“Thank you, how can I help you today?”
“I need to make a deposit. I don’t know how much it is,” she said innocently.
“I’ll run it through the counter.”
She stood behind the glass window that separated them and patiently waited for her to count the stacks of cash.
The woman glanced up at her after she opened the Gucci weekender. Nina gave her an awkward smile. The assumption was always that she was a stripper. Nina never said anything because, depending on who it was, her face was recognizable, and to others, it was not.
She pulled the money out stack by stack and set it on the counter.
The first time, she felt judged and it didn’t feel good.
Nina saw a hint recognition flash across the lady's face.
“Have you ever noticed the tiny G’s?”
She looked confused so the teller pulled out one of the bills and turned it around. “These.”
Nina looked at them carefully. Tiny gold G’s marked the corners of the bills, something that Jio did for whatever reason.
“That’s so weird, I never paid much attention,” she admitted.
“Damn. Jio ain’t taught you nothing, huh?” The teller smirked.
Nina’s stomach tightened.
Oh…you’re one of his.
The woman’s interest was piqued even more. She openly took in all of Nina’s presence and Nina’s facial expression remained neutral.
“I don’t think I caught your name,” she asked politely after realizing that she didn’t have a name tag on.
“You can ask Jio what my name is.”
Nina stared at her and she decided to take it even further.
“He tends to say it a lot.”
And just like that, the peace she had been building cracked down the middle. She was so fuckin’ angry. She forgot all about coffee with Danyelle. Nina went straight to his crib, but he wasn’t at home. When she got back into her car, all huffy puffy and out of breath, Danyelle was calling.
“Hey…my bad, I got caught up.”
Danyelle picked up on the tone of her voice and asked, “Is everything okay?”
Nina was prepared to lie. She was good at wearing the mask. A long time ago, she’d concluded that no one cared about her feelings, so she never shared them. Being lonely pretty muchyour whole life was some wild shit. She was used to talking herself off the ledge when Ephrem wasn’t available, but God had been kind to her recently. Not only had he sent her Danyelle, who was a new and true friend, but she’d been slowly allowing her heart to open to First Lady Raymond. However, when she was in the middle of making irrational and impulsive, stupid ass decisions, she didn’t need a friend to talk her out of it.
“Hmm, hmm…yep. All is well,” she lied.
“My coffee was good. They were out of beef patties,” Danyelle shared with her.
“We can get dinner later if you’re free. Something came up, I should’ve called.”
“What happened between the bank and the car?” she questioned.
If only you knew girl,Nina thought.
“Hello?” Danyelle said into the receiver after she went silent.
