Capricorn
Chapter 27

Working Environment
The workplace of a typical Capricorn man or woman:
* must be comfortable, like a home away from home, they'll be there just as much
* must be tidy, and well organized and everything should be back where it belongs at the end of each day
* has framed family photos on their desks, walls, and cubicles
* doesn't waste money on their office unnecessarily

*

Adena and Missy barged into Adena's apartment, laughing at the top of their lungs as they hauled in a few bags. Operation Fuck Taye's Life Up was a success and is now complete, at least for now. "Oh my god, I can't believe it. I wish I could see his face" Adena said as they carried the bags into her bedroom. 

"Girl me too," Missy said as she put the bags on her bed. She sighed and sat down, "Especially when he opens that microwave."

"Microwave?" Adena asked her. "What about it?"

"I had a last-minute idea," Missy said with a devilish smirk.

Adena's eyes widened. "Girl, what did you do?"

"I went across the street to the bodega," Missy said in a sing-song voice. "I got a big old fish and while I was running around packing up YOUR shit, I had that thang microwaving. That place gonna smell like some stank-"

"You microwaved fish?" Adena asked in shock. She then laughed. "Ohmygod! That's fucked up!"

Missy paused and stared at her. Did she go too far?

"I love it!" Adena said and high-fived her. Missy laughed, "Ohmygod now I really wish I could've seen his face!"

"Damn I wish I could've set up a camera," Missy said, "Well my imagination has never failed me."

"I can see him whining and complaining," Adena said. "Good," she said as she opened up one of the bags. "Thanks for getting my stuff too. Looks like you got everything."

"Oh yeah, I made sure to ransack that whole closet girl," Missy said as she unzipped a bag and looked through it. "Oooh, can I borrow this?" Missy asked her as she held up a Tommy Hilfiger top.

"Sure, I owe you big time," Adena said as she took out a few pieces of clothing and hung them up in her closet. Missy's phone started ringing.

"Oh shit," Missy said. Adena turned to look at her. "It's Taye."

"Answer it," Adena said with no hesitation. 

Missy answered and put it on speaker. "Helloooooo?" she said cheerfully.

"I'm onto you! And your friend!" Taye shouted at her.

"Nigga who do you think you're talking to?" Missy asked defensively. Adena mouthed 'woosahh' to her. She took a breath. "And second of all, what are you talking about?"

"Don't act dumb Missy. This has you written all over it."

"What has me on it Taye? What the hell is wrong with you?" she said, trying not to laugh.

"All this ghetto ass, petty ass shit! Messing up the apartment, hacking my page, giving my number out to random strangers!"

"I didn't do any of that," Missy said. "You made any enemies lately?"

"Don't lie. Of course, it was you!"

"You didn't cheat on me or embarrass me. I have better things to do with my life. Like work. I'm at work now. Now, do you have anything nice or worth speaking about?"

"No you're not worth my time and I have nothing nice to say about you or your little bestie. You sure you wanna do this? I'm just as good as you when it comes to fucking up someone's life-"

"Like your marriage? Nah you got me beat buddy" Missy said and Adena gasped out loud. "Oh, and for your information, you didn't fuck me and leave me out on the curb thank God. Maybe your little jump-off is fucking with you. You think about that?"

Taye scoffed, "Me? Fuck you? I wouldn't touch you with a 10-foot pole. You wish I would though."

"Nigga get over yourself. I'd rather have a 10-foot pole than your little ass dick. Have a nice day stalker!" she said and hung up on him. The two girls then howled with laughter. They laughed so hard that they fell to the floor, were out of breath, and could barely breathe. They laughed so hard that soon they couldn't actually laugh anymore and just the back of their throats clicked as they gasped for air. "Ooooh, he's so mad. So pressed, like a tuxedo" Missy continued as she tried to breathe correctly.

Now it was Adena's phone that was ringing. However, she ignored it. Another random acquaintance that she and Taye knew. They must have seen his or her social media. A text came through right after the call. 

Girl, your ex is going crazy on insta, what is going on?

