CHAPTER ONE
Charlene had been Nina's go-to ever since they started working together at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, so of course she had no problem spilling the tea about her and Ty’s relationship. It was her first time ever mingling with another woman, and the problems that came with it were worse than dealing with a nigga.
Hell, Ty was a nigga. She dressed, looked, and acted just like one of the knucklehead men chasing ass at every red light.
“We been good for months. I mean, the night I finally gave in and let her show me what I been missing felt like heaven. But girl, I-D-K. Shit is so different now. I kind of regret crossing that line in our friendship.”
"Well, are y'all in a relationship, or just kicking it?”
"See, that's the thing! I wanna be with Ty. We know everything about each other. And shit, before we started fucking around for real, everybody thought we were together anyway. But I don't think she wants that. She talk a good game, but she don’t act like it.”
Charlene sensed the hurt in Nina's tone. She was experienced when it came to dating women and knew what an emotional rollercoaster it was, so before clocking back in from break, she embraced her friend and tried to offer some encouragement. Whether they stuck or not, she didn’t know. She had her own relationship problems to deal with.
After she was gone, Nina sat in the break room alone in her thoughts about Ty, wondering why things didn't naturally go as she'd assumed. Had she done something wrong that night? Was she too straightforward? Had she scared her best friend and the person she'd fallen in love with away?
All kinds of questions ran through her mind that day, but clarity didn’t look like something that was coming to save her. She told herself to suck it up, move on, and let Ty be with the streets she loved so much. But when her body yearned for that feeling she had been missing in the bedroom for so long, she didn’t want to let go.
Before she went back on the floor, she decided to send Ty a quick text to see how her day was going and to see if she could get somewhere with her feelings. After getting no response, Nina decided to call. But, of course, Ty's phone went straight to voicemail.
"Hey, just calling to see how your day is going. Wanted to see if we could link up after work, if you're free. I'm going back on the floor, but I'll be off at eleven. Let me know what's up.”
After hanging up, Nina clocked back in and headed towards the elevators. She checked her phone one last time before she exited onto her floor, and still nothing. By then, she was ready to clock out early from her shift and pull up to Ty’s job for answers. But the last time she did that, Ty cut her off from the strap, and she was forced to seek pleasure elsewhere.
“How you doing, girly?” Charlene asked as they bumped into each other in the hallway.
“As good as I can be,” Nina rolled her eyes. “I texted her; no answer. Called, no answer. Like, what the fuck?”
“Maybe she's busy,” Charlene shrugged. “Give it some time. She'll probably hit you back before shift change. Sometimes, us women can be a lil’ clingy. Niggas hate that.”
“Yeah, I won't hold my breath. If she don’t hit me back by the time I get off, I’m definitely pulling up, ‘cause I ain’t did nothing to deserve being ignored.”
Charlene laughed, then proceeded to her next patient, and Nina did the same.
Over the course of her shift, it was evident that her mind was nowhere near where it should have been, which is work, and a fellow co-worker by the name of Rose didn’t hesitate to call her out on it. There had always been a beef between the two of them. So whenever Nina was caught slacking or not performing her best, the bitch always had something to say.
“If you worried about your job as much as you did that fake-ass dick, you’d be done with your rounds by now.”
“Girl, fuck you,” Nina scoffed. “Worry about that no-good-ass baby daddy you steady paying to be with you, not what the fuck going on with me.”
Before she knew it, Nina was inches from her enemy's face, telling her where to go and how to get there.
Charlene heard the commotion and rushed to Nina’s side to calm the situation down, and Rose, being outnumbered, decided it was best for her to keep it cute and keep it moving before she got fired. Because no matter how far gone Nina’s head was about Ty, she was a favorite at SMH, and everybody knew it.
“Nina, don't you let that bitch cost you your job. She is not worth it. You know how she is—petty and miserable. Leave that bitch where she at.”
“Oo, Charlene!” Nina growled, “She just don't know! She was bout to be one of these patients in here. She better find somebody to play with! I can’t stand that bitch at all. She makes me sick!”
“Oop, not a patient?” Charlene laughed. “I don’t know why you let a bitch like Rose get you all riled up. That ain’t nothing but jealousy in the flesh.”
“Yeah. Mhm. Let me go do my rounds so I can go before this bitch make me lose my head in here.”
Nina liked to make her last rounds of the night 30 minutes before she clocked out. That way she knew her patients would have everything they needed for at least an hour after shift change. She was very precise with how she took care of her people, because she knew firsthand what it was like not being able to care for yourself.
Her mother passed away in a nursing home a few years prior, and ever since then, she made it her business to care for people the way she wanted her mother to be cared for.
During her period of grief, Ty was always there for her—no questions asked, which was why she was so passionate about what their relationship turned into. She thought for sure they had a trauma bond of some sort, but they were best friends before anything.
Her last stop before she clocked out was always with a young girl on her wing who had been bedridden from the moment she got there. The girl reminded Nina so much of herself when she was her age that she couldn't help but grow attached. For some strange reason, she also reminded her of Ty. Nina could never put her finger on why that was, but the superstitious part of herself told her that it was no coincidence.
