Chapter 29
Across the array of monitors, I watched as the club was alive with a never-ending party.
Positive vibes. Flashes from camera phones.
And an ample number of smiling faces. Behind me, I heard the door open, leaking in the sounds of Gucci Mane’s “Freaky Gurl” to complete our Friday night theme.
Freaky Friday. It wasn’t quite Freaknik, but the tone was set and everyone was showing out.
Too many sexy women were showing up wearing their late-night best. The men didn’t try—but it wasn’t about them.
Gucci was cut short as the door shut.
I heaved a sigh and spun around in my chair, ignoring what Sloan was saying as I spotted Cesar joining us. He didn’t approach the desk, but simply sat at the chaise along the back wall.
The door opened again, Gucci once more sneaking into the soundproof office. This time, it was Knox coming in to interrupt my business meeting. He stopped a few feet from Cease and a few from where Sloan sat before my desk.
“There’s a guy in the Diamond Suite actin’ up. Loud. Aggressive. He’s spendin’ money and I think he might play for the Falcons, but it’s causing a disturbance,” Knox said as he gestured out toward the hall.
I was in the middle of a meeting and he was stopping me for this?
My attitude had taken a turn, and these days I had no patience for bullshit. One look was all that was needed to get Knox out the door to handle his fucking job.
I tore my gaze from his retreating figure and returned to Sloan. The pity in his hazel eyes aggravated me more, but I let it go. “You were saying?”
Sloan cleared his throat, licking his lips and peeking back at Cesar before returning to me.
Pops told me about the club in New York on Sunday.
I called Sloan Wednesday to come down to BLVCKJVCK so we could talk about a new project together.
I wasn’t in the best frame of mind, but the show had to go on.
The fact that he was here told me all that I needed to know about his stance on business.
Sloan rubbed at his jaw. “E, man, I hear you. I love New York. This would be the highlight of my career.”
I sat back in my seat and lifted my attention to the ceiling. “I love ass. However, I don’t like buts, and why do I think I hear one coming up?”
Sloan took a moment to sigh and collect himself. “I’ve never designed a club before. I love the challenge of putting together PVWN for you.”
“So what’s the problem?”
We were beating around the bush. He knew as well as I did what the issue was.
It wasn’t a breakup. But fuck did it feel like one.
We fought on Sunday and the club wasn’t even open a full minute before I got a curt text from Paisley.
Paisley
You’re a bum ass bitch!
Very short and blunt, to the point. Going to Sloan for help on this new club was risky.
He was her people, not mine. But I’d meant what I said when I preferred to work in-house than out.
I was a young Black entrepreneur and he was an up-and-coming Black architect.
It was a win for the both of us—should his lady not get in the way.
I brought my focus back to Sloan, to look him in the eye as he told me what I needed to know.
“This is good for my portfolio,” Sloan said in the end. “I’ll agree to do it, but if P says she doesn’t want me on the job, then I’m out.”
I couldn’t help but smirk. “She won’t stop your bag. She’ll just hate me a little more.”
Sloan grimaced, because there was no denying she was in his ear talking shit about me already. I didn’t know Paisley that well. She could tell him to turn me down, but she could also just be extra pissed at me.
Time would tell, for now, I’d secured my designer for PVWN. I’d already made plans to book a flight to New York to browse potential buildings or lots.
Sloan leaned over and held his hand out. “I appreciate you offering me this opportunity, man. I’m honored.”
I reached out and shook with him. “To Black business.”
“To Black business.” Sloan shook my hand and soon stood up. “I know it’s a fun theme you got goin’ here tonight, but if you’ll excuse me, I got someone waitin’ on me.”
I relaxed back into my chair. “Tell her no hard feelings.”
Sloan’s mouth twisted into a sneer as he lifted his hand and flipped me the finger. “She’d want me to give you this.”
Of course Paisley would.
Sloan slipped out of the office, this time allowing the sounds of 21 Savage to enter the room.
Cesar was remarkably quiet the whole exchange. Finding him watching me in that silent way he’d become accustomed to post fight wasn’t a surprise.
“You’re not leavin’ early tonight,” I let him know.
“Oh?” he questioned.
“When I’m in New York, who do you think Pops is coming to, to take over my position?” I mentioned.
Cesar shook his head. “Whatever, Eaze. You good?”
“Fan-fucking-tastic,” I said. “Just got my architect. I’m lit.”
Cesar stared at me. “You tryna hit up Lovely’s? It’s been a minute.”
My nostrils flared as my fists balled up and my anger reared its head. “Do it look like I’m trying to go to Lovely’s?”
Cesar shrugged. “Why not? You single, right?”
He was my boy, my brother, and he just wanted to cheer me up.
Or mock me. I wasn’t really sure these days.
He’d been surprised when I came through BLVCKJVCK on Sunday and he noticed the first spark of my attitude.
When I told him about Nastasia and me, he’d been sympathetic then.
Now here he was offering to take me a gentleman’s club.
Regina did have a special service where one, or two, of her girls would take you to a private room and rub you down and listen to your problems.
The world was at my fingertips. I could have any woman I chose any day of the week. For the first time, it sounded empty and lonely.
Vulnerability tugged at my heart and I scrubbed a hand down my face. “No, I’m not. Shit’s a mess, but I’m good.”
“Yeah? Because you don’t look so good.”
Pops had been disappointed when he’d called me up to hear Nastasia’s input on my going to New York, but very quickly he switched to business mode and we talked more about my ideas for PVWN.
Putting my all into this was the only thing holding me together.
At home, I wasn’t really sleeping or eating.
This kept me busy. This kept me from going insane.
I couldn’t lie to Cesar though. “This isn’t like before, Cease.”
He came over to the desk and took a seat before me. The soft expression on his face let me know he wasn’t here to judge or taunt me, but to listen.
“I never cared about anybody like I do her. Shit, anyone else I could go to Lovely’s to get over it. I could go upstairs and pull somethin’ mean to just let it go. But Nas hit different,” I said.
“I hear you. Y’all was in it deep from jump, so I know it’s tough on you,” Cesar said. “I haven’t even seen shorty at the gym.”
“She goes at night now,” I spoke up.
Cesar glanced at me curiously. “How you know?”
I didn’t have the guts to tell him I’d suspected she was avoiding me when I showed up to the gym Monday and Tuesday and didn’t see her during her usual lunchtime getaway.
Thursday night, I drove by Phat Fitness and there she was, inside, running on the treadmill.
I wouldn’t bring up how long I’d sat in my Acura and watched her.
Nastasia was different. She wasn’t a woman I was just fucking. She was mine. Now that she was keeping her distance, I felt lonely, something I’d never experienced before.
Running my finger along the desktop, I felt my stomach knot up at the memory of taking her on top of it. Of being deep inside her as she cursed me for the way I’d delivered her pleasure until she was having an intense orgasm beneath me.
We’d never really spent every day together, but we’d always made it a point to FaceTime or call. Coming home from BLVCKJVCK Sunday night to just be by myself was when it really hit me. Waking up alone Monday morning made it even more clear. I wanted New York. She wanted Georgia.
I shrugged my shoulders, trying, and internally failing, to let it go. “I just do.”
Cesar stood up and eyed the monitors behind my desk, watching the club continue. “You gon’ be all right, E?”
I was focused, because I was too close to living my dream. But this was Cesar, so I didn’t waste time lying as I looked into his eyes. “As they say, it’s lonely at the top. But shit, at least it’s the top, right?”