“I am goin’ to get dressed,” she said as she walked out of the kitchen, not even drinking her mimosa.
After a few hours, she came down the steps and walked into the living room, staring at me like she wasn’t upstairs taking her time.
“Are you ready to go?” I chuckled to myself.
“Yeah, boo, let’s go.”
I got up and walked over to her, trying to grab her hand to walk out of the house, and she snatched it back.
I stopped and looked at her.
“I can’t hold your hand?”
“Gio, can we just take things slow? Let it flow, don’t force it.”
I didn’t argue with her. I just nodded and opened the door for her.
We walked over to my rental, and I opened the door for her.
Once we pulled off, I was trying to think of shit to talk about, but everything I wanted to talk about was our future, and it seemed like she wasn’t on that yet.
As I looked over at her, I caught her looking down at her ring. She looked sad, like she was trying to hold back tears as she looked toward the window.
“So where do you want to go shopping?” I asked her.
She shrugged, wiping her eyes. “It’s up to you. It don’t matter to me.”
We took a lil’ drive, letting her feel that Cali breeze again, while the sun beat down on us. I turned the music up and rolled the windows down.
“I know you missed the weather. Ain’t no home like Cali.”
She looked at me with a slight smirk and nodded.
A lil’ bit later, we pulled up on Melrose and parked. She was out of the car before I could open the door or help her out.
We walked down the sidewalk like we were on a blind date. She stood a lil’ bit away from me, her arms folded across her chest. She didn’t talk to me too much, just answered when I spoke to her.
She looked at the Chanel store, and before we walked in, I stopped her at the door.
“Listen, Islah, I know you said you would give us a chance, but it don’t seem like you are moving like that.”
She exhaled hard. “I am sorry, Gio, I just have a lot on my mind.”
She wrapped her arms around her stomach, tight.
“What is wrong? You know you can talk to me?”
She shook her head.
“It’s okay, Gio, let’s have a good day.”
I nodded and opened the door for her, and we walked inside. I stood back a lil’ bit and watched her walk around the store looking at everything they had before one of the consultants walked over to her and took her to the new releases.
She picked out a few pieces, then went to try them on. I sat back and waited for her to come out. As I did, I checked my phone and realized I hadn’t heard from Jada in a lil’ bit.
As I opened Facebook, I saw people tagging her page, saying RIP.
I sat straight up and clicked on her page as I scrolled through everybody saying how much they were going to miss her. I caught the news article.
