Before The Worst

Chapter 2

The Mercedes Benz Fashion Week is just around the corner, I have two months to prepare for our Spring/Summer edition, this happens to be one of my favourite times to publish the magazine. Summer isn’t my favourite season, but I love the colours and the playfulness of the season, everything seems so bright and happy.

It has also been two months since my ‘interview’ with Nicco. The last time I spoke to him, was the day he apologised, which also happened to be the very same day that I showed him a glimpse of my heart.

It’s a Wednesday afternoon, and I have to go to a photo shoot out in Central Park, I have yoga and I also have to meet up with my girls for supper, we haven’t seen each other in weeks, so this should be a great catch up session. I left the office at about noon, headed over to the shoot; I spent some time overlooking as well as authorising the process. The models were absolutely gorgeous. Being around size zero models can get annoying, they really don’t eat and they are so thin, I love my all African body and all, but sometimes I wonder how I would look if I was as thin as those models, all I know is, I’d probably eat more than I do.  I left the photo shoot and headed back to my apartment to change for yoga.

Yoga was the best. I love meditating and the state of mind I enter when doing yoga. After yoga, I headed back to my loft to get ready for dinner.  I was to meet the girls at a popular Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village. I decided to wear high wasted navy pants, my lipstick red Jimmy Choo platforms, and a white wife beater with a light red jacket with navy lining. An hour later I was having my first glass of red wine, while listening to Kelly rant about her latest troubles with her mother in-law.

“I promise you, nothing I do is right in her eyes. The other day when I was helping Michael with his homework, she snapped at me telling me that I’m not doing it the right way. I mean I really don’t know now, every single little thing to her is wrong. And as much as Justin sees what’s going on he ignores it, because she’s his mother. The woman hates me.”

This time, I’m dying of laughter because knowing Kelly she’s probably exaggerating. But that’s also why I love her; Kelly and I have been friends since our first day in NYU, in our first year, we instantly hit it off, we were also in the same dorm and in our second year, until we were 25, we shared an apartment together. While I was studying Marketing, Kelly did Economics, we both graduated at the top of our classes, Kelly picked me to be made of honour at her wedding.

Looking at Kelly I say “Kel I’m pretty sure you’re exaggerating, I’ve met the woman on numerous occasions, and she doesn’t seem that bad.”

“Yeah well Ave, when you met her, she was on her best behaviour, what else were you expecting?” Kelly asks while laughing.

“All I’m saying is, Justin is a punk Kel, I don’t know how you married the guy without knowing that he can’t stand up to his mother” Nicole says while looking around the table for someone who agrees with her.  Nicole is the bigger rebel of the group, I met Nicole two years ago during my summer internship, it took a while for us to hit it off, but when we did, we were pretty much inseparable. Nicole is a mixture of Italian, Black and Portuguese. She says what’s really on her mind. She is a wildlife photographer. Nicole is forever out of the country for work purposes. She’s been married for 5 years now, luckily her and James (her husband) work as a team so they pretty much travel together.

“Yeah well I think Kel knew what she was signing up for when she and Justin got married. If it’s that much of a problem Kel, why don’t you talk to Justin about it? I mean the dude loves you, I’m pretty sure he’d give an arm and a leg for you.”

Kelly looks at me like I’m the craziest person on the face of this earth.

“Yeah Ave, I wish it were that easy, we argue more these days, and his mother is always the cause of it all, but no Kelly is always in the wrong. I don’t even get why she’s been here for so long.”