ELEVEN #4
A few minutes later, another waitress appeared carrying a basket.
She already knew what it was. Jio didn’t like it when she drank without eating.
Ten wings, all flats with both blue cheese and ranch.
Fries extra crispy. Her exact order sat right in front of her along with a bottle of sparkling water, a glass filled with ice and two lemons and limes.
This nigga here….
It was the same order he'd spent years bringing home. She wouldn’t fuss on him missing his invisible curfew as long as he fed her.
Nina rolled her eyes so hard they almost got stuck.
She didn’t believe in letting perfectly good food go to waste so she ate the fries before they turned cold.
Especially when she hadn’t had any strip club food in a year.
In perfect timing, a bottle of champagne appeared.
The cute girl popped it and skipped the festivities of sparklers and shit.
Jio didn’t need any extra attention on what used to belong to him.
His friends spotted her just as fast as he did when she entered.
Bitches… women… like she didn’t walk into the strip club every night.
She was one of them and didn’t even know it.
Alongside the bottle of freshly popped champagne was a blunt. Nina gladly accepted both. Bad habits resurfaced in a matter of ten minutes.
Peaches appeared shortly after. “Damn, my brother didn’t waste no time.”
She blew smoke out of her nose.
“Tell him if he wants to speak to me, he should do so like a real man.”
Peaches held her hands up. “I’m staying out of it!”
She sipped from her glass. “Me too.”
They shared the blunt, wings, and bottle until it was time for Peaches to hit the stage.
“I’m going to have security come over here.”
“Now you know he got eyes watching me. I’ll be fine,” she said with confidence.
She wasn’t worried at all. An extra layer of peace fell over her once she saw him in the club. Nina knew without a doubt he would die before he let anything happen to her. She wondered if Carter would do the same.
“Okay, I’ll be right back.”
One minute Nina was surrounded by music, flashing lights, and big booty strippers that she wasn’t paying attention to. In the next minute, all she could smell was his expensive cologne as she thought about how long it’d been since she last sat across from him.
An entire year had passed since she’d taken her life back and been consistent with therapy. She didn’t have to cancel because he magically had plans at the same time as her scheduled session. She should be reimbursed for all the missed sessions that she’d still been charged for.
A year of boundaries…
It took her a whole year to learn how to become Nina again. Not Nina Marcelle but Nina. In fact, she’d become a woman that she didn’t know but one that she loved more than anyone and anything else on this planet.
So, after all of that progression, how was it that Jio Gotti could still walk into a room and make her forget her own name? He was problematic.
“You enjoying your night?” was how he greeted her after all the time that had passed between them.
The question sounded casual. Nina knew he’d already gathered every piece of information available on her.
She didn’t doubt for a second that he didn't already know where she’d been, who she’d been with, and probably what she’d ordered for dinner before she came here.
There had been plenty of times when she was out shopping and her sales rep would tell her that the total was covered.
It was the same for when she was at the spa, hair salon or at lunch on a solo date.
Something that she’d recently started doing to help her better navigate her single journey.
Nina took a sip of champagne.
“I did.” She refused to look at him. Knowing how quickly she seemed to misplace her common sense whenever she was in his presence.
Stay strong sista… she thought.
His eyes studied her physique, and he liked everything that he saw, but he always had. Most men looked at Nina and saw beauty. Jio looked at her like he was trying to solve a puzzle. Sometimes she wondered if he knew her better than she knew herself, and the thought unsettled her.
“Good.”
His answer surprised her. There wasn’t a hint of attitude or jealousy, nor did it seem as if an argument was on the horizon.
“What?”
Jio chuckled. “What you mean what?”
“You’re being normal.”
A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“It feels suspicious.”
His smile widened. “The girl who thinks everything I do got an ulterior motive has returned.”
Nina laughed loudly, the sound escaped before she could stop it.
The problem with Jio was that he could still make her laugh… even when she didn’t want him to, especially when she didn't want him to. The reality of what was taking place was annoying. She couldn’t be tough if she wanted, not with him.
