Becoming First Lead

ii - just a little help

It had been a few weeks since Nicole first walked into our lives . A few weeks since she had been staying with Aria and my brother . I've seen her one other time and that was yesterday when she had been convinced to come visit Warren at the office with Aria.

She seemed a bit better than that first meeting . You can still see the sadness in her eyes but they were no longer glossy from the tears that threatened itself at the threshold , or from the tears she did shed. In fact, she was wearing a little bit of makeup and wore something that showed her figure off. The make over was most likely Aria's doing but it suited her well. Not because she was an eyesore but because the little changes seemed to have brought her spirits up a tad.

It was no surprise that Aria had planned an evening out , inviting a few people. Mostly to have dinner and help Nicole with moving forward and onward. She wanted to wait until Nicole was feeling confident enough to come out , which makes me think that the office visit was more to feel her out and see if she was okay to be around people. When Nicole didn't run or have any kind of panic, Aria then announced that we were all to meet for dinner .

When I arrived at the restaurant they were already seated. She looked better today than she did yesterday and that's saying a lot (considering that it really didn't take much for the woman to look good even through her "messy" introduction , anyone with eyes can tell she's attractive). It was like watching a flower begin to bloom , or a butterfly readying to emerge from their cocoon. She really is beautiful . With her long jet black hair, golden tan skin and dark brown eyes, I never realized how stunning she really was. Of course I keep these thoughts to myself because I'm sure that's the last thing on Nicole's mind, having some guy try to hit on you.

Once we were all seated some of the other women in the party had crowded around our newcomer. Our group was a very inviting and protective; I expected this sort of treatment. I tried to stay focused on the conversations around me without eavesdropping into theirs too much. But no matter how much I engaged with others, my ear kept honing in on their conversations.

"Nikki, I'm so glad you're here with us now," Sonja says , "it's been far too long and I definitely missed having you around."

"I missed you girls so much too . I'm so sorry I lost touch..." she begins , "I should have listened to you both but," Nicole's bottom lip begins to tremble.

"Stop it. He's the idiot to let you go. You know we will always have your back," Aria assures her while rubbing her back .

"Not to sound rude, but I can't quite pinpoint what you are," Trip says causing Sonja to smack him. This was probably his way of changing the topic seeing as Nicole was already on her way to tears and Trip really hated watching a woman cry.

"It's fine . People always ask me . I'm actually Filipino and Russian," she says with a smile. That is definitely an exotic mix, one that definitely makes her unique, at least from our group. "My mother is full Filipino and my father is full Russian, so I'm half and half."

"What's your maiden name?" Trip continues to probe most likely keeping them off the trail of talking about her ex.

"Ivanova , Before I got married I was Nicole Sasha Valencia Ivanova," she answers, "and it will return to that instead of Nicole Johnson."

"I like your maiden name much better. It sounds like an epic name," Trip says.

"It is pretty epic," she agrees with him and then turns the question around and asks Sonja , "will you be taking on Trip's last name?"

"Yes, of course! Hello, that'll really make Aria and I sisters," Sonja says excitedly.

"We always said we would find a way," Aria adds with a wink .