TWELVE #3
Nina found his T-shirt somewhere near the chair by the window and slipped it over her head.
The fabric fell to the middle of her thighs and smelled like him, which was both comforting and irritating.
She didn’t see any of her clothes, but if her memory served her correctly, her dress was somewhere in the foyer.
One heel was probably in the hallway. The other could’ve been in another borough for all she knew.
She remembered Jio taking it off hastily and tossing it over his shoulder when they were on the balcony getting it in.
Nina limped to the bathroom with her almost dead phone in her hand.
She relieved her full bladder, simultaneously texting the concierge in her building and asking them to please take Nino for a walk. She knew he was looking for his mama.
Her assistant, Ava, texted her to let her know that there was a power outage that happened overnight and they were still trying to get the Internet to work and wanted to know if everyone could work from home today.
“Alright Lord, I hear ya.”
She couldn’t be convinced that God hadn’t just answered her prayer.
“Yes. Have HR send an email. Move all meetings to the top of next week if they’re not urgent.” She responded to the text.
With a whole free day, the pep returned in her step. Nina freshened up and was eager to return to bed. Jio could do whatever he wanted to do to her now.
When she walked into his bedroom, he was up and sitting against the headboard with a blunt dangling from the corner of his mouth and his phone in hand.
His eyebrows furrowed in the middle. Nina hoped that he didn’t have to leave.
She was prepared to turn her phone off and be up under him until tomorrow.
“You want breakfast, baby?”
“Wow, don’t tell me I’m about to get breakfast in bed,” she said sarcastically.
“You can have whatever you want if you don’t go to work.”
Nina climbed back into bed. “I can make something shake.” She didn’t tell him that she couldn’t go to the office today anyway. A man’s ego needed to be stroked every now and then. Peaches had taught her that.
“What you got a taste for?” He looked at her like he did when their eyes first connected in the club last night.
“Real shit, I been missing you, baby. Real bad.”
Her heart skipped a beat. She knew he meant every word. He wasn’t hiding his feelings anymore. Jio was prepared to apply all the pressure to get her back. He refused to do life without her.
He knew he could be reckless, territorial, arrogant, and impossible to reason with, but all of that could be modified if she gave him another chance.
The shit he did he always felt like he had a good reason to do it.
Like, how he moved her car without her permission and then he had the nerve to have a good reason for it, or how she may have thought he was always stalking her, but in his eyes, he was protecting his most important asset.
She should’ve grasped that by now, but he was a very calculated man.
Jio didn’t move prematurely, especially when it came to Nina Marcelle.
“I’ve missed you too…” she swore.
Jio almost confessed the crazy sucker shit he’d done to soothe his aching heart, but some things were better left unsaid.
He loved everything about her. Her laugh, her smile, the way she whined when she was hungry.
He missed her random calls to complain about nothing important, but to her it was everything.
He never took her for granted, but now Jio understood that he had to show her, not just keep telling her how he felt.
For a woman like Nina, Chanel and Cartier weren’t going to make an honest woman out of her.
It was his time and attention that Nina now deemed as non-negotiables for her loyalty.
Jio climbed out of bed. He was naked as the day he was born and walked with the confidence of a made man. He didn’t care that her eyes hadn’t left his body either, he knew he looked good.
“I’m going to get breakfast started,” he told her before leaving her alone.
After a hot shower, Nina stepped out onto the drying mat and wrapped her body in an oversized towel.
She’d gotten her hair wet, knowing how much he preferred it in its natural state.
The bathroom smelled like eucalyptus mixed with an overly expensive body wash that Jio purchased religiously because, according to him, “Yo, that cheap shit be drying my skin out.”
She rubbed lotion into her arms and legs, humming an old tune under her breath.
He had good taste in everything. Most women kept what many called a “hoe bag” in their trunk, but she never needed anything because his bathroom was stocked with all the essentials.
He unapologetically had expensive taste for everything in his life, not just clothes, shoes, cologne, and eyewear.
She padded back into the bedroom, knowing that she had drawers full of loungewear that she could throw on to parlay around the house in today.
She didn’t expect to see him sitting on the edge of the bed with a facial expression that she knew all too well. He was plotting.
“The food done already?” she asked him.
