business and these are my employees and no one will treat them with disrespect no matter what's going on in here!" Jay snaps back

"I'm sorry Mr. Carter but when the CEO of a company is in a closed door meeting w/ Human Resources and a legal team it should be common sense for an Assistant to understand that NOW isn't the time to be arranging lunch dates! This is the kinda thing that puts your relationship with your employees to question." She exclaims

"Excuse me! What the f...?"

Without letting him finish the HR Rep lays into him, "Is this your assistant or your needy, attention seeking girlfriend Mr. Carter!"

Jay looks over at his lawyers, "Do you hear this shit?"

"Well the truth of the matter is there are multiple reports of inappropriate conduct between you and an employee. Some reports don't list the other party specifically by name but they provide a hell of a description. The others... well let's just say her name begins with B... but she is no Beyonce!"

Bria's mouth dropped. Her face went red. Her entire body heated up from the inside out. So many emotions rushed to the surface. Scared. Confused. Embarrassed. Relieved. Angry.

Did the HR Rep just say 'but she is no Beyonce'!? How dare she?

After the initial shock of the HR reps statement Bria went back to holding her composure and holding her ear to the phone. It was now a different voice, one she's never heard before. Very deep. Very stern. Very intimidating. She assumed it must be one of the other lawyers in the room.

"Listen, everybody just calm down. We are hear to resolve this problem and then make it go away. When you're at the top people are always gonna find ways to try to bring you down. This is clearly just another bump on the road to success. So tell me Ms. Pope how do we make this go away?"

The entire room becomes eerily quiet for what seems like ages. Then finally the HR Rep speaks in almost a whisper.

"The only way we can make this go away is if it never really happened."

"What do you mean?" The intimidating lawyer asks.

"I mean, there was no sensual looks across the room!"

"I mean, there was no canoodling in the building stairwell!"

"I mean, there was no rubbing of a leg and god knows what else under the boardroom table during a staff meeting!"

"I mean, there was no moaning sounds coming from the staff washrooms on a Monday morning."

"I mean, you zipping up your pants as you walk out of your office, while your assistant pulls her skirt back up... THAT never happened!"

The loud and abrupt sound of sheets of paper shuffling as she speaks.

"That is what I mean Mr. Thompson! All these allegations! All these examples! You have to convince me that none of these things ever happened. You have to convince me that your client, Mr. Carter is not involved in an inappropriate relationship with his assistant Ms. Bria Kalinski when I have all these examples that prove otherwise."

Hearing her name like that, so loud, so clear, so filled with contempt made Bria's whole body shiver. She didn't know how to feel or what to do. On one hand she was scared that she will be the sole reason Jay Z could not only lose his new business venture but potentially his whole empire. On the other hand this could be the beginning of something she has always wanted. 

They can be free to be together without the prying eyes of their colleagues, the naysayers and the vicious paparazzi. From the outside listening in on the whole situation it sounded intense and anxiety ridden but the more she thought about it the more she fantasized about how great this reveal really was. 

She could finally live a normal life with the man she loved and who loved her back. With her new found hope Bria grabbed the phone receiver back to her ear waiting with bated breath for Jay to acknowledge each one of the accusations head on. The reality was each one of those accusations was true and there were a plethora of other examples in her memory that weren't even mentioned. But it didn't matter anymore they were in love and they didn't have to hide it. This is how lovers behave and she wasn't going to be ashamed of it anymore.

So they worked together so what? She would quit if she had to and play housewife and step-mom to baby Blue. Jay had promised her that one day it would be the two of them and today was looking like it was gonna be that day. Bria was jolted out of her brief daydream when she heard Jay Z's voice.

This was it, she thought. He was about to lay out all the cards on the table.

"I want to say one thing. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work. Thank you."

The phone immediately dropped from her hand. Her face went white, and she lost all feeling in her appendages. Bria couldn't believe he denied everything. Every touch, every kiss, every intimate moment denied. As if it were all a figment of her imagination. In the very same moment her boss was pleading his innocence, she was anticipating their fortuitous future. A moment later the double doors opened and Jay Z strolled passed Bria's office with all the arrogance in the world. He made a slight hesitant glance back at her but this time she could tell he was different. Everything was going to be different from this moment forward.