Chapter 3
Nikita
Asleek black Mercedes pulls up along the curb side, the sound of the engine roaring making its presence known to everyone in the vicinity. Standing up, I lean over to get a good look at who this twat is. To my surprise, the twat is my brother’s chauffeur.
“Jay?”
“Hey, Kita.” My brother makes his way over to me and pulls me in for a hug, his comfort immediately makes my throat gulp from holding back tears. “You okay?”
I shake my head, keeping my eyes shut as I turn into him. “No. This sucks.” His chest vibrates as he laughs, pulling away, forcing me back to reality.
“When did you get a new car?” I ask.
“I didn’t.”
He turns back towards the car, my gaze follows as Calvin Rhodes climbs out of the driver’s seat. Out of all my brother’s friends, he’s the worst. There is something about his pompous, high-strung, judgemental demeanor that has me rolling my eyes at everything he says and does.
“Calvin?” My eyes narrow in on him before turning to my brother. “Why is Calvin here?”
“Calvin is here to help,” Calvin pipes up “Nice to see you too.”
“I thought you lived in New York.”
“Have you been keeping tabs on me?”
I roll my eyes - case in point. “Any information I know about you has been told to me against my will.”
This time he rolls his eyes, but ignores my comment. “But to answer your question, yes, I do, in fact, live in New York.”
“This isn’t New York.”
“As perceptive as ever,” he responds dryly.
It’s too bad Calvin has to open his mouth since that just ruins the outside packaging. Objectively, he is a good-looking man. His natural sun-kissed skin is a tone that many are envious of. His slick brown hair is impeccably placed, giving off a ‘I didn’t try too hard, but of course I did’ look. I bet women are so often charmed by that face of his - with his deep brown eyes and sharp jawline that barely ever sees any facial hair. He can easily add a bit of rugged charm to his look if he ever decides to grow out his beard, but that would interfere with the preppy, clean-cut aesthetic he oozes. Others are attracted to his vibe, just not me. There is no amount of Rhodes charm that I would ever fall victim to.
“Why’s he here?” I ask my brother again.
Calvin walks around the back of his car, popping the trunk open as Jay rolls my bag over to him. “We were having drinks when you called.”
“Correction - you interrupted our drinks,” Calvin objects.
I join where they now stand, my eyes firmly on him. “I thought you were driving? You shouldn’t be drinking.”
He lifts his hands, pretending to surrender, “You caught me, officer.”
Calvin puts the handle of my suitcase down and bends over to grab it, the weight of it clearly catching him off-guard. “Good God, Nikita, what the hell do you have in here?”
“All you’re doing is showing us how you lack any upper-body strength,” I mutter.
He huffs as he gets my bag into the trunk. “Seriously, what the hell have you got in your bag?”
“That’s really none of your business.” I push past him, careful to connect with his arm so he can get the full force of my frustration, not just at what is happening around me but also at his mere presence. I don’t expect that when I step closer to him I am knocked back by the sheer strength of his cologne.
I cough. “Is it necessary that everyone tastes your cologne?” Coughing again, a bit more dramatically this time, he sneers in response to my dramatics, shutting the trunk before walking back to get into the driver’s seat.
“I forgot how annoying the two of you are around each other,” Jay mumbles, slipping into the passenger seat as I get in the back. I sit behind Calvin’s seat so I can interact with my brother.
“What happened, Kita?” Jay asks as Calvin starts the car, an incessant beeping surrounding us. “I thought they were renewing your contract?”
“Join the club.” I rub my hands together. The car is toasty and I can feel the heat awakening parts of my body that have gone cold from the rain.
The beeping continues and honestly it feels as though I am about to snap because of it. Repetitive sounds mess with my brain.
“Do you not hear that?” Calvin says, glancing at me in the rearview mirror. “Nikita, your seat belt, please.
I glare at him. Even though I want the beeping off, I don’t want him to be the one to tell me how to do just that. “Are you that bad of a driver that I need my seat belt?”
“Is this your first time in a car?” He provokes, dryly - his typical tone when speaking to me. I want to argue with him because it is in my nature to do exactly that, but I am drained. Instead, I let out an audible sigh to show my disdain and pulled the seat belt across my body, clipping it in place, the beeping seized as a result.
“That wasn’t so hard, now was it?”
