This is the third time he’s called me this week. The second time I didn’t answer and I erased his voicemail without even listening to it.
“What the hell are you doing?” His voice sounds irate.
“Um, excuse you?”
“I called and left a message two days ago. You haven’t called me back.”
Rolling my eyes, I move over to my vanity, picking up the eyeliner that I’d chosen not to wear earlier. But I rethought my decision as I stare at it.
“Were you really expecting me to call back?”
“Of course I was. What kind in idiotic question is that?”
I toss down the eyeliner and brace the phone tightly in my hand, placing my free hand on my hip. “So now I’m an idiot?”
“When you say stupid shit like that it really makes me wonder.”
“Wow.” I shake my head. “Don’t call me again.” I press the button to end the call and toss my phone back on the bed. Studying my reflection in the mirror again, I make a decision.
“This dress is boring.” I don’t want boring and safe, at least for one night.
Pulling the dress over my head and tossing it on the bed, I slide open the door to my closet. I push back the long, red dress I’d worn in Mexico, and thumb through my other hanging clothes, most of which just don’t feel right for the mood I’m in.
“Angela’s right,” I sigh. My wardrobe is so boring. She is always trying to get me to spice things up a little. If it hadn’t been for her, I would’ve never taken half of the clothes with me to Mexico that I had.
I finally come to a gold, shimmery dress that feels perfect. I’ve had the dress so long, I totally forgot about it. I purchased it years ago on a whim. It had been during one of my dry spells with Matt. We weren’t broken up at the time but it’d been a long time since I felt that spark when we initially got together. I thought it was because he’d been working so many hours, or that I was becoming too mundane. I wanted to spice things up. So on impulse, I bought the form fitting, long-sleeved dress that stopped at mid-thigh. The sleeves were loose and had slits from the end up to the bend of my forearm.
Two nights later while Matt completed another late night at work, I showed up with a picnic basket full of food and the dress with no panties on underneath. We actually had fun that night. It wasn’t until three days later, when somehow his father found out what happened in his office, that Matt came telling me how irresponsible I was, and made him look bad.
I roll my eyes at that memory. “Matt is history but this dress isn’t,” I remind myself as I slip the dress over my head. I start to feel as sexy as the first time I wore it. I pair the dress with a gold pair of black high heels and leave the earrings I’d chosen in. Moving to my vanity, I pick up the eyeliner I had before, briefly looking over my shoulder when my phone rings again. Even though I’m across the room, I can see the name of the caller. I suck my teeth and go back to giving myself a winged eyeliner look for the evening.
“Go to hell, Matt,” I mumble as the phone beeps to alert me that I have a new voicemail.
Stepping back, I smile in the mirror, liking the person I see staring back at me. I move to my bed, pick up my phone, and delete the missed call alert, along with the voicemail.
That’s when a knock at my door sounds.
****
Emanuel
The muscles of my stomach clench as soon as she opens the door.
“Holy shit,” I curse harshly.
Her eyes bulge. “I hope that means you like it.”
I let my eyes trail down the length of her dress, examining her long legs before reversing my gaze to meet her face. “What’s not to like?” Stepping closer, I lower my head, kissing her lips simply because of the force of an invisible pull between us. “You look great.”
Smiling, she dips her head.
I step back and hold up the plant in my hand. “This is for you.”
“A bamboo plant?”
“The woman at the store said these were for good luck, but that someone else had to buy it for you in order for the good luck to work …” I shrug. “Or whatever.”
Her face widens on a smile as she reaches for the squared glass vase with three stalks of green bamboo stalks standing up out of the water. “Thank you. I think I’ll take this to work to set up on my desk. I could use the luck there.” A small frown touches those pink-tinted lips.
