ELEVEN #3
She was tired of him invading all of her thoughts without an invitation.
It was like every road eventually led back to him.
Nina had been on her knees, crying out to God for disconnection.
For goodness sake, she was standing across from a handsome attorney who looked like he belonged on the cover of a magazine, yet here she was thinking about a drug dealer from Brooklyn. She annoyed herself some damn times.
Eventually, one of her line sisters appeared beside her.
“There you are.”
She glanced between Carter and Nina and smiled. “Oh.”
Nina rolled her eyes.
“No…no, that’s not what this is,” she tried to persuade her otherwise.
“Sure, girl. Hi sir, nice to meet you. Thank you for the drinks!”
Carter extended his hand politely. The two introduced themselves and Nina silently prayed for the ground to open beneath her.
“My pleasure to meet you. Can I get you ladies another round?”
Her line sisters were like bloodhounds. She knew they’d sent her specifically to find her because she was the boldest. Fortunately, Carter handled it well.
Nina knew it was time for the night to come to an end.
“Thank you, Mr. Hayes,” she bid him a farewell.
“Don’t be a stranger, Nina.” His eyes said what his lips didn’t.
“I’ll see you around…maybe.”
By the time Nina rejoined her crew at the table, her line sisters gladly informed her that she should absolutely go out with him.
“I’m focused right now.” She brushed their advances off.
“Who said you couldn’t be focused and still get fucked?” Liza asked with a dumbfounded look on her face.
“What if it’s small?” Nina winced as she secretly compared him against Jio.
Could anyone match his stamina, girth, and how he talked that nasty shit in her ear right when she was on the verge of cumming?
Nina was drunk enough to go fuck him and leave right after, but she wasn’t about that life… . or was she?
“Girl, that thang not small,” her line sister assumed.
“You don’t know that.”
“We do,” they told her in unison.
Nina took a sip of her watery drink. Maybe one more wasn’t a bad idea.
One of her line sisters, Shan, leaned forward so she could see her face when she answered. “When was the last time you went on a date?”
The question landed harder than expected and Jio popped up in her mind almost immediately.
Because technically, she didn’t date Jio the way normal people went about dating.
It was like a movie type of love. They met in a bookstore.
They fell in love. They fucked, fought, and made up, and somehow they entered a never-ending cycle of doing that shit over and over until they were on the verge of destroying each other.
The young couple didn’t have a clean beginning or ending, but at the end of it all, she loved him with every morsel in her body.
“Nina.”
She blinked. “What?”
“You zoned out.”
“I’m tired,” she stifled a yawn. She hoped they would change the subject but of course, these bitches didn’t.
“Liar.”
The table erupted with laughter.
After one last round of shots and pictures that wouldn’t get properly circulated, although everyone promised to send them to each other, the evening came to an end.
Hugs and kisses were exchanged. Plans were made and promises were extracted.
She now had several commitments that needed to be added to her calendar so she could remain accountable.
She wanted to see them again and again, and she was going to do her best to not go missing in action again.
Tonight was good for her. She deserved a fun and fulfilled life with people who loved her.
The city was cool and it was needed to soak up all the Rose and tequila that she’d tossed back over the course of four hours.
Nina knew she should’ve went home, but that was boring.
She’d been a responsible adult for the past year.
“Fuck that shit,” she mumbled to the New York air.
She stood on one leg, scrolling through her contacts.
Nina didn’t know that many people were up and outside having a good time after two in the morning.
Her thumb stopped on a familiar name. Peaches.
They’d built their own relationship outside of their mutual connection.
She was half riddled with guilt at the few times Peaches had called and she didn’t pick up, but she couldn’t decipher if the reaching out was genuine or if a made man was on the other side of the receiver.
Nina pressed call and the phone rang a few times before she answered.
“Hey, pretty girl,” she sounded relaxed, and surprisingly, her background was quiet, which wasn’t what Nina was hoping for.
“Where are you?”
“Headed to the moneyyyyy!”
Nina leaned against the side of her vehicle.
“I should’ve known!”
Peaches laughed. “Don’t ever think otherwise about me.”
“I MISSED YOU!” Nina admitted.
“You been a stranger but you know it's no pressure my way. I get it,” Peaches kept it real.
“I had to get my mind together.”
