With Christmas around the corner, Nikki thought it would be nice to get away, so she, Esposito, Stefania and Gina would be spending the holiday at the lake house. Nikki knew it would be nice for her mother to spend Christmas in a familiar place.
Coincidentally, the day after they finalized plans, Nikki got a phone call from a person in the past. A woman named Margie, with whom she worked for early in high school for a charity for her community service requirements for school. Nikki had volunteered regularly -- more than what was required -- for the the charity during her first two years of school, including working the annual telethon for the children’s hospital. Margie invited Nikki to lunch, clearly unaware of the woman she had become and what happened to her parents. They had kept in touch over the years, but Nikki kept much of her new lifestyle to herself. Thinking it would fun to see her again, Nikki agreed to meet when she was “home” for the holidays.
The day after they arrived home, Nikki made the trip in to meet Margie at an Olive Garden in outside of Buffalo. An accountant in her mid-50s, Margie was a widowed accountant and an avid smoker herself. She, however, did not know that Nikki was, too, but she didn’t know much about how much she had changed in the four years since they had seen each other.
Margie was waiting inside, wearing a pair of jeans and black loafers and a blue blazer, but she was not quite prepared for the outfit Nikki had chosen for the day. She entered the restaurant wearing a tight black tank top with Erica’s Perrillo Family logo emblazoned on the front with a pair of black leather leggings with a thick black leather belt with rhinestones sitting loosely around her hips and her knee-high black leather boots with a stiletto heel overtop, along with her thick gold necklaces around her neck, bracelets around her right wrist and large gold Rolex on her left wrist. She also wore her black leather car coat that went to the middle of her thighs.
It was quite obvious Margie was taken aback when Nikki walked in and even more so when she took off her coat to reveal the tattoos on her arm.
“Well, you have certainly grown up in the last few years,” Margie said politely.
“That tends to happen when you get older,” Nikki laughed.
The two women made small talk for awhile and Nikki filled Margie in on what she was doing with her life at the moment. Of course, Nikki left out a few pertinent details. On the surface, the only thing different about her was clothing and tattoos. That is until the food arrived.
When the waitress brought the food, Nikki took immediate displeasure with her dish.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Nikki barked at the girl, who was no older than 19.
The waitress simply stared at her, as Margie did the same, completely in shock.
“I told you I didn’t want any capers!” Nikki snapped.
“I’m sorry, miss,” The waitress stammered. “I’ll fix that right away.”
“Why wasn’t it right the first time?” Nikki demanded. “Didn’t I say I didn’t want any capers?”
“Yes, you did,” The girl mumbled.
“So you are you stupid or just bad at your job?” Nikki demanded again.
Again, the girl said nothing.
“Honey, if one of the girls at my restaurants did this, they’d be gone in a second,” Nikki said. “Now go make it right.”
When the waitress sauntered away from the table, Nikki return to her conversation with Margie as if nothing happened.
“Sorry about that,” Nikki said nonchalantly. “What were you saying?”
“Don’t you think you were a little hard on her?” Margie asked, still stunned from the sequence of events that just transpired.
“No,” Nikki said flatly. “It’s all about respect. If she doesn’t respect me, then my employees won’t, my professors won’t and neither will anyone else. You know what it’s like to be a woman in power.”
Margie dropped the subject and they moved on with the conversation throughout the rest of the meal. Finally, she had an offer for Nikki, revealing the reason for the meeting.
“As you know, we always have a cocktail party before our telethon,” Margie began. “We would like some former volunteers and kids from the past to come and speak. You know, talk about how the organization has helped you and such. Since you’re an Ivy League student and already own a business, I thought you would be great. What do you say?”
“I would love to,” Nikki said politely. “I’ll make sure I’m free and I can come back to town for that.”
“Oh, that would be great!” Margie exclaimed.
When the meal was finally finished, Nikki stood up, put her leather coat back on and slid her full-shield designer sunglasses from their resting place on her head to her eyes, heading to the exit with Margie. On the way out, there was a middle-aged couple waiting to be seated and the male did very little to disguise his stares for the leather-clad beauty walking by.
“Keep it in your pants, honey,” Nikki said with a smirk, never breaking stride and ignoring another surprising look from Margie.
Once they were outside, Nikki wasted little time putting a cigarette between her lips and letting the nicotine wash over her. She drew heavily on the second puff, exhaling a massive amount of smoke through her mouth and nostrils, yet another surprise for Margie.
