30 Days and Counting

Day 3

Taraji

"Taraji he's here! He's inside of the house. I knew he'd come home!"

"Who's there ma?"

"Brandon! He's home." I sat in silence on the phone with my mother. She was hysterical, and I had no way to calm her down.

"Ma, I need you to listen to me, please. Brandon isn't there. I'll call you back a little later, it's almost 3 o'clock over here."

"Taraji don't play me like an idiot, Brandon is here. I don't know how, but he's here." I took a deep sigh and rubbed my eyes.

"I love you, call me tomorrow morning."

"Taraji, please. He's-" I hung up. I hate the feeling I get when I have to hang up on my mother, but that's the only way to save myself from hours of calming her down. I made a stupid last minute decision to go on this little vacation. That's what it is. We can call it work all we want, but getting drunk every night at parties and waking up the next morning to go hang out at beaches with cameras in your face is hardly work.

I had convinced mom to go stay with her sister in Georgia while I was gone. She could be independent and stay home by herself, but her mental state is shit.

I laid in bed looking at the large wall clock that read "02:57". The constant buzzing of my phone when mom called me pulled me out of the best rest of this entire trip. I was battling to get over jet lag, and I finally managed to find a schedule.

I spent pretty much the entire day with Fantasia and we kind of started to plan our evenings together too. Like today for example, after all of our shoots, we are going to go hangout at a plaza and take our own photos for our socials. I truly expected her to gush about her boyfriend the entire time, but she didn't speak a word about him unless I asked. The way Nadira talked about the two, I thought their entire vocabulary would just be each other.

Nadie told me stories about how genuine and honest their relationship was. I can't really see how honest a relationship with a Tucker would really be, but to each their own.

I laid back on my pillow and checked to see if my alarm was still set at the correct time. I closed my eyes and hoped my body would allow me to go back to sleep.

—+—+—+—

"Find her light and keep it there. Gorgeous." The director of the shoot was glued to every single cameraman to make sure they did their job correctly. I tried my hardest not to laugh when one of them "accidentally" walked backwards into him and made him fall. I did the kind thing and asked if he was alright. That cameraman clocked out for the rest of the day.

"Alright get me one more here." The shutters of the last shots sounded in my ears before I was pulled to a different area. The director guided me to a cabana nearby and sat us down on the couch. "How are you feeling?" He asked pretty frantically.

"I'm alright, thank you."

"I just want to make sure you feel as comfortable as possible here." His accent caused him to punch out certain syllables harder than others. We had his hand on the lower of my back most likely in an attempt to keep me comfortable in his presence. Lord knows he isn't the easiest to look at.

"I'm comfortable. The shoot seemed pretty good."

"Good good, I love to hear that. What else do you think you need us to do for you? We finished up the last of our plans with a lot of time left over. We can't really play around with any of the equipment, but we can play around with angles."

"Just a break is fine right now."

"Absolutely." He leaned closer into me. "If you need anything at all Ms Henson, don't hesitate to let us know. Anything." I thanked him as he finished and he walked off.

I stayed there staring at the water. I was trying to clear my head of everything. From the mess at home, to the mess here, to the mess I have to return to, everything was just too much. Fantasia said something about life means to actually be alive and right now life is reminding every single day that I am alive and this is my reality.

My phone buzzed beside me on the sofa. It was from Fantasia. "Hello," I picked up and greeted her.

"Hey, I just wanted to know if you were cool for tomorrow's shopping trip before dinner?"

"I thought you were doing something with Colton?"

"I was, but he's barely answering any of my texts or calls, and I only really see him once a day."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but yes, I'm good for tomorrow."

"Awesome. And hey, do you want to try to match. It's just a random idea I had that we could do for fun. Like we could wear the same colors on different pieces of clothes."

"Yes ma'am, that does sound like a lot of fun. You send me the ideas you have and I'll plan according to you."

"You sure?"

"Yes. Look Fantasia, everything you put on looks like it was made for you and you only."

"Oh my goodness." I heard the smile in her voice in response to my compliment. "Alright well thank you, I'll talk to you soon."

"Talk to you soon, bye."

I closed my phone and was about to go look at my pictures when I got an urgent message.

???: You still alright over there? Has anything happened?