Page 35 of Deeper

He left first and I waited before going to the restroom and cleaning myself up. In the mirror I saw the biggest, corniest smile on my face and I couldn’t even look at myself.You just fucked Zander Khalil—again, Bia!

“Once in a lifetime,” I told myself at the opportunity I was in.

I smoothed out my hair and washed my hands before going out and finding Zander on the sales floor.

I wasn’t sure what it was, but somehow my nerves were better. Zander could tell as he held me in his arms while I browsed tops, planted kisses along my neck as I looked at underwear, and held my hand as I poked at a clearance sale of jewelry. We weren’t together-together, but as we shopped in Closet Babe, we were that annoying couple who couldn’t be apart for one minute.

Zander picked out a white T-shirt with an embroidered Yin and Yang patch on the chest. It cost me seventeen dollars and forty-eight cents, which was nothing compared to the nearly three hundred dollars he spent on me. At the total he didn’t bat an eye before pulling out a roll of money.

“You know, don’t take this the wrong way,” Bailey began as she was folding and bagging my clothes, “but you look like Zander Khalil.”

Zander smiled as he accepted his receipt and let her keep the change. “Why would that offend me?” he asked in his take on an American accent. “He’s good-looking, right?”

“He’s okay, a solid five at best,” I spoke up casually.

Bailey eyed me funny at that blatant lie. “He’s gorgeous. And you just sorta…I don’t know, remind me of him.”

“Well, I’m flattered. Thanks.” Zander politely smiled before grabbing my bags and following me out of the shop.

“You should’ve told her who you were,” I said once we were on our way to the Cullinan.

“Then it would’ve caused a spectacle,” Zander said as he unlocked the Rolls-Royce.

I guessed it was safer than sorry. It wasn’t like he was alone. The last thing either of us needed was to be photographed together.

Zander packed my bags in the trunk and another idea came over me.

“We need one more pit stop,” I said.

He closed the trunk. “Where?”

“We gotta go to the hood,” I told him.

Zander was confused. “The ‘hood’?”

“I’m going to need some hair products if I’m going to make it through this weekend. And no offense, none of these bougie shops is touchin’ the neighborhood beauty supply store.”

“Okay.”

I climbed into the back of the Cullinan to get dressed as Zander put in the nearest beauty supply store into his GPS.

“Was underwear really necessary to buy?” Zander asked as he began driving for what looked like a shop near Crenshaw.

“Underwear is essential, Zander,” I said as I shimmied into a new pair of black mesh panties.

Zander snorted. “Not when you’re not going to be wearing them long, they aren’t.”

“Oh, I’m not giving you any more tonight.”

“Why is that?”

“If I keep putting this magnificent peach on you, you’re going to get addicted.”

Zander snickered. “Is that so?”

I caught his eye in the rearview mirror. “This shit is immaculate.”

“You think so?”

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