“Heyyy Gigi,” she called out in a sing-song sort of way. “Everything good?”
Smiling from ear to ear, Gigi replied, “Yep! I was wondering if you forgot to see me before you left.”
“Now you know better than that. You know I come in here every night to see my Gi.” Nina scooted next to her on the bed and wrapped her up in a tight, loving hug. “My nights wouldn't be the same if I skipped out without seeing you. I’d go home and toss and turn all night, wondering what you were doing.”
“Maybe when I get to leave, we can hang out,” Gigi said. “You’re the only one who’s nice to me."
Hearing those words brought tears to Nina's eyes.
She made her hug a little tighter and a little longer, trying her hardest to share every ounce of love she had in her body with Gigi. Before she left, she kissed the child's thinning head of hair and promised to keep up with her when she went home. Of course, if her mother allowed it.
When it was time to clock out, she met up with Charlene like she did every night. They walked to the garage together just in case some maniac was lurking around, waiting to catch one of them slipping. They had also taken a few self-defense classes together during the Summer, which had Charlene on some sort of kung fu nigga power trip. She was always talking about what she would do to somebody if the time ever came, while Nina loved to rely on her handy-dandy pepper spray.
“I'll spray a bitch eyes out!” Was her infamous line, and that damn Charlene cracked up every time she said it.
As they exited the elevator onto the third floor of the parking garage, Nina and Charlene bumped into Rose and her do-girl, Jayla. After exchanging dirty looks with one another, Nina called out, “Later, girl. Let me go. It’s getting crowded in here.”
Rose wanted to say something slick just to get under Nina’s skin, but she knew better than to talk shit once they were off the clock. All was fair in parking garage wars, and there was never any night security to break up a fight if it got started.
“Ok. Call me later and let me know what's going on with that thang,” Charlene said. “I’m fina go home and get cracked like a crab leg.”
“Bitch!” Nina laughed. “Get cracked for the two of us, shit! I guess I’ma go home and dream about getting cracked like a crab leg.”
Turning the ignition of her ruby red, 2020 convertible Mustang, Nina glanced in her rearview mirror, only to see Rose glancing back.
Backing out of the parking spot, eyes locked on Rose the whole time, she mouthed Bitch, then tooted her lips and sped out of the garage. Once she reached the streets of downtown Sarasota, she decided to call Ty one more time, but the sudden sight of her made her hang up and speed into a nearby parking spot.
Hoping she hadn't been spotted, she crouched down in her seat and watched Ty exit the Golden Apple with someone she claimed she hadn’t spoken to in months.
“Really?” Nina’s lip curled. “Now let you tell it, you ain’t spoke to her since all that shit went down. Now all of a sudden you ignoring me and going on dates with the bitch?”
She picked up her phone and called Charlene, hoping she wasn’t already getting her freak on. The last thing she wanted was to sound like one of the nagging bitches who was always going through relationship problems, but she didn’t have anyone else to talk to.
“Girl! Guess what the fuck!”
“What the fuck?”
“So, I'm on my way home, minding my own damn business, trying to call Ty before I reach the bridge, and do you know what I see!? Well, I'll be damned if it ain't Ty and Lyrica leaving the Golden Apple! Like they on a date or some shit.”
Charlene gasped, “Ooo, bitch! What happened to not speaking to Lyrica since that night?”
“Hello!” Nina exclaimed in agreement. “And even if she hasn’t, why the fuck wouldn’t she tell me she started back?”
“Now Ty know she dead ass wrong for that one, girl. Like, damn, at least let a bitch know what’s up." And where you at? Don’t tell me you went into them people shit causing a scene.”
“Girl, no.” Nina rolled her eyes. “I’m sitting in the parking lot watching her walk the bitch she hasn't spoken to, to her damn car.”
“Child, go home,” Charlene laughed. “Call me once you finally speak to Ty. Ya'll are stressing my life, honey! I’m fina go shower and meet my lil’ boo thang.”
After ending the call, Nina took a few pictures of Ty in the act. She decided that once she got home, she would send them and let Ty know that she was caught red-handed.
When she got home, she decided to run a bubble bath and have a glass of wine while she fantasized about all the ways to get revenge.
Her phone had rung twice and buzzed for about six text messages, but she was too deep in thought to care. The lights were dimmed, her candles were burning, and the soothing sounds of Sade was playing over the intercom. If Nina didn't do anything else that night, she told herself she would have a peaceful bath.
Once the wine started to hit, she let a sigh roll from her half-smiling lips, put her hands in the air, and swayed her body to the beat of the music while chuckling to herself because she knew she was bad. And if Ty didn't want her, she knew a few who did.
After her bath, she threw on a silk see-through nightgown, sprayed on her mother's favorite perfume, grabbed her phone, and hopped into bed.
Three text messages from Ty. Two from Charlene. One from a nigga named Roq who was always begging to take her out.
The only ones she read were from Ty, and of course she hit her with some lame, I was at work type shit. Instead of going back and forth with her about why she didn’t believe her, Nina sent Ty the pictures and then turned her phone off.
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