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about... an anon wanted Nova and Charley to talk about Nova's affair with Calvin and for Charley's mother to be brought up. Prompt filled, takes place after 1x12 and Nova's talk at Xavier and Charley's night of living dangerously
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From Charley Bordelon to Nova Bordelon, 8:17p
/ Just saw your talk at Xavier today. What can I say, Nova, you've always had a way with words. Proud of you, sis
From Nova Bordelon to Charley Bordelon, 8:19p
/ Thank you kindly. Pretty sure I got it from Daddy, but who knows? He never did say much until he had to.
From Charley Bordelon to Nova Bordelon, 8:20p
/ That's Ralph Angel all over
From Nova Bordelon to Charley Bordelon, 8:22p
/ RA says plenty if you're listening
/ and if we're speaking of Ralph Angel, he needs you to hear him out, Charley. We're not ganging up on you. We're not doubting that you've got a plan, something big that can do big and great things for all of us, but just hear him out? Please
From Charley Bordelon to Nova Bordelon, 8:23p
/ I could message him in the morning maybe. Right now, I don't know, I need a break
From Nova Bordelon to Charley Bordelon, 8:24p
/ What kind of break you talking?
/ Bc Too Sweet's out tonight and I could use a break myself. Maybe a little moment to celebrate even
From Charley Bordelon to Nova Bordelon, 8:26p
/ You're a bad influence, you know that right?
From Nova Bordelon to Charley Bordelon, 8:27p
/ What are big sisters for?
/ I'll see you soon
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Charley walks in with a sniff of the air. At first, it's a joke meant to be a dig at Nova, but honestly Nova's grin could power the whole of the Ninth right now. All bright and shiny and glowing from deep within. That's either drugs or love, and Charley sure hopes she didn't walk in after her sister made up with Chantal.
So, Charley sniffs, and she asks, "You get started without me?" She pulls off her scarf, letting it drop onto the couch cushion as she gets close.
Nova laughs, which doesn't really count as an answer all on its own. She says, "Nope, this one's all me. It's been…." She shuts the door, lingers against it a moment. "A really good day, Charley."
Between the amazing conversation with an icon and whatever else has this smile on Nova's face, Charley bets it was. Everything seems normal otherwise. No cushions or blankets out of place, no lights leading from the bedroom and haphazardly swept away clothes. Then again, Charley could just be projecting since a great night like that could have been hers. If she weren't so… certain all the time, if she could let go and let someone else make a decision or two, then maybe she could have gone to dinner with Remy and seen where the night took them. But since when has letting go been Charley's style?
Charley sits down on the couch and turns her focus fully to Nova. "Well, I'm all ears."
"Not anymore," Nova jokes. Charley swats towards her with a pillow, but it doesn't quite land.
"I've grown into these," Charley insists.
"You have." Nova plops down beside her. "But, honestly, I don't even where to begin. I spent so much of the day nervous, absolutely terrified, that I would say the wrong thing in front of Melissa Harris Perry and the live cameras and everything. I've done plenty of talks, but this was something else." She weighs her next words in her mouth. "It turned into something else."
"Personally or professionally?"
"Personally. Now," Nova reaches for Charley's hands, and Charley gives them willingly, "Hear me out for a second. This isn't about RA, or anyone else. It's about me. And Calvin."
"Calvin? Who's —" Charley's eyes narrow in realization. Calvin's the married man that Nova had been seeing. Charley's hands stiffen, and Nova tries rubbing them to get the blood flow and good energy circulating again.
"Yup, that's the one. But he told me today that he left her." Nova gives an almost breathy chuckle. Like the air she took in for the next batch of words couldn't figure out where to go and thought the only way out was just to flow right on out of her mouth. She doesn't say left his wife because Nova knows that Charley wouldn't take well to that phrase. Charley who's been betrayed by her husband and comes out of an affair that never became as actualized as most of the family had expected. Even still, when Nova says it, when Nova so much as pictures a single Calvin in her mind's eye, her smile grows and glows right on out of her. Her eyes light up. And her pulse rages against her skin and straight through to Charley's.
So all Charley says is "Oh."
