FIFTEEN #2
The moment felt very interesting and the energy shifting confirmed her thought. They headed to the front and she reached behind the counter.
“Here honey.” She handed him a small gift bag and Ephrem accepted it with the excitement of a child on Christmas morning. She’d never seen him be so giddy before, it was shocking.
Cairo announced that he was about to slide. “I need to get going.”
“You don’t have to leave. I’m about to go anyway,” Nina let him know.
“Nah.” He pointed toward the door.
“I got somewhere to be.”
She watched him disappear through the front entrance before turning back toward Ephrem.
“What was he doing here? It’s so random.”
Ephrem busied himself removing tissue paper from the bag, but she knew he heard her ass.
“Helloooo? What was he doing here?”
“Who Cairo?”
Nina rolled her eyes. “Yes Cairo.”
“What about him?”
“I didn’t know y'all were friends.”
“We’re not.”
Nina laughed. “Uhhh, I couldn’t tell. Y’all were in your office.”
Ephrem adjusted his glasses without looking up. “He stopped by.”
“For a book?”
“...Among other things.”
She tilted her head. “What other things?”
Ephrem finally looked up from his gift.
“The book, Nina.” His smile helped redirect the conversation.
She considered asking another question but decided to let it go.
If her best friend was gay, she would’ve known.
Instead, she watched him carefully remove the first edition from its wrapping paper.
She tried to focus on him being excited about the book, but all she could do was hone in on his mannerisms. She hadn’t overlooked anything… had she?
η
Leaving New York felt like a deep exhale that she didn’t even realize she needed until the city disappeared behind her.
Nina loved New York.
She truly did.
New York raised folks in a way that, in her opinion, no other city could do.
New York showed you how to walk fast, speak clearly, keep your head up no matter what, and also to never look too impressed.
She’d grown in so many different ways this year and one of them was learning that balance was important.
She had to keep making time to enjoy life.
Work would be there. As they crossed over the state lines, she left Marcelle even if the book never left her bag, it was there if needed.
Jio drove with one hand on the wheel and the other resting on her thigh.
It was his usual stature whenever she was his passenger princess.
Every now and then he would say, “I love you” and reach for a kiss, smoothly keeping his eyes on the road.
It was those five second gestures and three word phrases that kept her head in the clouds.
By the time they crossed deeper into Long Island, the air seemed different even through the tinted windows. There was evidence that people were allowed to have lawns large enough to require equipment instead of superintendents controlling everything.
Nina watched the scenery change with the quiet fascination of someone who had been out east plenty of times but never with Jio.
She knew that this weekend would be the complete opposite of the ones she’d had her entire childhood. Her family had done Hamptons weekends when she was younger. They didn’t go every summer, but she’d been enough to be attached to a few memories.
To Nina, the Hamptons had always been associated with quiet wealth.
It was like being invited to a big playground and only being allowed to hop on because her family knew the right people that knew people that knew other rich folks.
This weekend, as a grown woman in a healthy committed relationship with a man who didn’t go to private school or was a part of Jack and Jill, this trip didn’t feel so intimidating.
Jio hadn’t said much since they started the drive, leaving her with her own thoughts that never slowed down.
The silence didn’t bother her. She appreciated their time no matter how they were spending it.
As long as he wasn’t being silent because he was tense or frustrated about something, she was cool.
These days, silence represented comfort between the two.
He knew when his baby needed rest and he didn’t feel the need to talk a mile a minute just to prove to her that he was present.
Jio wasn’t doing that shit and she wasn’t either.
Nina glanced over at him. His shades hid his eyes, annoying her because his eyes were how she read him sometimes.
“You good, babe?”
He took his time answering her. “I’m good. How you feeling?”
“Same…good. Excited about our weekend,” she said in an upbeat tone.
“We’re going to have fun.”
She wanted to believe him, but whatever was going wrong in his business was affecting him more than he realized.