“So I’ll confirm everything with you when I get back to Jersey,” Nikki said, cigarette bouncing between her lips as she rustled in her black leather purse for her car keys.
“Sounds great,” Margie said, clearly having second thoughts about her offer. Nikki could tell the older woman wanted to smoke, but was in awe of what had become of her.
“Awesome,” Nikki said. She gave Margie a hug and stalked off. She had a sneer on her face as she walked to her car, smoke trailing behind her. Nikki enjoyed the shock and awe she received from those who still expected her to be a polite little girl. She clearly was long past that point.
____________________________________________________________________________
Next on Nikki’s list for the day was another trip down memory lane. Maggie and Sarah had also reached out to her and Nikki reluctantly agreed to meet them at the mall to shop and then go to dinner afterwards.
Since moving away, Nikki had kept to herself and hadn’t kept in touch with any of her old friends since graduation. She had also abstained from using Facebook, even deleting her account to keep a low profile, so it was unlikely they would know anything about the past year and a half.
The mall was just around the corner from the Olive Garden so Nikki had barely touched her second cigarette since leaving the restaurant when she pulled Esposito’s Mercedes SUV into the parking lot.
When she got out of the car, cigarette firmly between her lips, she could see her older friends waiting at the entrance and when they saw her approach, their jaws nearly fell to the floor. Could this leather-clad woman with smoke billowing from her like a chimney really be Nikki?
“Ladies,” Nikki said, taking a hard drag and letting out a massive exhale. “It’s been a while.”
“Oh honey, it’s good to see you!” Maggie exclaimed as she hugged Nikki with a half-smoked cigarette of her own between her fingers.
“How have you been?” Sarah asked, giving a hug of her own.
“I’ve been good,” Nikki said shortly, discarding her cigarette and push her sunglasses to the top of her head. “College life agrees with me.”
Once they got inside, Nikki removed the black leather gloves from her hands, revealing her large engagement ring, which immediately caught the attention of the two women.
“Wow!” Maggie said loudly. “Look at the size of that rock! When did you get engaged?”
“About a year ago,” Nikki said simply.
“Look at that watch, too!” Sarah said as she noticed Nikki’s Rolex when she grabbed her hand to look at the ring. “He must have some money.”
“He does,” Nikki agreed. “But I bought the watch on my home. I’m a business owner now.”
The three women in leather coats spent the next two hours walking around the mall, with the older two peppering Nikki about what she had been up to, her business and her new fiance. Maggie and Sarah were surprised to see the pricey items Nikki considered buying, but it didn’t faze her.
After two hours, Nikki was a bit tired of all the questions and she was ready for another smoke when Maggie was done checking out at Macy’s.
“What do you say we have a smoke and then head to dinner?” Nikki proposed.
Once outside, Nikki impressed with the ease and volume that she smoked with. She was onto her second cigarette before Maggie had even finished half of one. Even Sarah, who was a heavy smoker in her own right, couldn’t keep up with her pace. It was quite a change since Nikki was not even a pack-a-day smoker when they first began to hang out on a regular basis.
When they went into the restaurant for dinner and were seated at their table, Nikki slipped off her leather car coat, revealing her tattoos, although Maggie had seen them on prom night a year and a half prior. It was finally time to get down to the serious questions, though.
“So what has happened to you lately?” Maggie asked.
“What do you mean?” Nikki responded with a puzzled look on her face.
“Well the kids say you went crazy,” She answered. “You started dressing more risky, doing drugs and hanging out with criminals.”
“You can’t believe everything you hear,” Nikki laughed. “I prefer to call it living my life.”
“Well, you stopped coming around to see me,” Maggie said. “Plus you stopped spending time with the girls, too.”
“I think we were all heading in different directions,” Nikki said honestly. “They didn’t want to support the woman I was becoming and I was tired of being judged for trying to live my best life.”
“Do you think partying and doing illegal things is really your best life?” Sarah asked.
“I think making the Dean’s list at an Ivy League school, while running a successful business is pretty damn good,” Nikki snapped. “Not to mention I’m engaged to the a man I love and I’m doing all of this before I turn 20. So, yeah, I think I’m living a pretty great life.”
With that, Nikki had enough for one night. Before the waiter even arrived to take their order, she stood up, threw down a $100 bill and stalked out of the restaurant.
“Dinner’s on me, ladies,” Nikki said coldly. “I don’t need judgment while I’m on vacation.”
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