Fireworks 1 and 2

Jungle: Chapter Sixty-Four

    "Will you just...wait a minute?" Drake asked her.

    Mia whirled around. "Why? What can you possibly tell me that will make this okay?" The vulnerability in his eyes was coming dangerously close to weakening her resolve.

    "Everything," he said. "I can tell you everything."

    She stared at him for a long moment. "I can't believe you right now."

    "Please, just let me explain?" He gestured towards the couch.

    She didn't want to sit back down and listen to him talk. He was a smooth talker, clever with words. If he really wanted to, he could probably sell ice to an Eskimo - winning her back over would be easy, in comparison. At the same time, she didn't feel right running out on him. She was his girlfriend, and owed him the chance to explain. Even though all I want to do is run, she thought, biting her bottom lip. It would be so much easier to run. Easier than having to listen to him explain his relationship with a woman that he's been very close with since before I even knew him. With a frustrated sigh, she walked back to the couch and sat down.

    He seated himself beside her and leaned forward with his elbows braced on his knees. "My relationship with Nicki used to be...complicated."

    "It's a 'relationship,' now?" she muttered, staring straight ahead and folding her arms over her chest.

    "Please, just let me talk," he asked her.

    She rolled her eyes and crossed one leg over the other.

    He licked his lips and stared down at the floor. "She was in a relationship with someone. Safaree. Safaree was...a pretty cool guy, actually. He had her back in a lot of ways, back then. He was her hype man, sometimes he filled in the role of assistant, sometimes he helped her come up with hooks. He was her everything back then, and they were together for a long time." He took a deep breath. "Early on in our careers, I was first up to bat. Wayne had a strategy - he let me introduce myself to the rap game, and take it over. Don't get me wrong...Nicki was making moves, releasing her music and booking shows, and she had her features. But it was a part of the plan for me to jump in feet first, and then it would be Nicki's turn to step up to the plate and conquer. Wayne made sure we were groomed, schooled on the industry and how to take a lot of its bullshit in stride. We all rode tour buses together. We became like...a legit family."

    She'd heard this part of the story before, and wished she had a remote control with a FastForward button that she could push.

    "It didn't take nearly as long as anticipated for me to get my core fanbase going. We had our Young Money label, and went around touring with our label mates. Those were some great days. We worked hard and played even harder. I was on the rise, and something we noticed fairly early on is that when people saw Nicki and me together, their tongues would get to wagging. People loved to weigh in on whether or not she and I were dating." He cleared his throat and ran a hand over his head. "Nicki and I have very playful personalities, right? So we decided to have fun with with that. She was happily in a relationship with her man and everything, but we decided to kind of...tease the public a little. We would give everyone reason to believe that we were together. Then we would flip it and give everyone the 'Oh, we're more like family' line. In truth, we were like family. There was a point in time when I crushed on her hard, sure. But we both played it up for the cameras and for the public, because it was fun for them to imagine us being together - and it was fun for us to kind of mess around with their speculations."

    She pursed her lips shut.

    "Safaree had qualms with being hidden in the background. He was hidden for a long period of time, so I definitely understand how frustrated he must have been. His frustration led to some tough times in his relationship with Nicki. The thing about the industry is, it doesn't wait for you to be on stable ground in your relationship. If you're having issues with your relationship, the show must still go on. And it did. In the midst of each of them trying to claim the power in the relationship, Nicki and I still had to perform, still had to do our thing, as artists." He paused, running an index finger along his bottom lip. "Being on the road, or having to fly from place to place at the drop of the hat, when it comes to the rap and rock industries, a lot of partying is involved. There's always a cause to celebrate in the entertainment industry. Concert in town? Let's have an after party. Grammys are in town? Time for an after party. Someone throwing a party? Haha - why not throw an after party? You know? So, there was a lot of drinking involved while she and I were on the road together. When she's tipsy, she's even more flirty than usual. So there were a few times when things...almost got poppin'."

    Mia hated the little spark of hope that ignited within her chest. "Almost?" she repeated.

    "Before anything really jumped off for real, she'd always kind of snap out of it and stop things from going any further," he explained.

    "So...you you two didn't...?"

    He ducked his head down. "I didn't quite say that."