Sigh of Relief

Chapter 4

Nila

"Nila, I'm telling you, the heels you're talking about don't exist."

I stare at Denzel in astonishment. "If I look for it myself and I find it, you're doing dishes for a week straight."

He rolls his eyes, going back into the closet and I reposition my head so Caia can continue doing my makeup. I'll bet everything I own that this whole time he's been standing on his phone and doing everything but looking.

Both mine and Caia's phone ding at the same time with a notification, so I assume it's from the group chat we have with the other girls I met through Caia – Shae and Monica.

Her hands are busy adding glue to a lash strip, so I read out the text message.

"They're on their way now."

Caia snorts. "They're probably not even ready."

The plan is for us to meet at my house before heading to the restaurant, with Caia as the designated driver. I doubt we'll be doing any heavy drinking, but Caia's job is the least likely to be lenient when she clocks in hungover.

D comes out of the closet with the pair of shoes I described to him dangling from his finger.

"Aight, I found them, leave me alone now."

"Make sure Tam goes to bed early please. I'm serious," I call after him. And he's already smirking.

I used to assume he'd be happy if I went out and Tamara went to bed – then he could do whatever, go out without getting snitched on. But no. On the rare occasion I had a night out, they had movie marathons, midnight feasts, even baking competitions.

I won't lie, it does make me jealous. By the time I get back home and make dinner, I'm usually too tired to do much else.

Caia waves a strip in the air and blows on it before instructing me to close my eyes. Once she's done with both lashes, she turns my chair so that I'm facing my vanity mirror.

"You're a fucking magician, Caia." I clap my hands together. "Time for pictures."

"Slow down, you ain't even got your shoes on yet." I give her the dirtiest look I can manage, which is pretty weak because I'm laughing, and then she's laughing too, and I feel good again. Like a regular 23-year-old.

Her laughter dies down, her smile drops, and she runs her fingers through my braids like usual. But her face is too pensive for me not to ask what's wrong.

"Nothing," she shrugs. I raise my eyebrows, probably looking like an idiot but it makes her chuckle.

Caia sighs before continuing, "It's not even that important," making me kiss my teeth.

"If it upsets you, then it's important to me."

It takes her a while to start talking, but she does. "Well. I mean, I know it happens... ." Another sigh. "But I wasn't expecting it to be so hard to, you know, get pregnant."

Oh.

"I didn't know you were," I pause, trying to find the right word. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know. Have either of you gone to see a doctor or anything?"

"No. Not yet at least. I'm not gonna lie, I'd rather start using Azurette again than do that." Her hands leave my hair, and she starts fiddling about with the makeup stuff on the counter.

"It makes sense that you're scared, that's okay. Can I ask you something?" Caia nods, not meeting my eyes. "Why do you want kids?"

"Huh?"