“I hope you don't take offense to what I'm about to say.” I cleared my throat. “Would you consider letting me take you out sometime?”
She was taken aback by what I said and looked surprised.
“She'll go!” the secretary blurted out before Deyja could respond.
Deyja pierced her with a look. Her face softened when she turned back to me and she took a deep breath before she spoke. “You seem like you are a really nice man, Isaiah.”
My hope sunk at that point. I knew she was just buttering me up to tell me no.
“Deyja, you haven't been out inâ”
“Tia. Stop it.”
The secretary put her hands up, as if in surrender.
Deyja continued. “Right now I don't have any interest in going out.” She placed a hand on my sleeve. “But I do appreciate you offering.”
I nodded, wanting to beg her to change her mind. But I didn't. “Have a nice day,” I said gruffly.
Deyja simply nodded.
“Bye,” the secretary yelled.
I tossed her a smile over my shoulder and exited the place. Maybe it was better that way, anyway. I mean, I was playing with fire by trying to date her. Eventually I would have to tell her who I really was.
I walked out of the office and toward Zalman's car. I was opening the door when I heard heels on the pavement behind me.
I turned around and spied Deyja coming my way.
I though maybe I had left some of my equipment in there.
Once she closed the space between us, she said in a low voice, “One more time.”
“One more time what?” I asked, confused.
She took a deep breath and said, “Ask me out again.”
I started to ask her what changed her mind but thought different. I gave her a slow smile and took a deep breath. “Can I take you out some time?”
“Yes.”
Chapter 30
I didn't know where to take her. I didn't know how I was going to take her anywhere. But when I called her, she told me she wanted me to meet her at the Farmers' Market so I didn't need to worry about any of this. My only worry now was her seeing me get off of the city bus.
The Farmers' Market was located in downtown Long Beach. It was a nice place to go and buy fresh fruit, clothes, jewelry, accessories, and even paintings. They even played jazz out by the waterfalls. Before I went to prison, on paydays, I would take my mother and she would go crazy buying stuff.
I spied Deyja standing near a vendor who was selling different pieces of African jewelry.
I paused and allowed my eyes to scan her.
She was dressed in a spring dress that had an array of colors: hues of orange, brown, amber, and red. It was tied around her neck and crisscrossed down her back. The bottom of her dress hung in little sheaths down to the thighs. She had her hair pulled back from her pretty face. She wore a pair of gold earrings that were interlocking rings. They hung delicately from her ears. I snuck away and went to the vendor that sold roses. I bought one for five dollars and made my way over to her.
She was still studying the jewelry.
“Hi, Deyja.”
She spun around quickly and spied me. She gave me another one of her smiles. “Hi, Isaiah.”
I handed the flower to her.
“Thank you.” She broke off the stem of the flower and placed it in her hair. All it did was make her look prettier than she already looked.
I inhaled her scent. This time she smelled like some sweet spices like pumpkin pie, no bullshit. Her hands were painted a peach color. So were her toes that were in a simple pair of opened toes with a low heel.
She turned back to the jewelry. “What do you think of these pieces?” she asked me.
I stepped closer to her, hoping she would not object to how close I was. I inhaled her scent again and looked at the softness of her shoulders bared in the dress.
Damn.
“I think this one would look good on you.”
It was a necklace made from ivory pieces that were in different shapes, a turquoise rock in the center.
“You think so?” she tossed over her shoulder.
I nodded.
“Can I see that one, please?” she asked politely.
The lady handed it to her and Deyja placed it against her chest.
“It goes with your complexion.” There was a mirror in front of her. She eyed me in it.
I looked back.
She dropped her eyes.
It was crazy that all she had on her face was a little lip gloss and she still looked pretty. Her beauty was natural.
“I'll take this one.”
She handed it back to the lady, who wrapped it up in tissue paper for her.
The necklace came to thirty-two dollars and although I didn't have money to spare, I pulled out the money to pay for it.
“Let me buy it for you.”
She lowered her eyes as the cashier took the money out of my hand.
