Page 66 of Deeper

After, he held me against his chest, whispering, “This is art, Bianka.”

Indeed it was.

I also thought it was music. Our bodies were the composers to our sweet, silent symphony.An orchestra of two.

Zander sat on the edge of the daybed while I lay on my side beside him. He was enjoying a bottle of water as he looked out at the pool.

This was a peace I could never get tired of.

“I know we’re just finding our footing in this thing we’re doing—”

“Dating,” he cut in.

“Right. But if you ever tattoo your face, I’m out.” There were way too many people doing that these days, and while it was clear to see Zander loved tattoos, I just could not look at him if he put ink on his beautiful face.

Zander laughed. “Already promised my mum I wouldn’t.”

Good. “Points for Mama Khalil.”

Zander chuckled and reached over, cupping my knee and patting it. “I’m debating on leaving it at my sleeves. I miss the feel of it.” His eyes ran over my legs. “You ever think about a tattoo?”

I shook my head. “Nah, I preferred piercings.”

“You don’t have any.”

“My body hates me,” I confessed. “I got my nipples pierced at eighteen and my body just rejected them.”

“Rejected?” Zander repeated, confused.

“Like they never healed. I did the sea-salt soaks and everything, but they didn’t adapt. The day after my one-year anniversary, I took them out to shower and in that ten-minute interval one closed. I kept the other in for another year before finally giving up. Then last year I got my nose pierced and it wouldn’t cooperate either. I gave that up like three months later. If I did get a tattoo, the thing would probably get infected out of spite.”

Zander frowned in pity.Hehad a perfectly fine nose ring and a few piercings in his ears, and yet I sat defeated. My mother had pierced my ears when I was two, but I hardly wore earrings due to the lengths of my bundles. It was sorta pointless really.

“What did housekeeping say about the peach stains on your sheets back at the hotel?” I wondered.

Zander blushed, his bronze cheeks seeming to glow with radiance. “Thatwas interesting. I had an excuse ready, but they must be used to that kind of thing because she didn’t bat an eye. She didn’t look me in mine either, but she didn’t make a fuss.”

I couldn’t imagine being a maid and all the sordid things they must’ve discovered the morning after.

The night went on and at the thought of the upcoming week, I sat up and faced Zander some more. “What’s your game plan to pump people up for your new album and tour?”

“Paul says I need to be more active on social media,” Zander said. “I’m going to tweet more and interact more. We’re already brainstorming the ‘Canvas’ video. He was thinking of a rapper jumping on it.”

I held my hand up. “It’s fine on its own.”

Zander was bashful. “Really?”

His first album had one collaboration with Ariana Grande, and I could admit she was good, her vocals mixed with his were worth gold, but on his second album he had two features that didn’t quite fit him. “If you do a collab you should stick with a singer, but not on ‘Canvas.’ You can sell that on your own. If it does really good, then maybe find a rapper, could be Wale since he’s amazing with metaphors and poetry.”

“And singers for the album?” Zander was full-on listening to my every word, really interested in my general input.

“Like one or two at the most, one male and one female. If I had to pick, maybe Sevyn Streeter, Chloe Bailey, Layton Greene, Arin Ray, The Weeknd, or Miguel.”

Zander bobbed his head. “I’ll keep them in mind. Another one I’ve been wanting to work with is Luke James.”

Immediately I perked up at that mention. “Yass!”

Zander peered off into the distance, seemingly in thought. “Paul’s thinkin’ big names and I’m not trying to do numbers for the sake of doing numbers. I want to be able to look at this project and be proud because it’s genuine and pure.”

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