Page 147 of The Need to Know

“Paisley once said she never met a man that she missed, and that really got me. I miss you, Nas. I don’t hear from you, I don’t see you, and I miss you,” I confessed. “What I feel for you isn’t in New York or in my bank account.” I patted my chest, my heart. “I’m willing to find a middle because I love you.”

Her face crumbled as she bit into her lip once more. I could see it in her eyes, feel it in the air, she loved me, too.

Going and taking a fistful of my shirt, Nastasia peered up at me. “You love me?”

Nervous and completely afraid of the unknown, I still nodded. “I do.”

Her eyes glistened with unshed tears as she let out a little chuckle. “I love you, too.”

You would’ve thought I won the lottery hearing those words, I smiled so hard. Before, in my time, I hated getting too close, wasn’t comfortable with the possibility of making someone fall for me, didn’t want to disrupt my normal and my routine. Now, none of it made sense without Nastasia in my life.

“What are we going to do?” Nas wanted to know.

“You’re going to be busy developing Hém and getting it together, and I’m going to be busy creating PVWN,” I said simply. “I’m not going to move to New York, but I will be taking a lot of trips back and forth. Outside of building and designing the club, I have to train a staff to run it just like me, to have it be on the same level of BLVCKJVCK. Even with how stressful and overwhelming that’s going to be, I want this, and I’m willin’ to fight for it.

“I’ll set aside a day for you. Fly you out to New York. Whatever it takes, I’ll do it because I want you in my life.”

Nastasia stood on her toes and I met her halfway, because that was just how it worked for us.

Once my arms were around her and as my lips blurred with hers, I felt an internal sigh of relief. This was what right felt like. What home. What peace. What love. And I was never letting it go.

six months later

I smoothed out my stray hairs that had escaped from my bun. In the mirror, I found myself timid and shaking. Relax, girl! As I lowered my hand from my face, I caught sight of the ring on my finger twisted in the wrong direction. I was quick to adjust it correctly.

I was nervous, but of course I was, today was a big day. We were officially opening and launching Hém. Outside of simply opening the store, Paisley wanted a big deal, and Ezekiel was right behind her. Both advertised for Hém heavily in the month leading up to this. So, we were having a grand opening ceremony complete with Pay and me cutting a ribbon.

Even with my anxiety, I was excited about Hém being open. My parents and soon-to-be in-laws were coming, as well Cesar and Leslie. I was sure it would be a big event with all the promo my friends had put into it.

Alannah couldn’t make it, but my parents were filming everything so that she wouldn’t completely miss out. I’d already sent Oisin a care package full of Hém clothing and gear as a gift.

The sound of angry cat moans startled me, drawing my attention to behind myself. Footsteps sounded on the carpet and soon Ezekiel was coming into the room carrying Sadé.

“What happened?” I wanted to know.

He tossed me a helpless smile as he set the angry cat on the bed. “Scorsese was playing with her tail again.”

While they got along most times these days, one thing about Sadé was the fact that when she didn’t want to be bothered, she would let it be known. That and she didn’t like anyone touching her tail.

Ezekiel took a step back and examined himself and the stray strains of cat fur now on his black dress shirt. Knowing my bedroom so well, he went and scooped up the lint roller from my dresser to rid himself of the fur.

“Nervous, Miss Graham?” he asked as he tossed me a sly smile.

I rolled my eyes, but shook my head, giving in to my blush. Ever since he proposed to me a month ago, he’d been doing that, emphasizing how I was currently Miss Graham, until we tied the knot and I became Mrs. Marcuson.

The way he’d done it was so him. We were on a date one Wednesday night when he’d gotten a phone call. He’d been upset, sounding like there was some type of emergency at the club. We were already in Atlanta anyway, so it was nothing to go over to BLVCKJVCK to check on the issue.

“I’m going to wring Cease’s neck out,” Ezekiel had snapped as we entered the empty club that night.

“What happened?” I was worried, not having seen Ezekiel this worked up before. We were practically rushing for the elevator and no one seemed to be at the club.

“He called and said someone broke in and smashed all the wine up in the Spade Suite. He must’ve fucked up locking the club up on Sunday,” Ezekiel explained as we boarded the elevator and he lifted his head to watch the glowing symbols change from a Club to a Spade.

I frowned. “That’s awful.”

“Tell me about it,” Ezekiel mumbled.

Ding.