“Good morning,” I said to Nina, who was at the kitchen table, wide-eyed, staring at her phone. “I love that outfit.”
The burnt-orange jumpsuit immediately caught my attention.
“Thank you. It’s an RLF original,” she said distractedly.
“Perks of the job or…?” I noticed her frown. “Nina, what’s wrong?”
“I’m just reporting pages and hopefully getting assholes banned from using social media.”
“Why do people waste their time and energy sitting online, trash-talking people they don’t know? It’s dumb.”
“It is,” she agreed.
“What are they saying?”
She didn’t respond immediately, and Nina never shied away from talking about the nonsense that was spewed about her online.
My stomach twisted.
“Nina,” I said firmly. “Tell me.”
“Oh, no, I’m not even looking at the comments anymore.” She glanced up at me momentarily. “It’s something else.”
“What is it?”
“Your parents are going to be here any minute. I don’t think—”
“Tell me,” I demanded, interrupting her. Bracing myself, I took a deep breath. “What is it?”
“It’s, um…” She cocked her head to the side.
Aaliyah walked in. “What’s going on?”
“Nina is about to show us something,” I told her, my eyes still focused on Nina.
Placing the phone on the table, her finger hovered over the play button. Milan, looking gorgeous, was frozen on the screen holding up a makeup brush. “This was posted.” Nina took out her earbud and then started the video.
“So, I’m heading to Maryland to go to the Monarchs game tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to talk to Hollywood,” Milan said, wiggling her perfectly arched eyebrows. “Anyone who knows him knows he’s never been big on social media. He obviously doesn’t post much, but he also just isn’t online like the rest of us. So I haven’t been able to contact him there, and I’m sure he hasn’t seen the sweet videos you’ve made about me. I don’t want to reach out to his parents because that’ll make it awkward—they loved me—so I’m just going to go to where I know he is and see if sparks still fly between us. Since we’re both single at the same time, I really do have high hopes for this reconnection. And I’m not going to stop until I get him. So, fingers crossed! Wish me luck!”
The kitchen fell silent.
And then we all started talking at once.
“Oh, hell no.”
“Absolutely not.”
“What the fuck?”
“You’re gonna have to shut this down, Jazz,” Nina declared. “And I was going to wait until we weren’t in Chance to say this, but Milan is a man-eater. And while I respect the game, anyone who is willing to flyacross the countryto try to run into her exat his jobin hopes that hemightbe interested in reconnecting is operating in delusion.”
“Did Lamar say anything about her contacting him?” Aaliyah asked.
I shook my head. “No. But let him tell it, even if she did, he wouldn’t be interested.”
“I believe that,” Nina stated. “But I think he’s going to have to make it clear that he’s not interested in Milan.”
“I think he’s going to have to make it clear he’s not single,” Aaliyah said.
