All For Us || Oscar Diaz

52: Bargaining

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

"Do I go for this button up or this button up?" Cesar asks putting up two plain dress shirts to his chest. Nina looked back and forth between the two of them and picked the white one compared to the other dark colored option.

"Good to know you're all healed up," Nina sighed as she leaned back a little on Jamal's bed. She had come over to drop a few things that Dwayne needed fixing. They were some of Jamal's old gadgets that he could probably sell online to make extra cash.

"Yea, it took awhile. I had a good nurse by my side anyway," Cesar said with a smile referring to Monse. Nina smiled a little as well knowing the two of them had finally gotten together after all this time.

Cesar hung up the other dress shirt and begins to remove his top. Tossing the shirt aside, Nina still sees some fading marks and she instantly feels guilty once more about what happened with Cesar and his brother's gang. In truth, she had felt like she may have neglected Cesar after all this time.

Ever since things fell apart with Oscar she rarely saw Cesar now. Besides her birthday and the Tony's funeral, she hadn't really been seeing Cesar. She'd text him and they would talk every now and then, especially when he needed some girl advice when dealing with his relationship with Monse. Above that, she still feel like she could've been present more considering he was homeless and fending for himself.

"Uhm do you know how to tie a tie?" his voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "Oscar usually does this for me," he added awkwardly soon realizing that it would've been a sensitive topic for Nina.

Nina only chuckled and stood up as Cesar handed her the tie. She raises his collar and places the fabric around his neck and goes straight to work. Cesar watches her as Nina seemed to be focused on what she was doing. As she was taking her time Cesar laughs a little.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Cesar furrowed his eyebrows.

"Shut up, fool. I'm tryna concentrate," Nina chuckled as Cesar bites back the laugh. "It's been awhile since I tied somebody's tie," she admits before redoing a step. Maybe she didn't know what she was doing.

"How'd you learn to tie a tie?" Cesar asked.

"Halloween 2004," Nina chuckled. "V dressed up as Amelia Earhart while I went at Albert Einstein. I had the wig and everything," she smiled recalling how itchy that wig was.

"My dad taught me how that night. Then V and I would take turns putting it on him before he went to work when my mom was placed on the night shift for a time being," she continued.

"Then I'd do it for Tony every time he had a piano recital back then. I'd give him a pep talk and everything cos he used to be so nervous he said he might shit himself," Nina suddenly remembered.

Cesar noticed Nina's sudden change of mood as she suddenly became quiet. Her eyes shifted a little and he noticed how she pulled herself back from her own daze. "I'm sorry, Nina. I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine, Cesar," she forces a small smile as she looks up to him. With one more adjustment she places her hands on his chest. "Lookin' good, Cesar Diaz," she compliments before stepping away. Cesar smiles a little looking at the tie Nina had made.

"Hey, how are you holding up?" he asks cautiously enough to know that he doesn't wanna trigger anything.

"I miss him and I've had better days," Nina admits putting her hands in the pockets of her jacket. "I'll be okay, Cesar," she encourages with a nod.

Then there was still that guilt and sense of bargaining she felt when it came to Oscar. After that night in the stairwell with the whole wanting to kill Marcus situation, Oscar brought Nina home. She couldn't remember much as she passed out in Oscar's car from exhaustion. Nina thanked him for what happened and the other situation in his house.