“Nina?”
Her stomach dropped. Not because the voice belonged to a made man, but because it sounded oddly familiar. She turned slowly and saw three people from law school standingnear a high-top table with cocktails in their hands and bright recognition on their faces.
There were few things more humbling than running into people from your ambitious era while actively making a fool of yourself.
“Nina Marcelle,” one of the women said, smiling wide. “Oh my god, look at you!” She said it as if it had been years since they last saw each other when graduation wasn’t too long ago.
Nina’s face transformed instantly. The anger disappeared and the hurt tucked itself away.
The polished mask slid into place so smoothly that it almost scared her.
“Metraaaaa,” she said warmly, stepping forward to hug her.
“It’s good to see y’all!”
Nina kicked off a series of hugs, fake kisses at the corners of cheeks, and compliments about each other’s hair, perfume, and shoes, the typical dance for this classification of colleagues. Nina was good at it. What she wasn’t too skilled in was checkin’ a nigga about another woman. Was this a reminder from God that she needed to stay in her lane? The lane that would keep her out of jail. Nina was about to risk her reputation for him.
Metra was known for her sleek bob and classic red lip. Christine was always quiet and terrifying in class but now worked in corporate compliance somewhere important. The third was Carter, who was without a doubt going to be famous one day. He was going places. She’d never crossed the line with him and she made him stay in his place too, but boy had he tried his best to turn a study session into a date.
“Nina, you look good as always,” Christine said. “How have things been?”
“I’m good, how are y’all?” Nina lied.
“Can’t complain. I’m working at the City,” Carter shared before asking, “Boss life treating you well?”
There it was… another reminder.
Nina was the boss.
The phrase landed against her chest harder than boots stomping at a step show.
For a second, the club blurred around her and the music became distant. She saw the look of disappointment on her mother’s face. Along with the revoked access and the boardroom would probably be removed from. The assistant she would no longer have. The life she had spent years earning was suddenly placed behind a locked door because she loved a man who didn’t gain her family’s approval.
She smiled anyway. “Busy, but amazing,” she said smoothly.
“I can imagine,” Metra said. “I see the direction that you’re going in for your family’s company and I’m so here for it.”
Nina laughed, although she didn’t say anything funny. Truthfully if she didn’t laugh, she would cry.
“You know Nina was the only person in our contracts class who could argue with Professor Whitman and make him reconsider his own syllabus,” Carter recalled.
“That man hated me.”
“No,” Christine corrected. “He feared you.”
They all laughed, and for one brief moment, Nina remembered the old version of who she once was. She used to chase after challenges. Nina would stay up all night drafting arguments because she just had to win. Sleep was for suckers, she used to mumble under her breath while she stifled a yawn. Nina walked through the halls of the Law Department knowing that all of her hard work would pay off and one day it would result in her life being nothing short of remarkable. She’d worked without excuses to become the woman of her own dreams. So, where was she now? Nina traded her ambition for chasing after Jio.
But in the words of her new friend, he was not lost.
All she did these days was wait for him to call, come home, and most importantly, change. She’d been waiting for him to choose peace and a new career. She waited for him to become the man that he’d promised she would get one day.
A sick feeling moved through her as she listened to them trade office stories. Nina was always in a rush whenever she was at work, not realizing that Jio never put her before the streets. She refused to throw all her hard work and accomplishments away.
She hadn’t realized just yet that every time she ignored a red flag or defended him when he was clearly in the wrong or chose to sleep in cuddled up in his arms instead of arriving early at the office… things shifted.
She stayed for ten more minutes, which was long enough not to appear rude. They exchanged numbers, although Nina knew she wouldn’t call them to connect. Their conversations were filled with engagements, promotions, firm layoffs, potential fellowships, and how they were going to strive every day to become the best version of themselves that they could be. Their friendship would be too pressuring. She struggled enough on her own.
By the time Nina walked out of the club she felt sober in a way alcohol could never compete with.
