“Don’t I know it,” Roz said with as a waiter came to their table and asked what he could get for Roz to drink. Nikki already had her drink. “Just a diet Pepsi for me, thanks,” Roz said to the waiter. He left to go get her order.
But Nikki was surprised. “Diet?You?”
“Don’t trip! I put on a few pounds.”
“I don’t see it.”
“But I do.”
“Mick complaining?”
“Hell no. He wouldn’t mind if I was your size.”
Although Roz was a curvaceous woman in her own right, Nikki was a full-figured gal in every way. She was curvaceous-plus. “I’m thinking about taking that Wegovy pill myself,” Nikki said. “Men may like these big asses and big hips, but I’m the one who has to carry them around with her.”
Roz looked at her. “Wegovy? For real?”
“Oh yeah. I been thinking long and hard about it. I don’t wanna do the shots though, but I’m thinking about taking that pill.”
“How does Teddy feel about it?”
“He’s against it. He claims to like me just the way I am.”
“Mick loves you just the way you are too,” Roz said, and she and Nikki glanced at each other. It was no secret in the family that Mick favored Nikki above most everybody else and viewed her as uniquely capable. That was how he allowed her to become the first female and only black underboss in his syndicate’s long history. But some in the family believed Mick’s interest in Nikki held a sexual component as well. But Nikki and Roz both knew better than that.
“Are you going?” Nikki asked her. “You still haven’t given me a definitive answer.”
“That’s because I haven’t had a chance to talk to Mick yet. He’s been out of town.”
“But I’m leaving tomorrow afternoon, Roz. I wanna spend a full week in New Orleans for the Essence Festival. Not just a few days like I usually do. But the full week. And I’m driving all those nineteen hours too? Girl you’re missing out. I’m gonna have the Corvette with the top down too? You’re missing out.”
“Teddy know you’re going to be putting all those miles on his ‘Vet?”
“Child, Teddy don’t care about that corvette like he used to. He be driving that old Hellcat all the time. Besides, he’s got too much going on to be worrying about mileage. And our baby girl is still in Florida with Gloria and will be for a few more weeks as well? I’ll drive to Essence, spend a week there, and then drive back before either one of them misses me.”
“What’s he working on that’s got him so busy?” Roz asked.
“Container issues girl. It’s dysfunction on top of dysfunction. It’s so much craziness going on in some of our port of calls that Teddy had to take it over from me.”
Roz shook his head. “I’m surprised Mick didn’t take it from Teddy. But at least he’s giving Teddy room to be the boss he is.”
“He’s trying anyway,” Nikki said with a smile. “But back to Essence.”
“Don’t worry,” Roz said as the waiter returned with her Pepsi, and then left. “I’ll talk to Mick tonight. He’s due back in town tonight. I’ll let you know my decision right after I talk to him.”
“Sounds good. But whether you go or not, I’m going,” Nikki said with a grin. “I’m looking forward to a nice, cross-country drive. It’s been a minute since I’ve been able to go somewhere on my own. It’s going to feel so good.”
Roz knew it too. She needed that kind of freedom break herself! But convincing Mick she could travel without him or his goons close behind was another conversation altogether.
“Cheers,” Nikk said as she lifted up her glass of wine, “to our girls’ trip.”
Roz lifted up her Pepsi too, even though, given Mick’s possessiveness, there was little guarantee that she’d be on that trip at all.
CHAPTER TWO
Later that night Teddy flew his Hellcat into one of the Senior VP parking spaces of his father’s corporate headquarters building, hopped out, and entered the lobby. Then he hopped onto the elevator of the massive building, whereSINATRA INDUSTRIESwas embossed on the back wall, and made his way to the top floor. When the elevator doors opened, the guard at the desk knew who he was and allowed him passage through. He made his way to his father’s office.
His secretary was just standing from her desk. “Hello sir.”