Nina just hadn’t found a good enough reason to bring it up because, as far as their relationship went, things were great.
He was super intentional and more romantic than he’d ever been.
Nina didn’t want to upset him by asking questions that shouldn’t have been any of her concern.
But she could tell that something was bothering him and he couldn’t shake it.
He placed his hand palm-up on the console, silently asking for her hand. She slid it into his and he brought her fingers to his mouth and kissed them.
“We’re going to have a good weekend,” he reassured her.
The certainty in his voice sounded like he was making the decision for both of them and maybe even for God too.
“You sure?”
“Yes, I am, baby. Just be ready to meet the rest of my family,” he nodded.
“They know I’m coming?”
“I don’t know, but they know I got a real girlfriend.”
“You’ve had fake ones in the past?” she said with a chuckle.
“Nah, I think you’re my first real relationship. This is the most… locked in I’ve ever been.” Nina knew that ‘locked in’ was code for committed. Jio had his own language that she had to adapt to.
“How do you feel about that?”
Jio looked over at her and licked his thick lips. “Blessed, baby.”
Nina couldn’t control the rising of her cheeks as she blushed.
“How many people am I meeting?”
He glanced at her. “A lot… a whole lot.”
“Like more than a hundred?”
“You want a number so you can overthink it?” He shook his head at her crazy self.
“If that’s what you want to call it then okay.” Nina shrugged carelessly.
“I know you not nervous.”
Nina didn’t say anything back, making him turn to give her a better look.
“What you worried about?” he questioned.
“I’m meeting your family; this is a big deal.”
He didn’t agree. “You’ve met all the important people already. This is like the Mob side.”
Nina freaked out. “Oh okay, yeah that’s helpful to know!” she said sarcastically.
“My family don’t love easy, but when they do, they don’t let go. You already in, whether you know it or not.”
His words settled over her quietly. Breaking up with your man was one thing, but losing his family was another.
“That’s dangerous,” she murmured.
“What?”
“Being loved by people who don’t let go.”
His thumb brushed over her knuckles. “You’d rather be loved by people who do?”
She didn’t answer because he had a point.
They drove with music playing softly beneath the hum of the road.
Old R&B. Anita Baker. The Isley Brothers.
Minnie Ripperton was on repeat until he switched to something newer that Jio claimed he didn’t like but somehow still managed to sing it word for word.
Nina teased him until he threatened to turn the music off completely, which only made her laugh harder.
Somewhere along the way, her body betrayed her and before she knew it, her eyelids grew so heavy that she couldn’t stay awake if she wanted to.
From the groovy music to the smooth drive and the warmth of Jio’s hand on her thighs, she couldn’t fight her sleep.
Lord knows, she tried her best to stay awake, but sleep wrestled her anyway.
When she woke up, her view had changed completely.
She blinked slowly, returning back to reality and away from the sweet dreams that she had while napping.
Vivid clips of her and Jio sailing down the Amalfi Coast with their two children in tow filled her mind.
She prayed for the day that her dreams came true.
She sat up. “Where are we?”
Jio was puffing on the last of a blunt. “We almost there.”
She looked out of the window to see the most striking homes, but they weren’t the typical ones that she was used to seeing in this area.
These houses had character. With one look at the large porches, wide lawns, trees with swings, and stone pathways that curved into the front doors that were all painted in rich colors, she realized that she’d never seen these before.
“I’ve been to the Hamptons a hundred times, we’ve never came this way. Is this a back road?”
Some of the estates sat tucked behind hedges, others seemed intentionally visible, as if the owners were used to sitting on the porch and waving at their neighbors.
She was stunned when they passed a wave of black people.
An older Black man in linen pants watered hydrangeas near a white fence with a golden retriever sleeping at his feet.
Two teenage boys rode past on bicycles, laughing as one balanced a basketball under his arm.
A woman in a wide-brim straw hat arranged flowers on a porch as music floated from somewhere Nina couldn’t see.