"Are we there yet, Momma?" Andrea asked, getting impatient from the ride.
"Almost there, honey" Yvette answered, putting her sunglasses over her head and turning around to smile at Andrea. Suddenly, her cell phone rang.
"Shit" she mumbled, as she took her cell phone out of her purse.
"Bad word, Momma… don't say that"
"Sorry, baby" she said, taking her call. "Hello?"
"Hey chica!" Valerie chimed.
"Hey, Valerie. How have you been doing? I haven't heard from you in like a week"
"I've been great, girl… You know, I'm an occupied woman now, being the supervisor of the jewelry store and all" she laughed.
Valerie was one of Yvette's closest friends and the one person that helped her go through the situation with her Mom and the problems that she had with Nick. In fact, she was one of the only people who knew that Nick was Andrea's father. Yvette didn't want a lot of people to know the truth about Andrea just because, if everything got leaked out to the press, his career would be ruined and she certainly didn't want to cause that, although she didn't want to get back with him. Valerie proved to her that she could be an excellent friend and a great human being, something that Yvette appreciated and valued very much.
"What are you doing?" Valerie questioned.
"I'm going to the park with Andrea. Want me to pick you up and then we can go to lunch or something?"
"Sure! I'm at the mall, so you can pick me up there"
"Will do then" Yvette smiled, knowing that she was not going to be alone with Andrea. Sometimes, her apartment felt too lonely with only the two of them there.
"Can Chris come?"
Yvette smiled thinking that Valerie couldn't live without her boyfriend.
"Sure, he can come"
"Alrighty then" she grinned. "I'll wait for you here then, adios!"
"Bye bye!" Yvette finished, hanging up her phone.
She turned around and faced Andrea, who was busy drawing in her pad in the car seat. "Honey, we're going to pick Aunt Val and Chris, so that they can go to the park with us"
Andrea looked up at Yvette and grinned. "Okay Momma".
'You couldn't deny your daughter, Nick' Yvette thought as she smiled, thinking that Andrea was too much like him.
Half an hour later, Yvette went to pick Valerie and Chris up and they went to the park. They stayed for a good two hours, until Andrea got tired and fell asleep in her mother's arms.
"Hey Val, can you look for my cell phone in my purse? I think it's ringing"Yvette said, looking at her friend.
"Sure" she replied, finding the cellphone and giving it to her.
"Hello?" Yvette answered with a laugh. "Hello?" she frowned. "He-llo?" she replied one more time before she hung up. `Strange' she thought.
"Quien era, Yve?" ("Who was it, Yve?")
"No se… no contestaron" (I don't know… they didn't answer")
"Oh okay…" Valerie shrugged as they continued walking to the car
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Nick groaned loudly, before slamming the phone on the receiver. Every time that he tried calling Yvette, he would dial the first 10 digits of the number but he would never dial the last one, and when he did and she answered, he never talked. He got up from the couch and went to the kitchen to grab a glass of water.
"Who were you calling?" Ashley said, looking up from the counter.
"Yvette" Nick said simply, drinking the water.
"What?!?"
"I was calling her… It's been over 4 years and I haven't talked to her… I wanted to see how she was doing"
"But… how did you find her number?"
"It was her same cell phone number… She's now working as an entertainment attorney back in Puerto Rico"
Ashley got up from her chair and straightened her tight pink tank top.
"She must be homeless then, doing something that she knows she can't do well" she replied coldly.
Nick turned around and looked at her straight in the eye without saying anything.
"What?" she said, raising her eyebrow. "She said that she studied law to please her mother and now she's being a lawyer, when she knows that she can't defend a case well?"
Nick's mouth hung open. "Why do you say that? She's your friend"
"It's the truth, Nick… and she's not my friend anymore. We barely talk and after I did that with you, she would never talk to me"
"You know better than that Ash… You know that she has worked her ass off to be where she is, and it's not your damn problem if she's a lawyer, a producer or a tour manager… Aanyway, as you said, you haven't talked to her to know how she's doing… Don't be so jealous of her"
"I'm not being jealous of her!" Ashley shrieked, leaving Nick in the kitchen and walking to the living room. Noticing that Nick followed her, she turned around. "I'm sorry… I've been under a lot of stress lately" she closed her eyes and moved closer to him. "I'm sorry"
"It's okay… but, don't be like that" Nick answered, embracing her.
Burying her face in his shirt, she hugged him tighter. "I won't, don't worry" she answered. 'Yeah right…like the little bitch is going to take Nick away from me now' she thought to herself, thinking of revealing her true colors soon enough.