Adena read it to her. Missy chuckled. "Let's see what's new," she said as she opened her phone. She looked through Taye's page and smiled. "Speaking of stalker, I can't believe you talked me into this random stalker photoshoot all over town. I thought it would be overkill and no one would believe it. It's overkill but people are buying it!" she said and they lay on her floor and read through all the comments and laughed. She hadn't laughed so much in a long time. Her face and stomach hurt.

"As much as I would love to stay, I gotta get going" Missy then said. Adena helped her off the floor. "I love what you've done with the place," she said to her. "What are you up to tomorrow?"

"Just trying to get my life together as usual. I think I'm gonna get myself some plants. I think they'll get all the sunlight they need in the living room" she said as she walked her to the door. She gave her a hug. "Thanks, 'Crazy'."

"You're welcome 'Cool'" Missy said to her. "Well call me if you want to do some more messy shit."

"I never thought I would say this but I think we've done enough."

"Well call me regardless girl. And thanks for the shirt!" she said and then walked out.

Adena closed the door behind her. She knew she would never see that shirt again. She sighed.

Unfortunately, the laughs and craziness left with Missy. Now she was alone amongst the quiet once again. She tried to drown out the silence with music as she unpacked the bags they were able to retrieve. She touched her now very naked ring finger. You know how you wear a ring every day for months, years even, and after only a few days of not wearing it, you feel naked without it? It was going to take a while to get used to.

Everything was going to take a while to get used to. 

She just had to take it all a day at a time. But it's been so hard lately that it seemed she had to do things an hour at a time. She looked at the clock. It was only 7 pm. What was she going to do now? How was she going to get through this next set of 60 minutes alone?

*

Capricorns' quiet, unflappable natures are perfect for serious work under pressure.

*

"You look well," Donatella said surprisingly as Adena stood in front of her in her office and she sat behind her desk, "How have you been Adena? It's only been a few weeks."

"Yes, it has," Adena said as she sat down. "I got a lot accomplished. I've officially moved out of the apartment, I have my own place and I've used those days off that you gave me to just relax. I am officially stress-free and I would like to come back."

She was also bored.

Donatella looked at her with surprise, "Are you sure that was enough time? Is everything finalized already?"

"It was more than enough time for me to be me again. Honestly, everything is not finalized as far as the divorce, it's going to take some time, but in the meantime, I want to come back and do what I do best" she said. "Plus I'm paying for this new place all by myself so..."

Donatella smiled, "Well I personally think that you need more time. But you do look much better, I'm loving this new outfit you have" she commented as she looked her up and down.

Adena laughed, "I had to splurge Donatella. Retail therapy."

"Oh I know huney, that got me through mine. With his credit cards" Donatella said with a smile, "Ok well starting tomorrow you're back. I can't plan my annual Valentine's Day showing without you, you know" she said.

Adena smiled, got up, walked around the desk, and hugged her. She wasn't sure if Donatella would want her back just yet or at all. The worst-case scenario that kept her up all night was that she was in fact fired. "Thank you Donatella," she said and then gave her a red pair of gloves, a hat, and a scarf. "This is for you. This is what weeks off do to me" she said with a laugh.

"Oh, you knit these? Yourself?" Donatella asked her. Adena nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

Once Adena left, Donatella put the knitted items in a bag. She would have her maid take them to Goodwill.

The next day, she walked into her office and the first thing she saw was her little art project, her vision board of her and Taye's relationship. She couldn't help but glance at it. All of these moments used to be good memories that she would cherish but now they were just too painful to even look at. 

She picked up the vision board, walked downstairs, went out the back, and threw it into the dumpster. There.

Anyway, from then on she worked hard. She didn't mind doing overtime because the Valentine's Show was a huge event. She also needed the cash. It also took her mind off of other things, and people, such as Craig. She did miss him terribly. But she wasn't sure she was ready to get into contact with him. She's made good progress and didn't want to go back to sleeping for 10 hours a day again. 

However, she wasn't quite sure when she ever will be.

*

Capricorns make good jewelers, funeral directors, art dealers, anthropologists, and managers of musicians and other entertainers.