“Thank you,” she told me.
“No problem.”
Once the lady handed it to her, we walked away.
“What else would you like to see?” I asked her.
She was much shorter than me, so to stop me from walking she tugged on one of the sleeves of my shirt. “Let's look at those.”
We walked over to some scarves. She fingered a deep purple one.
“Let me buy that for you,” I said.
“Listen, Isaiah. I appreciate you offering to buy that for me and buying the necklace. But understand that I didn't have you come here to spend your money on me. So don't think you have to impress me by buying up the market.”
I had never had a woman tell me that.
I nodded. “I just wanna do something to make you happy.”
She blushed at my words.
“I like when you do that.”
She looked away, ignoring the comment. “Let's go over there.” It was a table where a man was selling cologne.
Once at the table, she lifted one and placed it to my nostrils. “Tell me when you like a scent.”
She picked a cologne off of the table and got close enough to me to lift it to my nostrils. Although it smelled good I wanted her to stay close to me. She would stand on her tippy toes and her body would brush against mine. When she lifted a third scent to my nose, I said, “I like that one.”
“Cool Water,” she told me.
I had worn it before. But I acted like it was a new scent to me.
And before I could say anything, she bought it for me. It didn't feel right and I tried to stop her by pulling the money out of my pocket and even thought it was my last, I would have spent my last dime and ate rice and top ramen for the next month just to be in her presence. But Deyja pushed one of my hands away.
“Thanks,” I said after she handed me the bag with the cologne.
She smiled. “You need a special treat too because something tells me that you do for everybody else before you do for yourself.”
I chuckled.
We walked over to the fruit section. “You know, it's been so long since I have been on a date. A long time, Isaiah. My employees say too long. My life consists of work and church.”
“Oh yeah?” I followed behind her, admiring her soft thighs and calves as the edges of the sheaths of her dress swayed with the wind.
“Yep.” She bit her bottom lip as if she was hesitating to tell me something. “Sometimes moving on can beâ” She shook her head and turned back to the fruit. “Hey, let's get one of those and share it, so you don't have to worry about going in your pocket.” She shoved me toward a bench and said, “You sit down over there and I will bring it to you.”
I did as she instructed.
A few moments later, I watched her come back with a small plastic bowl. It had various types of fruit: cutup mango, cantaloupe, strawberries, pineapple, and slivers of coconut.
She handed me a fork and said, “Get in there.”
I laughed and watched her snag a pineapple. She was so into eating the fruit she didn't notice me watching her.
“So what made you accept my date offer?”
She paused her chewing and looked at me, confused. “Why is it such a surprise?”
I shrugged, rubbed my hands together, and said nonchalantly, “I don't know, I guess because you are who you are and I am who I am.”
She speared a strawberry with her fork, slipped it in her mouth, chewed, swallowed, and said, “Isaiah. You are going to have to be more specific.”
“You are very successful. You own your own business.” I paused before saying, “Whereas I just repair computers.”
“Come on, Isaiah. I don't care about those things.”
“Well, at first you turned me down.”
She took a deep breath. “It had nothing to do with you. I don't date. And my coworkers have been pushing me to go out on a date. It was either you or one of their old perverted uncles or one of their brothers who probably doesn't have a job at all. One way or another I had to get them off my back.” She put a hand over her mouth like she had said too much. “Oh! I didn't mean to say that I used you. I in some way agree that I do need to go on and go out. You just so happen to be the one who asked when I finally got the nerve to say yes, is what I meant. ”
“Don't worry about it. I'm not offended, but I am curious as to why.”
“Why what?”
“Why you don't date.”
She shook her head. “I don't really want to discuss it. Sorry.”
“Okay. I understand.”
When she bit down on a piece of cantaloupe, some of the juices slid out of her mouth and down her chin. She started laughing and said, “Look at me being a pig!”
Without thinking, I took one of my fingers and wiped it away. I slipped even closer to her face to where her breath was on mine, mine was on hers. And before she even knew what I was going to do next, before she could stop me, my lips brushed against hers. She pulled back an inch, surprised. I pulled forward an inch so her lips were on mine again.
