5. Nina
Nina
“ B abes!” Aria shouts from the booth in the club she reserved for us tonight.
She’s really leaning into her Disney princess image today, wearing an emerald, strapless swing dress with a bubbled bottom that hits her mid-calf.
She’s overdressed for a random club in Skyrise, but Aria doesn’t ever dress down.
Her long, black hair is pulled fully up, and her makeup is done to perfection to highlight her doll-like, blue eyes.
I laugh and hug her before Elodie playfully elbows me out of the way and hugs Aria herself. It feels like forever since we saw her, and so it was surprising that she texted earlier today saying that she was going to be in town and that she wanted to see us.
“I’m so happy you’re here,” Elodie says as Aria slides in the booth next to her.
“Me, too,” Aria says. “I needed a break from New York City. ”
“Oh?” I ask. “Any reason?”
“Nope,” Aria says, waving down a server and ordering us all drinks. That sounds like a yes if I ever heard one, but I don’t push. At least not before we have some alcohol in our systems.
“So…” she says, a French Blonde in hand and shots on the table. “Catch me up on life. What’s new?”
“I’m boring,” Elodie says. “Busy with the bakery and Hunter. But I think Nina has the most to tell.”
Aria bursts out laughing. “Right, how’s living with Evren going?”
“He’s annoying as hell,” I say. But the truth is, messing with his routine is quickly becoming the highlight of my day. There’s something oddly satisfying about needling Evren, who I’m starting to discover has a sense of humor buried under his layers of seriousness.
Like last night—I filled the pool with unicorn floats to interrupt his swim time.
He saluted the pool house, as if he knew I was watching, and jumped into the water, anyway.
And this morning, I found my favorite marshmallow cereal in my usual cereal box.
When he came downstairs, he was holding a bowl of my cinnamon sugar cereal and acted all innocent, like he had no idea how that switch happened.
I refuse to acknowledge that I don’t actually like the off-brand cereal I bought, and that I’m relieved he’s eating it. I would’ve never thrown it out and instead would’ve forced myself to eat it all before buying something different.
“Annoying in a hot way?” Aria asks.
“Is that a thing?” Elodie asks.
“Definitely,” she says.
“No, not in a hot way,” I lie. “Nothing about Evren is hot.”
“Babe,” Aria says, “you’d have to be blind to not notice how hot he is.”
Elodie laughs. “True story.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I grab a shot and down it before grabbing another and downing that.
Both of them cackle, and I ignore it. Thankfully, the conversation moves on, and I don’t have to be in the spotlight anymore. That is, until about thirty minutes later when a teenager comes up to our table.
“Um, hi, sorry to interrupt,” she says, staring at me. “But you’re my favorite designer and I’d love your autograph.” She shoves a piece of paper and marker in my hands.
“Oh, sure.” I quickly sign my name and hand it back to her. No one has asked me for an autograph before now, and I’m not sure if I’m happy or terrified that someone recognized me.
“When will you start selling your designs?” she asks. “I’d kill to wear something you’ve made.”
“That’s sweet of you to say, and I’ll be sure to post on Insta when I have an update.”
She looks so hopeful as she fades back into the crowd that I’m glad I didn’t tell her the truth. I glance at my friends and they’re staring at me in various shades of shock.
“You’ll post on Insta?” Elodie asks slowly. “Did I miss something, or do you have a date set to launch the jacket? Wait, are you finally going to sell it?”
“I have no plans to launch anything, especially not the jacket. I just didn’t know what else to tell her.”
“Wait,” Aria says. “Why especially not the jacket? You could easily be capitalizing off all the attention you’re getting.”
“I could, but I don’t want to.”
“Is Evren still holding out on giving you the franchising deal?” Elodie asks. “Because if so, I can talk to him and?—”
“No,” I say. “He offered to give it to me recently. And so did Stella…”
“And then, of course you accepted it,” Aria says. “Right?”
“Wrong. I don’t want him to make money off me.” Blaming Evren is an easy out. They wouldn’t understand the issues with my mom, not even Elodie.
“Why not?” Aria asks. “It’s not like his cut would be huge.”
“It’s the principle of the matter.” The excuse sounds lame, even to me. Shit, I should’ve sold it better because Elodie’s looking at me like she knows I’m lying.
“Uh-huh,” Elodie says. “What’s really going on?”
“Nothing.” I sigh, not wanting to get into it. “Can we not talk about this anymore? It’s ruining the mood, and I want to have fun tonight.”
“Yeah, sure,” Aria says, frowning at me and handing me a shot.
“To a fun night,” I say, forcing a smile, and desperately needing more alcohol to handle everything.
