Sonder {COMPLETED}

XX.

onika tanya.
october 15th.
nyc.

"You think you should trust someone so much so early? I mean this is your entire business."

I was listening, but only halfway, honestly.

I watched as Beyonce greeted everyone at the door, handing them the brochures for the night. She'd lead my creative team, and though this mixer was extremely last minute, everything was working out well. Granted, the night had just begun, but I was hopeful.

The mixer had become a lot larger than anticipated. A small, tight gathering of two hundred people had tripled. The venue had to be changed twice and the working staff had doubled.

I wanted friends that I hadn't made time for to be a part of this. To me, I felt like a rebranded woman, knowing I would have never even spoken to those friends if it weren't for my lover and now business partner.

That's where Amani and Geneva came in. And their concerns were justified, but they had literally just got here. They could shut that shit down, now. I wasn't a dummy. Beyonce's name hadn't hit papers, ink, agreements, or even contracts. I knew that mixing business with pleasure could be tricky.

As long as I paid Beyonce her fee and allowed her to creatively be herself the way she had been fighting for since the beginning, we were fine. Plus, I liked to be CEO in the office. I'd rather let her run shit at home.

"She's fine," I told them, just to keep them out of my business. I didn't even know if we would continue this friendship after tonight. If we were completely honest, they were only here because Beyonce was talking to my mom and their names came up. I'd forgotten about them, but there was really no stopping my mother when she was feeling nostalgic.

"Excuse me y'all."

Since the mixer had become so large, I had to entertain. I didn't expect for this to become a family event, but everyone had brought their heirs, children or not.

I let them all see my face in passing as I waved around. I knew they were seeing a lot more of me than usual anyway, the venue adorned with enlarged photo booth strips. The idea was beautiful, and a lot different than I though tit would be when my creative team brought the idea to me.

I was more than pleased, even though I wasn't in the first place. I needed to be more trusting, that's what Beyonce told me. I almost told her ass no, but here we are.

"These are from the Vogue shoot?" Donatella found me and finally got me to stop.

"Yes, Adam took them. He took about a million pictures so my creative director had this idea."

She was nodding, still looking around, and I could tell she was just as pleased as me.

"I bet it feels great not to have to worry about your creative team."

"You must have seen my post."

She started giggling like a schoolgirl. I knew that was what she wanted to talk about. These old women could play up the professional talk, but they were messy. That post turned them up and they were pissed that it'd been near three weeks and I still wasn't talking about it.

"I think I have a very talented creative team."

"More talented director," She wiggled her brows and walked away, following behind one of our bar boys.

That lady was something else. She liked Beyonce professionally too. She was one of the first people to set up a meeting after Fashion Week and one of the first to call and check on me when it became public knowledge that I'd had a heart attack. She'd been beside me even when I wasn't a household name.