SEVENTEEN #2
It was the truest thing she’d said all day.
Although she was still considered a young woman, she was wise for her age.
Her definition of love was Jio. When she thought of what she wanted her 30s and 40s to look like, he was in the picture.
She didn’t have to shrink who she was to make him comfortable.
He was content with who he was as a man, and her status, whether it stayed the same or changed as she continued to put in the work, she knew that his love or respect for her wouldn’t waver.
Jio had always seen her. There was something deeply comforting about loving someone who never required a performance.
With Jio, she had never felt the need to prove that she was extraordinary.
She was allowed to be exactly who she was and that’s why he was her person. Jio couldn’t be replaced by someone older, more handsome, richer, or exciting. People spent their entire lives searching for what she’d stumbled upon that day she walked into the bookstore.
So why would she start over now?
“You think you did,” Danyelle corrected her.
“I know I have.” Nina wanted them to change the subject. She was tired, sleepy, and hungry, so all of those things made her irritable.
Danyelle sighed dramatically. “I just hate that you skipped the fun part.”
“Enlighten me on what am I possibly missing?” she asked sarcastically.
“The part where you date everybody.”
Nina almost choked. “EVERYBODY?”
“ALL OF EM!” she reiterated.
She started counting on her fingers. “You could’ve had an athlete, an actor. Hell, an architect, a damn tech guru.”
She went on and on.
“Chile I swear the best sex comes from a divorced man with emotional intelligence.”
Nina was cracking up. “Absolutely not.”
“The man with a passport and a therapist.”
“My man got a passport!” she let her know. The therapist portion would never happen. Jio barely trusted her with his thoughts, let alone a stranger.
Danyelle pointed her fork toward her.
“My point is you don't know what’s out there.”
Nina leaned back in her chair.
“I do.”
“If you say so honey.”
“I’ve been with a billionaire, a criminal… allegedly, and a man everybody wanted and one that nobody understood.”
“Where are they now?”
Nina winked. “They’ve all been the same man.”
Danyelle stared at her before shaking her head.
“You’re so far gone.”
“Who cares?” she retorted.
Danyelle picked up her glass that was now refilled. “Cheers to your peace and happiness.”
Nina clinked her water glass against it. “And yours too.”
Dinner went well once Danyelle climbed her drunk ass out of her business and they changed the subject to their common interest, which was art. They shared a slice of Oreo cheesecake neither of them needed, and by the time they stepped outside, the sun was replaced with the moon.
Danyelle wrapped her arms around Nina one last time.
“If this thing with Jio ever doesn’t work...”
Nina frowned. “It will.” She learned a very valuable lesson in friendship from tonight’s dinner and that was to NEVER vent to Danyelle again.
She loved her so much, but she didn’t let shit go.
When she forgave Jio for the shit he’d done, Danyelle didn’t, and it came back to bite her in the ass every time they got together.
“I know.” Danyelle gave her a smirk. “But if it doesn’t...”
She held up one finger. “Date ‘em all.”
Nina laughed as she climbed into the backseat of her waiting SUV.
“I'll keep that in mind,” she lied again.
She knew she wouldn’t because there wasn’t a man alive that she would rather spend the rest of her life with if it weren’t Jio.
η
“What made you come here again?” Kadeer asked his best friend.
Out of all the jewelers that they knew, he chose a store far the fuck away from the city.
It was too quiet. Too bright and everyone spoke in these super low voices.
Kadeer went from the velvet sofa where he’d been sipping a Coke that they offered him upon arrival to taking a peek at what they had for sale.
The security guard had his eyes on all of them, but shit, they had the goons with them too.
Kadeer peeped everything. As Jio’s right hand, that’s what he felt like he had to do. He was proudly his brother’s keeper.
Jio didn’t look up.
He stood over the display case with both hands braced on the edge, eyes locked on a row of engagement rings arranged beneath soft white lighting. He’d been quiet these past few days and it had him worried.
“So, you gon’ tell me what happened or you gon’ keep standing there looking like Batman at Kay Jewelers?”
Jio finally glanced over his shoulder. “You think we drove an hour away to go to fuckin’ Kay’s?” he griped.
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do. Why you acting weird nigga?”
“I’m buying a ring. How am I acting weird?” He was doing some shit he’d never done before. Nervous? Yes. Anxious? A tad. Weird? NEVER.
“This is a big decision, Kadeer,” Auntie Vee chimed in. He’d made the right decision by bringing her along. Kadeer, on the other hand, was getting on his nerves.
