Only Skin Deep

by Mahalia Levey

  “Sounds great. Not that I’m big on fashion. I go into a store and pick what I want quickly. A nice shirt, slacks or jeans and I’m good. I couldn’t begin to tell you what brand I use or the style of what I like. If it looks good on a mannequin chances are it’ll be just as nice on me.”

  “At least your socks match.” Deja laughed.

  Derek yanked the pillow from under his head and whopped her good.

  She retaliated as an act of war.

  “You can’t beat me babe. I’m not that much of a gentleman to let you win. You do know that about me right?” He rolled, pinning her under him. “Besides I can think of much better ways to spend the morning.”

  Intensity burned in his eyes. Damn didn’t he have enough this morning?

  “Again?”

  “Like I could ever get enough of you. “ Derek nipped her neck and cupped her breast. “Come out and play, Deja mine.” With those sweet words how could she resist.

  Chapter Seven

  Deja took a break from mid-afternoon rush. She loved seeing women come in on lunch breaks to browse. Since her return Barbie changed her aromatic ways. No more thick fogs of incense perfumed the air. The light scent of fresh air surrounded her. One of the perks to being pregnant she guessed.

  With reluctance she’d agreed to only work four hours in the store and do everything else at home…rather Derek’s place. His condo continued to grow on her. He went home with her to pick up a few boxes of her things, two closets of clothing and her accessories, all while muttering she needed to have a garage sale or sell some stuff online. She picked a picture of her family to set near one of his. Surprisingly they fell into a comfortable pattern. The odd clash of bathroom etiquette drove him to furnish the second one just for her to avoid bickering over toilet seats left up, messy countertops and all his metro sexual hair product mixed with her things.

  He’d even invited Donato and Jason over a couple nights. They brought Taleena and Nadja with them. She’d missed seeing her friends and was more than glad for the extra gab sessions while the men had guy time, disappearing into the man cave, a room Deja wasn’t allowed in, not even to clean. The door even had a password protected entry doorknob.

  Derek also began to disappear for hours with Donato a couple of times the past few weeks, coming home sweaty and exhausted, immediately crashing to sleep on the bed. There was only so much sweaty man smell she could stomach and began waiting with a fresh towel, thankful he’d accepted with little fuss and showered, making her nose rejoice.

  “What are you doing?”

  She hadn’t sensed him coming in. “Hey baby. I’m changing out rack cards and tagging.”

  “In high heels on a step ladder? What happened to the boots I bought you?” He crossed his arms in the ‘oh I’m so annoyed’ way of his. She felt an argument rising.

  “Hey, I’m not an invalid, you know. I know what I’m doing. I’ve been doing this for years.”

  “The boots? All I’m saying is it pays to be careful. You can wear some sneakers you know. A pair of Nike’s or some flats while you work.”

  Deja looked at him in horror. “I do not wear sneakers.” Well, that was a lie. “I only wear tennis shoes when I’m working out at home or at an all-girls gym with the girls. The boots made my feet hot. I brought my heels with me. And before you ask, I wore a real coat today, faux fur-lined and everything.”

  Derek laughed. “I can just see you chasing a toddler around in heels babe, funny but totally you. Why not try wearing a low heel for now. I’m just concerned about your safety, you know. I’ll even go pick you out something from the shoe store.”

  Deja didn’t want to hurt his feelings. “You realllly don’t have to. I mean I’ll go out with the girls to pick something out that’s a definite compromise.” He got lucky with the stylish faux fur lined boots. They were attractive, warm, and just a tad bit too cozy, no one liked sweaty feet.

  Derek snorted. Lucky for her the bell rang. She accepted his help off the ladder, leaning into his lingering touch on her hip for a second. With a grin on her face, she turned to go see to her customer, leaving him to his own devices.

  Later, she found him peeking through necklaces and tapped his shoulder. “What are you doing here?”

  “Oh. I’m going to play some ball with Jason, Donato and some others tonight. Wanted to drop by to let you know not to wait on dinner for me.”

