Miss Independent (5 page)

“Ok, so you married, that’s cool. I didn’t see tha ring. But I don’t wanna step on anotha man’s toes. So, uh, I’mma get up outta here cause a nigga got shit to do.”

“Yeah--”

“I’ll see you around, Lil Mama. Holla atcha nigga if that man don’t know what he’s got!”

“
Unreal
,” Vanessa muttered as he exited the shop in a hurry.

Just as she was sitting back to finally take a full sip of tea, Nikki emerged from the back office. She fixed the bun sitting atop her head and tugged at her tank. Vanessa crinkled her brows and searched behind her for Oscar.

“That must have been some paycheck if it took that long to process. You must have made thousands in tips to be gone for what seemed like forever and a day.”

“It wasn’t that long,” she said, her naturally tanned skin flushing from panic and excitement. She looked down at the table, puzzled. “What’s that?”

“Tea. It’s apparently the only thing worth drinking in this place.”

“Oh.” She smiled nervously and zipped up her jacket to her neck. “Are you ready?”

“I’ve been ready. I was ready before I even sat down.”

“Let’s go then,” she said.

“Wait a minute.” Vanessa leaned forward. “Where’s the paycheck?”

“In my pocket.”

“Well let’s see it.”

She looked aside and rubbed the back of her neck. “I’m not pulling out my paycheck here.”

Vanessa widened her eyes and visually roamed the shop. “You work here,” she told her.

“I know that, but I don’t want Max seeing how much I make. It might intimidate him.”

“Well, then, you go girl. Let’s go to the bank and cash it.”

“Don’t you have to finish out your day at work?”

“Now you suddenly care about my job when you were back there most likely being motor boated by your boss.”

Nikki reached down for Vanessa’s arm and jerked her from the chair. They rushed out of the shop without Vanessa’s tea, which she wouldn’t realize for at least another few blocks. Nikki began walking a few steps ahead, trying to cover herself with her jacket as best as she could. She felt unclean and used, though she didn’t feel like that in the moment. In fact, she never felt like that until today, until she realized that her best friend might actually see her for who and what she believed she truly was, and discard her.

“Nik,” Vanessa hollered after.

“I just want to keep walking by myself,” she said as Vanessa caught up to her.

“I don’t think so.” She nervously exhaled and looked to the ground. “It was just a stupid joke. Maybe you were getting your check, I don’t know. I don’t really care. As long as you’re happy, it’s whatever with me, you know that.” They walked in silence for a few seconds as she feigned checking her purse. “Are you two happy? Is this a thing with the two of you or is it just sex?”

She groaned. “Vanessa!”

“Look, I am drowning for information here and talking about you keeps my mind off of my own problems. Besides, I haven’t actively seen you with a guy since high school. You’ve always been more focused on your ‘craft’ than relationships. You could have casual sex every now and then with some guy you found attractive in the moment and be totally fine afterwards because you weren’t expecting anything more than he was. Meanwhile, I was trying to tie down every guy who looked decent in a tuxedo and had a worthy pedigree.”

“That’s the difference between us,” she said. “I’m not like you. I never dreamed of a townhouse on the Upper East Side with a husband and four kids. The idea of all of that, and not being successful scares me.”

“You can be successful as a wife and mother. You’d just have to make a few adjustments. But we’re women, we can do anything.”

They smiled at one another.

“I know that, but it’s not the same. I don’t want children. I don’t even know if I ever want to get married.”

“Not even to Oscar?” Vanessa chimed in.

Nikki stopped and frowned. She thought about it earlier, what her life could be like married to him, but would it ever happen if he remained married to his current wife?

She shook the thoughts from her head and continued on.

“We’re still getting to know each other, V.”

“It’s been a year, Nik. I’d have booked the church by now.”

“I like my life as it is,” she told her. “I really do. Granted, I could use more money and maybe a place of my own one day, but I’m such a free spirit, I always have been. I like the idea of going out there on my own, traveling to Bora Bora or sitting near a volcano and watching the lava spew from the top.”

“Now you just sound completely crazy.”

She laughed. “I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

“V, I’m just… I’m different from you, that’s all.”

“I know that. When we first met in Mrs. Pritchett’s first grade class, you stole my pencil. I said that if you didn’t give it back, I’d send you flying over a moon and do you remember what you said to me?”

She nodded. “That flying over the moon would be a dream come true because I wanted to live on it someday.”

“Right. I knew then and there that you were an adventurous soul, and I accepted it.” She paused. “You and Oscar may not be getting married tomorrow, but… I still want to know how much sex you two have been having.”

“V.” She playfully shoved her away and began walking faster.

“I’m going through a dry spell. The love of my life is marrying a she-devil. Let me live vicariously through you!”

Part Three

When they arrived to their townhome on the Upper West Side, Nikki reached into her pocket for her keys. Vanessa stood behind on the steps and stared down at the doorknob. She noticed it had been tampered with.

              “Hold on,” she said, gently moving Nikki aside.

              She stepped forward and extended her hand, pushing the door back. When they realized it was already open, they looked at one another and slightly panicked.

              “Son of a bitch,” Vanessa muttered.

As they stormed through the foyer and turned a corner toward the kitchen, Vanessa jumped back in a fright, latching onto the framing of the wall and covering her eyes at what she had just witnessed: it was their roommate Maurice. He was completely naked and had just bent over to look for something in the fridge.

