The name finally hit Mia. The chick’s name was Pascale.
“Well, I think I’m just going to let Nico handle that. I appreciate the offer, though,” Mia replied.
“Oh, okay. So you want to go shopping or do something else later?”
“I’ll let you know.” Mia then put her shades over her eyes and reclined in the beach chair. She was hoping Pascale would leave her alone.
“So when I come up to New York, I want you to take me everywhere. I don’t want to rest for one second.”
Mia kept quiet.
“And I never been to New York. I can’t wait!” Pascale added.
Mia continued to keep quiet.
“You okay?” Pascale asked.
Mia nodded but didn’t say anything. She was loving her time in Miami with Nico, but she hated being around Pascale because she would never shut up. She reminded Mia of a nagging and annoying little sister. Pascale was the girlfriend of Nico’s right-hand man in Miami, Haitian Jack.
While Haitian Jack and Nico were out running the streets or at the gym lifting weights, Pascale felt it was her duty to show Mia a good time so that she wouldn’t be bored. And while Mia appreciated the hospitality, Pascale would never give her more than five minutes to breathe.
Pascal was drop-dead gorgeous with her light skin, Indian hair, and voluptuous body. She had high cheekbones, which defined her face and accentuated her green eyes. There was no denying her beauty, but it definitely seemed like God forgot to dish out a fair share of brains and common sense when it came to Pascale.
“It’s just that time of the month for me,” Mia lied, hoping that would explain her silence.
“Oh, do you get really bad cramps?”
Mia nodded her head.
“When we leave here, you have to come with me and let me take you by this herbalist. She is the best. I’m telling you, I used to have the worst cramps, and when I went to see her, she told me what to take, and I never had a problem since.”
“Really?” Mia asked, trying to sound like she was somewhat interested.
“Oh, she’s the best. We’ll go when we leave the beach.”
Mia nodded and sat back up and sipped some more of her drink. There was no sense in trying to relax and get a tan with Pascale and her annoying motor mouth sitting a couple of feet away from her.
Mia couldn’t wait to speak to Nico later that day to let him know that she had to somehow ditch Pascale, or else she was going to go crazy.
When it was all said and done, Mia knew that putting up with Pascale and her annoying self was a small price to pay in exchange for the good life that she and Nico had been experiencing on a daily basis in Miami.
Every night Nico and Mia were going to the best restaurants, and in the morning, they were having breakfast on South Shore Drive. Every day they were seeing different celebrities, and at night when they went out, they were treated like royalty at every night spot they went to, since Haitian Jack had the city on smash.
Mia and Nico were living ghetto-fabulous in Miami, and at the same time they were getting money without all of the headaches and drama going down in New York. The way Nico looked at it, he was getting the best of both worlds. He was New York to the core, but as long as he was getting money, he really didn’t care what city the money was coming from.
***
While Mia was experiencing the spoils of the Miami good life, Jasmine was in New York trying to decide if she was going to answer Agent Gosling’s phone call. Gosling had been blowing up her phone repeatedly for the past hour. All Jasmine could think about was BJ’s words about her holding her tongue.
At the same time she knew that now that she had the SoHo apartment, there was no way she would be able to duck Gosling for long, so she decided to answer on the tenth call.
“Hello,” she answered nonchalantly.
“I been calling you.”
“I’m sorry. I was ’sleep and didn’t hear my phone.”
“Well, wake your ass up and get to Madison Square Garden by eight o’clock. We got you seats two rows from the floor, Knicks and Lakers, and you’ll be in the same row as Homicide.”