“Is it right now?” It wasn’t a trick question, nor was she being sarcastic.
They were friends and Peaches genuinely wanted to know if she was good now.
Peaches had been around for years. She knew the effects of being in bed with Jio Gotti.
Nina got out at the right time and that was some shit that she would say right to Jio’s face.
“Today is it. I went out for the first time in forever, so I’m feeling good.”
Their friendship had developed unexpectedly over time and it was because Peaches never judged her.
She minded her business, but somehow she still managed to know every damn thing.
She and Jio were very close, but she didn’t pick sides.
He was dead wrong, and Nina needed to get off her mama titty.
Two things could be true at the same time.
“Pull up on me. The night doesn’t have to end yet.”
“You still at the same club?”
Peaches cackled. “Bitch, Ima die there!”
The comment made Nina’s stomach drop. “No, you’re not. Don’t say that!” she scolded her.
“Alright, alright, but yeah. Come through. I’ll let security know to save you a spot in the front.”
Nina groaned.
“I’m going to head home.”
“Why?”
“Because I have work tomorrow.” She needed to trust her gut, and something was telling her that she needed to take her ass home.
“You the boss! Go in late.”
“I have a meeting at nine,” Nina remembered.
“Ok, granny, go home then.” Peaches wasn’t about to beg. Shit, she called her!
“No no, I’m on the way.”
She gave in because she wasn’t ready to be alone. She needed to exhaust a little bit more of her energy.
A year ago, she would’ve blamed loneliness on Jio.
But now she had a better understanding of the truth.
She had to find joy outside of work and Jio.
She didn’t like being alone as much as she pretended to.
It didn’t take her long to make it to the other side of town.
She was a real New Yorker and could get anywhere in record time if there wasn’t any traffic.
At this time of the night, the streets were clear just like she liked it. Nina pulled into the parking lot.
Peaches was waiting outside. The moment she saw Nina’s vehicle, her expression changed.
Nina frowned as she winded her window down.
“What happened?”
Peaches closed her eyes. “Don’t kill me.”
The pit in Nina's stomach appeared instantly.
“I did not know he was here.”
Nina slowly looked toward the building. “I’m not staying long,” she decided.
Peaches nodded. “Two drinks with me and I’ll walk you back out.”
Neither woman believed the other but they didn’t say anything. Nina reapplied her lipstick and made sure she looked good.
Peaches helped her out of her truck. “Damn, you done got thick!”
Nina’s eyes widened. “I hope not.”
“Your ass ain’t always been that fat but babyyyyy it’s poking!”
Peaches kept her thoughts stowed away because she knew if she hyped her even more she wouldn’t come in. Nina was one of the very few women who despised attention but her friend couldn’t relate.
The music greeted them before they even made it inside, and it wasn't too packed yet, but it was busy enough to be considered a good time.
It took two seconds for Nina to spot Jio as if her eyes, mind, heart, and pussy had been trained to find him whenever he was near.
“Damn Peaches, you didn’t say he was sitting in the middle of the room,” she grumbled.
“That’s where he always sits.” She wasn’t taking the blame for that.
He was surrounded by his niggas and collectively they had enough money to pay several mortgages. Which was nothing unusual for the Gotti Family.
His eyes lifted as he took another toke of the biggest blunt she’d ever seen him smoke.
The impact of him looking into her soul annoyed her.
How was it that a year later, her body still managed to react before anything else?
She felt her pussy pulsating through her panties, and it wasn’t because of the bass blaring out of the speakers.
Jio Gotti had that effect all on his mother fuckin’ own.
He looked away first and she had the nerve to be mad. Internally, she had a conversation with herself.
Good.
Ignore me.
See if I care.
The lie barely lasted five seconds because Peaches was guiding her towards a section on the opposite side of the room.
“Order whatever, I’ll be right back. I need to change.”
Nina nodded, wishing she would’ve just carried her ass home.
Moments later, a bottle girl approached her.
“What can I get you?”
“A glass of champagne please.” Nina picked up her purse to see if she had any loose change.
“It’s covered already.”
She didn’t need to look across the room to confirm who paid for it because she knew Mr. Gotti had everything handled. “A tip for you,” she said as she tried to slip her a twenty-dollar bill, but the girl declined it. “He tipped too.”
Nina rolled her eyes. “Cool.”