“I dare you to photobomb a stranger,” I say to Elodie, the last one to be dared since we started this game a little bit ago.
I went first and was dared to convince a stranger that they knew me.
Aria went next and got a piggyback from a random person in the bar not even caring that she’s wearing a dress. And now Elodie has to do this.
“With pleasure.” Elodie giggles and almost falls over when she gets to her feet.
Aria and I watch as she sneaks up to an unsuspecting couple, jumping into the shot at the perfect moment, stuffing her face between theirs and smiling widely.
Elodie runs back to our table, laughing the entire way, as the couple look at her in shock.
Aria and I break out into a chorus of giggles.
“That was epic,” Aria says. “And now back to you.” Aria grins and whispers something into Elodie’s ear before Elodie whispers back.
“No fair,” I protest. “You can’t consult together on a dare.”
“We can and will,” Aria says, passing me another shot. “You’re going to need that. ”
I toss back the shot,the liquid a mere sensation of coolness against my tongue before it’s gone. My taste buds don’t work anymore since they’re as drunk as the rest of me.
“Okay,” I say. “Hit me with it.”
“I dare you to…” Aria says, pausing for dramatic effect. “Call Evren and ask him a random question.”
I grin and pull out my phone. That’s the best they’ve got? Pfft, that’s child’s play. I squint, making sure I got the right person and press Evren’s name. He answers on the second ring.
“I have to say,” he says, “I didn’t expect you to ever use my number.”
“Don’t think too highly of yourself. I have a very important question to ask you.”
“I’m all ears.”
“How much sawdust do you think can go into a Rice Krispie Treat before people start to notice?”
There’s a beat of silence on the other end while Aria and Elodie try to hold their laughs in.
“Hmm,” he says, “that is an important question, and a fitting one for one a.m.”
“I thought so. So, what’s your answer?”
“First, I need to find out what a Rice Krispie Treat is.” He pauses for a moment before saying, “Don’t tell me people actually eat that .”
“Hey now, don’t diss one of my favorite foods. It’s cereal and marshmallows; there’s nothing wrong with it.”
“Fine, I’ll reserve my judgment until after I try it. ”
“So, what’s your guess?” I ask.
“Twenty-five percent,” he says with far more confidence than I expected.
“Why did you choose that number?”
“Well, even though sawdust has been used in food for centuries, I surely hope anything over twenty-five percent is noticeable.”
Aria asks loudly, “What did he say?”
“Twenty-five percent.” I cover the microphone, as if that will make it less obvious I’m talking to them. “That’s way higher than I would’ve said.”
“Google says it’s around thirty-three percent,” Elodie responds. “Apparently people studied this.”
“That’s…disturbing.”
“Nina,” Evren says, drawing my focus back to him. “Are you drunk-dialing me?”
“Well, that depends on your definition. Am I drunk? Yes. Am I dialing you of my own accord? No.”
“That makes no sense.”
I chuckle. “It makes all the sense in the world.”
“Where are you partying?”
“At a bar named Bar. Got to run, toodle-oo.” I hang up and laugh. “That was fun. Let’s make the next dares all related to calling someone we know.”
“Great idea,” Elodie slurs. “Aria, I dare you to call Jake.”
She scrunches up her nose. “Or not.”
“Do it,” I say, turning it into a chant that Elodie happily joins in with .
“I’m going to need some more alcohol first,” Aria says.
And somehow more alcohol also called for some dancing, and then, before she could call, Evren’s at our table. I blink at him, not believing he’s here. He never goes out, and so the only explanation I have is that he isn’t real.
“Do you see him, too?” I whisper-shout to the girls. “Or am I hallucinating?”
“See who?” Elodie asks, eyes wide.
Aria giggles and pokes Evren in the arm. “He’s real all right. What kind of workout do you do to get that kind of muscle?”
“I know the answer to that.” I raise my hand in the air and wave it from side to side. “He swims.”
“Impressive,” Elodie says.
“Are you done ogling me?” Evren says.
“Depends,” I ask. “Why are you here?”
“Well, after your call,” Evren says, “I got a call from Hunter. He’s looking for Elodie. Apparently, he was supposed to meet you an hour ago at Tempest?”
“Oh shit,” Elodie says, whipping out her phone. “I forgot about that.”
“Way to double-book yourself,” Aria says, pouting.
Elodie snorts. “We were all supposed to go and meet up with Quincy and Jake.”
“Why didn’t Hunter come to get her himself?” I ask. Tempest is only a few blocks away, whereas, Evren drove twenty minutes to get to downtown.
“I was in the area. ”
“Oh really,” I say sarcastically, not believing that for a second. If I know anything about Evren, it’s his schedule. He doesn’t deviate from it, or at least he hasn’t all week.