Then Nova continues, "Now I know you're not happy with what I did. I wasn't happy either. That's why I left him. Why I decided that I could not go on in a relationship that would never be what I needed it to be. It didn't help that he didn't really understand all of what I did either. But now, he's left her and he might actually get it."
Charley purses her lips. "He might?" She winces at the judgment in her voice. The effortless trepidation. Not that anyone would blame her. This work is so central to who Nova is. Nova cares and loves and became an activist in her own personal quest for positivity within her neighborhood and for her people. If someone doesn't understand that, then they aren't right for her sister.
"Well, he came to the event today," Nova says. Charley can't help the little hm that slips from her throat. Nova side-eyes her. "It wasn't a move, okay. He's growing. And then he-he called me, and it was like I had forgotten why I was mad at him in the first place. He called, and I lit up like a Christmas tree." She sighs. "Do you have any idea what it's like to spend forever on the outside of a relationship? To have one foot in and the rest of your body out in the cold?"
Charley nearly snorts. "Not romantically, but… before Ralph Angel came along, before you got a little nicer and your mom stopped dreading the sight of me… I could maybe understand."
Nova turns their clasped hands over. "Well, sorry for that." She probably is. They'd had a talk once about why Nova couldn't be the big sister that she had wanted to be. (It had started off as fight, but a few dozen angry tears later, Nova had admitted that she'd hated the way Daddy favored Charley. How he had rushed to help Charley and her mother rather than focusing on what-ever Nova had going on. How that societally ingrained need to fight other women had manifested a little too strongly in their early sisterhood.) But they're growing too.
"It's fine, Nova, really."
"I know we're fine. It's Calvin. I've been with him for years at this point, and all of that love and those dreams don't just go away. I mean, you'd know."
Charley has eighteen years worth of dreams and plans she'd made with Davis. In one, he'd get his championship ring and keep playing until he needed to stop. By then, she'd have taken on a few more casual clients and continue working with teams, especially the Warriors, and on Davis' image post-basketball career. They'd stay out in LA, but ultimately, between his newly found coaching career and small activist work that they do, they'd wind up traveling and exploring a bit more while Micah'd be in college. And eventually, in the old plan, when her daddy couldn't work the farm anymore, she'd have gotten him some people to work it and seen about whatever else her daddy needed to stay content.
She'd had dreams before the fairytale ended and her father passed. Now she's scrambling, trying to figure out what the next plan should be. There's elements that carry over — protecting the land how she can, supporting Micah into this next chapter of his life, someone by her side — but it's not as clear anymore. It's not easy in the way it had been before all of this happened.
"Yeah, I'd know," Charley says.
Nova squeezes their hands. "See that right there is what's tripping me up. Because for all those hopes, I've got to know if it's really worth it to go back and give it my all again. If it's really real, you know? He sweeps in out of nowhere, suddenly separated and freeing Too Sweet—"
"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" Charley tilts her head so low that she has to look up to meet her sister's eye. "He freed Too Sweet? He's — Nova! He's a cop?"
"Yes, yes, everyone hears that before they hear anything else."
"Since when do you work with cops?"
"Since cops started wanting to work with me." Nova shakes her head and starts to pull away, but Charley keeps her grip on those hands. "You saw the talk. Good cops are the ones we need. Ones who agree to serve and protect and help from within the system to stop all the other ones who don't give a damn about us. Even a few good cops can make a difference."
"I'm sorry. I'm just processing, that's a lot."
"I know."
Charley has to ask. "Why'd he wait so long to help? I mean, if he is a cop, he could've helped with Too Sweet months ago. But he did nothing."
"Maybe it's like Hollywood and Aunt Vi. He wanted the papers before talking to me. Wanted to make things right."
Nova sounds hopeful, but Charley can't get that same light into her face. It'd be a solid tactic on Calvin's part to wait to help until the time was right for him. He could bind Nova's relief for Too Sweet with the thought of him returning. Casually Pavlov her into wanting him around. But, hey, Charley swallows that comment down with the spit in her mouth. Neither's going to make much of a difference here.
