Her mindset was rooted in years of watching her parents sacrifice sleep for success. Vacations turned into networking opportunities. Family dinners always ended up as an impromptu board meeting. Even birthday celebrations eventually circled back to business. Nina had unknowingly inherited the belief that rest belonged to people who weren’t hungry enough.
Therapy had challenged that thinking but God had challenged it even more.
Peace wasn’t earned, but it was accepted.
She repeated that sentence often, especially on mornings like this one where she could’ve opened her laptop, answered a few emails and reviewed tomorrow’s board presentation before breakfast. Instead, the computer remained zipped inside her leather tote bag exactly where she’d tossed it the night before.
Stacey had nearly lost her mind when Nina called to move three meetings.
“It’s not a good idea to leaveForbeswaiting in limbo,” her publicist criticized.
“I know.”
“Did you get a chance to look at the edits fromEssence?”
“Not yet, but I will,” she stifled a yawn. Stacey had called and interrupted a much-needed nap.
“Okay, and what about your updated bio? Did you look at the changes I added?”
“I started on it. I have a few notes,” she told a half-truth.
“Nina...”
“You’ll have everything before you wake up tomorrow morning.”
The silence on the other end of the phone had been so dramatic that Nina pulled the receiver away from her ear just to make sure the call hadn’t disconnected.
“Are you sick?”
Nina laughed so hard she’d nearly snorted.
“No.”
“You sure?”
“I'm choosing myself today.” She lied again because the truth of the matter was that she was fuckin’ sick and couldn’t focus on work today if she wanted to. The only thing she had energy for was to carry her ass back and forth to the toilet. She’d already peed ten times since she woke up.
“Who are you and what have you done with my client?”
“I’ll text you after I send the email.” She was done talking.
Nina rolled over in bed. She heard music floating through the penthouse. Something old-school. Luther, maybe. She wasn’t certain because Jio had absolutely no rhythm and kept singing over the words, loud, wrong, and off-key.
Only he would butcher Luther Vandross with enough confidence to believe he deserved a record deal afterward.
It was 9:42 a.m.
Normally she’d already have three meetings behind her by now. With a vanilla latte in one hand with Ava following behind her reminding her that lunch had already been pushed back another hour.
Today she was doing nothing. These days were starting to add up though and she needed to get a grip or work harder when she was home.
“Lord...” she whispered with a smile.
She wasn’t sure if she was thanking Him for the peace or asking Him to help her not get used to it.
The hardwood floors felt cool beneath her feet as she wandered toward the bathroom. Her reflection stared back at her from the mirror. Bare face. Puffy eyes. Hair wrapped in a silk scarf she’d managed to keep on throughout the night.
She looked exhausted yet happy, if that was even possible. The joy that she was experiencing during nausea that wouldn’t go away had nothing to do with success or any recent endeavors.
