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The iconic gilded gramophone trophy taunted me.
It shined right beside me, yearning for me to hold, but it wasn't mine to touch. Cairo won another Grammy—his fourth one, for this African Giant album and even though I was proud of him and smiled like the proud wife in front of cameras, I wanted that to be me. I needed that to be me.
I haven't recorded music or released an album in four years, my third album, UltraViolet, but the first one I've released under NRMN Records. UltraViolet was a huge success for me. It reached the top of the Billboard charts, I had an world tour, I won awards, and it was my first double platinum album. And as quickly as that success came, it disappeared and I never felt that high again. The label suddenly stopped pushing for me to do anything.
At least with me doing it by myself. If it wasn't for me and Cairo, I never done anything alone. If I could guess, I suspected Cairo felt jealous of the attention I was getting. My face was everywhere, and it was hard for him to see me being front and center, main focus of our marriage.
That's when African Giant came about. Cairo wanted the attention and he received it like he never left. He was the focus to the world and he ate it up.
Cairo told E! the world would hear from me soon and I highly doubted that. I've been hearing those words for four years now.
I'm over it.
The Suburban came to a stop, pulling me from my head, and I realized we made it to our modern ranch property sitting on sixteen acres of land ten minutes outside of the city.
Cairo was off the phone, speaking to Margo. "Ma and me gon' run somewhere and you be good for Auntie Joyce, aight?"
"Yes sir." Margo kissed Cairo and me on the cheek before he got out and raced to the door where his mother's older sister, Joyce, awaited on him. She waved at us before Stanley pulled off.
I was confused on where we were going. "Where we off to?"
"I promised you a surprise." Cairo said sparking my memory of him telling me that the day of the pre-Grammy party.
I simply nod and he continued. "That was Footlocker on the phone. They want you in a Nike's campaign commercial wit a few other celebs. How you feel about that?"
