More Than Business

Chapter 67

"When I was very little, I had your average family... mom, dad, and I had 3 siblings. By the time I was 8 we were orphans." I took a break to figure out how to sum the events up, "My eldest brother was murdered, my other brother passed away shortly after and my sister committed suicide that year. Since then I had drifted in and out of every living family member in my family tree. Each person, someway or another managed to die within a year."

"So you have no living family members?" Whoopi clarified.

I shook my head, "My last aunt sent me to college, where I met Lydia. She died of breast cancer when I graduated with my undergraduates degree. I nearly quit school if it weren't for Lydia and her mom."

"Yeah, we basically adopted her." Lydia aided.

The studio was completely silent from the time I had begun talking, to a few long minutes after we'd finished.

During the commercial break the cast began asking additional questions.

"What got you into fashion?" The next audience member asked.

"Is that for both of us?" I asked, referring to Lydia and I.

"Yes." the guy clarified.

I motioned for Lydia to speak first.

"Well... I guess I got interested in it just by looking through a bunch of magazines and stuff like that when I was younger. I hadn't considered pursuing it as a career but I minored in Fashion Design in college nonetheless." She summarized.

"I stumbled upon fashion by accident." I crossed my legs in my seat, "I didn't have much money growing up, but one of my neighbors taught me to sew. She was known around the neighborhood for fixing people's clothing.. you know, replacing buttons and resizing. But she said she needed a successor- me." I lectured, "Eventually I taught myself to sew my own clothing using excess fabrics she had given me. People would always stop and ask me where I got my clothes."

The questions continued until finally someone asked: "Who's the lucky guy?"

Raven reached over and took my hand to exploit my engagement ring.

"Oh yeah.. I am recently engaged to Aubrey Graham." I admitted.

There was an unanimous gasp that echoed throughout the studio, I felt my cheeks burn bright red.

"And she's expecting." Lydia added.

"You're pregnant?" Whoopi asked.

I nodded, "triplets."

Another person approached the microphone, "This is.. the best day of my life."

"Yeah? Mine too!" Lydia played off of her emotions.

"I've always dreamt of meeting you.. and now here you are, you're both so beautiful and your stories are amazing." The woman raved. "I always felt like there was something about your line that was personal to you.. is that right or is it just me?"

I repositioned myself in my seat, "Before anything is added to the line, I make hand-make it." I began, "Usually my biggest inspiration is whatever is going through my mind at the time. And I explained earlier, that I've been through quite a bit and I get upset a lot. So I definitely think that my emotions are poured out into the pieces."

"In addition," Lydia jumped in, "I usually dictate the aspects of the photos for magazines and posters and whatnot of the clothing. With Nic and I being so emotionally tied, I definitely can admit that that is a huge factor in how I want the clothing represented."

"I feel like the advances we make in the line are what really tell our stories the most." I resubmitted, "Our transition from college to working, was when we added the business casual aspect to the line."

"So now that you're pregnant, can we expect maternity clothes added to the line?" Joy asked.

Lydia looked to me before responding, "We've definitely discussed it."

"We did, the first time around.." I said mainly just to her, "But I think I'm considering it a lot more this time."

"You were pregnant before?" Sara pieced together.

As Lydia and I explained us and OJ and Omarion and everything surrounding the matter, I noticed the pictures the crew had asked from us had been displayed for everyone to see.

"Now, we could all sit here and talk to these women all day, but we are out of time." Whoopi began a conclusion.

"But if you would like to keep up with them, you can follow their social media accounts." Raven added.

After the full conclusion we headed off-stage. Outside the dressing rooms the cast approached us, thanking us for letting the View be our debut as far as publicity was concerned. We took a few pictures before we left.

There was a crowd of people outside waiting. After a million pictures, autographs, and bits and pieces of conversations, we made it into the car... on the road headed back to the office.

QOTD: They've officially publicized EVERYTHING.. your thoughts?

AOTD: I feel like adding social media and stuff is really boutta fck up my story :/