*

Craig sighed as he placed the flowers on top of the grave. The grave was accompanied by many others, by other members of his family. Too many. 

There was his father who passed away when he was 13. He worked in construction and fell down a manhole. It was a huge shock for all of them. He literally went to work and never came back. This was the first incident that taught him about life, death, pain, sorrow, depression, and who his real friends and family were. It also taught him how much of a fighter his mom was. And boy did she fight. She sued the company in a wrongful death lawsuit. Supposedly she and her father and other workers were upset about how things were being handled, especially safety, and that the workers had no real benefits. Of course, his death was the last straw. She fought for 2 years but she finally prevailed. Not only did they get a huge settlement but the investigation uncovered so much unlawful shit that other families got their paydays as well and the company crumbled. Good. But it still didn't bring his father back. 

They never had so much money in their life. She was able to quit all of her jobs. Soon his mother had a lot of friends, new family members popped up out of nowhere. She never hesitated in splurging on him and his sisters, especially herself, but if you had a great sob story, she would help you out too. People took advantage of that. 

People taking advantage of his mother weighed on her terribly. He hated how trusting she was, especially with the men who came into their lives. He didn't understand that back then she was depressed and lonely but her father was the best she was ever going to get. She really didn't know how to pick them. Especially Stan. Ugh, he hated Stan. They actually got into a fistfight or two. All he did was sit on his ass, smoke, spend his mom's money, and yell at him and his sisters. 

Every weekend, they would go to Atlantic City and every weekend they would come back with less and less money. Stan couldn't gamble for shit, and it wasn't his money he was losing so he didn't care, and his mother never knew how. His mother took care of everyone around her but herself and she realized too late that Stan was stealing from her. Craig tried to warn her but he just got thrown out of the house and had to stay with his grandmother for a week. Turns out Stan owed a lot of people a lot of money and was using his mom to pay them back but he had upset a lot of people. 

He upset the wrong one, that wrong one was Biggs Cambroni, a ruthless mob boss that would have been perfect at playing The Godfather. Things came to blows. Biggs sent his people to teach Stan a lesson. The lesson was their house getting shot up. Luckily his little sisters were with his grandmother and he was spending the night at a friend's house. Stan was killed and his mom was shot several times in her legs. She survived but she couldn't walk ever again. Craig believed her body survived but her soul died that night. She was even more depressed, in a wheelchair, almost near broke, and had hospital bills and Stan's debt. This all happened just before his senior year in high school. He tried his best to help out but the pressure of taking care of her and his sisters and needing to run the streets and be stupid didn't help. His mother didn't want to be helped. She drank every day. Every day. She drank until her heart stopped. 

He spent the remainder of his senior year living with his sisters and grandmother. He barely graduated high school. He partied all the time but that's how he found his love for DJing and quickly became a master at it. He barely got into a college but it was important to his grandmother that he goes to one. He only lasted one semester, barely, because right before his end-of-semester exams, his grandmother had a heart attack and passed away.

He was all his sisters had left. By then Beverly, the oldest of his two sisters, was about to graduate. She did. She was very smart. She was going to go to college but lucked out and met a guy from the Hamptons. He asked her to move in merely months after they met and she ran off to the Hamptons to be with him. Surprisingly they were still together, but don't ask her to come back to Brooklyn, she never will. It was too painful. When Craig had the time, he would take their youngest sister out to see her. Amanda.

Damn it, Amanda.

He wiped his tears as he traced his fingers along the etchings on the headstone.

Amanda Evette David
February 10th, 2010 - September 21, 2018
Beloved daughter, sister, friend & classmate
"I wanna fly with the angels one day."

He smiled as he read the last line. Once Amanda had learned about angels in the church she wanted to be one too. She was more fascinated by the wings, halo, and flying than anything. Now she actually was...but it wasn't fair, not yet. She was too young.

