America 1982-Chapter 251 - 1: Why Tommy Didn’t Sneak a Snack
KeyBank’s headquarters are in New York.
In Jim Manzi’s office, he was animatedly introducing the bank’s top customers to Tommy and Stephen:
"The Big Jack trio definitely damn well deserve to be KeyBank California branch’s Clients of the Year. We should frame their pictures in black walnut and hang them up on the wall, get my drift? Tell me, when was the last time you saw hardworking, aspirational black guys? Ever since Lincoln freed the slaves, I haven’t seen a single diligent n****r - not until I met those three~"
"You better watch it, Yunus, Odilia, and other board members are in a meeting, and there are several black directors in there, just two walls away from you. If they hear what you’re saying now, you’ll be looking for a new job, Jim," Stephen, flipping through documents in his hand, warned Jim.
Jim nodded: "Right, of course, you can’t let people think I don’t respect black people. So, what should we do? Of course is..."
"Watch your language," Stephen raised his head, looked at Jim and said irritably.
"No, it’s watch the decor," Jim gave a completely different answer:
"I specifically installed a soundproof layer when renovating the office. It works great. If you need, I can give you the designer’s number. In actual tests, the soundproofing was damn amazing. I was intimate with a high-class lady inside the room, behind glass, and I had my secretary listen from the other side of the glass for any noise, and guess what, my secretary didn’t hear a thing."
"Every time I sit down to chat with you, Jim, all I hear are stories about you and various women, and if I remember correctly, this is the sixteenth episode. Are you okay? I don’t mind you frolicking with women, but this makes me uncomfortable. I can take you to a nightclub to have fun, but... in the company, it’s too weird. Are you that desperate?" Stephen covered his face with his hand, sounding somewhat feeble:
"If it wasn’t because this quarter you again brought in thirteen million in revenue for our finance company, I would have scolded you harshly at the board meeting. Can’t you be more like Tommy? Tommy is undoubtedly a good man now, except for occasionally accompanying Ottelia on her vacation, no other woman appears around him."
"Learn from Tommy? My dear shareholder, what gives you such an illusion?" Jim bit his cigar and looked at Tommy with a big smile: 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎
"The only reasons he can resist a woman’s temptation are few; first, the woman is old and ugly, and he can’t get his stick up. Second, the woman wants to breed with him, but she can’t show a clean bill of health, so he’s too scared to show his stick. Third, the woman is beautiful but a pity, she’s black. Let me put it this way, no matter how beautiful she is, as long as she has one-sixteenth of black blood, in his view, she’d be equated with the word ’ugly’."
"But for the three years from college to graduation, Tommy really didn’t fool around. Honestly, I quite admire this guy’s fidelity," Stephen said earnestly.
Jim Manzi looked at Tommy, asking skeptically: "Really?"
"Absolutely," Tommy said with a smile: "I’m not that kind of man."
"That only means to me that you’re telling others you don’t do men," Jim guessed, sitting at the desk, staring into Tommy’s eyes, and spoke with a smile: "I bet I can guess..."
"Heh heh heh, I’ve said, don’t call me over for nothing, I’m very busy," Tommy interrupted Jim Manzi’s guesswork, forcibly asking for the reason Jim had called him.
Jim looked at Stephen: "Do you think it’s better for you to talk to him about this issue, or for me?"
"Indisputably, it’s you, Jim. I pay you and gave you shares, hoping that you would handle these problems for me," Stephen, adjusting his tie, said to Jim.
Jim cursed, then turned to Tommy: "Your budget of three million for the new quarter has been rejected, Tommy."
Tommy’s eyes widened, turning to Stephen, then to Jim, who was delivering the news: "Are you joking? That money is very important."
A smirk on his face, Jim nodded, biting his cigar: "Damn right, very important, we certainly know that. But the problem is, why the hell should the company pay for the extremely expensive gifts you bought for your girlfriend?"
"That was for company promotion, promoting our charitable work, a necessary publicity cost," Tommy said discontentedly.
"You damn well spend more money promoting Odilia than the BBC does making documentaries, Tommy. The American and Spanish documentary team you hired just to film Odilia shaking hands and talking with a black kid in Gabon, Africa, for ten minutes quoted ten thousand US Dollars! Three million means at most enough for three thousand minutes of footage, and your initial plan is to damn well follow her for three years. Do you want the documentary team to follow your angelic girlfriend for the next three years and still expect the company to foot the bill? KeyBank has been helping those n****rs in Gabon get wells for clean water and toilets for two full years and only lent out three million!"
