“She just thinks that she’s better than everyone. Always, looking down at people, I just felt that you could do better.”
“Mom, you know why she behaved like that. It wasn’t really because she thought that she was better than everyone.”
Mom grabbed a beer, and then I looked down, and Gia was standing there just watching us as if she was looking at a tennis match. She was the sweetest little girl ever, and I wondered what I would do without her in my life. Before I used to think that the last thing that I wanted was a family, but with her, it just felt natural.
“Daddy,” she said as she reached up to me. I couldn’t help but hold her in my arms, as I gave her the kiss.
Mom needed to stop this war with Nia. There was no competition between the two of them. Besides Nia said that she was sorry about what she did back then, I had gotten over it. Mom needed to do the same. It was all in the past.
“Mom, you need to realize that Nia’s the woman that I love and haven’t gotten over.”
She scoffed as she knocked back the bottle of beer as if it was a glass of vodka.
“I wish you would.”
As we sat quietly, I tried to her to respect that there’s something about Nia that I can never get out of my mind.
“Besides, you know people can and do change.”
She jumped off her stool, bored or fed up with the discussion and said, “Not people like her. If anything they just get worse.”
I know that what Nia did in the past was why mom has every reason not to like her. I forgave Nia back then; Mom just needs to do the same. Dwelling on the past wasn’t going to help anyone. Especially me.
Chapter Four
Nia
There was something strange going on. I turned up at the meeting and Marta, Cat, and Lena were standing in the parking lot. It was as if they were waiting for me. They were standing in the spot that was reserved for me.
I was kind of dreading today; normally there were two or three messages in the group about Tiana regarding one or both of her kids. No one wanted to babysit them. They seemed to take after their mom in the rudeness department and to make matters worse if they did look after them, they didn’t know if she was going to pick her kids up on the same day.
I hadn't seen a message in the Whatsapp group, dedicated to her. So, I thought that they wanted to deal with this face-to-face which made me even more nervous.
“Nia, you’re not going to believe this?” Mara said in her heavy Latino accent. She had a frightened expression all over her face, and I knew that she had confirmed my worst fear. Tiana had crossed the line, big time.
“There are men in there!” Cat screamed out as if she couldn’t wait for Marta to tell me what was going on. I hadn’t even turned off the engine. I was still strapped up in my car, and the three of them were blocking me from leaving.
“Hunter!”
God, that man's so damned predictable. I bet he went out of his way to recruit his old football team. I sighed, “How many?”
“I didn’t count them all.”
“What do you mean that you didn’t count them all..” before I could even finish my sentence. Cat blurted out, “Fifty!”
“But that’s more than us.”
“Exactly! We came to warn you because we knew that you wouldn’t be happy.”
I didn’t know how to take Cat’s statement, especially because she was still blocking me from getting out of the car. I was trying to get past her, but I couldn’t, because even though I had turned off the engine. I had one leg out of my car, and the other still bent on the car seat as I opened the door and they blocked it. What was their problem? They were like cats in heat. I used to have a cat, I knew the signs!
“Did you bring makeup? That’s what I came to get from you, Nia.”
“Marta, I have a few things in my purse, why?”
“Because I never knew that he would bring so many men. I didn’t even dress up? Do you have any cute clothes on you?”
Cat blurted out, “Of course, not. She’s always wearing that pinstripe skirt and shirt. She’s not going to have anything different on her today.”