"Hey 'Manda," he said as he sat in front of her headstone, drinking his beer and smoking a blunt, "Hey Mom. Dad. Grandma. Today would be your 13th birthday Amanda, ugh it's funny, but I've been thinking about you a lot lately. I actually met a girl, a friend, a few weeks ago that reminded me of you. I don't know if it was something about her. She kinda looked like you. I'm sorry but I try not to think about you. Because it's hard and you're supposed to be here. You had your whole life ahead of you...but you really wanted to fly with those angels, didn't you? I just miss you, little sis. I miss all of you. I wish I could throw you another surprise party because I know how much you loved them. I'm more of a birthday guy now too. Yeah, can you believe it? After all, we've been through it was you who made me realize that life is very short and you should be thankful for every day because in an instant... I love you Baby Girl. I promise I will come by more often. It's just been hard. I love you. Mom, Dad, Grandma, I love you all too" he said and he got up in a hurry and walked out of the cemetery. It was always hard visiting but he never would forgive himself if he never went.

He walked into his apartment and he heard loud moans coming from Ron's bedroom. He went straight to his room and locked the door. He put on his headphones, turned the music up to the highest volume, and tuned them out.

*

As Capricorns get older and become grandparents, they tend to let loose a lot more and really enjoy playing with and spoiling their grandchildren.

*

Missy laid next to Ron breathlessly, she couldn't count how many times she orgasmed, how many times she felt like she couldn't take it but she was loving every minute of it. Ron lit a blunt and opened the window and lit one for her too. "Thanks," she said, "I'm glad your 48-hour shift is over. That's too long to go without it."

"Really? Only 48 hours? Try 48 minutes" he said with a laugh. 

Oh yeah, so this happened. After they met at the party they were basically inseparable. Missy made a good impression on him. She could hold her liquor, was fun to be around and loved to party and he practically fell in love when he saw her beating Felicia's ass because he had been wanting to do it for the longest time. She also had the same sex drive as him. She was always ready. They talked for a little while but then she started touching him they did it all over again, this time standing up. "Damn girl, you're gonna make me wanna marry you."

"Go ahead, you're a doctor," she said.

"I love your honesty," he said, and he really did. She wasn't fake. He knew the appeal was that he was a doctor, well almost. He was an intern but same thing. They walked into the kitchen and Craig was in there making some food. "Oh that shit smells good, you got any for us?"

"Sure," Craig said sadly and then took his plate into his room and shut the door.

"What's wrong with him?" Missy asked him. "Do you think it's Adena?"

Ron shook his head as he made himself a plate, "Surprisingly, no, it's something else, long story" he said. He felt like a fuckhead. He totally forgot that today was Craig's little sister's birthday or would have been. Craig rarely got that depressed. He only got depressed on her birthday and the anniversary of her death. He still blamed himself...

Craig ate the food in his room as he worked on his latest project, he checked his email and noticed a message, someone wanted him to DJ at their event on Friday. Nice. He had a gig every day this week. This was exactly what he needed and wanted. He smiled for the first time that day.

*

Any occupation that requires good organization and smart management, but does not require the Capricorn to be the front person, is their ideal work situation.

*

"Shit! Shit! What the fuck are we going to do?" Donatella yelled at Adena and Lloyd. Lloyd just looked at her cluelessly, tears forming in his eyes. The Valentine's Day show was literally days away and one of their artists just dropped out last minute because they made the decision to finally go to rehab for his heroin addiction. Adena admired the fact that he did, he needed to do it a long time ago but Donatella felt differently. She wished he would have waited to get his life together after Valentine's Day. He was one of the headlining artists. If he didn't show up, neither would his circle or his fans.

"There are many other artists in New York City Donatella, hell, even Miami, Chicago, LA...all you have to do is pick up the phone. It's not the end of the world" she said rationally.

"I already have a million phone calls to make. I can't deal with this. I have a showing to open. I have no time to be calling, groveling, and booking artists. This was very irresponsible of him. To be honest, his work is going to suffer greatly" she said as she lit a cigarette and inhaled. "His work is so much better when he had that shit in his system. It will never be the same."

"Well if you can't deal, then we can just use the artists that we have-"

"No, we need a replacement. A headliner. A name. Find one. Now!" she barked at the both of them and then waved them out of the office.

