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Erica watched as people swarmed to her art section. The attention made her throat itch. Joshua was right by her side the whole night. He made sure her champagne glass was full all night and that everyone knew her name.
It was towards the end of the night. Erica had just finished her speech and was waiting for Max to tell her the news. She'd be devastated if she didn't get signed to the art tour. No matter what Josh would stick beside her no matter what.
On cue, Max approached her. They hugged for a brief moment. Erica rubbed her hands together, "Okay give me the news."
"You sold! Not only for 6 grand but the client added a tip! Congrats on your 11 grand sales! And the New York Art Sponsor came by. They really liked your work. It looks like you'll be on tour with them soon." Max had the biggest smile on his face.
Erica tried to contain her excitement, "Wait what do you mean soon? I thought the tour was next year?"
Max cleared his throat, "Well, I'll let the sponsors speak to you themselves."
Max waved them over. Erica gulped. They looked way too elite for her. Josh watched from across the room. He gave her a thumbs up. A Black woman with a short pixie cut and a white woman approached her with genuine smiles.
"Erica, my name is Rebecca and this is my colleague Shanice." The white woman pointed to the Black woman.
Erica nodded, "It's nice to meet you formally."
"We want to have you on board with our next art tour. But you'll have two roles." Rebecca smirked.
"You'll be a headlining artist and we would like you to help curate the entire tour. Finding local artists and creating a theme for that year! What do you think?" Shanice spoke waiting for Erica's response.
"Oh, my God! I would love to! Thank you so much for this opportunity!" Erica smiled brightly at them.
"That means you'll be doing this in the next few years. It takes a long time to curate yearly lineups. But don't worry you will be compensated heavily during the process." Rebecca said looking at Shanice.
"So we'll send out everything over the next few weeks. It'll be a hard job but I can tell you're up for it. Congratulations, again. We'll be in touch!"
Josh bombarded Erica with a bear hug. She laughed into his chest. "Yo, did you see that!"
"I told you not to worry about the show! They wanted you and you got a higher role. I'm so proud of you girl." Josh spoke so much positivity into her.
Erica looked up at him with adoration. It felt like it was just them in the room. A throat cleared from behind Erica. She turned to see LaMelo rocking on his heels.
"Cousin, you came! What's up?" Erica asked giving him a look.
Melo seemed at ease with no attitude in sight, "I just came to congratulate you...and to apologize for my role in keeping you stuck. You're grown and I shouldn't have stepped in."
Erica smiled easily, "No sweat. You were just being extra protective. I think I needed it at the time."
Melo gave Josh a brotherly hug. Erica raised an eyebrow curiously. Josh shrugged his shoulders, "There was never any beef."
Erica leaned against Josh's bicep, "You never told me what happened between you and my cousins by the way."
"Long story short, there was a real reason why I left so early."
Erica nodded for him to continue.
"Melo and I had a conversation. I wasn't ready to be all in."
"So you left."
"Yeah."
authors note:
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sorry for mistakes
this chapter was short but i needed to get it out the way