Then again, Charley asks, "How can any of it ever be right? Given how it started. Given the family disrupted. Given—"
"Given how you'd feel?" Nova sinks down into the couch. "When this thing started, I didn't know he had a wife. And by the time I did, I don't know, Charley, frankly I didn't really care. I wasn't trying to have anything real, and I thought, 'If this man wants to destroy his life, if he wants to fool around and step out, well that's on him.' And Lord knows I couldn't tell anyone about it."
"You could have!"
"Who?" Nova's brows sky-rocket. "You threw it in my face during the storm. Aunt Vi would've only told me to think of my mama. That woman who could heal everything but what Daddy did to her. Now, don't get me wrong, I love you, Charley, and I will love you for the whole of my life and then some. But you wouldn't be here if not for someone wondering what was right and doing what they wanted anyway."
What's Charley supposed to say to that? How does someone even respond to a statement like that? If this is where the conversation is going, they honestly do need to start smoking. They need drinks and some way to go back in time and put the world on pause for a little while. Stop this railroad, or hurricane, or whatever the fuck it is that's terrorizing them and forcing them into these unthinkable situations. They put so much into the land already. So much time and money and love, and they could lose it all if they make the wrong move. If Charley makes the wrong move.
"Didn't you say something about relaxing?" Charley tries to smile. It falls flat, but Nova doesn't comment. She just pulls her hands out of their hold and crosses to where she's got a few joints in a basket. Nova even dances with the joint a minute. Just enough to pull a chuckle out of Charley. Enough to make the air easier to breathe again.
"You right, you right." Nova settles back onto the couch and lights up the joint. Takes a hit. "And enough about me. What about you?"
"What about me?" Charley takes the joint. "I am… a mess. And I have been a mess since this whole bombshell with Davis, but—" she smokes "—even more so since that man—"
"Meaning Remy?"
His name alone draws a hum from deep within Charley's chest. A grumble that turns into a groan because she had that man waiting outside of Vi's house while she talked with Lena. "Yes, Remy. I have been a mess since he looked me dead in my eye and said," and here she turns to face her sister, drops her voice into her best impression of his soft timber and says, "'I think your soul can handle it.'"
Nova fans herself, cracking up and snatching back the joint to keep the pass going. "Remy Newell, my god, you want to talk about a way with words." She beams at the grin on Charley's face.
"He kills me. And he knows a little too much about my soul at this point."
Nova wiggles her eyebrows. "He know about anything else?"
Charley laughs but shakes her head. How could he when she keeps running? Keeps finding new obstacles? She groans and hides her face a moment. Peeks back out and actually takes another hit. Holds the smoke in for as long as she can to avoid her sister's stare. Then, finally, she admits, "I stood him up."
"Charley!"
"I know!"
"Charley!" Nova shoves her! Legitimately pushes Charley over so Charley has perfect reasoning to furrow into a pillow and pretend she doesn't exist anymore. "Why!?"
"I don't know. I don't know! Everything's been so complicated lately, with the farm and…. I honestly forgot. Not for too long, the second I saw his name and heard his voice, I remembered. I remembered all of the new hopes I'd started forming this night, but I was in a meeting by then."
Nova hesitates. "What kind of meeting?"
Charley fights the urge to roll her eyes. "You know what kind, Nova. I'm seeing what all can be done."
"Everything but RA's plan though. No, don't roll your eyes at me. I'm saying this because you ignored his calls all day, had that boy worried and running around trying to figure out how to show you that he means business. He works so hard out there, Charley, and he just wants us to trust him and be proud of what he's accomplishing."
"I'm trying not to lose what he's accomplishing."
"And so is he! His plan is a great temporary solution. It could buy us time, and most importantly, it shows good faith to our brother who we've both left out in the cold recently." Nova rustles some of her locs — an old tick — and Charley sits up a little straighter without even meaning to. "He just got Blue back. And even then, he's been fighting with Vi to get the right to be Blue's daddy. To have something that he's earned and wanted for as far back as it matters right now. He needs all of us to let him make decisions. And this isn't about cutting you out or not respecting your ideas, okay? This is about doing what's best for the farm and the family, and right now, that's trusting in the person who is tending to the land every single day."