"Shit..." Lloyd said to himself. 

"Lloyd, look up all of her artists. The best ones, send me a list, and I'll make the phone calls" she said to him. And she did, but many of them thought she was crazy, they couldn't produce work in a few days. Some said that they may have some artwork that was appropriate and would call her back. She was in the office for hours. 

Two days went by and no word from anyone and then finally someone called with some work.

They sent Donatella the prints and she frowned but shrugged. "That will have to do."

Adena had to reprint the publicity with the new artists' work added and emailed it to everyone on their mailing list and she hung it up all over town.

Adena walked into her apartment and went straight to the bathroom and ran a bath. Work was exhausting. A crisis was averted but it was still a crisis that she had to take care of. Donatella was feeling the pressure and was being a real bitch  as usual but she kept her cool because she was used to it, unlike Lloyd who came into her office a few times and cried like a baby. But he was really sensitive anyway. She stripped down as the water ran and she poured the pina colada bath bubbles in. She put her hair up and soon she was in the bath, resting, for once. She didn't move or wash anything, she just laid there, enjoying the hot water on her aching joints. But then she started to think about things besides work, things that she forced herself not to think about. 

The divorce...Taye...that bitch Felicia...Craig...how he described her to a T that night in the parking lot...all their good times together...watching movies, clubbing, drinking, not having a care in the world. But it was over now...she was back to dealing art and being serious about life. Those few weeks off made her feel very rusty and she had to work her ass off. But she still missed Craig...a lot...what was he doing now? Was he at the club? Did he find a good day job yet? She dried her hand off with a towel and reached for her cell phone and looked for Craig's number. She was about to press call...when something stopped her. What was she going to say? She didn't know.

So like almost every night when she got in her feelings, she would chicken out again. Great, she would have to get over him too. This was so fucked up, having to get over two guys at the same time. At least Taye was making it easy but Craig wouldn't be.

Soon it was the big day. Adena cleaned up the gallery and made sure that the artwork was hung correctly, that the catered food would arrive on time and was the correct amount, and had the correct products.

"Adena get in here" Donatella shouted and Adena walked into her office. "You sure you're ok?"

"Of course I am, what do you mean?"

"Because we can't have another Kehinde Wiley situation. I can't have any of these artists walk out early and not sell anything. You understand? What happened last time can not happen again. So if you have even an ounce of uneasiness or randomly get overwhelmed with your feelings for Taye or if there's a slight chance you'll get distracted, I'll let you walk out right now. If not, this showing has to be perfect and I can not take another mistake. Not even one. It will literally be your ass this time and I really don't have the time or the energy to fire you and clean up another publicity mess after Kehinde's, are we clear?"

Adena looked at her, wow no pressure, she looked at her watch. "It's 20 minutes til you might want to get changed" was all she said to her.

"The catering company's here" Lloyd popped his head in nervously.

"Great," Adena said as she walked out of Donatella's office. She didn't have the time to deal with Donatella's bitching right now. She walked over as a team of cooks walked in bringing in tables and pans of prepared food, "Right on time!" she said happily to the group, "You can all set up everything over here. My name's Adena and if you need anything just let me know" she said to them. 

She turned around and stopped short when she saw Craig walk in. And for once, in the weeks that she has been back at work, she was speechless. "Lloyd? LLOYD?" she hissed as she grabbed him by the arm as he tried to walk past her, not taking her eyes off of Craig. "Why is he here?"

"Oh, that's the DJ. He's one of the best in town. We really lucked out now that he's available and on a Friday night? A few of my drag friends recommended him and I can see why. Damn."

"Ok well go tell him what to do and get him set up," Adena said still not taking her eyes off of Craig. Lloyd nodded excitedly and practically skipped over to him. 

Adena slithered back, hoping that he didn't see her. Shit. Maybe she should go home because one of her biggest distractions just walked in the door.

*

Capricorns will not desert or neglect a loyal friend for long, no matter how bad the circumstances.

*

https://youtu.be/sELR5SLXABI