Across the room, one of his cousins tried to get his attention, but he didn’t take his eyes off Nina.
His attention remained hers. Although she would beg to differ, it’d always been on her. Even when lil’ mama hated him, and even after she left him to suffer through life without her, his attention never shifted. He would forever remain fixated on Nina Marcelle.
One thing she could say was that although he was full of shit, she never had to wonder how he felt about her.
“Who was the dude you was with all night?”
Nina finally gave him the eye contact he’d been feenin’ for. Her breath got caught in her throat. He hurriedly poured the sparkling water into the glass and added a straw. She took two huge gulps. The conversation had been going too smoothly, she should’ve known it wouldn’t last.
“You have grey hair,” she said in awe.
“Don’t change the subject, babe.”
The pet names would never go away causing her young and confused heart to skip a beat.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The one who was buying the drinks with the to tight suit on.” His tone remained calm, which somehow felt more threatening.
Nina leaned back. “He’s my classmate.”
She knew that he knew that she was aware that he’d probably memorized everything there was to know about Carter Hayes.
Nina wouldn’t be surprised if he knew what his blood type was and where he got his hair cut.
It should’ve concerned her, but this was typical Jio Gotti behavior. She wasn’t fazed, not a bit.
Jio stared at her for several seconds.
“You sure about that, baby?”
There it was...the word baby…
He was laying it on heavy now.
Baby always managed to find its way beneath her skin and directly to her heart.
She hated how much she missed hearing him call her that. How could one stupid word have that much power?
“I'm very sure.” Her answer came out stronger than she felt.
“To remind you, I’m single,” she said with a boldness that she didn’t know she had.
She had to stand on her own decision, and this was a test.
Jio’s jaw flexed. She never missed anything when it came to him.
“I'm aware,” he nodded.
“I can do what I want.” She sat up straight and crossed her legs.
With every lingering second that he stared her up and down, she reconsidered her confession.
Jio lit his blunt again and said, “But not who you want.”
The statement landed exactly the way he’d intended, and she hated it.
Jio had spent years learning every version of her, and he’d be damned if another nigga got the woman he built up.
He loved Polished Nina. Broken Nina. Angry Nina.
Confused Nina. Anxious and ambitious Nina.
Holy Nina. Depressed Nina and his all-time never-changing favorite, Freaky Nina.
And she thought another nigga was about to get his baby?
He would slice his neck open before he let that happen…
the other man’s neck to be clear. Jio loved the public and private version of Nina.
He could read her thoughts before they became real words.
“Touche,” she tossed back. If she wasn’t allowed to give her pussy away, then he needed to hand over the keys to his drawers. She didn’t want to even think about him fuckin’ other women, but she wasn’t stupid. Someone was draining his load.
Maybe it was the hoe from the bank.
They didn’t talk for a while. Peaches was on the stage causing a thunderstorm with how much money niggas was pulling out of they pockets. She was like a sister to him, so he didn’t draw his attention that way.
Instead, he took all of his lady in.
“Why didn’t you wear the other earrings I got you?” he wanted to know.
“I love these. I’ve been wearing them a lot lately,” she answered as she touched her ears.
They were tiny diamond-encrusted hoops. Nina knew the pair he was referring to, but it was something about this pair that she loved.
Maybe it was because they were the first set of earrings that he bought her.
“You need anything?” he asked, although he knew that she didn’t.
Nina shook her head. “A vacation.”
“Say the word, babe. Where you want to go?” He could use one too, but he was locked in right now, and there wasn’t any time for leisure activities or trips.
Nina could pull him away for a few days if she wanted to.
“I’m busy.” It wasn’t a chump off and a nigga like him understood that.
The club filled before her eyes. The DJ had it bumpin’. Booties shook. Money exchanged hands. Bottles were popped. Blunts were in the air and somehow the two were in their own little corner ignoring the action.
“Do your friends miss you?”
Jio chuckled. “We grown. They know what it is.”
“You think they miss me?”
He gave her a dangerous look. “Them niggas better not.”