              “What?” Nikki asked, storming up behind. When she peeked over Vanessa’s shoulder and got a glimpse of Maurice’s butt cheeks, she gagged. “Ay Dios Mio, Papi! Put that thing away! It’s too early in the day for all of this.”

              “Never too early to express my freedom,” he said, still rummaging inside the fridge. Then he stopped and stood up, smiling. “You called me ‘Papi’.”

              “I misspoke.”

              “Maurice,” Vanessa snapped in a harsh tone. “What the hell are you doing here?”

              “I live here.”

              “At home in the middle of the day, and naked as a jaybird in my kitchen,” she replied.

              “
Our
kitchen,” he emphasized. “I pay for half of this place too.”

              “Keep this up and you won’t be paying for much of anything any longer. Except for maybe a hospital bill.”

              After grabbing a bottle of water, he stood up straight and closed the door to the fridge.

              As his dick waved back and forth and bounced against his balls, Nikki made a face as if she were going to puke and turned away, closing her eyes.

              “Nothing you’ve never seen before,” he said to her. “Maybe not in a very long time, though, for both of you.” He took a sip of water and stared at them.

Vanessa glared into his eyes as he smiled sheepishly.

              “This is making me sick,” said Nikki. “No one warned me about this.”

              “Just like no one warned me about
that
.” He picked up an envelope from the counter behind him and walked over to them.

              “I’m going upstairs before I lose my lunch all over this floor.” She turned away as quickly as she could and raced from the room.

              Vanessa watched her go, then turned back to Maurice and snatched the envelope from between his thumb and forefinger.

              “I’m sorry,” he said. “But you know it’s in my nature to walk around naked in my own home.”

              She dropped her purse on the table and stared up at him. “That’s just it, Maurice. It’s not just
your
home. In fact, it was never
your
home because
I
was the one who first bought this place in college. And then I let you move in after your house flooded and you just got too damn lazy to move out. It’s been that way ever since.”

              “And what about Nikki?”

              “Nikki had no place to go after her parents fled to Connecticut, you know that. Besides, she didn’t have the money and I like her better than you, I always have.”

              “That’s bullshit,” he began, “but I accept it because she’s poor.”

              “She’s not poor!
Asshole
.”

              “Alright, so she’s financially challenged because she doesn’t have a real job and her parents are the ones with the money. What’s the difference?”

“I could say the same about you.”

“I could say the same about you too, Editor-In-Chief of Mommy’s international magazine.”

“Eat shit,” she shot back.

He gulped more water and gazed down at her as she opened the envelope.

She sighed, becoming lost in thought as she noticed the familiar lettering.

“It’s the invitation.”

“No kidding.” Maurice waited a moment and squinted. “I take it you got one too.”

              “Of course! She wouldn’t be Sheila if she didn’t try to rub my face in something monumental for
her
at the worst possible moment for
me
, which is why I received it at work. Whatever, it doesn’t matter, I tossed it into the trash. Which is exactly where you’re going to be if you don’t go upstairs and put some clothes on.”

              “Come on, V.” He arched the corners of his lips, his deep voice entrancing.

              Her frustration increased. “I’m not kidding, Mo--”

              “I never said you were. But you don’t have to pretend.”

He caressed her chin to calm her; her heart skipped a little at his touch but she remained at ease in his presence.

“We share that joint bathroom upstairs and over the years, I’ve seen you peeking at me from time to time when you’re in there. I never said anything directly because I thought it might make you feel embarrassed, but it’s out now. You know you like to look when I come out of the shower. I think it’s time you finally admit it.”

              Vanessa couldn’t deny that her friend of over fifteen years was devastatingly handsome. Maurice was probably one of the best looking men she had ever known. A man every woman wanted on her arm and in her bed, but was so hard to tie down for more than a few good nights. If he weren’t so beautiful to look at and enthralling with his words, no woman would ever try. At six-foot-three he, like Oscar, was a part time model balancing life in both London and Paris while maintaining strong ties to New York, before landing a secure job at Willman’s Ad Agency two years ago, thanks in part to Vanessa’s influence on the manager. His life as a model was fitting, because his physique was as sick as they come. His smooth olive skin that enveloped every muscle on his body and eyes the color of root beer with a smile that would make any girl come in her panties the moment he flashed his pearly whites, was almost no match for his chiseled face.

And those long fingers.
They looked and felt as if they were made from silk.

He and Vanessa dated for a few months after high school but mutually parted ways when they each realized she was still in love with Nathan. They tried again during her sophomore year at NYU, but never seemed to get things quite right given his constant leaving for various modeling gigs in London, and her unwillingness to travel with him at his request. He often insisted on trying again once he finally settled back in place, remaining permanently in New York and giving up modeling for good; but they had developed a deep bond over the years, much deeper than they had as children, and she was afraid to lose it in a relationship that was sure to include sex, which always seemed to make things more complicated. But his feelings for her never dissipated, not as much as he had always claimed over the years.

“I will admit to nothing,” she answered in a soft voice, steadily pulling back from him.

“Because it’s true.”

“No, what’s true is that you’re only doing this because you can. Just like a dog licking himself. And you’re naked because you more than likely have a girl hidden around here someplace.”

              “She’s not hidden if she’s tied up in my bedroom with an apple in her mouth.”