  “Sounds fun but you could’ve sent me a text.”

  “Yeah, I was on this side of town.” Deja didn’t believe him a hundred percent.

  “I am so proud of you for making new friends. They play on some league. Does that mean you’re joining?”

  “Yes. And before you ask, no, females aren’t allowed to watch. It’s a guy thing, love.”

  “Well that’s a suckass rule. Why not?”

  “You have your all girls workout gym. We have our all guy ball playing nights.” He so was keeping the real reason from her. Why else would he deny her the chance to see him play ball with his new friends for the first time? She’d never seen him hot and sweaty on a court.

  “Hmph. Fine. I’ll see what the girls are up to and we’ll maybe make girls’ night out or at least have dinner and an appetizer somewhere. Have fun and try not to break anything or let anyone break you.”

  “I’ve played street ball before.”

  She regarded him with skepticism, then shrugged. “If you say so, but I’ve seen the way they play. Back when we women were allowed to watch.”

  “I promise I’ll give you a play by play when I get home, okay?”

  “You better.”

  Derek dropped a kiss on her lips and knelt down. Even through her clothing she felt the heat of his breath, his lips as he murmured to their child and kissed her still flat tummy. She ran her fingers over his gelled hair.

  “You know how to disarm a lady…”

  “Survival tactic. I’m full of them.” He chuckled. “No more heels on the stepstool. I’m sure Barbie will do that stuff for you.”

  “And back to being totally anal about things. Get out of my store.” She swatted his ass. When he walked away a part of her wanted to drag him back. Sappy. I’m fucking sappy as shit. In her head she played all the couple songs she’d play at their wedding. Lord help her, she needed to get a grip. She had Derek on the brain…and knew deep down there was no cure for her affliction.

  The store phone rang. She walked over to pick up the cordless.

  “Thanks for calling Craze. This is Deja.” Nadja greeted her. “Girl, I was so about to call you.”

  “Our guys have a play date. Did you know?”

  “Yep. Derek came to tell me personally.” Derek swaggered out the door, turning to blow a kiss and level a heated gaze on her. Man, he singed her from the top of her perfectly styled hair to her manicured toes from clear across the room. She waved him off and concentrated on her phone call. “So, you got a text? Did Donato say where they’re playing? I’d give anything to watch. You and Taleena have both seen your men play sports. Not me.” She listened for the bell over the door to chime while she conversed with her best friend. “Yeah, we need Taleena to get the goods. We can formulate a plan on sneaking in to watch. What? Hmmm, I didn’t think that through totally. It’s winter so we won’t be able to watch. I know, summer will be a breeze since they play on open courts. All of this brainstorming is making me hungry.” There had to be a way to skirt around the no enter rule.

  Nadja cracked her up. She could see them decked in spy gear, goggles, binoculars and all. None of them were slick though. To be brutally honest, Donato scared her sometimes. The massive man had an uncanny way of extracting information without saying a word. Many a time she squeaked out some tiny morsel of gossip, and then clasped her hands to her mouth in horror at breaking the number one sister rule. Under duress plead ignorance. Tomas wasn’t much better, in fact she could say the same for all the employees at Club Mist.

  “Hmm?” Spit and damn, she missed Nadja’s entire one-sided conver
sation and wasn’t in the slightest peeved when she ended the call.

  Now faced with a dial tone, Deja blinked and made her way back to the counter to fish for a snack.

  As the afternoon wore on, she helped her customers while searching online for some new footwear. Sneaker heels? They had some cute lace up ones. However, she could see a lecture a mile long if she got them, deciding they weren’t even close to what Derek suggested.

  With a sigh, she began to look at lower heels. Flipping the pages took her on a blast from the past when she wanted to be taller, and a new pair of shoes made a broken heart feel better. High school, when she was a bookworm with little social grace. Until fate stepped in, in the form of her aunt from New York bearing gifts, her first designer hand bag, wallet, designer heels, and an array of belts and hats. Miranda let her go through her clothes and for the first time in her life she felt home. Everyone in school wanted to know where she got her new pretties, not like she ever told them. Right then, she decided the world of pretty clothes and things were her future.

