“So you and Kobie are official?” Sarai shouted into the phone.
“Huh?” Damn, they were starting to get on her nerves with their bird behavior. They were too old to be so caught up in the livelihood of others.
“We saw you at the hospital girl! You better be up there taking care of your man.”
Nina went to the window and spotted cameras flashing down below.
Kobie was fast asleep.
She frowned. “How did they even know I was here?”
“Because you’re that BITCH and you dating the highest paid player on the damn team. Duh!” Shalon snickered.
She rolled her eyes and her stomach tightened. She knew Jio’s nosey ass was definitely aware. It was almost as if he had an alert on his phone to receive notifications on all things Nina Marcelle. “I gotta call y’all back. Kobie is asleep, and I don’t want y’all to wake him up from screaming in my ear.”
“You really ain’t left his side, huh?” Sarai wanted to know.
Nina hung up without another word.
By the time Nina made it to the bookstore to meet up with Ephrem, her nerves were shot. The blogs had already posted blurry photos of her leaving the hospital. Jio was going to be insufferable. Speaking of the made man that had her heart in his pocket, when she walked into the bookstore, the first thing that Ephrem blurted out was, “I texted you.”
“Okay, I was already on the way, so I didn’t open it.”
Little did she know that was his subtle way of warning her that he wasn’t alone. In the same corner where they’d first played chess sat Jiorgio Gotti in designer sweats because he was a nigga that loved clothes more than the average woman and his watch gleamed. Surprisingly, today he didn’t have on hisMarcelle. Nina wondered if he took it off whenever he was madat her. He played chess solo, humming under his breath. He didn’t even bother to look at her when she entered.
“Hey,” she said cautiously, but he said nothing.
“We can eat tomorrow…or another day…” Ephrem suggested.
“You’re being dramatic. We can still go tonight.”
Finally, Jio looked up and the expression on his face made her pause. It wasn’t an angry look but it did scream, “You not going no damn where.”
“E, I can lock up tonight and we can get Thai tomorrow,” she changed the course of her plans.
“Nah, E… you don’t have to leave.” He shot a dagger at his supposed-to-be girlfriend.
“I’m trying my best not to show you another side of me,” he said quietly. “But you really taking me there, my love.”
Nina crossed her arms defensively.
“I went to see my friend in the hospital.”
“Your friend? So now you know this nigga for real?”
“Yes.”
Jio nodded slowly like he was trying to control himself. “Hmm…okay…. So tell me baby girl, what is it about this nigga that you can’t come off?”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s giving thirsty,” he continued calmly. “And I’m turned off.”
“Thirsty? Turned off? BY ME?” Nina stared at him in disbelief.
“Very.”
She laughed. “You sound insane.”
