Just Friends.

Chapter one

F R I D A Y

August 11th

5pm

"So you coming out tonight with us right Lani?" Kim questioned. They were all on Group FaceTime.

"Ummm-" Malani said as Tae cut her off.

"Um shit bitch, you coming, we all haven't hung out together since last month plus the guys coming too." Tae said smirking.

"Boy, and what's that suppose to mean." Malani said with a eye roll.

"Girl that mean East gonna be there don't play." Dess chimes in.

"Ughh, y'all hoes aggy, ain't no one worried about East." Malani yelled.

"Right says the hoe that's been in love with him for damn near 6 years." Tae said sarcastically.

"Shut up Tae, it was a little crush and that was years ago, I'm not going since y'all hoes tryna be funny." Malani mumbled.

"Girl, whatever we getting ready at your house later." Tae said ignoring what Malani said.

"You know East love you girl he stay looking out for you and eye fucking you." Tae said smirking.

"Byee Tae! anyways, what club y'all tryna go to?" Malani questioned as she got up from the bed going into her closet as her dog coco followed behind her.

"Ummm, I think the guys said club ace, we gonna be at your house around 9." Kim said

"Okay, bet I'll see y'all hoes later." Malani said as they all said their goodbyes and hanging up.

A few hours later

Once Malani found a outfit she got on her MacBook looking at her emails and her schedule for next week. She was happy with how business was doing at her shop, she worked so hard for this and came a long way. She started working at a hospital when she was in college and started doing makeup and lashes part time. Once she started building up clientele, she started saving up for when she wanted to purchase a building for her beauty bar. She worked at the hospital for about 3 years and when she decided to move to Houston, almost 2 years ago she quit.

Her last three semesters were completely online due to Covid so it made her transition to Houston definitely easier. She finally purchased a shop last year in January with the help of her parents and opened up Joyce's suites, she name it after her grandma on her dad's side.

Her shop was her baby, she put blood, sweat and tears into fixing up the building. She had 8 individual suites inside her salon and had 6 suites filled so far. She had two, one for her makeup and one for lashes. Right now she has a nail tech, wax specialist, a hair stylist and her friend Sydney does bomb facials, so she also has an esthetician. And Tae little cousin Skylar was her receptionist. She stayed busy with working so she really hasn't hung out with the girls and Tae in a while.

Malani was definitely a homebody but she loved going out with her friends. Between working and spending time with her family and friends she didn't do much outside of that. She had been single for 2 years now. Her last relationship hurt her deeply and she already had past trauma she was dealing with before the relationship.

So it took her a while to heal from it. She met her ex at college and they started dating when she was 18, they only lasted for almost 2 years. She found out he cheated on her the whole time they were together. What was even more fucked up is that she found out days before her 20th birthday and ended things immediately. He hurt her in a way she never imagine. She had to go to therapy for a while to heal. He broke her mentally, physically and emotionally.