  And now, a sexy, thoughtful man wanted to douse her creativity with boring albeit safe footwear. Bah humbug, and it wasn’t even Christmas. The more time she spent thinking, the more she came to realize how much Derek and Donato had a lot in common. She still thought Donato worked for some secret part of the government. He had that hard edge about him. Her bestie was a brave soul for being his woman.

  “Deja.” The sound of Barbie’s voice brought her from her reverie. She closed the icons for the shoe stores and gave her attention to her employee. “Hmm?”

  “I’m back. Thought you’d want to take a break or sit down…”

  “I can’t, got inventory to finish doing. Derek took me off task when he popped in.”

  “I think it’s cute he is so sweet to you, precious cargo and all. I’ll handle things here, you can go do inventory and get out early.” Deja appreciated the gesture, especially since she’d be leaving to go find fugly shoes before meeting the girls.

  While she walked around with a scanner, her mind drifted to how her world irrevocably changed in a good way. In fact, she’d stopped making her weekly lists, the ones she obsessively needed to have order in her life. Living without answers and every day planned wasn’t half bad. With Derek close to balance the chaos, she got her much needed breathing room, plus she wasn’t too sure he didn’t just absorb it. Either way the nauseating panic of whether her family liked him or not became a nonissue, the stifling fear ceased almost to extinction.

  Deja pressed the gun to the SKU serial code over the bangles section one by one…by one by one, moving next to the earrings, necklaces and chokers. Accessories took an hour to get through, since there were multiple racks as well as an ungodly excess of designs. Like any true girly girl, she had a million herself at home, and was working on a hanging system to keep them from disarray and tangles.

  Now and then she’d hear Barbie ring up a customer or pause to help her patrons find their way around her store.

  During downtime, guilt plagued her for what she put Derek through out of mind numbing fear…fear of the unknown and fear of failure. In a short span of time he’d become a permanent piece of her life when she wasn’t used to having people get past her shields. Her brain had not yet caught up with her heart. Her cowardice now affected her the most—that she lacked the courage to take him home and introduce him to her family, when he’d stand up against all odds for her. While she fixated on the negative what ifs, he brought up all of the positive, the miracle right now growing in her, proof that with love and a small seed of faith anything was possible.

  Deja moved to the leggings, her mind flitting from one extreme measure to the next, daydreaming more than working. Flashes of what their child would look like passed through her mind. For the past week, she’d thought of baby names, though hadn’t discussed them with Derek yet. If she gave him a son, she wanted to name him after the childhood pals he lost, if she had a girl, Faith or Hope because he epitomized those and so much more. Her stomach grumbled reminding her she needed to eat and that inventory could wait until tomorrow.

  Light flurries blew into her face as she stepped outside. For once she was glad she had the common sense to listen to Derek and wiggled her toes in her faux fur-lined boots working great to keep her toes toasty. Her new coat protected her from the frigid winds whiplashing her bare face and neck. Huffs of steam came out of her mouth as she exhaled. Deja shoved her messenger bag over her shoulder, auto-started her truck with the fancy clicker Derek had installed after their compromise of a better vehicle and braced herself as she trekked the short distance across the parkway. Since the accident, her nerves had a habit of going haywire whenever the streets appeared slick. One car spinout didn’t mean she’d be a victim again to the mean streets and inclement weather. Deja slid into the driver’s seat, adjusted her mirrors, fastened her seat belt and slid the vehicle in reverse.

  Spring is on the horizon.

  Yeah, if she kept telling herself, she’d believe it and time would fly by. Her cell blared out Pittbull as she daydreamed of warm sunshine, and the new cycle of life from Mother Nature. Derek made her promise not to play on the phone while driving. Not for nothing, she didn’t want any odds to stack up against her so she ignored the incessant ringtone and navigated the streets leading her to Shoe Store Liquidation. She’d called her order in, opting for a pick up instead of the extra pricing for delivery.

