“What’s wrong?”
I slowly shook my head. “Mama just told me everything surrounding my adoption. All the details of how y’all got me.”
“Damn. Why?”
“I met my bio mom yesterday, and she told me she went to school with Mama.”
He nodded, then went to the bathroom door to try to console my mama. When she opened the door and fell against him, I grabbed my glass and downed my drink, then went to the bar and poured another. It was gonna be a long night. Hopefully, surprising my baby tonight would take my mind off it.
“I hatethat he told us to be late. All those people gon’ be staring at us. You used to that, but I don’t like the spotlight that much.”
I rolled my eyes at Maj. “Girl, yo’ ass gon’ be fine,” I said as the driver chuckled.
“I hope you right. I’m glad we met quite a few of them before now. They all seemed pretty down to earth.”
I nodded, then texted Graham. I really wished he was here. We hadn’t been a couple a whole week yet, but damn if I wasn’t attached at hello. I pulled at my dress, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious. It stopped right under my ass. I thought I would be wearing this to a club or something, not knowing Noah was having an entire dinner party for the label while we were here. This party didn’t require SOLA’s presence, but I supposed that was exactly who I would have to be, since I didn’t have time to go shopping for something else to wear.
My normal personality didn’t typically dress this way . . . at least not this revealing. Arlie was the girl next door. SOLA was this larger-than-life sex symbol.
“Quit fidgeting. Ain’t nobody told you to dress like a slut.”
“Shut up, Maj. I’m nervous.”
“Girl, yo’ ass gon’ be fine,” she said, imitating my voice.
I laughed as the driver pulled up to the venue. This was nice as hell. There were a lot of cars here. I took a deep breath as he exited the vehicle and came around to help us out. As he did, I saw RJ standing to the side, smoking a blunt. It had to be with the way it smelled. When his eyes met mine, he put it out on the cement and made his way to us.
“Y’all look nice. Nigga had me outside as the lookout, so we would know when y’all got here. He wanted to introduce you as y’all walked in.”
“Great. Now my nerves on ten.”
“Chill out, shorty. You gon’ learn that Noah like surprising people and hyping them up. He’s been doing that shit for years.”
“Yeah. I saw what he did for Nate Guillory at a concert.”
“So youalreadyknow,” he said, then shook his head. I laughed as he continued. “Nate is in there too. His wife is signed to the label.”
“Wow. That’s so cool.”
“Yep. Let’s go on in.”
He did some shit on his phone, then I heard the music stop. When we got to the door, the music kicked back up. It was my shit! RJ opened the door, and Noah yelled, “SOOOOLAAAAAAA!”
I giggled as everyone applauded me. Grabbing Kimaji’s hand, I continued inside as he said, “And Kimajiiiiiii!”
Maj fell out laughing as a man directed us to the front to our table. The minute we walked around the side table and the people standing near it, I saw Graham standing in front ofour table clapping. My pace picked up tremendously. I couldn’t believe he was here!
“Graham!” I yelled when I got to the table.
He pulled me in his arms and hugged me. “I could barely function. I had to come out here to be with you. Now I’m glad I did, seeing this shit you got on. It’s gon’ be yo’ fault if I gotta fuck somebody up.”
I laughed, then turned my attention to Noah. Seeing Graham caused me to completely forget about how short this dress was. I’d lifted my arms and hugged him, probably showing my ass to everybody. Noah called me to the stage. I made my way to him with a huge smile on my face. I flipped my blond hair over my shoulder, then grabbed the man’s hand at the stairs. I’d met him earlier at the meeting. Noah hugged me when I got to him, then turned back to the mic.
“SOLA is our newest artist with YKMN! Man, do I have plans for her. Y’all get ready, because we gon’ fuck the world up with how we announce her. Plus, I need all the artists signed to the label to get ready to be a part of this production. Being that SOLA is already established, we need this splash to be big. A’ight, my bad. Tonight ain’t about business.”
“Sit yo’ ass down then,” RJ said, causing everybody to laugh.
Noah shot him the finger, then said, “Y’all enjoy yourselves and be sure to welcome SOLA to the crew!”
