Though I’d accepted his decision to move on, and with Erika, I was still very much in love with Stenton. I didn’t tell him, and I tried not to do things to show him. In all honesty, I hadn’t decided on what to do about my prevalent and tarrying feelings for him; emotions that augmented exponentially with each expression of love he paid Jordan. The strong sentiments of hurt and betrayal I felt every time I saw a picture of him and Erika hugging or kissing in public. Yeah…I saw those, too. Although I didn’t obsess over them like I could, thanks to Jordan’s demands and school, I was very much aware.
“Yeah,” I answered Cherry and the woman seated to the left of her who leaned into our exchange. Their fixation was a little weird, but flattering, I’d guessed. “He’s a show stealer. Thanks!”
Then I heard Tynisha’s brassiness to the right of me, capturing my attention.
“I had my assistant call in the reservation. I never requested veiled seating. I’d never even heard of that damn term until now,” I was able to make out between the loud music and Tynisha’s Caribbean accent shouting.
The man in a dark suit inclined towards her, appearing to try to explain himself. Tynisha’s body language wasn’t very accommodating to his pleading one initially, but the more he spoke, almost into her ear, the more relaxed her state became. I caught when she turned and threw a glance in my direction, and then nodded her head in assent to his explanation. My attention then went to the tray of shots that was placed near my person for the taking. I glanced down the bench to the right of me to see that everyone had one and I was next. With little hesitation, I took a glass. When I took a gander back over to where Tynisha was, I noticed she was approaching me with a better facial formation.
“All right now! We ‘bout to do one shot for each year of college Mascot did in school! Let’s get this bitch started!” Tynisha went for the last shot glass from the tray then regarded me circumspectly, her naturally slanted eyes squinted even more. “Please tell me you wasn’t one of those damn seven year—ers. I don’t think I can handle more than five of these,” she shouted over to me.
I shook my head amusedly. “Only four and a half, baby!” my shout was smug. I was proud of myself.
I finished Princeton!
We clanked glasses as much as we could, considering there were six of us women, all in tiny and tight dresses with high heels. Tynisha pulled me from my seat and over to the non-veiled portion of the section where we could see the crowd below. We danced and took pictures for fun. I couldn’t believe how close we’d grown; Tynisha and I were as polar as they came. She lived her life in front of the cameras for the world who actually took interest in her life. I wanted to change the world, but with my ingenuity, not my image. I gave her credit for keeping the cameras away when we were together, though I felt Stenton had a hand in that stark omission in Tynisha’s entourage.
Most of the girls, at some point in time, came over to congratulate and introduce themselves to me. Tynisha played hostess and explained who they were and what position their boyfriends, fiancés, or husbands played, if that was their connection. Most of them were connected to the 76’ers and a couple were friends of Tynisha from another part of the industry. Before I knew it, the tray came around again and we did another round of shots.
Karen joined me in dancing while Tynisha went down on the floor to mingle with camera men in tow. We laughed endlessly at Karen’s lack of dance skills, not that I had so much myself. I was able to look as though I knew what I was doing. Truthfully, it didn’t matter if we’d be good candidates for Beyoncé’s dance troop, we were having a blast, getting wasted and acting our age. We’d both become mothers— and Karen a wife—so prematurely that we didn’t get to experience this high-paced and carefree type of diversion.
A few of the other girls eventually made a cypher with us, and we accepted the third round of shots and found ourselves giggling at our equally tipsy states after downing them.