  After fifteen minutes of slower than a snail’s pace driving, she pulled into the parking lot, slid into an empty slot and parked. Cold air blew in her face as she stepped out. Lucky for her, the chill didn’t seep down the opening at her neck to freeze her nipples off. She should’ve worn a thicker top.

  Sorry was driving. She texted back and hit send as she walked carefully to the store. Numb from forehead to lips…and ears, she entered the store and headed to the customer service desk. “I’m here to pick up an order.”

  “Name please?”

  “Deja Crane.”

  “Thank you, one moment while I look up your account.”

  “No worries.” Her phone vibrated.

  What’s up, you ready yet? Deja slid out her keypad to reply.

  No, picking up some new sneaks, you?

  Nadja replied quick. Getting a pedi want one? Meet me.

  Crazy girl forgot. Nah, chemicals in that place aren’t good for me.

  Ohhhsooo sorry forgot. I’m heading over as soon as I’m done see you there.

  Deja pocketed her phone. The sales lady returned with her package. She handed over her printed receipt and finished the transaction.

  “Thanks for shopping and come again.”

  “You’re welcome and I’ll be back.” She headed back into the fray. The snow thickened and caught on her lashes as she blinked. Once she made it to the warm safety of her vehicle, she headed to the rendezvous point.

  * * * *

  “The guy at the door is brawny. Have you ever seen guns like his? His arms are as thick as my thighs.” Taleena made her point by sticking out her leg, although, the doorman’s arms were the size of both her thighs put together.

  “Apparently Taleena’s never seen a gym rat before. I bet he eats, breathes and shits power lifting. His neck was super thick too, never seen that many corded muscles. Kinda scary if you ask me.” Nadja gave him the once over a second time. Deja dragged her away.

  Taleena huffed at being teased. “I’ve seen many buff guys.”

  “Don’t let Jason hear you say that.” Deja tapped her foot in impatience. “Since ya’ll saw fit to lie to him, can we get a move on and find our men…before lightning strikes our asses?”

  “Hey, hey. I resemble that comment.”

  Oh dear Lord. “It’s resent. You resent not resemble.” Deja loved her friend so much it was hard not to pick at her odd catch phrases.

  “Same diff.” Taleena raised a waxed brow. “We didn’t lie, we fabricated a bit but you are cartin’ a bun in your oven.”

  “Y
eah, barely and I’m not hormonal yet.” Her friends exchanged questioning glances as if she’d miss their amused exchange. One she’d tossed their way routinely.

  “Seriously who the hell has balls enough to argue with a moody preggo? I don’t…well I do since this one in particular is my bestie and all. I have bennies like that.”

  Nadja was right. Their innocent enough fib gave them instant access into the man zone. Deja kept waiting for a booby trap to spring or something as they weren’t supposed to be visiting. They grinned at each other and headed down the hallway toward the basketball court.

  Double doors greeted them along with the annoying sound of squeaking on the buffed flooring, akin to the sound of fingernails raking down a chalkboard.

  “Ohh look, panes, we can peek in, have a looksee without going inside.”

  How funny they must appear, all squeezed close together to peep.

  “See anything?”

  “Not really, they all have shirts on.” Nadja’s depressing announcement and disappointed expression were hilarious.

  Deja agreed. The idea of men battling it out on the court bare-chested, sweating and moving in loose basketball shorts was what dragged them out to watch.

  “That blows.”

  “Yep. One team is in white, the other black. And girl, Derek is dribbling down court, look at them all on the same team and shit, playing like they’ve been friends forever.” Taleena’s infectious laughter was catching. They shushed a bit to keep low key.

  “Yay, guys.” Giving each other a high five, the three musketeers kept their eyes on the prizes.

  “Stop, you keep making me jar the door.”

  “Then move over Nadja, you’re such a hog. I want in on the dribble action too.”

  “Hold on, let Deja see Derek first. He’s about to shoot outside the three point line.”