FOUR
“SPENDING TIME WITH YOU IS NEVER A WASTE OF MINE.” LOYLE CARNER
Back Then…
Since she’d been back at work, Nina had been the first to arrive and the last to leave. She had a point to prove. To herself, but for sure to her parents, who were now expecting the worse from her. Literally, those were her sister’s words, not hers.
“Mom said she wouldn’t be surprised if you were a baby mama by the end of the year.”
Nina was speechless. “Wow.”
“I know right… she swears that Jio has brought the worst out of you and how your life is basically over.”
Nina was gonna make her mama eat every single word.
She was going to outwork every employee on payroll.
She planned to double the profit this year and triple it the year after.
Marcelle & Co. was going up to reach levels that they didn’t even think were attainable.
Nina’s life was nowhere near over. It was just getting started and she planned to work day in and day out to show them that she was appointed President and CEO for a reason.
They would never be able to throw in her face, “I told you so.”
Jio wasn’t a distraction nor was he stopping shit. Her parents turned her into a beast and didn’t even know it.
During the day, the building was full of hustle and bustle.
Heels clicked across the marble floor. The phones rang off the hook and the pouring of coffee was endless.
All you heard was the elevator dinging, followed by a “Welcome to Marcelle & Co.,” from the time the doors opened until the receptionist clocked out at five o’clock.
Meetings were stacked on top of meetings. Jr. and Sr. level executives walked around with a hint of arrogance, depending on who you passed by.
Once the sun began to prepare its exit, so did the employees.
A lot of them had to pick up their kids from after-school care, some were gym rats and those kickboxing classes filled up pretty fast. After eight, another wave of teammates would start scrambling out the door to catch the train or a late dinner with colleagues.
By ten o’clock, the last of the bunch would begin to exit.
Those were mainly the ones with no spouse, no children, or a dog that were awaiting their arrival, so getting home around eleven didn’t matter.
It was now two in the morning, and Nina Marcelle was the last employee in the building, but she was the one whose last name was on their checks, so no one clocked her time.
She didn’t need them to. She owed herself the devotion to the company. She had goals to accomplish and points to prove.
The city glowed outside the windows of her corner office.
New York was the greatest place in the world.
She loved it here and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
Even if she had to choose to move and start over, it was always New York for her.
Nina twirled around her chair, high on caffeine.
Her glasses sat perched low on her nose as she re-read the same contract for the third time because she was unable to process a single word.
She was at work but her mind wasn’t because it kept drifting to Jio.
She’d accepted that her sister had completely gone MIA on her. Talia didn’t owe her anything. Nina could only pray that they reconnected, and in the interim, she was keeping her sister covered in prayer.
Addiction was hard to break, and no one could want it more for her than she did.
On the other hand, her man wasn’t on drugs, but clearly, he was on something because she wasn’t buying the “I’m too busy being a made man” excuse this time around. Jio and his lack of communication were beginning to be an issue. She was busy, but hell, he was busier.
They were now going days and days without talking or seeing each other. He didn’t call or respond to messages. Nina hated how much it bothered her.
She leaned back in her chair slowly and picked up her foot to massage her toes.
She was treating herself to the spa this weekend, because a mental and physical getaway was needed.
Usually, the silent treatment from Jio came as a result of some sort of chaos, but as far as she knew, which realistically meant nothing because what did she know? Jio was not an open book when it came to his family business.
Nina was trying her hardest not to jump to a horrid conclusion.
She wanted to know if she had been dumped without proper notice because it surely felt as if Jio had fallen back this time and she didn’t know how to handle the rejection.
In truth, Jio had been kissing her juicy ass since he met her.
She’d grown accustomed to him popping up at her house without warning, banging on the door and doing whatever to gain her attention.
This wasn’t the deal these days. Her calls went unanswered and even Ephrem hadn’t heard from him.
Nina was too tired every day after burning the midnight oil to go to Jersey to see if he’d been at his own home since he wasn’t at hers.
Her phone buzzed against her desk, causing her heart to skip a beat. She just knew it was her man calling to reclaim her heart, but to her surprise, it was her mama.
Nina stared at the screen suspiciously before answering. “What do YOU possibly want with ME?” Is what she wanted to ask her, but instead she said, “Is everything okay?’’
