Page 32 of Devanté
CHAPTER NINE
“How was it?” Janet stole a piece of shrimp from my appetizer and grinned at me with bright eyes and a wide smile. The sun had kissed her midnight skin leaving behind a subtle golden tone. It was smooth and flawless and her eyes were full of mischief. They’d been that way since we were kids. She was older than me but she was always the one in trouble. I knew how to act like I had sense. Sense had never been high on Janet’s list of priorities.
“How was what?” I asked, my mind stuck on how gorgeous Blake looked yesterday.
“The meeting at Shaw. Did you decide to sign the deal with them?” She blinked at me like I was stupid.
“Oh, yeah. I signed the deal.” I knew I’d sign the second I saw Watson was handling their marketing. “Five years.”
“Wow, D! That’s amazing. I’m so proud of you little bro.” She stole another shrimp then plucked the cocktail menu from the stand in the middle of the table. She offered to treat me to lunch so we could catch up and I was happy to see my sister. It had been a couple of weeks since I’d been in LA for business. I couldn’t focus on anything other than Blake though. My next meeting with her was in one week and it couldn’t get here fast enough.
“We need to get drinks.”
“I’m good, Jay. You know I don’t drink.” It wasn’t for religious reasons or even anything deeply personal. I didn’t drink because it added unnecessary calories and sugar to my diet. I had shoots all month and I couldn’t afford to indulge. Just because I hadn’t shot in a while didn’t mean a shoot wouldn’t present itself. I had to stay ready so I didn’t have to get ready.
I didn’t make history by being undisciplined. I’d fought tooth and nail for every accolade I had. When I finally signed with Imperial, there weren’t a lot of fashion houses that wanted to work with a kid who had skin as dark as mine with a name like Devanté.
At the beginning of my career, people acted like my name was too much for their mouths but they had no problem pronouncing Tchaikovsky. It used to bother me. I wanted to listen to my agent, Miss Perez, when she told me to change my name. She told me it would be like a stage name.
Janet told me she would disown me if I called myself anything other than what Mom named me. So, I stuck with my name. My cultural, black ass name. I stopped apologizing for having a name people scrunched their noses up at. I stopped caring if they thought I was a problem client because they were ignorant enough to stereotype me. I ignored the snickers behind my back from other male models with names like Liam and Aiden.
I stood in my identity. I was named after a member in my mom’s favorite group and I was proud she put that kind of love and awe into me. That’s why I never let anyone call me by my last name unless they proved they were okay with my first name. Once I started projecting that pride on shoots I caught fire and I hadn’t stopped dominating shit ever since.
“Live a little. Your meeting with Shaw went well today and your meeting with the marketing agency went well yesterday, I assume. You didn’t mention anything about it even though it’s the same agency Blake works for.” She looked up from the menu. “Why did you meet with the marketing agency before you signed on with Shaw? The real reason.”
Blake’s face flashed in my mind. Her pouty lips and laser-sharp eyes. The regal sculpt of her raised brow when she called me out on my bullshit. The unforgiving fullness of her body. The smile she tried to hide when I sang TLC in her office.
She was still my Blake.
“No reason,” I lied easily, grabbing a menu from the table.
“Oh my god, you just sat here and lied directly in my face like I’m nothing. My feelings are truly hurt.”
“Jay, you know it’s not like th…”
“Hurt! We never keep secrets and this is how you do me? Your only sister? The one who sacrificed so you could be the world’s top male model?”
“Sacrificed?” I asked, letting a frown settled on my features. “What the hell did you sacrifice?”
“Fill in the blank. I don’t know. Don’t ruin my guilt trip.”
“Okay. Okay. Stop.” I hid my face behind my hands. I also didn’t want her to see my laughter. “I wanted to see Blake. It’s been so long.”
“Thank you. Now, we have some truth. How was it seeing her after all these years? I know you’ve seen her from afar but you actually got to sit across from her.” Janet’s dark eyes probed mine for answers to questions I hadn’t fully explored.
“It was good seeing her.”
Better than good.
“Uh-huh. Did she slap the shit out of you?”
“No. She was guarded but still Blake.”
Still beautiful.
“Oh my god, D you still have feelings for her, don’t you? You’ve been pining away for eight damn years.”
Thankfully, the waitress came over and took our orders. I wasn’t ready to be picked apart by my big sister. When the server left, I felt open to Janet’s inquisition again.
