Page 23 of Watercolors
Six
Miss you already, baby.
Aaliyah read the text from Ocean more times than she wanted to admit. He’d left just a few hours before and Aaliyah already felt the power of his loss. She felt an emptiness she hadn’t experienced since their breakup and overpowering emotions of want and longing rose to the surface no matter how much she tried to suppress them.
Feelings of being a schoolgirl with her first full-blown crush came to mind the more she read Ocean’s text. It was simple and straight to the point, yet it was so profound in many ways.
She antagonized on what she should reply with. She was never that good with emojis, despite how much Brittany tried to teach her. Apparently, there was an emoji etiquette and she had to properly convey her feelings so there wouldn’t be any confusion. All it did was make Aaliyah more confused.
She and Ocean were grown adults and the days of smiley faces and promising each other to kiss through the phone were long behind them. Still, the butterflies of feeling like she just discovered she liked boys made Aaliyah very aware.
She needed to make the text short and sweet.
Miss you, too.
She folded the phone into her Michael Kors backpack and resisted to look at it. She had a private luncheon with Laura Buchanan from the SHE television network about her show. She needed to make a good impression and not focus on whatever was going on between her and Ocean.
She also hoped the burning jealousy inside of her would be kept to a minimum.
“I had no choice but to go out with her, Liyah. If I wanted to see another woman, I wouldn’t have come back here. I would’ve stayed gone.”
Liyah covered her nude body with the soapy loofah as she read Ocean’s eyes. He wasn’t lying, though she wasn’t sure why he wasn’t being completely forthcoming with everything. It was clear he was hiding something from her and when he revealed it – if he revealed it – was going to cause problems between them.
It put Aaliyah into a particular bind. Now that she was officially dating a politician, she had to weed out when he was being honest with her and when he simply told her something so he didn’t look too much of an ass.
It was then Aaliyah realized her taste in men truly did suck. “How much longer is your father going to interfere in your life? Am I dating you or am I dating the both of you? I don’t like threesomes.”
“I can’t guarantee my father won’t interfere again,” he pulled her close to his body and ran his hands down her soapy frame, “but I can guarantee you I’ll protect you as long as you let me.”
“Protect me from what?” Aaliyah bit out as the memory faded into the background. As she read article after article about Ocean’s magical night with Ximena, Aaliyah had to suppress the angry and bitter feelings that threatened to come out.
There was a rather intimate photo of Ocean whispering into Ximena’s ear as she giggled about something. Aaliyah wondered what was so damn funny that caused that reaction. Ocean had his share or sharp wit and plenty of corny jokes to go around, but he wasn’tthatfunny.
If she were going to be Ocean’s girlfriend, she would have to accept she would eventually have to play a secondary role to his social life. She wasn’t always going to be around nor would she be available when she had her own business and career to worry about. She saw many scenarios play out in her imagination with all of them ending bad.
What kind of games were she and Ocean playing with each other?
Aaliyah couldn’t worry about that for now. She had her meeting with Laura Buchanan and they were going to go over filming schedules. It would be the one thing that would take her mind off Ocean and whatever was going on between them. She just hoped the meeting was as productive as she hoped or it was going to be painfully long.
~~~~~~
“Aaliyah!” Laura stood up and greeted the younger woman with air kisses and a big hug. She was a petite black woman with dark, curly hair. She wore large, round frames on her face, giving her Anna Wintour vibes. “How are you doing, sweetheart?”
“I’m doing well,” Aaliyah glanced around the restaurant and immediately felt underdressed. She wore a white tank top with low-slung jeans. Her long braids were wrapped up in a yellow head wrap and her makeup was natural and muted in browns. She was serving Erykah Badu teas.
“That’s great!” Laura smiled a big smile. A man stood up beside her and held his hand out. “Aaliyah, this is my VP of Program Control, Shane Copeland.”
Aaliyah shook the man’s hand. He was a tall, white man with average build and could probably be mistaken for a younger George Clooney. “Pleasure to meet you, Aaliyah.”
“Same here.” She smiled.
“And over here,” Laura playfully rearranged the men, “is my VP of Marketing, Ian Riley.”
Ian was a tall, biracial man who looked like he sometimes did the weather forecast on the weekends. He just had that energy about him. “Pleasure to meet you, Ian.”
“Pleasure is all mine, Ms. Aaliyah.” He smiled.
“And of course, you’re very familiar with the executive producer, Tony D’Amato!” Laura beamed.