I completely ignore Calvin, turning to my brother, who is already looking at me with concern in his eyes waiting for me to elaborate more on what happened. I don’t have the strength to do that right now. I am tired, cold, sore, and quite frankly, just over it.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I respond to Jay as Calvin takes off down the street. I have no desire to have this conversation in front of Calvin, of all people. I can do without his questioning gaze; he has this annoying way of making me feel as if I am being placed under a microscope, analyzing and dissecting every part of me.
“You said your apartment flooded,” Jay clearly ignores the part where I said I didn’t want to talk about it. “What caused that?”
I feel Calvin’s eyes on me again so I flick mine up to meet his. “Eyes on the road, pretty boy. I’d like to live to see another day.”
He rolls his eyes and shifts his gaze forward again. “As dramatic as ever.”
I lean back against the seat and fold my arms across my chest, staring out the window, feeling frustrated by every little thing around me. All I want to do right now is curl up in bed - my bed that I hadn’t slept in for months. Now, I don’t even know if it will survive the water damage.
“A pipe burst. My entire floor was affected.”
“Who’s liable for those damages?” Jay inquires.
“My landlord, I think.” I shrug, now that I think about it, I am not even sure, “He’s definitely liable for the building itself, but as for all the things in my apartment that are most likely damaged, I have no idea. Do I sue him? Can I sue him? How does one sue?”
“You don’t have insurance for things like that?” Calvin pipes up, making my eyes roll back at the tone in which he asks the question. We haven’t even been in the same vicinity for five minutes, and already my eyes have seen the back of my head more times than I can count. I glare at him through the mirror. “No, I don’t have insurance, Calvin. Do you realize how unaffordable important things like insurance are? Not all of us can afford such luxuries.”
“Nikita…” My brother cautions, turning to me, and extending his hand to mine. “Look, forget about all that for now. You’ll stay with me while this gets sorted out and we will figure it out.”
I take a deep breath in, willing the emotions building inside of me to stay put at least until I have a moment to myself. A moment to regain control over all my different emotions.
“Thanks, mano.”
Jay smiles at me before turning forward again. “We’ll need to do some rearranging, but I have a sleeper couch that you could use Cal-.”
“Whoa, wait - what?” I sit forward.
Jay looks at me. “What? Cal’s been staying with me for a few days.”
“Uhm, okay.”
“Don’t sound so thrilled,” Calvin mutters sarcastically.
I plaster on a fake smile - the kind he can recognize is anything but genuine. “How come you’re in town anyway, Caaaaal? Did you finally come to get that stick surgically removed from your ass?”
“Kita!” My brother bursts out laughing as Calvin glares at me, but I swear I see his lips twitch, creating his version of a smile.
“Just here to save the damsel in distress.”
If I roll my eyes anymore, I am not sure I will get them forward again. That is the Calvin Rhodes effect.
“Whatever.” I lean forward between their two seats, my seat belt stretches as far as it can manage as I try to reach for the volume button. Hopefully they get the idea that I am not in the mood to talk right now.
Calvin taps at my hand. “Hands off.”
“I’d like to listen to music instead of having to engage in any further conversation with you.”
“Then ask.”
“Why are you so weird with your car?” I counter.
“It’s not my car,” he says, mocking me with a child-like tone, “It’s a rental.”
“Then let me touch the volume button.” I lean forward again, trying to reach for the dial, but this time Jay catches my hand, moving it back towards me.
“Foda-se! You two - oil and water.” He sighs in defeat , shaking his head before turning back to me. “You think you could play nice?”
“I can if he can.”
“I always play nice,” Calvin comments. “It’s your lovely sister that…” His sentence trails off, and I cock an eyebrow at him.
“Are you going to finish that sentence?”
“I’d rather not.”
Jay interrupts our bickering. “Well, this is going to be fun.”
Have you ever interacted with someone who, no matter what they do, just gets under your skin? Calvin is that person for me. And since I’m already riled up thanks to my current reality, he is the last person I feel like being around.
But he is one of my brother’s best friends and I am capable of playing nice for a few days. As long as he stays out of my way.
I lean forward and squeeze my brother’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Jay. Calvin and I are more than capable of being civil, right Cal?”
We glare at each other, animosity floating between us, but also a mutual understanding because my brother is doing both of us a solid right now.
“Of course, Kita.”
Jay quickly changes the subject to lunch suggestions. While I usually love to participate and get my vote in, exhaustion washes over me instead.