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"So you're telling me Tori flinched when I bought you a necklace that cost 25 bands, yet y'all momma had on a bracelet that cost triple that, and you didn't even bat an eye?"
Twenty-four hours later and Mariah was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that her girlfriend was not only well off, but flat-out rich. Mariah acted like it was some revolutionary discovery, and Thaïs hated that. It wasn't that serious. Like... at all.
But to Mariah it was.
"Because that's crazy."
Thaïs checked the time as they sat in the lobby of some small tattoo shop in Queens. She had never been there before, but Mariah said that's where she had gotten the majority of her tattoos.
Mariah had convinced Thaïs to get a tattoo, though there wasn't much pleading involved. Thaïs had carefully thought out all of the tattoos she wanted, it was just a matter of getting them. Tattoos were so... permanent.
Mariah looked at Thaïs like she had two heads. "That's crazy, but your mom telling me she has two more of those expensive ass bracelets isn't?"
Thaïs shrugged. "Not really. She's always been like that, so I'm used to it. Why are you acting like you're not rich?"
"That's different."
"How? Money is money."
Mariah rolled her eyes at how nonchalant Thaïs was about all of this. She sounded like an entitled rich girl. "You act like money just exists. Like, it just is."
Mariah wasn't necessarily mad about it, but it did change things for her. Because, for the longest time, Mariah had thought they were coming into this relationship on somewhat even footing. Mariah had worked for everything she had. She had seen her bank account grow because of her own grind, her own sacrifices. And while Thaïs worked hard too, it was different.
Thaïs had never needed to grind like that. She had always had a safety net—one so massive that she could afford to treat money like an afterthought.
And that wasn't to say she didn't value it. If anything, Thaïs was smarter with her money than a lot of rich people Mariah had met. She wasn't reckless, didn't flaunt it, didn't move like someone who needed to prove anything. But maybe that was the real difference.
Mariah had spent her whole life learning how to make money work for her. Thaïs had spent her whole life knowing it would always be there.
And that? That changed things. Not in a bad way, necessarily, but in a way Mariah knew she needed to sit with.
"Money isn't everything," Thaïs said.
Mariah exhaled, running a hand down her face. "Yeah, easy to say when you have it."
Thaïs gave her an unimpressed look. "You have it too."
Mariah stared at her, and for a moment, all she could do was look at Thaïs. Because she really, genuinely believed that. Thaïs thought they were on equal footing, that just because Mariah had money now, it meant the same thing.
