Miss Independent (21 page)

              He lifted his brows and then lowered them. “That’s a lot to ask, man. Not that I’m not willing to help a fellow brotha out, but my dad and his partners don’t just bring anybody into their firm. That’s why they’ve kept it pretty small. They had some shady dealings in the past with people who tried to steal clients. I’m not knocking you, but--”

              “No, I know that, I know. And I understand the hesitancy, but you know me. I’m a hard worker and I’m motivated. A captain always has to be on his A-game, right? Hey…” He slapped his chest. “MVP. How many championships did we win with me leading the pack?”

              He grinned and looked toward the table. “Those were some good times, man…. How quickly would you need to start?”

              “As soon as possible. If Sheila wants to move back here for good, I need a job to hold me in place after the wedding. Your dad’s firm is one of the best in the city.”

              “Have you talked to your parents? They’ve got more connections than I do.”

              “Sure, yeah, I thought about that. But I think it’s best if I worked away from them, around people who didn’t know me so well personally, aside from you.”

              He nodded. “Alright man. I’ll see what I can do for you, but I can’t make any promises.” He drank some of his coffee and eyed Nathan suspiciously. “Now that that’s out of the way, I need to ask you something personal. This isn’t more about you than her, right? It’s not about Vanessa, is it?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you’re not moving back here to be near her or some crazy shit like that, right? Congrats to you again, I sincerely mean that. But I remember what you did to her in high school, and--”

              “Vanessa and I are good now,” he said. “We’re cool. As a matter of fact, I saw her this afternoon. We all had lunch and everything was fine. It was like the past was just that, in the past. I think she’d be good with me moving back. The island is small, but we can avoid each other if it ever comes to that again, but I don’t think it will.”

              Eddie breathed out and nodded. “Alright. Alright, well, I’ll head back to the office and talk to my dad about any positions we have open, see if we can fit you in someplace.”

              “Good deal. I really appreciate this, man.”

              They each stood up and shook hands.

              “Good to see you again, Nate,” said Eddie. He tossed a few dollars on the table for his coffee and reached for his cup. “See you and Sheila at the reunion, right?”

              “I’ll be there. Sheila’s in charge of it now, did you hear?”

              “No. But that doesn’t surprise me either.” He grinned. “See ya.”

              Nathan dropped his hands inside his pockets, knowing he had just lied through his teeth to his former teammate. Sheila had no plans of moving back to the city, let alone moving the wedding. Vanessa was far from cool with being anywhere near either one of them at any point, ever, and he in fact
did
plan on staying to be closer to her. He knew it would take all he had in him to convince Sheila of otherwise, but he was more than prepared to do whatever it took to keep them back in Manhattan, permanently.

Part Eleven

              Once Saturday rolled around, everyone was preparing themselves for Alexis’ ‘surprise party’.

Vanessa was getting dressed in her bedroom while Maurice was still showering, most likely with cold water which suited him fine, since Vanessa had used most of it up earlier that morning. Nikki was downstairs in her adult size footie pajamas, eating a bowl of cereal at the kitchen table while reading “
How To Land Your Man While Still Keeping Your Dignity
” by their old acquaintance from high school, Eliza Duncan, though she had hidden the cover behind another one that she had stolen from a different book that was sitting around the house collecting dust. It was the third book she had read by Eliza that had her fully enthralled and reevaluating her life goals.

              When Vanessa finally made her way downstairs after finishing her hair, Nikki quickly, but easily tried placing it underneath the table so that she wouldn’t notice.

              “Your hair looks great,” she mumbled through the food.

              “Thanks. What are you reading?” She looked back at her as she headed to the fridge.

              Nikki’s shoulders sank. “Just a book.” She shoved a spoonful of cereal into her mouth to keep from saying anymore.

              “I pretty much got that.” She pulled a bottle of orange juice from the lower level and began drinking. “What’s the name of it?”

              “It’s just one of Eliza Duncan’s books.”

              “Eliza? Didn’t she become a self-help guru for the New Millennials, or something?”

              “Something like that. This latest one is pretty good.”

              “What’s it about?”

              Nicole hesitated to answer. “It doesn’t matter. I heard she’ll be at the reunion.”

              “Maybe you should go as Maurice’s date and get an autograph. Speaking of which…” She sat her juice on the counter behind her and angrily looked down at her watch. “What the hell is taking him so long to get ready? We have to be at my mother’s in less than thirty minutes and I heard on the radio that the traffic is complete shit today. It’s not like he has to look good for anybody. With the exception of me and Gina, every other woman there will be over fifty years old.”

              “He’s a perv,
mordaza
. He might think of taking one of them home afterward to see how the cougar’s do it.”

              “Gross.”

              “You know he would, V.” She lifted her book back up and placed it on the table. “What time are you coming back?”

              “I don’t know, why? Do you not plan on being here when we get back?”

              “I might go into work later.”

              “I know you had said that, but I wasn’t sure. It’s what I told Alexis, anyway. Have you seen Oscar since…?”

              “No. He’s been calling a few times and left voicemails, but I’ve ignored them. I don’t even know if I still have a job there anymore.”

              “You should. Even though I don’t know why you’d still want to work there.”

              “I like working there. It’s convenient and familiar to me.”

