Elora watched the Vietnamese man do her balance waiting for Corey and Demetri. Kara had arrived at the nail salon a few seconds after El.
"How you been? I haven't seen you in weeks." Kara asked sitting in the salon chair right next to her.
"I've been good. I was trying to get all these interviews and photo shoots out the way before I release my book. Rico and I just got back here just a few days ago from Chicago and we've been staying the house since we've been busy as hell for the past few weeks."
"I'm so happy for you." Kara smiled genuinely. "You had my ass crying up a storm in that interview with Oprah."
"Really?"
"Girl yes, I went through a whole box of tissues trying to stop crying."
"I'm sorry." Elora said with her bottom lip slightly poked out.
"Don't apologize you really have a good story to tell and everybody should hear that shit." Right as Kara finished her sentence Demetri and Corey came into the shop.
"Elora I'm so happy to see you." Corey said kissing her cheek. "Oh I'm so happy." She signed the appointment sheet and sat in the empty pedicure station.
"What's got in to you?" Demetri asked. "The whole way here you were mad and going off about Andre."
"Girl bye. I haven't seen my boo in forever." Corey sent a wink at El. Elora shook her head and watched the man fill in the out grown spaces on her other hand.
---
While she dealt with Corey and her uncontrollable excitement Rico was dealing with a bigger issue.
---
"You remember me? From the club?" Rico looked the girl up and down.
"Oh yeah. You the one that was downing all my bottles." Rico said putting all of his football gear in the trunk of his car.
"I'm sorry about that I had way to much to drink."
"I see." Rico said keeping the conversation dry. He knows Elora is crazy and he didn't want her to be lurking in the bushes and see him talking to this girl. He always acted like Elora was next to him when she wasn't around, so he'd keep all his conversations with other woman to a minimum just like if she was right there with him.
"A shawty me and my boy gotta be placed. Come on Ze we gone be late for practice." Andre said rolling down the passenger seat window.
"I'm coming man." Rico closed the trunk and looked down at the five foot six white stranger who was trying to start a conversation with him. "If I see you out again stay away from my shit."
The girl laughed. "I definitely will. Maybe you and I can go out some time."
"Nah." Her smiled faded. "I gotta girl friend. I see you in scrubs so I assume you must go here too. I don't know if you're new here but everybody knows about my crazy ass girlfriend." Rico headed for the driver side door. "What's your name?"
"Macy."
"Macy, that's nice. You seem like a nice girl but my girlfriend would choke the life out of me just because of this conversation. So I think it's wise for me to end this conversation."
"That's crazy." She shook her head in shame. "She doesn't let you have female friends? That's not right."
"Whoa i said nothing about us being friends." He arched an eyebrow and leaned against his car door.
"You didnt, but you know what I mean."
"I guess..... Well to be fair.... She doesn't have any male friends either. I even see her talking, laughing, or even looking at another nigga, me, her and dude gotta a problem. So it's fair. She can have as many female friends as she wants. But I'm not going for the whole boy Bestfriend shit though. She can be cool with my friends only because I know my niggas ain't gone try and fuck with her. So I believe it's fair that I practice what I preach and don't talk to females unless I have too. And in this case I don't need to." Rico opened the car door and got in, leaving Macy standing in the parking lot. "It was nice talking to you Macy." He gave her a fake smile before pulling off.
--
Corey wiggled in excitement sitting across from Elora. "Can you please just tell everyone so I don't explode." She said in a loud whisper. Elora sat at the the drying table with her hands and feet laying flat so she wouldn't mess up her Polish.
El rolled her eyes slowly. "You just had to open your fuckin mouth huh?"
"I'm sorry but you know that shit was coming. You dropped a big ass bomb on me like that and didn't expect me to get antsy."
"What's she talking about?" Kara asked.
Elora let out a deep breath. "I'm making the same promise I made to Corey, to the both of you. Lean in." All three of them leaned in to hear what she had to say. "I will kill all of you if you tell anyone what I'm about to say. I'm making that a promise. I cross my heart and hope you die if you tell a soul, me and my gun will find you. I don't want the press to get their hands on this and I don't want all of my damn business out in the air. You understand?"
Kara and Demetri nodded slowly with fear.
"Good." Elora leaned in some more. "I went to my doctor this morning and found out that I'm five weeks pregnant."
Corey got excited all over again.
"Are you serious?" Demetri and Kara said at the same time.
"Very." Elora said smiling just like the rest of them.
"Congratulations." Kara said and leaned over and kissed her cheek. "I'm so happy for you. This is great!" She looked at Corey. "Did you out tell her?"
"No. I was gonna wait till my birthday party to tell everyone."
"What?" Elora said.
"I'm pregnant too."
Elora's jaw dropped. "Shut up you liar. How far along are you?"
"Two months."
"You bitch. Why didn't you tell me?" She hit Corey's arm.
"I was gonna suprise everyone, the only people who know are you three and Andre. Kara and Demetri know because I got sick while you were doing the Oprah interview and I had them take care of me while Dre was at school. I thought I had the stomach flu since I was throwing up none stop and K asked me if I missed my period. And I couldn't remember the last time I had it. And I remembered the last time Andre and I got in a huge argument we had some crazy ass make up sex and I don't remember there being even an inch of a condom used. I made a appointment at the clinic for the next day and I found out I was 4 weeks."
"I'm happy for you!" Elora said smiling. "What did Dre say?"
"He started crying and apologizing for doing me wrong. He's been tending to my every need. I haven't lifted a finger since I told him. He hasn't went out, he hasn't been doing no all night drinking or smoking. I'm glad I told him. I think he's changing."
Elora was happy for Corey. She knows how much Corey wanted baby and now her friend's wishes were finally coming true. Elora took her hands from the under drier the nail drier and checked to see if they were fully dry. "I think we should celebrate by getting something to eat. Because I'm starving."
"Who are you telling?" Demetri said checking her toes.
"You ladies all dry?" The owner Kimberly asked.
"I think we are." Corey said.
"Okay. I see you all in two weeks?"
"You know it." Elora said standing up from the table.
"Thank you for stopping by."
All four of them stood from the table and headed out the door waving to Kimberly.
They headed out to the parking lot to get in their cars when a faint ring tone hummed in one of their bags.
"Who's phone is that?" Demetri asked.
Everyone started looking in their purses. Elora's flash notification guided her down to the bottom of her bag to see her phone ringing from a unknown number. She hit the green answer button at the bottom of the screen.
"Hello?"
"Hi, it's me. The guy from the restaurant?"
"Who?" She asked gathering the front of her Sun dress before getting in her car.
"Remember we met a Bones grill. You told me to call you when I had information on Reeves." Elora remembered.
"Hold on for a second." She muted the phone so the man wouldn't be all in her business.
She rolled down the passenger window catching Kara's attention.
"Where are we eating at?"
"We're probably gonna go to Canoe up the street."
"Okay, I'll meet you guys up there." Elora rolled the window back up and hooked her phone up to the Bluetooth so she could talk and drive.
"Okay I'm back. What do you got for me?"
"The court hearing for the breaking and entering charge that you filed is a week from day. There was a letter sent out to you today about it but I'm telling you now so there's no suprises. He's probably not going to do any time since he has a clean record. And if he is given jail time he's gonna have the option of bail."
"How do you know all this?"
"Don't worry about it. Just know he has a whole team or lawyers on his team and he's not gonna lose."
"Dammit." Elora said hitting the steering wheel. "What's your name so I can save your number?"
"Just call me Red." The call ended and Elora looked at her phone with an eye roll.
"It's always some bullshit."
------------------------------