“Nina.”
“No!” Her voice cracked, but she didn’t care. “You don’t get to cry to me about wanting to be better and then punish me for expecting better from you.”Fuck did he think this was?she thought.
His expression hardened again, but she saw something drop beneath it, and she knew exactly what it was. Shame and a whole lot of fear.
“I love you,” he said it as if that should explain everything, yet it told her nothing at all. He loved her. Ok, and what?
“I know…” Nina breathed deeply. She wanted more for them, but he had to want it too.
“Then act like it.”
Nina nodded slowly before laughing in utter disbelief at the man she’d given her heart to.
“You don’t understand what love really means, but I don’t blame you at all.”
They were raised totally different, and it showed up in the simplest ways.
Jio’s face went blank, which told her that her words had wounded him, but that’s because he knew it was true. Nina didn’t wait to find out though.
She walked past him toward her bedroom.
“Where you going?”
“To decompress. It’s been a long night…” she said over her shoulder.
She stepped into the bathroom and shut the door hard enough for the sound to echo through the walls. For a while, she just stood there with her head lowered and her hands on the counter. Her breathing was erratic. When she glanced into the mirror, her reflection stared back at her, but she didn’t like what she saw. Physically, she was stunning. Internally, she felt broken. Jio’s spirit was heavy today and it lingered. She secretly wished he would just leave her be, but the other foolish half of her wanted him to stay and make love to her until the sun came up.
Nina turned on the shower and let the water run until steam began to rise before ridding her body of today’s attire. She stayed in the bathroom longer than she needed to. Part of her was expecting him to knock. She envisioned Jio coming in, apologizing, and fuckin’ the shit out of her. It’d been so long since they’d been intimate. She wondered if he missed her in that way or had someone else been draining his balls. When she finally opened the door, the house was quiet. It wasn’t the kind of silence that hinted at tension, but the peaceful stillness that came with having the place all to herself.
Nina walked out slowly. Her body still damp and wrapped in a terry cloth towel.
The living room lights were on now. The city glittered beyond the windows. Her coat still hung over the chair where she had left it. Everything looked exactly the same except for the fact that her man was gone.
No tap on the door… or at least she didn’t hear it. No goodbye. No apology. No kiss to the forehead. No dick. Jio was just gone with the wind.
Nina stared at the space where he had been just an hour prior.
Because what was new? Jio always left before she could decide whether she wanted him to stay.
Nina made the mature decision to call down to the concierge.
“Hi, I need to submit a maintenance request to have my locks changed and Jiorgio Gotti removed from my visitor list please.”
SEVEN
“WHEN YOU ON THE MOVE, SOMETIMES IT DON’T GO HOW YOU PLANNED OUT.” YFN LUCCI
“Are you judging me in your head?” Nina desperately wanted to know. Ephrem hadn’t said a word. He sipped his tea in silence, looking out at the view that her fancy office provided.
“No.”
One-word answers from her best friend were a sure sign of him feeling a way but not offering up his thoughts. Nina hated it when he was short with her.
“Be honest.”
Ephrem sighed and crossed his legs. “Can I get the check? I have some place to be.”
He’d stopped by to pick up a donation fromMarcelle & Co.Ephrem was raising money for his elementary school back home. They needed a new gymnasium and cafeteria for the kiddos, and he’d been blessed to have rich friends. Two checks from Jio and Nina and the school was saved from debt and stress. Ephrem was grateful. Shit, all the drama they’d had him in the middle of lately… he earned that check.
