Page 1 of Deeper

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ENTERTAINER

Ididn’t even want to go to the concert.

It was Victoria’s twenty-fifth birthday, and she was having an otherwise shitty life. She all but swore this would be the pick-me-up she needed to get out of her rut. As a makeup artist for modern women, and some semi-famous, she was currently going through a bit of a dry patch. And a concert for some British guy was going to be the glue to piece her life together.

I let her believe that.

This wasn’t just any concert. It was for her beloved Zander Khalil. We were eighteen when she first started obsessing over English boy group So What, and right away it had always been about Zander for Victoria.

I never got into So What, the boys in the group ranging from our age, to a year older, or a year or two younger. Even still, their fans were a bunch of screaming preteens—albeit some teens, too—who weren’t wise enough to catch on to their clandestinely coded dirty song lyrics. They made cliché pop music that held no true meaning.

No, at eighteen, if it wasn’t hip-hop and R&B, I wasn’t hearing it. Especially nothing sugary and manufactured from a bunch of preppy White boys from the UK.

Okay, they weren’tallWhite. One look at So What and Zander immediately caught my eye. You couldn’tnotnotice Zander Khalil right from the beginning. His mother was British-Indian, and his father was British-Pakistani. With his bronze skin, dark eyes, always perfectly styled ebony hair, and full lips, there’d always been something…dazzling about Zander, I could admit. Something alluring and arousing.

Zander was the first to leave So What after four years and three albums to go solo. After two number-one albums filled with sensual and more than suggestive lyrics, it was safe to say he’d ditched his boy band image. He made music when he wanted and how he wanted, but never did he actually perform any of it on the road. Hence why this little concert was a big deal. After four years of being on his own, Zander Khalil was finally going on tour.

And I just had to be there.

It wasn’t a nationwide tour, just four cities. According to Victoria, the point was to test the waters, to see who was interested in hearing him perform live. After tonight here in LA, he was set to do another show in Atlanta, and then New York, and another in Houston. His other shows were sold out, leaving Tori to believe he’d announce hisrealtour soon.

I grimaced, becoming even more impatient as we stood in line to get into the venue where Zander was set to perform. Victoria and I’d come to this place, The Warehouse, tons of times before, only then we were supporting our favorite rapper and R&B songstresses, or dancing during their club nights where DJs would play their sets.

Zander’s sound wasn’t pure R&B, but it was urban enough to where he wasn’t clean-cut pop either. His debut single, “The Sound,” was about a night of intense sex. The lyrics had been kinky and erotic enough to let us know then that Zander wasn’t about to beat around the bush. He sung about sex openly and honestly, and I had to give him his props.

When the intro came on and he was heard whispering into the mic, “Let’s go to bed,” it was our first warning of what was in store for his debut.

The chorus to “The Sound” played in my head, and there was no use in denying its heat or whether it would be a straight hit.

You and me on mattresses

Between the sheets

Going round for round

The way your body shakes

You scream my name

I love to hear the sound

His voice was honestly heaven-sent.

I stared at the Zander poster taped to the brick wall a few feet ahead of us, taking in his dark brooding eyes and the way he seemed to gaze right at you. Maybe if he wasn’t currently testing my patience, I would’ve swooned at the handsome image. Instead, I scowled and wished he’d show up already.

“He just needs to sing ‘The Sound,’ and then I’m out,” I told Victoria.

Tori wasn’t hearing me. “That’sall? Girl, I need ‘The Sound,’ ‘Taste It,’ and ‘Bad Side.’ Plus, you know how ‘You for Me’ gets me in my feelings.”

I should’ve called off sick.

“Yeah, I know,” I said.

Truthfully, I didn’t see the hype. Zander was a known hermit, a big reason his career was where it was—just okay—and probably the main reason his high-profile relationship hadn’t worked out.

First, there was his longtime girlfriend from back home, Ishani Chopra. And then, after he left So What, he got caught out and about with popular up-and-coming actress Jolene “Jolie” Jones, abruptly ending things with Ishani in a very asshole way. He and Jolie were on and off for a year or two before she finally moved on.

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