"Nova, I hear you, but—"
"But nothing! Talk to Prosper, or Remy if y'all can focus long enough. Talk about which of these ideas seems most reasonable for right now. Mills run out, Charley, and we have our whole lives to come up with just the right way to get back at the Landrys, but if we lose it all right now, we'll only be getting back at ourselves."
"Fine!" Charley puts her hands on her sister's shoulders. "Nova, I'm not fighting. I'm listening. I—" hear her, honestly. Charley's been doing a lot, and the only reason her date with Remy even came to be was as a way for him to try and distract her from her plans. She knows the tactic. Understands the logic behind wining and dining her so she relaxes and relinquishes a bit of control. "I have never had a team larger than two before." Not really. Sometimes, she had both Micah and Davis, but then they were normally all behind her or all behind him, and it rarely felt like an actual team effort. "I've spent every year since Micah was born fighting everyone's expectations of what I am capable of. Now they see Charley Bordelon-West. They see who I made myself become, but I haven't forgotten the looks they gave me. Nineteen with a newborn trying to get a degree, still insisting that I'd be a lawyer and everything else I had planned to be."
"And you did it."
"I did. But that wasn't without sacrifices and certainly not by just listening to what other people had to say."
Nova nudges Charley. "How about we all work on listening then? We'll adjust. Adapt. You can still be Miss CEO, but RA and I will be the Board of Directors. We all hear each other out and work together, or this will not work."
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"Yeah, but I'm gonna need a lot more of that —" she points to the joint, long forgotten, "—before I apologize to anyone."
"Well, I've got plenty."
"I know you do."
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From Charley Bordelon to Ralph Angel Bordelon, 11:13p
/ Call me in the morning. I'll answer, I promise.
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From Charley Bordelon to Remy Newell, 11:14p
/ Exactly how fine did you look tonight?
/ This is NOT a booty call text. Don't even joke.
From Remy Newell to Charley Bordelon, 11:15p
/ That hadn't even crossed my mind until you said it.
From Charley Bordelon to Remy Newell, 11:16p
/ Liar.
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From Ralph Angel Bordelon to Nova Bordelon, 11:20p
/ Don't know what you said to Charley but it must've done something
/ that your voodoo?
From Nova Bordelon to Ralph Angel Bordelon, 11:22p
/ Charley's offended you'd even think that
From Ralph Angel Bordelon to Nova Bordelon, 11:24p
/ Ya'll together rn?
/ Way to invite me sis
/ I get a text & you get a home visit
From Nova Bordelon to Ralph Angel Bordelon, 11:26p
/ You got a kid to worry about, RA
From Ralph Angel Bordelon to Nova Bordelon, 11:27p
/ How old's Micah?
From Nova Bordelon to Ralph Angel Bordelon, 11:29p
/ Old enough
/ Don't you got something to do?
/ Someone to entertain perhaps?
From Ralph Angel Bordelon to Nova Bordelon, 11:30p
/ You leave Darla outta this
From Nova Bordelon to Ralph Angel Bordelon, 11:31p
/ So she IS at the house, mkay
From Ralph Angel Bordelon to Nova Bordelon, 11:33p
/ You something else, Nova. I'll remember that
From Nova Bordelon to Ralph Angel Bordelon, 11:34p
/ Go'n remember it then
/ and remember I'm the one who helped you tonight. Don't forget that while you're busy remembering stuff
From Ralph Angel Bordelon to Nova Bordelon, 11:35p
/ I'm going to bed. Night
From Nova Bordelon to Ralph Angel Bordelon, 11:35p
/ NIGHT RA!
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From Charley Bordelon to Ralph Angel Bordelon, 11:36p
/ Tell Darla we say goodnight too
From Ralph Angel Bordelon to Charley Bordelon, 11:37p
/ I'm telling Remy everything bad you ever did.
/ Starting with you sneaking off to see that boy down the street and going all the way up to whatever it is you're doing right now at Nova's
From Charley Bordelon to Ralph Angel Bordelon, 11:38p
/ Don't be mad just 'cause you're not here
/ Green's not your color, Ralph Angel
From Ralph Angel Bordelon to Charley Bordelon, 11:39p
/ I'm a farmer, Charley. Green's my only color.
From Charley Bordelon to Ralph Angel Bordelon, 11:39p
/ :'D
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