“Huh? Oh, yeah, Varen’s weird like that.”
“Weird?”
Nala absentmindedly combed her fingers through her black hair. “Well, not weird, but her brain works differently. She sees patterns and stuff like that everywhere. I don’t get it. I’m just along for the ride.” She smiled, cheekily. “Although I’m in school for the first time in a while now. My goal is to get as good as her at the whole coding thing. What do you do?”
“I… uh…” Jamie couldn’t think of a damn thing to say.“I fuck my boss. Well, she used to be my boss. Now I’m a professional girlfriend.”The more Jamie faced these sorts of situations, the more she realized she didn’t have a life outside of Etta. She wouldn’t dare say that, however. “I’m in transition, I suppose you could say. I was in administration until I got serious with my girlfriend. Now I’m…”
“Enjoying the high life of having a rich girlfriend. Don’t worry, I get it.” Nala turned back to the mirror. “There’s something to be said for no longer living in someone’s dirty closet.”
Jamie snorted. “Or living in the most rundown apartment between a couple ofdealers.”
“Or counting out how much oatmeal you eat so you don’t run out before payday.”
“Or cutting the mold off bread slices because we need penicillin in our lives anyway.”
“Ha! Sounds like you get it.”
Do I?Jamie opened her clutch and pulled out one of the calling cards. She handed it to Nala, who took it without a second thought. “Do you game?”
“Do I… do I game?” Nala was on the verge of cackling. “Well, not as much as I used to now that I’m in school, but hell yeah. You game?”
“Oh, I game.”
The look they shared only meant one thing: even though they lived on opposite sides of the country, they were now rich enough to afford the communicative means to make a new friendship work.
Chapter 14
Jamie turned the card she received in return between her fingers. Every few minutes she giggled, and Etta – who was nose-deep in her emails – asked her what was going on.
“Oh, just stuff,” Jamie would reply.
That either bored or satisfied Etta every time, because she went right back to her phone.
“You know,” Jamie said, halfway home. “It’s been a while since we…” She sidled up next to Etta and curled a hand around her leg. She hadn’t forgotten how Etta touched her, whispered in her ear while the show went on earlier. Neither of the subsequent shows was as engrossing as the first one with Varen and Nala. But they stayed and watched them before the party at the table broke up with half the people disappearing to go talk to others or, if one was named Kathleen or Ira, fool around in some dark corner somewhere.
“Wouldn’t be a night at Midnight if I didn’t see Kathleen’s breasts at least once,”Monique had said when she came back from the bathroom.
If Etta ever cared about watching her friends and business partners have sex, she never said. She was more likely to do exactly what she did in thatlimo, such as glance at Jamie with the smallest, slyest smile in the universe.
“Indeed it has been. It’s also been a while since I’ve seen you this happy.”
Happy, huh? I guess. Happier than she had been, yes. “We move on, I suppose.”
“I didn’t mean to upset you.” Etta nipped the bottom of Jamie’s ear. “I’ve been worried about you, though.”
“Worried? About me?”
“Mmhmm.” Etta coiled her arm around Jamie’s shoulders and brought her into a light hug. “I know you took this past week rather hard. I wish I hadn’t been so busy so I could pay more attention to you.”
“You pay plenty.” Jamie wanted more, yes, but she knew that dating a busy businesswoman meant sitting on the sidelines once in a while. Jamie may be her girlfriend, but Etta’s empire was her mistress.Rather it be her than some other woman. Jamie intercepted Etta’s lips for a kiss. Their hug tightened. “But we’ve been lacking recently. Dunno what it could be.”
“When you told me you wanted to go to that club this weekend, I was hopeful that it meant you were feeling better. Or at least were in the mood for a distraction.”
“You’ve been busy. I haven’t been feeling well. It happens.”
Etta gave her one last kiss on the cheek and went back to her phone. “I hope I can finish this up before we get home.”
Jamie nodded, pretending to understand.
