Naomi Wright just moved into a beautiful new apartment in the Northwest quarter of Washington, DC. She moved there from Pentagon City in Virginia, so this was a much more convenient location for her life. Naomi Wright was lucky to find this apartment on such short notice. Sure, it was a bit pricey, but with a two-week turnaround she wasn't passing it up. Naomi Wright is about to finish her first year of Grad School at GW. With one final down and two more plus a paper to go, she is very pleased with her progress. But Naomi Wright is not happy, because Naomi Wright was just dumped.
Why did Naomi Wright have to move into a new apartment just a week before her finals? Because her boyfriend, a 2L at Georgetown, decided it was time to end their 4-year relationship just in time for him to have some peace and quiet in the apartment for him to study. Couldn't he have gone to the library, or asked her to give him the study space he needed during this time? Surely Naomi would have understood. But what she didn't understand was how he could use this opportunity to mask his cowardice in wanting to end their relationship; blaming his issues on school instead of facing them and talking through them. Naomi was in school too, but you didn't see her calling it quits every time she needed to concentrate.
Naomi and her boyfriend, excuse me, ex-boyfriend, James, met during their undergrad tenure at the University of Maryland. Naomi was a sophomore, James was a Junior, it was Greek Week, and their sorority and fraternity were paired up for the competition. While they had to work together and fight hard to win the tug-of-war, the talent show, and the fundraising contest; Naomi and James didn't have to battle at all to win each other over.
When James graduated and moved to DC to attend his dream law school, Naomi knew it wouldn't be long until she joined him there too. The year they spent apart was tough for both of them, but James sailed through his 1L year and Naomi kept her head down, preparing for the GRE, and got accepted to GW for their Psychology Graduate Program. They had it all figured out. James was going to go on to be a successful lawyer and Naomi was going to be a guidance counselor; she always loved helping people.
But the tension of spending a year apart never fully went away during the year they lived together, and Naomi found it tricky to help herself. The tension faded, but James had grown accustomed to his space, his new friends, his lawyer jokes. Naomi had spent many nights out with friends from school while James sat at home and worked. She knew they were in a different place than when they were in college, but she had faith in their relationship and a vision for the future. She never thought it would end like this. So abruptly, so heartlessly, so jarring. Apparently, James did not see the same light at the end of the tunnel, and suddenly she was all alone in the dark.
No, she wasn't alone. She had great friends; she enjoyed her coworkers at the restaurant she waitressed at for extra money, for that matter she was making extra money; and she was embarking on the career of her dreams. Who needed James? Well, not him, but maybe his apartment.
For going through the emotional turmoil of being dumped, kicked out of her living situation and having to find a new apartment, all while trying to study for her finals, Naomi Wright is doing pretty damn well these days.
Summer is right around the corner and she wants to celebrate; put all the drama behind her, uplift her spirits. Her finals end on Thursday and she doesn't have to work until Friday night, so Naomi has decided to throw a Housewarming/End of Finals/Summer's Here - Party, Thursday night.
As she minimizes her Word document with study materials and brings up Facebook on her web browser, Naomi surveys her new apartment and squints her eyes trying to envision the place filled with friends. She creates the event and invites everyone she knows in DC, even including some of James' law school buddies, but not James. She knows that will get his attention. Quickly she receives a handful of "attending" RSVPs and she smiles. Satisfied, Naomi returns to her school work; inevitably she'll check the RSVP list during her next study break, but for now it's back to the books.
---
Handing in the blue book that will complete her
first year of grad school, Naomi is thrilled that she does not have to
think about professors, papers, and projects for a whole three months.
So what can she fill her head with now? Books to read on the beach.
Maybe plan a road trip with friends to actually get to a beach. TV shows
to catch up on. Farmer's markets and new recipes to try. Summer music
festivals in the city. James.
No, no, she will not think about James. She will think about... of course, her party tonight! Focusing on anything other than the broken heart she has been thankful to avoid up until now because of studying, Naomi hurriedly rattles off a to-do list to get ready for her party tonight. She vows that she will only concentrate on party planning for the rest of the day and she heads to the liquor store to start checking items off of her mental preparation list.
---
No, no, she will not think about James. She will think about... of course, her party tonight! Focusing on anything other than the broken heart she has been thankful to avoid up until now because of studying, Naomi hurriedly rattles off a to-do list to get ready for her party tonight. She vows that she will only concentrate on party planning for the rest of the day and she heads to the liquor store to start checking items off of her mental preparation list.
---
Using all of the will power she has not to take a nap on the couch that she swears she can hear calling her name, Naomi starts unloading her purchases to set up for the party that is just a few hours away. Cups, chips, alcohol; napkins, dips, mixers.
Next, Naomi strategically moves her couch a few feet from its current location in order to create a larger seating space. However, her couch was a little heavier than expected and she bumped and banged it along the floor as she got it to the spot that she envisioned. Yep, she definitely did not need an extra work out today. For a brief moment she realized how much noise she was making and she hoped that her neighbor below her, whomever that may be, was not home; they would probably think she was nailing the couch to the floor rather than transporting it.
Having maneuvered the rest of the furniture in the apartment the way Naomi saw fit for a party, she places her snacks around the room and sets up a drink-making station on the kitchen table. Naomi checks her watch to find that there is just enough time to change and eat some dinner before she has to put her hostess game-face on.
