Chapter 25
Chapter
Twenty-Five
Karina
“Don’t be mad, but I created you a personal social media account last night.”
“You did what?”
I shot sharp eyes in Rayla’s direction. We were sitting at our favorite brunch spot in Vegas, The Henry, a beautiful little place. Their mimosas were always strong enough to make us forget about the type of week we’d had.
Right now, though, they were failing to keep my mind off the fact that Rayla had just told me she had made me social media accounts without my knowledge.
I should not have been as surprised as I was.
Rayla was known to take matters into her own hands if she felt I was too hesitant to step out on faith or sleeping on my own potential.
“You heard me.”
Rayla sipped her drink and looked me dead in the eye. She was serious. She had really gone behind my back and done this. On top of that betrayal, she wasn’t even backing down from it.
“I heard you, but I have a hard time believing you did something like that,” I lied.
This was exactly the type of thing she would do, and we both knew it.
Rayla was the type of girl who had no problem pulling the trigger on her dreams, so it was hard for her to understand people, like me, who needed more time to work things out in their heads.
Whereas Rayla was always crystal clear and ready to jump after what she wanted, I was always slow to act.
“Yes, I did. I made them, and I linked the article you wrote on Kareem’s company in the bio. I also made several posts on LuxRay and tagged you in them last night.”
Rayla pulled out her phone, navigated to social media, and then handed it to me. The number of followers I’d gained in less than twenty-four hours was mind-boggling. I didn’t know whether to fuss at her or hug her.
“You see that, don’t you? You’re already blowing up.
Now is the time to capitalize on this. You know we are planning for your launch soon, so we need to keep this momentum going.
I want you to start thinking about your future, not about remaining anonymous like you always do, Karina.
It’s time for you to show the world who you really are. ”
“I have already built the launch plan, and since creating social media pages was a part of that plan, I guess you just saved me a step in my process.”
I admitted I intended to set up my new social media pages, but I had not gotten around to it.
It was in the plan. I was going to do it, but that didn’t mean I had to be happy about it.
The fact that Rayla had gone ahead and done it without talking to me, though, was the type of friend I needed because she knew I would never pull the trigger on my own.
“Thanks for always being so supportive of my dream. I know that starting this magazine will technically make us competitors, but I will never compete with you in anything. I owe my entire career to you. You have taught me everything that I know, and I appreciate everything you have done for me.”
“Karina, girl, please. You are my best friend. As a matter of fact, you are my only friend. I don’t have many people I talk to every day, and not one other soul I would ever be willing to pour into the way I have poured into you.
I am so proud of everything you are today, and I cannot wait to see what you do in the next phase of your life. ”
“I know you’re not that much older than me, but I really look up to you, Ray. I swear to God, it is like you are light years ahead of everybody we started with. You were a college senior when we met. I was a freshman you literally took me under your wing, and I have been there ever since.”
“That’s what we are supposed to do as black and brown girls.
Honey, it is hard for us to come up in this world, so it is our duty to reach down and help somebody else.
You should already be thinking about who you’ll help next.
While you are building yourself, build somebody else too, because that is the only way we are going to make it in this society.
It’s not built for us. We have to make it look the way we want it to look, and if we don’t, we are doing the women next to us and behind us a disservice. ”
“You are so right, and that’s exactly what I plan to do. I hope the intern I find is someone I can mentor the same way you mentored me.”
“Look at you. I should have known you were already on it. Now, I don’t mean to change the subject or anything, but what do you want to eat? We’ve already started drinking, and I can’t afford to be sick tomorrow morning.”
Rayla danced in her seat like she always did when she was getting ready to eat, and I did the same because I was just as hungry as she was.
I hadn’t even looked over the menu yet, but we had ordered at least two rounds of trio mimosas.
I was thankful for the drinks because they did make it a little easier to digest the bomb Rayla dropped on me.
I was happy we got all business-related talks out of the way early so we could focus on our food and drinks.
As much as I wish it were, business was not the only thing I needed to run by my best friend.
I had to tell her what exactly went down with Kareem.
Rayla was aware that I had left New York early.
My leaving early wasn’t a problem because all of my work was done, and technically, I’d completed my assignment.
That didn’t mean I hadn’t left unfinished business in other realms of my life.
“I left New York without saying goodbye to Kareem.” I blurted it out because I knew if I gave myself time to think, I would think my way right out of telling her at all.
I never enjoyed discussing my personal life, but I was learning to take advice when I needed it. My love life was the area I needed it.
“You did what?”
“Well, it’s kind of a long story, but basically, I just left.”
I sipped my drink and shrugged like that was all to it, as if leaving weren’t a letdown in itself, like my best friend wouldn’t push for more details exactly as I would if the roles were reversed.
“Karina, spill it.”
“I don’t know what happened, Rayla. One minute, we were having a good time, and the next, my old high school nemesis was showing up, ruining the moment.
I just had flashbacks to high school and her competing with me for everything.
I didn’t feel like competing for Kareem’s attention once again, so I left. ”
“When my brother first called me asking why I would send Kareem’s high school girlfriend to cover the story, I thought I’d made the biggest mistake.
However, the more I saw you two together online, the more I knew this couldn’t be just some past fling.
The fact that you ran further lets me know that. ”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean, whenever you feel yourself getting close to someone, you either push them away, disappear on them, or find a reason to cut them out of your life altogether. Karina, what have I told you about running from every little problem in your life? At some point, girl, you’ve got to stand up to the bad guy.
Sometimes that bad guy is a hating ass girl from high school, but other times it could just be you. ”
“I know. I’m working on it. But I did shoot Kareem a text this morning to let him know that I am still alive.”
“And how did he receive that?”
“He said he would see me soon.”
“You know what? When you see him, don’t take that time for granted.
Karina, I know your life is going to get super busy super fast, but don’t cut love out of it.
You see what I’ve done. I’ve been making LuxRay my entire life, and I’m proud of what I’ve built here.
I’m proud of the people we serve and the legacy that I’ve created.
The only problem is I have no one to pass that legacy onto, so what was the point of building it?
I am thirty-eight years old, almost thirty-nine, and if it weren’t for a man literally picking me up off my feet, I would still be unmarried today.
Now, I am praying we still have time for kids.
I don’t want that to be you. I actually want that point to reach you faster than it reached me.
You’re about to be thirty-five, sweetie, so lock the fuck in.
Go get your man and give that man some babies because, despite what the world tells us, we can have it all.
You can have the business and the man, the children, and time for yourself.
Life can move so fast, Karina. Don’t get left. ”