Mama's Little Girls

ten

Beyoncé Knowles
17 May 2019
Maraj & Cooper LLP

"Ok, I think that's enough for tonight." Maraj said as we wrapped up for the evening.

We'd been at this for days. I'd spent a lot of my evenings in her office, helping her put together my case.

"So, how's it looking?" I asked.

"Good, good." She assured. "I think we're gonna do well."

"Mmm." I smiled to myself. "Come on. I'll walk you to your car."

"Thank you." She beamed.

We headed out of her office, walking towards the elevator.

"You know what? I forgot." She abruptly stopped walking. "I let my driver go home early."

I stopped too and turned to face her. "Oh? Well, I'll take you home." I shrugged.

Her eyes met mine and I watched a smile grow on her face. "Thank you."

"I owe you." I responded and my eyes fell behind her. "Is this how you spend your birthday?"

There was decor behind her which read 'happy birthday, Nicki'. Then there were cards with birthday messages.

She looked over at the wall and cards.

"It's just another day." She shrugged. "My birthday's in December but I told everyone that it's in May so they'd stop asking."

After saying that, she continued the walk to the elevator.

"Wow." I nodded, catching up to her. "How old are you?"

"You don't ask a woman that."

"I'm a woman too and I just did." I waved her off. "How old are you?"

"How old are you?" She flipped the question onto me.

"34." I shrugged. My age wasn't anything to hide.

"20-12." Was all she said.

"Oh, ok." I laughed. "Happy fake birthday."

We made it down after a long elevator ride. I walked her to my car and opened the door for her because I'm sure she was going to throw a fit if I didn't.

"So, what are you going home to do?" I asked her as I started driving.

When I glanced over, she was examining my car. That made me laugh to myself.

"Oh, I got some paperwork I gotta catch up on." She explained like it was a normal way to spend a birthday, even it wasn't really her birthday. "Stuff like that."

"I mean, that ain't how you're supposed to spend your birthday." I said. "You need to get out and have some fun."

"On my actual birthday, I work from home. So I do know how to spend my birthday, actually."

"Did you hear what you just said?" I looked over at her and she just smiled. "That's not fun at all."

"What's fun?" She sarcastically spoke. "I don't even know what that is. All I do is work."

"Fun is where you make it." I answered.

As she thought about what I'd said, I redirected our journey to one of my favourite places to go. I was going to show her fun.

This was my way of thanking her for helping me with my kids.

"Come on, I want to show you some fun."

Soon I rolled up and parked right outside the place. I hopped out and she did the same on her side