              “So are old pairs of socks, Nik, but eventually they get holes in the toes and become crumbly and we have to toss them into the trash instead of the hamper or a washing machine. There’s plenty of other coffee shops around the city that could use a good barista. It’s not like Oscar was the only guy to give you a chance.”

              “He wasn’t, but he was the only one I ever cared what thought of me after sex.”

              “I meant a chance for a job.”

              Nikki’s skin flushed a bright red. “Right. I know that.”

              She immediately returned to her book as Vanessa drank more of her juice.

              Vanessa never told her about Oscar coming to visit at the office and wasn’t sure if she was ever going to. Was it necessary? She feared if Nikki learned of it, it would send her even further into his arms, not away from them, because it would mean that he was more serious about her and their relationship than earlier believed. But Vanessa was certain that Oscar was nothing more than a user. He might have loved Nicole, but it was fairly obvious that he would continue to cause her nothing but pain, considering he still had no plans to leave his wife, despite all of his earlier declarations.

              When she saw Maurice enter the kitchen, she looked down at her watch again. “It took you long enough.”

              “I had to make sure I was so fresh and so clean.” He rubbed his hand down the front of his white collared shirt and leaned back on his Oxford’s, grinning from ear to ear and winking at them both.

Nikki rolled her eyes and Vanessa tossed her empty bottle into the trash beneath the sink.

              “Let’s go before my mother throws a fit over us being later than usual. I promised Alexander we’d help them set up before everybody else arrived.” She shoved her hands into his stomach, pushing him back.

              “Have fun!” hollered Nikki as they left the house.

              They arrived on Alexis’ and Alexander’s Upper East Side townhouse doorstep an hour and fifteen minutes later than originally planned. The cab ride was quiet, if only because neither had really known what to say to one another since their awkward lunch ‘date’ the week before. Things had been quiet between them around the house as well. Nikki hadn’t noticed because she was too preoccupied with her own problems.

Vanessa just couldn’t bring herself to admit that she was too afraid to confront what she may have been feeling for Maurice out loud or too herself, and he was sick and tired of trying to force the truth out of her.

              As they waited for someone to answer the door, she fiddled with the edge of her brown skirt that resembled the head of a tulip, and kept twisting the tiny curls of her hair around her finger. She rattled her feet inside her black Mary Jane pumps and breathed deep.

              “Why are you so nervous?” asked Maurice, looking her up and down as she panicked.

              “I just don’t want my mother to think I look oversimplified or something. She always has something to say about my hair and wardrobe and it’s never good.”

              Maurice looked at the top of her head. “I noticed you changed your hair. It looks good on you.”

              “Thanks. I didn’t blow dry it straight this time with big curls. She’s going to hate how I fixed it. I can just feel she’s going to hate it.”

              “I thought Alexis liked your hair natural?”

              “She did. When
she
was the one taking care of it. As long as I’m taking care of it, it’s passable, but I could always ‘do better’. She doesn’t like my hair straight, she doesn’t like it natural. Maybe I should just start all over and shave it all off.”

              Maurice rang the bell for the second time. He looked over at her again and smirked. “Your hair is fine. The top is fine… but the skirt’s a little short.”

              “Shut up,” she snapped.

              He snickered. It was the first time in what felt like forever that either one of them had a sense to do something other than avoid one another.

              When someone finally came to the door, Vanessa stepped up.

It was Gina, Alexander’s daughter. She looked down at Vanessa’s empty hands and glowered. “You didn’t bring a gift.”

She pointed to her chest and leaned back. “I’m the gift.”

“You would be if you showed up on time.”

              Vanessa arched a brow and grinned. She reached out and pinched Gina’s nose with her index and middle fingers as she stepped inside.

“She must have given Penelope the day off if she’s letting you answer the door instead.”

              “Not even,” replied Gina. “I just knew you two would be the first ones showing up, even if you were super late, and I wanted to let you in. They’ve already started setting up in the dining room. The DJ’s in the corner in the den getting his music ready.”

“What kind of music?”

“Probably some old school junk from the fifties.” Her eyes roamed over to Maurice and her smile grew into a full on beam. “Hey Maurice. You look really,
really
good today.” She was eager, flipping her long black hair this way and that as she watched him enter the house behind Vanessa. She lifted the long sleeves of her cerulean blouse and nervously toyed with the pearls around her neck.

              “Hey, Little Bit.” He bumped her arm with his elbow. She pouted and adjusted her matching cerulean headband before slamming the door shut. Maurice followed Vanessa into the dining room, staring around at the decorum and the servers as they began placing food around the various tables. “I don’t think I’ve been in this room since I was seventeen.”

              “You were in here last Thanksgiving.”

              “Looks different.”

              “Everything looks different when you’re sober.” She looked around a little more and pushed her brows together. “I also think she might have redecorated recently.”

              Gina went over to Vanessa and yanked her across the room. The strap of her scoop neck brown tank slipped from her shoulder.

              “What?!”

              “Did you tell him to call me that?” Gina asked in a low voice.

              Vanessa lifted her strap and appeared genuinely confused. “Call you
what
?”

              “‘Little bit!’ You know I hate that nickname, V!”

              “I didn’t tell him anything. He’s heard me call you that tons of times since you were a kid. To him, you’re like a sister. Not someone he’s interested in sleeping with, thank God.” She glanced down, noticing her pencil skirt and black pumps. “Are those my shoes?”