Donna shook her head and forced a smile. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”
Lincoln wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her against his wet torso. “Donatella, tell me what’s wrong. Please…tell me what I did.”
Donna exhaled and snaked her arms around his neck. “My hair,” she responded.
He reached up and ran his fingers through her wet hair, squinting while he checked it out.
“Oh, wow,” he marveled. “It got curly.Pretty.”
Donna looked up at him with disbelief. He couldn’t have been that dense when it came to black women and their hair. Now, she loved her natural curls, but she’d had a whole look planned for the night.
“Lincoln, honey, I need you to get out of this shower and get my toiletry bag.” She tried to keep her tone as relaxed as possible.
“Okay, babe. I can do that.”
He kissed her forehead, gave her butt a little squeeze, and stepped out of the shower. Donna grabbed the bar of soap he left behind. She took one whiff of the soap. The clean masculine aroma made confirmed that she definitely needed her bag.
* * *
Donna gave herself a once over in the mirror. For the evening, she’d chosen a slimming wintergreen, knee-length bodycon dress that perfectly matched Lincoln’s beautiful eyes. The plunging square neckline and “trick-a-fella” pushup bra gave her cleavage that she didn’t normally have. Before leaving the bathroom, she finger-styled her curly hair one last time. Since there wasn’t enough time for her to dry and straighten her hair, she was rocking her natural curls. So, she used pins to create a cute updo, pinning the back and leaving soft curls to bounce in her face.
She padded on bare feet out of the bathroom, taking shorter steps because her dress was a little tight around her knees. After grabbing her purse from the nightstand, she left the bedroom and went into the kitchen. When she walked over to the freezer, the sound of Lincoln’s voice made her turn around.
“There you are. Oh, wow. Donatella, you look…you’re…breathtaking.”
She would’ve said thank you, but the sight of him standing in the kitchen wearing a perfectly fitted black suit with a charcoal dress shirt underneath was paralyzing. From head to toe, he was perfection, even down to his black leather dress shoes. She would bet a finger they were made by some fancy designer she couldn’t afford.
Donna couldn’t ignore the butterflies in her stomach as he stood there with his gaze locked intently on her, probably not realizing exactly how drop-dead beautiful he was. His thick, ink black hair was pushed back from his face, enhancing the beauty of his striking green eyes, a masculine jaw that was somewhat covered by a soft, neatly trimmed beard, and his perfect jaw-dropping smile.
“Thank you.” She finally managed, although her words came out breathless and awkward.
She turned quickly and opened the freezer. After grabbing her shoes, she walked over to the island.
“You clean up well, Colonel,” she told him.
She spread a towel over the island and placed her black, stilettos on top of it.
“Ummm… thanks.”
He joined her at the island and sat on a stool across from her. “Donatella?”
“Hmm?”
“Why were your shoes in the freezer?”
“Oh,” she chuckled, “they’re new.”
“Oooo-kay?”
She looked up at him and grinned. His confused expression was too cute for her to bear.
“So, when women get new shoes, they can be torturous before they’re broken in. And, for people like me who don’t wear dress shoes all the time, it could take years to break them in. Since I don’t have years, I have learned a trick.” Donna reached inside her shoe and wiggled out a sandwich bag with a block of solid ice. “See? First, you get two Ziploc bags, or really, any kind of storage bags. Second, you fill them with water until they’re completely full. Third, you place the bags inside your shoes. Then, you stick the shoes in the freezer. You wait a while. You see, water expands when frozen. Then, after all that, you take the bags out of your shoes. And, voila! You’ve stretched your shoes.”
Donna pulled the bag out of her other shoe and tossed it in the sink. “See?” she asked, holding up one shoe.
Lincoln stared at her with squinty-eyed confusion like she hadn’t just explained the logic behind her actions.
“What?” she screeched with a grin.