If he was going to choose a ring that Nina would wear for the rest of her life, he needed someone in the room who loved Nina enough to tell him the truth and loved him enough to hurt his feelings.
Kadeer was only there because Jio trusted him. His auntie was the one whose opinion he was taking heed of, and so far everything that he showed her, she’d said no to. She said that the rings screamed, “I’m sorry” and not “Will you spend the rest of your life with me?”
The sales associate returned with another tray in hand. Kadeer and Auntie went to sit back down on the couch because Jio had yet to be impressed by anything they’d shown him.
“This collection is from our private vault,” she said gently. “These are all natural stones, certified, and most of these settings can be customized if you’re looking for something more personal.”
Jio nodded. “Let’s see what you got.”
She unlocked the tray and diamonds flashed beneath the light, each one more ridiculous than the last.
“Damn,” he muttered.
His eyes moved across the tray slowly. He noticed all kinds of shapes of rings that were on display awaiting his approval. Oval, emerald, pear, and everything in between. Each one came with a hefty price tag, which wasn’t a problem for Jio. The issue was that none of them screamed “I’m The One!”
Nina wasn’t a woman you could impress by size alone. She was born into luxury, and her family being in the damn jewelry industry didn’t make it any better. Nina knew the difference between expensive and exquisite and was currently learning all she could about craftsmanship.
He had to cop a ring that was timeless. A ring that was classic yet powerful. She wouldn’t care if the ring demanded attention either, as long as it was pretty to her.
He pointed to an emerald-cut diamond near the center of the tray.
“Can you pull that one out?”
The associate carefully removed it and placed it on black velvet.
Jio picked it up before she could touch it.
The ring was platinum with a large emerald-cut center stone flanked by four tapered baguettes on either side. The lines were clean and there wasn’t a halo either. It was giving old money but elegant.
It looked like Nina could wear it in a boardroom, at a gala, in The Bluff, or barefoot in their kitchen with one of his T-shirts on.
“Come check it out,” he asked his aunt. Kadeer followed because he was nosey.
Jio placed the ring carefully in her palm.
Auntie Vee studied it silently, making him more nervous than Nina’s daddy did the other day.
She took off her glasses and squinted as she observed it closely.
They all awaited her feedback.
Finally, she nodded once. “This is it, baby,” Auntie Vee beamed.
His chest tightened at the confirmation. He’d found a winner. Hours later, he’d finally found the ring he’d been looking for.
“This says wife.”
Something moved behind his ribs.
Wife. Not girlfriend or the mother of his future children.
Not the woman he loved in secret, in chaos, in stolen moments, and in every life he’d imagined after they said I Do.
Wife.
Kadeer watched his best friend experience something internally. It happened pretty quickly… so fast that most people would’ve missed it.
But Kadeer wasn’t most people.
He’d known Jio when married was the last word anybody would’ve used to describe him…until Nina Marcelle came along.
People acted like love turned men soft overnight but it didn’t.
Not the real kind at least. Real love had a way of getting under your skin and reaching places nobody else had permission to touch.
It made a man question what he used to be proud of, and it caused him to want a life that he never desired prior to meeting the right person.
Nina brought Jio peace and even a blind man could see that.
Kadeer leaned against the counter. “You really doing this?”
Jio didn’t answer at first. His eyes stayed on the ring in Auntie’s hand.
“Yeah, it’s time.”
“You asked her father?”
Jio’s jaw flexed.
Auntie Vee’s eyes lifted towards the ceiling. “Oh Lord. You talked to them people?”
“Shit was horrible,” Jio admitted.
Kadeer removed his sunglasses. “What happened?”
Jio reached for the ring and turned it beneath the light.
“He said no.”
Kadeer didn’t mean to laugh. It came out before he could even stop it.
Jio’s eyes cut toward him.
“My bad bro.”
Auntie Vee slapped Kadeer on the back of his arm.
“I’m laughing because Charles Marcelle telling Jiorgio Gotti no might be the funniest thing I heard all year.”
Jio told Kadeer, “Chill.”
The sales associate stepped away to give them privacy. Nina was becoming a big deal so he had to be careful of what was said in public.
Jio slid the ring back onto the velvet.
“He didn’t say no forever,” Jio clarified. “He just said not right now,” he added as if that was better.
“That’s parent talk,” his auntie patted his shoulder. “At least you asked. It was the “right thing” to do.”
Kadeer folded his arms. “What you say after he said no?”
“Thank you for hearing me out,” he recalled.
Kadeer and Auntie Vee shared a look that said nothing.