Gale turned the corners of her mouth up. “Uh huh. We’re severely behind on The House project. We should be further along.”
“Apparently there was a family emergency,” Nina added. “Her assistant says Mahogany is deeply apologetic.”
I didn’t say anything.
I clenched down on my jaw muscle and looked up at the illuminating numbers on the elevator, watching as it descended.
Couture—Mahogany—canceled on me. The little pep in my step this morning was because I was looking forward to working with her. Not just because I wanted to see her—the meeting would be virtual—but mainly because I wanted to work on the project. I wasn’tonlyexcited about The House of Nova Ray because I was working with her again. I was excited about it because I was bringing a vision I’d had for years to life. I was pissed.
Gale and Nina sensed it.
Had to. Because they stopped talking about it. We stood at the elevator, silent.
Nina said there was a family emergency. Maybe that really was the case. The last time we met, things were good. It’d been about two weeks since we got back to working together and things were moving swiftly. Maybe not as smooth as they could have moved had I been able to keep my hands to myself but there hadn’t been any hiccups. The cancellation came from left field. She couldn’t text and let me know? Fuck was that about?
The elevator doors opened and we stepped inside. I took a sip of my drink and fished around my pocket for my phone. When I grabbed it and unlocked it, I immediately went over to my text messages to hit her up.
But I was stopped in my tracks at the sight of an unread message from her. She did hit me up. She apologized about it being a last-minute thing and promised to make it up to me by having not only one but two in person meetings next week. She said although we weren’t meeting, she was working and she really did need me to check my email. I wanted to know what was going on. She was vague. Always so fucking vague. Just said there was something she needed to handle at home that couldn’t be pushed back. Instead of responding to her, I locked my phone and put it back into my pocket.
“How shit going at Couture?”asked Judah sitting at my desk, wiping his hands on a napkin.
About an hour ago, Judah walked into my office with food from Wingstop. Shit came in clutch too because I hadn’t eaten all day. Gale and Nina offered to get me lunch, but I declined, wanting to throw myself into work. It was a pretty short day but that didn’t mean the work I did have to do didn’t require a lot of my attention. When dawg walked in with the lemon pepper wet, I pushed everything aside and got to smashing.
I looked up from my phone with raised brows. How shit going at Couture? Shit was a circus for real. But instead of telling him things were crazy, I shrugged with my mouth slightly turned down and told him things were straight. I mean, it wasn’t a lie. The progress just wasn’t where I would have liked it. Too much shit was going on.
He squinted. “Juststraight? Shorty made the switch, right?”
“Yeah she made the switch.”
“What’s the progress looking like then? I’ve been meaning to go over the file, but I said fuck it, I’d get up with you and see what was what.”
Judah was my nigga. More like a brother than he was a nigga that worked for me. He’d helped me through some tough ass times. I could kick it with him on some real shit but because Couture was attached to Mahogany it was a topic I didn’t like to touch. I knew I’d never spill to the nigga, but he had a way of justknowingshit. And because I was really into her, a smile was liable to jump up on my face, just at the mention of her. Like now, I had to brush my hand over my cheek and look away just to answer the nigga.
Despite not wanting to spill to him about what was going on, I felt like Ineededto. Mahogany had me gone. She had mefargone. So much that on some nights I would lay up, eyes on the ceiling, thinking about the situation and how I’d gotten myself into some deep shit. Getting wrapped up with a married woman the way I had was bad. Not just for business but for my mental too.
“Yeah... it’s been straight,” I said, before dabbing at my mouth with a napkin.
He smirked with a squint. “You lyin nigga. Keep it a buck. What happened? You fucked up, didn’t you? Broke your rule?”
I looked up from my phone at him again, said nothing and got up. Walking across the office to the wet bar, I grabbed a bottle of scotch and a glass. It was the middle of the day. I shouldn’t have been drinking, but I’d been drinking a lot more than usual lately. Went from not touching a drink unless it was to celebrate a partnership to touching one at least three times a week. I was under a lot of pressure because of moms.
Things had taken a big turn for the worse. We were just waiting for the day. Her final one. Every time my phone rang I got anxiety, thinking it would be Pops. And at any time thatit was him, I’d be worried, scared to pick the fuckin’ phone up. Between being on the verge of losing her, and the grief behind Nova picking up, a nigga was having a hard time.
Judah got up and walked over to the wet bar. “Is it interfering with business?”
I shook my head. “Fuck is you even talking about nigga? Iswhatinterfering with business?”
Judah smiled. “Fucking with shorty.”
I took the cork out of the bottle of Louis XIII and poured a little in my glass. Shifting my eyes up at him, I took a sip but said nothing.
“It'smenigga,” Judah stressed.
It’s me nigga.His words replayed in my mind as I thought about the meaning behind that. Like I said before Judah was my nigga. He’d been there for me for some of the toughest times in my life. The toughest being when I lost Nova. He was there for me, in multiple ways. Not just when it came to the business. When I was on a decline after Nova, he was there. When shit went bad between me and Reign, he was there too. I didn’t share much but then again I didn't have to. Not when it came to Judah, I didn't have to. He paid attention. We worked close as hell during that time, since it was him making sure the business didn’t decline while I was grieving.
“She married, right?” Judah continued.
I took another sip of my drink. “Judah.”
