7. Noree Marcell
Icouldn’t sit down.
I’d been pacing the living room floor for about an hour, from the couch to the window to the kitchen and back again, arms folded up under my chest, replaying everything that had happened with Ozy.
Oh God, did you make a fool of yourself?
I pushed the thought to the back of my head when I heard a key in the door, and I damn near ran to it.
“Girl, finally.”
Nourah came in, kicking her shoes off before the door even shut behind her. “Noree… biiitch! You are not about to believe what just happened.”
“What?” I was about to tell her what happened with me, only for her to come in with news of her own.
“So…I got a new booking, and I already knew whoever it was had a little money because of the hotel they told me to meet at.” She dropped her bag on the couch. “The universe is trying to tell us something. It has to be. Because how did both of us—”
“Nou Nou, pleaseee!” I put my hand up. “Get to the point.”
She laughed and started toward the couch, then stopped mid-step and turned back around to me since I was practically on her heels.
“Sis. You might wanna stay standing for this one. Matter fact, come on.”
She led the way into my kitchen, straight to the little corner where I keep my liquor, and leaned against the counter, looking like she’d been holding this in the whole drive over.
“It was PB.”
My mouth dropped open. “No, the hell it wasn’t.”
“It was. He needed his suit tailored for some event, and the last person I expected to see was him… after all this time.”
“Nourah.” It was the only thing I could think to say.
“And girl, he chased me down trying to talk about what happened between us.” She rolled her eyes so hard I thought they’d stick. “I told him I got a man and shut all that down.”
After she finished telling me everything they’d talked about, she said, “And Noree.” She pointed at me. “He mentioned that Ozy ran into you today.”
I felt my stomach drop. “He did?”
“Yup. Ozy was talking about you with his brother, so now I really wanna know what went down.” She reached past me and opened the cabinet. “Don’t leave anything out.”
She pulled down two shot glasses and poured us both some Tito’s without asking me if I wanted one. We threw them back at the same time, and both of us made the ugliest faces. She coughed into her fist, and I hissed through my teeth.
“Whew.” She shook her head hard. “I swear, liquor gon’ take the edge off every time, but it be so damn nasty.”
I agreed, but I needed one more.
I poured myself another one and threw that back too, then set the glass down on the counter.
“Girl,” I said, patting my chest. “Never in a million years did I think I would walk into a job interview and find out I was interviewing to work for my baby daddy.”
I paused and placed both my hands on the counter, then sighed.
“Everything was going good until that man walked in. I grabbed my shit and ran.”
Nourah’s eyes widened. “You ran?”
“Girl, practically. Ozy followed me outside trying to talk, but I shut down completely. And now I’ve been sitting here wondering if he saw Oaklynn’s car seat when I pulled off.”
She got quiet.
“It all happened so fast. I don’t even know what he noticed, and now that’s all I’ve been thinking about since I got home.”
We stood silent for a second, neither one of us saying anything.
“Come sit down,” Nourah said.
We went back to the couch, and I sat, but I couldn’t sit still. I had a pillow in my lap, and I kept squeezing the corner of it.
I looked at her. “I need that job, though, sis. Bad.”
“I know.”
“Or I can just tell him. All I gotta do is open my mouth and say, ‘Hey, I had your baby,’ and probably half my problems disappear tomorrow.”
“So, say it.”
“That’s what I’m scared of.” I got up and started pacing again. “Look at how this shit looks, Nourah. Almost two years later, I just so happen to show up at his mansion applying for a live-in job because I’m broke, then turn around and tell him he got a daughter? He’s gonna think I came for money.”
“Noree—”
“And what if he finds out I’m about to get put out and decides Oaklynn would be better off with him? He got the house, the money, the security, all of that. What if he takes me to court?”
“Okay, stop.” Nourah got up and came over to me. “You hit a rough patch. That doesn’t erase everything you’ve done for that baby. You been taking care of her this whole time by yourself.”
I looked away.
“I know. I just want some stability of my own before I tell him. That’s all.”
Nourah nodded slowly.
“Do I need help right now? Hell yeah, I do. But I don’t want me needing help to be the reason I tell that man he got a daughter. He should know because he’s her daddy. Not because I got a notice on my door.”
“Okay…that, I understand.”
“And what if he don’t believe I tried?”
“Noree.” She grabbed my hand. “You don’t gotta figure all of that out tonight.”
I let out a breath.
“So, what should I do about the job? I already told Opal I wasn’t interested.”
“Call her tomorrow. Apologize for running off and ask if the position is still available.”
I chewed the inside of my cheek.
“If it is, take it.”
“Okay and…Oaklynn?”
“Mama already said she’d keep her during the week.”
“I just… I don’t wanna be away from my baby five days a week.”
“I know, sis. But it wouldn’t be forever.”
We got quiet for a second before one of us snorted, and then we were both laughing.
“Why the hell are we laughing?” I asked, wiping under my eyes.
“Girl, I don’t know. But this some weird Twilight Zone-ass shit. Both of them popping back up on the same day?”
I shook my head. “Right…so, what are you gonna do about PB?”
Nourah gave me a look. “Absolutely nothing. I got a man. One I love. One I’d marry if he’d stop playing and pop the question.
” She held up a finger. “Now, that man did look fine as hell in that suit. I know fabric, and just know that shit cost an arm, a leg, a coochie lip, an eyelash, a big toe, and a nostril.”
“Nourah!”
“I’m just saying! But Carl is still my man, my man, my man.”
“I wasn’t asking if you were finna cheat. I asked if you were gonna talk to him again.”
“I doubt it.” She waved it off, then looked around. “Wait. Where my boo at?”
“She ate and knocked right out. They had a little party at school today too.”
I pulled up the pictures on my phone.
“Aww! Send me these.”
“I got you.”
She handed my phone back, and we sank into the couch.
But in the back of my mind, I already knew what tomorrow looked like.
I was calling Opal.