Kaoru raised an eyebrow. “Hmmm.”
"In fact," I continued, "that's Deja's pastime hobby—to break the hearts of players. Make them go crazy for her and want to settle down, then she just gets rid of them. She thinks it's much-needed karma for the world."
Kaoru laughed. A real laugh that echoed in the stairwell.
I thought about Deja. My stylist who was about to turn forty but looked like she could still be twenty-six.
Deja was a Black baddie in every sense of the word. Big ass. Big breasts. Tiny waist. Full lips that she'd enhanced with fillers, but they looked so good on her you'd never know they weren't natural.
Her hair was always perfect.
Always styled.
Always laid.
She was into look-maxing before it even had a name. That's how she'd gotten into braiding hair in the first place. She'd wanted her hair in different styles all the time, but she couldn't afford those New York prices. So she ended up learning how to braid hair, how to do wigs, how to do weave, how to do it all.
Next thing she knew, people started asking her to do theirs, and she made a whole business out of it.
Deja was one of those people I always wanted to write a book about. Anytime I got my hair braided by her, I would ask questions about her life. I was just so intrigued.
Was she single?
Definitely.
But that didn't mean she didn't have a couple of studs in her stable. Deja liked to call them studs.
Women studs.
Guy studs.
She saw them all as horses to get on and ride every now and then. Someone to treat her right, buy her things, take her out.
All of that, but nothing more.
I believed Deja was the sort of woman who didn't care about getting married. Didn't care about having kids. All she cared about was being absolutely happy, free, and financially independent for the rest of her life.
It was pretty much impossible for most people to really lock her down.
Kaoru grabbed my attention. “What about the hairstylist’s cousin? She’s cute too.”
"Nika likes women. She’s not interested in guys at all."
Kaoru's face fell, but he was still smiling.
"But there's always Zo." I shrugged. "Zo likes men and women, if you want an adventure."
All the Fangs laughed. Even Rin had a half-smile on his face before it slipped back into his usual bored expression.
My phone rang.
Heading down the stairs, I pulled out my phone and looked down at the screen.
Grandma.
I stopped walking.
The Fangs stopped with me.