I thought she was going to pull back or even toss the fruit over my head. But, shit, it would have been worth it to feel the softness of her mouth and taste the sweetness of her.
Then slowly, her mouth opened and she let me invade the insides with my tongue.
I found out that she tasted even sweeter than I thought when my tongue touched her tongue. My hands curved around the dip in her waist and I pulled her closer.
Soft moans came from her mouth, making me hard as fuck. I thought I was going to bust right on that bench, all over her pretty dress.
That's when she shoved me away.
She stood to her feet. “You are getting way too fresh with me and iâit's probably time for me to go.”
Before I could say anything else, she rushed away from me.
I wanted to chase after her but something told me to let her go.
Damn
, I thought. I probably pushed her away for good doing too damn much.
Chapter 31
I sat at the private detective's desk frustrated as hell, that all that time I had been paying his ass he had no leads.
“You mean you ain't found out shit?”
“No.” He had his hands clasped and on his raggedy ass desk. “But I'm getting close. The last person I had got ahold of, who said they knew where I could find Ron Jasper was full of shit. It was a waste of gas.”
“Yeah, well I'm starting to feel like this is a waste of money,” I said dryly, twisting my lips to the side.
He didn't get mad at my comment. He just stayed calm. “You hungry, Chance? I can have the cook make you a wet
burrito like last time
.”
“No, I don't want no damn burrito. I want you to cut the bullshit and do what I'm paying you to do.”
He waved his hand in a circle again. “Easy. Easy. You don't believe me but I am telling you, I'm close to finding out where and who he is. So be careful how you treat me.”
“All right, man.” I placed a hundred dollars on his desk and stood.
I wasn't mad that he hadn't found the dude, but mad about the fact that he had no leads, no nothing.
Before going to see Mateo, I did a house call for Zalman, then sunk my way over to the restaurant. I was disappointed as hell in getting nothing from his ass.
I got in the car and went back to the shop.
As soon as I got there, Zalman drawled, “Well, seems like you have been making an impression on somebody.”
I walked past him to check out the work orders he had for me and tossed over my shoulder, “What's up, Zalman? What are you talking about?” I went behind the counter.
“Deyja called and said for you to call her back at work.”
I immediately sat down the work order papers. It had been about a week since our date. I wanted to call her, even drop by her job, but I was scared that I had done too much damage by kissing her.
Zalman burst into laughter as I rushed for the phone to call her.
“Don't you need the number,
Isaiah
?”
I ignored him and dialed the number.
I knew there was excitement in my tone but that's how good it felt to hear her sweet voice on the phone once the secretary transferred me to her.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hi, Isaiah.”
There was silence for a second and she said, “I was wondering if you had any plans tonight?”
“Nope,” I said quickly. Maybe too quickly.
“Well, I wanted toâ” she paused. “To invite you over for dinner.”
“I can do that. What time?”
“How about seven?”
I cleared my throat. “I can be there at seven.”
She gave me the address and I jotted it down.
“See you then,” she said quickly before hanging up.
When I looked up, Zalman was all in my mouth. I chuckled and shook my head. I put the paper with the address in my back pocket.
Then a dilemma hit me. I didn't have transportation to get there.
“Zalman. Can I drive the car tonight?”
“Sure, go ahead. I trust you now. As long as you fill it back up with gas.”
“Oh, you trust me now?”
“You're no criminal.” Then he went back to the computer and his chat with some other random chick.
If he could see that in me, why couldn't they seven years ago?
“I must admit, though, I am a little jealous. Deyja is a beautiful woman. I have asked her out many times and she turned me down. She must not like pretty boys.”
He was only five feet if that, with a pot gut belly, teeth the color of coffee grinds, and more importantly, a wife. But still I said, “Did you, now? And how you know I'm going out with her?”
“I have good ears,” was all he said. He then typed something on the screen about âfucking some women hard.'