---
Naomi stumbles in her high heels through the group of people standing near her closet. Did she even know those guys? So much for that hostess game-face. She kicks her heels off and in the process, lands on the floor with them. The group near the closet comes to see if she is alright and once they have her on her feet again they left her to, well, whatever it was that she was doing.
It looked like Naomi was either counting her shoes or trying to figure out the meaning of life. Her brow was scrunched up, her head tilted down, and there was a confusion in her eyes that screamed, "I'm drunk in my own apartment and I don't even know where I am!"
She was actually looking for her slippers to comfort her tired feet but she couldn't focus long enough to really find them and shortly gives up the search. Naomi returns to the drink-station where her best friend, Tamra, was entertaining her guest.
Tamra and Naomi were sorority sisters in college, and Tamra deciding to do her graduate work at American University was the icing on the cake of Naomi starting her life in DC.
Tamra came to American to continue her studies in the Spanish language and she joined a program this summer to host a student from Colombia who wanted to come to America to further their English studies for 6 weeks, followed by them trading and her spending 6 weeks in Colombia. This student's name was Ricardo, but liked to go by Rico, and Tamra liked to call him Rico Suave. But not to his face, only to Naomi. Naomi didn't know what Rico's real last name was, she only knew him as Rico Suave.
As Naomi plunks herself into a chair at the kitchen table rather ungracefully, she grabs onto Rico Suave's arm for balance. With her free hand, she reaches for her drink, or at least the cup she thought was her drink, but not before Tamra could grab it out of the way first.
"Yo creo que tu ha tenido suficiente," Tamra says.
Naomi stares blankly at Tamra with her mouth open trying to comprehend Tamra's message. Literally not a word she said just made sense, it was like she was speaking another language.
"Tam, Tam, Tam, Tam..." each syllable was accompanied by a hand swipe as Naomi tried to reply to Tamra, never quite reaching her name or the cup. Naomi knew she was stammering but she knew she couldn't help it.
"I think you have had enough, is what Tamra is trying to tell you, Naomi," Rico tried to help.
With Rico Suave's accent, Naomi could never tell if he was speaking Spanish or English. Nope, she didn't get a word of that either; she decided he must be speaking in Spanish.
Naomi blinks to hold back the tears that were forming behind her eyes. First her boyfriend dumped her and kicked her out, then she had to deal with finals, and now she can't understand the magic language that her best friend uses to communicate with Rico Suave; her whole life is falling apart.
And then the flood gates opened to really complete the damage that had been wrecked.
"What is wrong, Naomi?" Rico was kneeling to be eye level with her, he was very concerned.
"It's just, I, well, I miss him. I haven't had time to miss him yet and now I do." Naomi sobbed each word.
Rico looked to Tamra for clarification.
"She's a subconscious drunk," Tamra casually explained. "When Naomi gets drunk whatever is in her subconscious comes pouring out so you never know what you'll get with her when she drinks. One night she could be happy and the life of the party, the next she's ready to throw her drink at the girl who borrowed her pencil that one time and never gave it back. Tonight I guess we have 'Sad Naomi,' wallowing over James."
"Oh no, we are not going to be sad when I am here," Rico stands up. "Uh uh, you need to forget about him, Naomi."
Naomi kept crying, she couldn't just snap out of it like that.
"Listen, Naomi, you're fine without him, look at how much you're doing and he's not a part of any of it!" Tamra chimed in.
Tamra whispers something to Rico before disappearing in the crowd. He sits down next to Naomi to console her while they wait for Tamra. She returns having plugged an iPod into the sound system in the apartment, and Beyonce's voice rose above the volume of the party:
Listen, I am alone at a crossroads
I'm not at home in my own home
And I've tried and tried to say what's on mind
You should have known
Oh, now I'm done believing you
You don't know what I'm feeling
I'm more than what you made of me
I followed the voice you gave to me
But now I've gotta find my own
"Is that Dreamgirls?" Naomi was finally cognizant.
"Yes," Tamra saw that she was coming back down to earth, "and you don't need him, you're like Beyonce."
Naomi stands up, and Tamra and Rico exchange a smile of success.
"Yeah, I'm like Beyonce," Naomi was regaining her courage and she was going to prove it by doing the "Single Ladies" dance. But drunk dancing only caused Naomi to fall down again.
Tears were welling up once more, she kept falling down.
Rico jumped in, "here, here, you want to dance? Let's dance! Just one second."
Rico switches the music on the iPod to something he was just a little familiar with: merengue.
He grabs Naomi's hands and pulls her up to dance with him. All she had to do was follow his lead and he could hold her upright for the duration of the music.
Naomi began to smile. She is dancing, she is having fun again, she is doing fine.
---
She is awake! And alone. And clearly hungover. Naomi grabs her head to hold it from falling off her body as she sits up. What time is it? Naomi checks her phone and it tells her that it is 10:15 AM. She couldn't remember what time anyone left or how she got into pajamas or how much she drank for her head to pound so loudly. Loudly, the music. The last thing she can remember was Beyonce and some sort of Latin music. She hoped her friends and guests had a good time. She hoped she didn't bother her neighbors, after all, she was still new to the building. She hoped that her headache would go away and dozed off again giving herself the rest that Naomi Wright desperately needed.
"Listen" - Beyonce on the Dreamgirls soundtrack
"Merengue Mix" - by DJ Luiska (I don't know if this is the exact music that was played but it will give you a sense of what I heard through my ceiling)
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