He looked up slowly before putting his phone to the side. He ignored her question and asked one of his own.
“You mine for the rest of the day?”
The question caught her off guard.
“...Yeah.”
“I mean all day. Like no interruptions?”
She blushed at the mere thought of whatever he’d cooked up for them.
“I don’t have anything until tomorrow morning.”
“You sure?” he pleaded with her.
“I moved everything.”
A grin slowly spread across his face.
“Good.”
Jio stood before walking toward her. He stopped close enough that the towel wrapped around her body brushed against his T-shirt and unraveled it. His eyes roamed over her body as his dick woke back up.
“Throw some clothes on.”
“Where are we going?”
He shrugged casually. “I’ll have you back before work tomorrow, that’s all you need to know.”
Nina stared at him. “You for real?”
“Come on, baby, you forgot who your man is?”
Clearly she did, but that was okay because he got a kick out of keeping her speechless and seeing her happy.
“Jio.”
“Yes, baby.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close so he could kiss all on her neck, causing her to moan in delight. “You skipped the important part.”
“What part is that, love?”
“The destination.”
He smiled although he still didn’t plan on telling her shit.
“You trust me?”
She rolled her eyes.
“I already said yes.”
“So quit asking questions.”
“That's not how this works.” She sighed dramatically.
“I at least need to know what kind of clothes to pack.”
“You don’t need no clothes. We coming back late tonight.”
“I have to pack something. What if I spill juice on my shirt?” she countered. His baby girl was so good at going back and forth with a nigga.
He picked up the overnight bag she'd left in his closet months ago and tossed it onto the bed.
“A bathing suit.”
Nina looked at him. “That’s it?”
“You can pack a nice fit for dinner,” he added.
Her curiosity grew by the second. “Jio...”
He finally gave in. “We going to Miami.”
Her mouth slowly fell open. “Miami?”
“For the day.”
“People don’t just go to Miami for the day.”
“We not regular people either. You wasting time with all these questions. We got a flight to catch. The jet is gassed up!” he let her know.
“Breakfast in bed was too basic for you today?” she asked out of curiosity.
“Nah.”
He stepped closer before gently tucking one of her damp curls behind her ear.
“I just missed my girl.” He kept it one hundred with her.
She looked toward the overnight bag. “Miami it is then.”
Jio nodded. “Plane leaves in an hour.”
“So... what would've happened if I had to go to work?” she asked out of curiosity.
He thought about it for exactly one second.
“I would’ve made you French toast and dropped you off at work.”
She shook her head before walking toward the closet.
“You know...” She looked back over her shoulder.
“Normal people plan vacations together.”
Jio smiled as he watched her disappear into the closet.
“I ain't never claimed to be normal, bookie.” He popped his shit.
“No,” she called back, pulling a sundress off the hanger. “You definitely aren’t.”
His laughter followed her through the bedroom as she packed a small overnight bag.
One day without emails, meetings, looming deadlines, and people in her face needing answers for everything was going to do her some good.
A spontaneous day with the man she loved was what she needed.
Nina had to remind herself that she could have it all.
Love. Success. Peace. Joy and Happiness.
The life she prayed for was possible… as long as she had faith.
η
From the moment they stepped off the plane, she decided that Miami was a good choice.
“Good job, baby,” she praised him with some head on the flight over.
Nina felt it as soon as the sun hit her skin.
“Ooh, we should-
He cut her off. “Today,” he'd told her, opening the passenger door to the black SUV waiting on the tarmac, “You’re not making any decisions.”
Nina shut her mouth and that’s exactly what he wanted.
“I got this, babe,” he let her know that she could cut her brain off. Nina didn’t protest not one bit. For once, she didn’t mind shutting the fuck up. Jio scooted in beside her and closed the door.
“Give me a kiss and tell me you love me,” he demanded.
Nina loved it when he told her what to do. She happily obliged, allowing her tongue to dance with his for a few minutes before she pulled away.
“I love it here,” she said to him with bright eyes.
Palm trees swayed lazily against a cloudless sky. Colorful murals of Florida legends and activists were painted on all the buildings that they passed.
Miami was a slower speed than New York. It was a twenty-four-hour pause that they both needed.