Page 44 of Divine Sense
MAGNOLIA
“What’s that look for?” Margaret gave me a side eye as we carried our yoga mats down the block early Saturday morning. It was unusually warm the last weekend in February but made the morning the perfect temperature to walk around in leggings and a sweater.
“What look?” I snorted, trying to fix the face I must have been making as I played back my afternoon with Kolbi this past Wednesday. As we walked down the sidewalk, we passed overgrown azaleas which were starting to bloom all over the city. People thought the best time to come to the city was over the summer when the sun was high and the best place to be was the beach. To me, the best time to come and walk the historic streets were between the months of March and April because everything was in bloom.
“Thatlook!” She forced a finger into my face, nearly poking me in the eye.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I tried to brush her off with a laugh. He and I had agreed to keep our relationship between the two of us and I wanted to respect that.But my stomach turned as I thought about how I was keeping this from her. Margaret and I shared everything, including the first letter of our names and the traumatizing event that was our mothers forcing us to wear white fluffy dresses to church on Sundays when we were small. She halted where she stood on the sidewalk and crossed her arms, her eyes pierced through me like daggers. I took a few more steps before turning dramatically to meet her glare.
“Spill it, Sinclair. I know when something’s happened to you, you wear your emotions all over your face. Like that time you got your bellybutton pierced after lying about your age and it got infected. You were too scared to tell your mom about it so you told me.” She shifted her weight to her other leg and raised a freshly waxed brow at me, her pearl studs catching the sunlight and beaming at me like police headlights. She wasn’t wrong, I had a pretty good poker face with everyone except her and Ms. Ruthie. The two of them were so innately attuned to my brain waves it scared me sometimes.
“I just—” I closed my eyes and tried to stifle a smirk, half embarrassed and half aroused by the memory of Wednesday. “I just had a really good day the other day.” My lips pulled up into a half smile and I suddenly felt shy. I looked up at my friend who was donning a shit-eating grin.
“Does thisgood dayinvolve that friend you told me about back in December before your family Christmas party?” My eyes searched the sidewalk, scanning my memory and pinpointing the coffee date she and I had where I hinted at him coming to the party.Shit.
“We’re going to be late if you don’t hurry up,” I snipped, turning on my heel to physically avoid the question.
“No ma’am, you won’t get away that easy.” I heard her Birkenstocks sliding against the sidewalk as she hurried to catch up to me. She looped her fingers under my elbow and spunme back around to face her. Her eyes searched my face for any kind of answers but I was doing my best to mask them. “What happened?”
Knowing she wouldn’t let her go until I gave her something, I gave her the tiniest crumb to hold her over.
“His name is Kolbi.” I tossed my hair over my shoulder and strutted down the sidewalk again, heading towards the door of our barre studio.
“And what happened on Wednesday?” she pressed, keeping her voice down as the heated studio was already packed with women wearing expensive Lululemon leggings and matching sports bras. I rolled my yoga mat out in the remaining open space and lowered myself down as she matched my movements. I went back and forth in my mind about how much to tell her and decided that one more nugget of information wouldn’t hurt.
“All I’m saying,” I paused as I pulled my hair into a tight bun at the nape of my neck, “is that Kolbi is a very blessed man and I, in turn, am a very blessed woman.” Her mouth dropped open into a large O just as the instructor stepped up at the front of the room, signaling the start of class. I stifled the laughs the look on her face caused me and tried to focus on class.
“So the sex was good?” she asked through labored breath halfway through class. Peering eyes from those who overheard her question gaped at us from their mats. The little old ladies getting in their Saturday stretch did not find this topic of conversation appropriate for such a public setting.
“Margaret, hush up and just pay attention.” I sneered as I pushed myself back into downward dog.I should have known better than to tell her before class. This girl can’t hold her questions back no matter how inappropriate it is to be asking them.
When class was over, she started in on grilling me with more questions and I did my best to dodge them. We rolled up ourmats and waved goodbye to the girl at the front desk before stepping out into the brisk February morning. Pushing the door open, the sun hit the threshold and blinded me for half a second. As my eyes adjusted again, the image of a beautiful man with broad shoulders and warm brown skin came into view. He was sitting on a bench just outside the studio, elbows on his knees with a skateboard leaning against the seat of the bench. When he noticed me he stood and took a few steps closer.
“Hey there.” His voice rumbled at a vibration I felt between my legs.
“Hi,” I breathed, stunned to find him seemingly waiting for me. “What are you doing here?”
He took a step closer to me and tucked his fingers into his pockets as if to stop himself from reaching for me. People were spilling out of the studio behind us still and while I wanted to reach for him, I knew that would go against our ‘no one can know about us’ rule. It was a chilly morning but I wouldn’t know because of the heat that radiated between us.
“I wanted to see you. I remembered you had class and thought I would try to catch you on my morning ride.” His eyes scanned my body before a smile bloomed across his face. I wanted nothing more than to push up on my toes and feel it on my lips. “I see the digs got another chance.” His finger grazed the side of my leg, pointing out the lavender workout set I was wearing. A gift from him after the night he rescued me.
“That they did. They were great for class and—” I was about to say something else but was interrupted by Margaret clearing her throat obnoxiously. I’d forgotten she was standing next to me having gotten so caught up in the unexpected surprise of finding him waiting for me.
“Oh, right, sorry. Margaret, this is my friend, Kolbi Vesey. He runs the security for my father’s campaign.” I waved my hand from my best friend to my boyfriend. The secret boyfriend shewasn’t supposed to know about. The secret boyfriend I had just shared too many details about before class.
“Thisis Kolbi?” My friend looked like one of those characters who had just been whacked in the face with a frying pan. Her eyes were wide and every muscle in her face was pulled back in shock. “Oh. Shit.”
“Something wrong?” He laughed nervously and glanced between me and Margaret.Talk about no fuckin’ poker face.
“No,” I interjected before my friend could say anything stupid. Trying to dispel the awkwardness brought on by her inability to resemble anything close to human, I pulled Margaret into my side and gave him a winning smile.
“It was nice seeing you here, but we have breakfast plans. I’ll text you?” My stomach sank knowing I was being short with him when he’d been nothing but sweet. But I needed to talk to Margaret before things got out of hand. If only I hadn’t told her his name, then she wouldn’t know that myfriendKolbi is actually the man I’m sleeping with.
“Sure, yeah,” he said as I started to pull Margaret down the sidewalk with me, arm in arm. Before we were out of reach, he grabbed my free wrist with his strong hand, causing me to turn around and catch his gaze. “It was nice seeing you this morning, Miss Sinclair.” Margaret couldn’t see it from where she was standing, but he was rubbing his thumb across the soft skin on the inside of my wrist. Suddenly I was very hot and needed some air even though I was already standing outside.
“You too, Mr. Vesey.” I squeezed his hand in mine for a brief moment before dropping it and walking away.
Margaret and I walked back to my car in silence until the doors closed behind us. I had my hands on the steering wheel, ready to push the ignition when she touched my hand.
