Hate That I Love You

27

Nia

Earlier...

I don't know what the fuck is going on with Leila, but she's been acting hella weird lately. She doesn't wanna dance, she's always MIA, and she pretends like she's not bothered by Damian's presence. It's giving secrecy. It's giving the bitch is lying. I would hope she's not hiding anything from me, because I would never come like that with her. Right now, I'm in the middle of the dance floor, dirty wining my ass in circles with Reneé. One of the Romano uncles tried to smooth his perving ass behind me until Apollo showed up.

"Now, Uncle Aldo. You know better."

"Ahh. Non posso mai divertirmi!" The old man waved his hands around in frustration before storming off. (I can never have any fun)

"What you doing, Apollo?" I asked.

"I came over to dance with my girl."

"Oh hell nah. You get to see her 24/7. She's mine right now."

"Well, you can always dance with your boy. He's right over there." Apollo's slick ass pointed to Romeo.

"Ha ha. Very fucking funny." I rolled my eyes at the remark. "Fine."

"I'll be five minutes, Nia. I promise." Reneé reassures softly.

"It's okay. Take as long as y'all need." I backed away from the couple so they could have their space. A song on the loud speaker played, "Must Be Nice" by Lyfe Jennings. Damn, for a bunch of Italians, they sure as hell listen to a lot of R&B. Why the hell would Romeo play this song. He knows it's one of my favorite throwbacks. "This is some bullshit." I cursed to myself. I returned to the table only to find a missing Leila. Of course. I slumped down in my seat.

"Hey, Nia."

"Oh, hey Nico." I rested my hand in my cheek.

"Why the long face?"

"I don't know." I shrugged my shoulders. "I just feel like dancing. Leila keeps disappearing and Apollo stole Reneé from me."

"Huh. It's usually not like you to depend on others."

"Yeaaah, well... it would be nice to have one of my girlfriends around though."

"How about this. Why don't I be your girlfriend for the time being? For starters, you wanna dance? Let's dance."

"You'd do that for me?"

"It beats sitting alone in your sorrows, tesoro."

"Thank you, Nico." We went back to the dance floor and we kept an appropriate distance as we slow danced to the music. He kept one hand on my hip and the other was holding my hand. "Nico, can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Does... does Romeo talk about me? At all?"

"Now I see what this is about." He nods in understanding. "You miss him."

I held back an eruption of tears and shrugged. "A little."

"So tell him."

"I can't. It's not right for the woman to chase after the man. Plus, he's the one who fucked up. Not me."

"Are you sure about that?"

I looked up into Nico's eyes, searching for a clue. "You know something I don't?"

"I just think that you two need to talk it out. You're not gonna be able to hear each other when you're screaming and yelling or throwing things at each other."