"You better get your feet off the table 'fore Daddy comes in here," Fallon told Hakeem, plucking a grape off of the fruit platter on the table. Her older brother had his Timbs on the table, drinking a beer without a care in the world. Fallon shook her head, looking at Jamal, who had earbuds in, waiting for Lucious to get there.
"Rita, did you bring the hummus?" Andre asked, walking in with Imani. "Hey, y'all."
Imani scrunched her face in disgust. "Who the hell eats hummus?" She sat down next to Jamal, mushing the back of his head as she walked by.
"Jamal, how's that friend of yours?" Andre asked, sitting down.
Jamal and Hakeem exchanged a look with each other. Jamal lightly shook his head before looking back down at his phone.
Rita, the maid, slid a plate of hummus in front of Andre, sitting at the head of the table. Fallon snatched one of the carrot sticks off of Andre's plate, dipped it in the hummus, and popped it into her mouth. She chuckled, looking at Andre's disappointed face.
"Good," Jamal answered. "Why you flake on dinner last Tuesday?" Jamal and his boyfriend, Michael invited the siblings to dinner at their apartment to introduce him and get to know each other. Everyone but Andre made it.
"Schedule was crazy," Andre replied.
"I mean, but you could've called or something." He continued starting at his phone. "Like, we cooked and everything. That's so rude."
"I forgot," Andre said sternly, growing frustrated. Jamal looked over at him.
"I'm glad you're all here," Lucious said, walking into the dining room, a newspaper in his hand. "And get your big ass feet off my $40,000 table!" He swatted Hakeem's foot off of the table with the newspaper. "I eat there!"
Hakeem rolled his eyes, reluctantly moving his foot. Fallon chuckled, taking another carrot from Andre.
"Your brother and I have been working hard to turn Empire into a publicly traded company," Lucious announced. "Now, part of us going public means ensuring a legacy for this company, and right now it seems none of you are prepared to take over after I'm gone." Imani furrowed her eyebrows, giving her father a blank stare. "Now, it won't happen today, nor tomorrow...but I will start grooming someone soon. And it can only be one of you."
"What is this, we...we King Lear now?" Jamal asked.
"Call it what you want, smart-ass, but over the next several months—"
"Wait, wait, wait," Andre interrupted. "What are you saying? We're all in competition to be the future head of the company?"
Fallon raised an eyebrow, looking between her siblings. She and Imani held the same expression; disbelief. They were not about to compete with their brothers to run Empire. They didn't even want Empire.
"In order for it to survive, I need one of you Negroes to man up and lead it." Lucious said. "And nothing or no one is going to tear it down, hear me?"
Imani scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Unbelievable."
"Is there a problem, Imani?" Lucious asked.
"There was absolutely no reason for us—" she gestured to herself and Fallon, "—to be here, since it's clear you were talking to the boys. And even if one of them take over, where does that put me and Fallon?"
"Give me a song that's actually worthy of going out, and I'll get back to you," Lucious said before walking out of the room.
Hakeem let out a long, drawn out whistle, before chuckling. "I guess he's not getting back to you, 'cause..." he laughed.
