I smiled. Leave it to Kara to stay on track.
“Keith mentioned the other day that Chris thought I did really well last time. And yeah, he doesn’t seem to talk, or care for me, but I think I can turn it around.”
“If anyone can, it’s you,” Nikki agreed.
Raina twirled her fingers in the air. “All right, Nikki. You’re in the hot seat. What do you have for us?”
Nikki grabbed her glass of wine and gulped. “I, uh. Well, you know, I want to be a singer and songwriter. And, well . . .”
Raina rolled her eyes. “Duh. Tell us something new.”
“Okay. I kinda sorta looked up Tattered Souls the other day and saw they were performing. So I . . . I went to the concert.”
“With who?” Raina looked offended. They’d always gone to concerts together.
“By myself. I told James we had a girls’ night.”
“Cheese and crackers, Nik,” I admonished. “You lied to your husband?”
“Yeah. That’s not the interesting part.” Nikki gulped her wine again and then took a deep breath. “Trent saw me in the crowd and convinced me to come onstage. Long story short, there’s a video floating on the internet of our performance. Their record company wants me to write a few songs. Trent even hinted at a reunion of some sort.”
We were all quiet. Even Raina didn’t have something to add. On one hand I was excited for my friend. Not only did she have the gumption to reach out to her band, but she performed and killed it. Although Nikki pretended to be rough and tough, she was a softy on the inside, and she needed the boost in confidence about her talent.
Writings songs was fine; however, being in the band meant being around Trent Masters, and he was bad news. And with Nikki’s incredible talent and Trent’s manipulative nature, it was only a matter of time before they gave her an offer. The other girls and I used to call him Hurricane Trent. He blew in and jumbled Nikki’s emotions with lots of rain and pain. She didn’t need him to be successful, but knowing Nikki she went that route because it was the easiest path.
Nikki squeezed her eyes shut. “Guys. Say something.”
Kara answered her quietly. “Do you want to go on tour with them?”
Nikki drummed her fingers against her lap. “I dunno. But that’s not on the table. For now, I want to write. I can’t lie . . . it felt so good to be onstage. But I don’t know if I can drag my family into that crazy life.”
Kara nodded. “Okay, when does the record label expect an answer?”
“They didn’t say.”
Kara tapped her chin. “How about joining a band locally? Or something else around Atlanta.”
“I have a gig at a coffee shop called Rev and Go.”
“Damn, girl.” Raina snapped her fingers. “You aren’t playing any games. Go, you!”
Nikki smiled. “I can’t let y’all asses outshine me.” Her smile slipped. “Do you really think I should drop Tattered Souls?”
“I get why you’d want to work with them.” Raina tilted her head. “But let’s be real, James is gonna lose his shit at the thought of you traveling to God knows where with Trent.”
“True. Very true,” Nikki conceded. “I’ll stick to writing the songs for now.” Her voice was high pitched and rang untrue. It was the same tone so-called eyewitnesses from the prosecution’s side used in court. Whether Nikki admitted it to us or not, she’d made her decision.
“See, this Mastermind group is helping already.” Raina smiled. “Now we just have to get Sienna off Keith’s nuts and doing her own thing.”
DECEMBER
CHAPTER 5
’Tis the Season of Giving—Raina
I opened up the family-size bag of potato chips, dumped it into the white plastic bowl, grabbed a paper towel roll, and hustled back into the living room. We had another Mastermind meeting, and this time, it was at my house.
My friends were gathered in a semicircle, armed with magazines, poster boards, scissors, glue, and booze.
Kara frowned at my whack snack display. “Please tell me you have dip, and no, hot sauce doesn’t count.”
I placed the paper towels on the table. “I think you know the answer to your question.”
“Do you have any fruit or cheese?”
“Nope and nope. Well, I do have cheese slices and the squirtable cheese.”
Kara’s expression went from mildly irritated to supremely pissed. My friend did not play with food.
“I don’t know why you even asked.” Sienna munched on a granola bar. “That’s why I bring my own food when we have girls’ nights at Raina’s.”
“Hey, now! The chips are just the appetizer. I ordered a pizza, wings, and I even got a veggie pizza just for you, Sienna.”
Sienna looked relieved. “Oh. Well, that was thoughtful of you.”
“I try.”
So I wasn’t the best hostess. Nothing was homemade and I never had bottled water, per Kara’s bougie-ass preference, or vegetarian options outside of the occasional celery and carrots that came with our wing order. And to Nikki’s great disappointment, I don’t know how to mix a cocktail to save my life.
Whatever. Hospitality wasn’t my calling, but I could damn sure whip up a vision board party, which was what the meeting was all about. I’d read somewhere that visualizing your perfect life and putting it in a high visibility area was a powerful way to attract your dreams. Not that I particularly believed in laws of attraction, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a daily reminder and focus on what I wanted out of life.
After I dumped the bowl of chips on the table, I sat on the floor and selected a cutout of the most recent New York Times best sellers list.
Nikki pasted an ad for American Idol to represent her singing career, while Sienna arranged pictures of interlocking wedding bands, a baby nursery, political ads, and the Obamas.
Sienna looked at my facial expression, the one I hadn’t realized I was wearing, and laughed. She knew what I was thinking. There would be no weddings or babies on my board.
Kara sipped on the wine she was wise enough to bring while cutting out words from a magazine. She looked at my board. “Nothing for radio?”
“Hell to the no.” I shook my head. “I’m so over that job. Did y’all hear my show from last Tuesday?”
Kara and the others shook their heads.
“Some little girl, and yes, I said little girl, because a real woman wouldn’t do this, confessed to being a side chick to some married woman who’s in the closet. Homegirl spilled all the tea, told me her lover’s name, occupation, everything. Hell, if I hadn’t stopped her she would’ve blurted the woman’s Social Security number.” I waved my scissors in the air. “Then she had the audacity to request R. Kelly’s ‘Trapped in the Closet.’ I’ll be damned if I play that pedo’s music on my show.”
Sienna reached for her drink. “You can’t be serious? God, some people are just awful.”
Nikki paused mid-cut. “I deleted all that bastard’s music from my playlists. I’m not exposing my babies to that pee-wielding pervert.”
“You have the craziest callers.” Kara plucked a chip from the bowl.