Her mother gasped dramatically. “Why does something have to be wrong for me to call my daughter?”
“Because you don’t call this late unless you need something.”
“That is so ugly to say. Shame on you, Nina,” her mother scolded.
Nina rolled her eyes, spinning slowly in her leather chair.
“What do you need, Mama?”
“Well…” her mother dragged out. “Kobie invited us to this little celebration tomorrow night.”
Nina closed her eyes and without hesitation, she told her, “No.”
“No?”
“Yes, correct, the answer is no.”
In her last session with her therapist, they practiced saying the word no in every possible situation and Nina tried her hardest to add a sentence or a few words to justify why she was saying no. Dr. Berry would shake her head and remind her that no is a complete sentence.
“Nina, are you coming to the chapter meeting?”
“No, but I will send-
“Nina, can you pick up the kids for me?”
“I wish I could but…NO.”
“Are you available to look over this contract before the client signs?”
“No.”
It wasn’t easy and every day Nina was striving to be confident with her decision to say NO and stand on it.
She was trying to rewire her brain after being a certified people pleaser her entire life.
Her mama calling tonight was just the challenge that she needed to prove to herself that she could say NO and not feel bad about letting anyone down.
“You don’t even know what it’s for.”
Nina didn’t care either. “That’s cool. I’m not interested either.”
There was a long stretch of silence on the phone until Nina asked, “Was that all, Mother?”
“Nina…”
“Mama.”
Her mother sighed heavily into the phone. “It’s for his Sprite campaign launch. The boy just signed one of the biggest endorsement deals in football.”
“Go Kobie! What does that have to do with me?”
“He invited the family.”
Nina snorted softly. “I’m sure he invited you.”
“He asked about you specifically.”
Of course he did.
Ever since Kobie entered their orbit, her mother had acted as if God himself descended from heaven in a tailored suit and diamonds.
Educated. Rich. Famous. Black. Polished. Safe.
Everything Jio wasn’t were the things that she didn’t care to have in a man.
“He’s a nice young man,” her mother continued carefully. “And honestly, Nina… with all that has happened lately, this could be a good way to smooth things over with your father.”
She added, “He’s so disappointed in you. He’s barely sleeping.”
There it was.
The real reason for the call. She wanted to guilt trip her into attending and making her feel as if she needed to repair an image that no one else thought was broken except her parents.
Truthfully? She was tired of having to impress anyone other than herself. She was sick of hiding her real life from the world and her true love. She was even more annoyed that at her grown age she still felt the need to constantly defend the choices she made.
On top of all of that, she hadn’t heard from Jio in two weeks. Nina didn’t know if she was single and free to do as she pleased.
“You know what?” she murmured finally.
Her mother perked right up. “You’ll come?”
“I’ll stop by for thirty minutes.”
“That’s all I’m asking!”
“No speeches. No weird matchmaking. No trying to sell me off to this man or any other dude that will be there and I mean it too,” she warned.
Her mother laughed nervously. “Nina, what type of mother do you think I am?”
“I’m serious.”
“Okay, okay,” she said quickly. “I’ll RSVP us now and I’ll see you tomorrow!”
After they hung up, Nina sat there for another moment staring at her reflection in the dark window.
Thirty minutes wasn’t going to kill her.
She also knew that if Jio had eyes on her like he always claimed, then this would for sure bring him out of hiding.
Nina smiled sinisterly before picking the contract back up to finish reviewing so she could take her ass home and get in the bed.
η
The workday went by faster than expected.
Nina was able to go home, catch up on laundry, clean her fridge out, and take a big boy nap.
A big boy nap was when she closed the curtains, stripped butt booty naked, and was dead to the world for more than ninety minutes.
She woke up with a chin covered in drool but she didn’t care if her body was well rested.
“I needed that!” she exclaimed in a relaxed tone as she ambled towards the bathroom to prepare for the night. Nina hadn’t been out in a while. Her boyfriend hadn’t taken her on a date in forever, so she planned to use tonight as an excuse to get sexy.
Nina showered and after she dried off, she doused her body in a shimmery oil that made her glow like an angel on Christmas Day.