Watercolors

by Vera Roberts

  I quickly turn the corner and run into a brick wall of a man, who promptly knocks me on my ass. I promptly check to see if the wig is secured on my head and it is. Whew!

  I struggle to get up when I feel the softest hands help me. “Are you okay?”

  I felt him before I saw him. As I glanced up, I saw the most beautiful brown eyes looking down at me.

  He was a tall white man, well over six feet, with chiseled cheekbones, a muscular, lean body, and a stature that said he was not to be fucked with. He had a silent, yet exquisite masculinity about him. Take him or leave him. No negotiation.

  The energy shifted between us, and my brain felt scattered. As he helped me up, I became more aware of his power, his magnetism, his scent of earth and rain. He was dressed in a ridiculously expensive suit, yet he owned the design, as if he was custom-made.

  His eyes bore into me and my mouth felt drier than the Sahara. My heartbeat quickened to a staccato beat and my breath was struggling to keep up. He was a young man, not my age, but probably younger than 30.

  “Are you okay, Keisha?” He asks.

  He knew my name. I didn’t know his. Hell, I didn’t know who the hell he was. “Um, yeah…” I manage to say. “…I’m fine…” I tried to search his face for some sort of remembrance of who he was. I had no clue.

  “I’m glad,” he smiles and I see perfect white teeth. No grills. No bling. Just a great orthodontist. “I hope you enjoy your first day here.” He smiles again and rejoins his group.

  I turn around and watch Mr. Man leave. He knows me yet I have no idea who he is. But his stature said I will get to know him very soon.

  ~~~~~~

  As my day wrapped up, I occasionally thought about Mr. Man. I didn’t see him for the rest of the day so maybe he was a visitor. But it made no sense. Why would a visitor know my name and specifically, know it was my first day?

  It doesn’t matter. I kept myself busy learning about some of the cases I’ll be helping the other lawyers with and jotting down notes. I was excited to finally have real world experience by interning at a legal firm.

  It was already nighttime by the time my day ended and the time change still fucks me up. I’m still trying to get used to the sky being damn-near pitch black when it’s only 5:30. I don’t know if it’s climate change but I do know it’s bullshit.

  As I walk in the parking garage and head to my car, I notice a Bentley SUV slow down beside me and the windows roll down.

  It’s Mr. Man.

  “Keisha,” he smiles again and I feel weak in the knees, “how was your first day?”

  “It was good,” I nod, becoming more aware of my surroundings. Other people are in the garage and heading home, but it still feels awfully strange to talk to someone who I still don’t know who he is and how he knows me.

  “I’m glad to hear that. I’m glad to hear when anyone has a good day here.” He nods. “Take care now. See you on Wednesday.” He takes off.

  I stand dumbfounded in the middle of the garage. Who was he? And how did he know my schedule?

  Her Savior is now available!

  Keisha and Savior’s follow-up, Simply Complicated, is available also.

  Snippet of Her Soul (Ellison Brothers #5)

  “This is instant karma for you,” I reply between bites of cheeseburger, “the woman who wrote that nasty article about you, you get to witness the worst heartbreak in her life firsthand. This couldn’t get any better for you, I bet.”

  Soul shakes his head and rubs his goatee. He casually leans back into the diner booth as he watches me stuff my face full of everything bad I’m going to regret when I try to put on my jeans in a few days. “I get no pleasure seeing you like this. This doesn’t make me feel good whatsoever.”

  “That’s weird,” I cautiously reply, thinking I might be heading for a trap with invisible bait taped to me, “I honestly thought you would be laughing, teasing, and saying all sorts of nasty things.”

  “What type of person do you think I am?” He interrupts me and leans forward. His brown eyes are serious, dark, and I see the storm brewing within them. “What do you know about me? Of me?”

  “I know you’re an Ellison and you have a fashion line and a shoe line. “ I begin.

  “Besides that,” he’s serious but his tone is still light, “is this everything you see about me? You see the bling, you see the celebrity friends, you see the Ghost parked outside and you think everything you know everything about me. ‘Well, he talks a hard game so I’m sure he’s a jerk in real life.’” He mocks a girl’s voice and flashes that charming smile at me. “This is all an image, baby girl. Nothing more, nothing less. The only time I ever go out is when I’m invited to my friends’ birthday parties or whatever celebrations they have. I stay home, work on my designs with Chamo, and then get in some PS4 time. I see my brothers once a month back in Cali along with my parents. Other than that, I stay home, I stay chill.”

  “Date?” I didn’t want to ask but felt compelled. I nearly destroyed this man’s life and yet, here I am asking about his dating life.

  “I date but as you just witnessed, it’s hard for me to date someone who truly cares. I went out with ol’ girl thinking she was fun and we’ll have fun.” Soul shook his head and bits of anger appear in his irises. “I should’ve known how she was the moment I saw her take pictures of the food I made for her. She didn’t believe me when I told her I made it and was insistent I had take-out. She even looked for boxes in the trash. She said the pots and pans were too clean for me to just used them.” He chuckles and I feel his deep baritone zap throughout my body. “I knew right then and there she was wack and this was going to be a bad date. From that moment on, all she wanted to know was about my family, my upcoming fall line, what celebrities I knew…I could tell her my favorite color is yellow and she wouldn’t have cared.”

  “Your favorite color is yellow?” I reply. “I would’ve never guessed.”

  “Yeah, a lot of people say that.” He grins and it’s genuine. “I don’t even wear yellow that much. It’s something about some happy and free about that color. You put on yellow and I guarantee your entire day will get better. Watch.”

  “I’ll take you up on that offer,” I smile. I quickly finish my food in silence as Soul people watches. I study him as he looks out the window. His mind is constantly going and his eyes indicate what his thoughts are. He’s not putting on for me nor he is entertaining himself because he doesn’t want to be here with me.

  It’s like…he’s an enigma, a contradiction, and an overall good guy. His image is just that while his true friends and family know how he is. Take him or leave him.

  Once the bill arrives, I pull out my wallet and Soul shakes his head. He quickly pays for the meal. “Are you ready to go?”

  I’m dreading going back home. I know Eddie will be there and probably thinking of whatever excuse he could come up with on why I just walked in on a girl giving him head. I have to go home sometime. I can’t avoid my life forever despite it just fell apart within the last several hours. “I guess I am.”

  We walk outside and the chill of Los Angeles hits my face. I put on my sweater and look around. People are carrying on with their lives like nothing major has happened to them. They’re busy on their cell phones, they’re sharing gossip with each other, they’re closing major deals.

  And here I am…a disgraced freelancer who was just unceremoniously dumped by her fiancée a month before our wedding.

  “So, Ariana, what are you going to do now?” He asks.

  “Well, I’m going to go home, probably see my now ex-fiancée there waiting for me as he grovels and somehow puts his cheating back on me like he’s done before, and then I’ll go searching for more writing gigs.” I shrug. “That’s about it.”

  “Did you want to come to Harlem with me?”

  Soul said it so flippantly, I thought he talking about the weather. “When?”

  “Now. Tonight.” He declares and a shiver passes through my body.
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br />   “What?” He has to be joking. A woman who nearly destroyed his reputation and he’s inviting me out to Harlem? “And do what exactly?”

  “You don’t know me and I’m giving you the opportunity to do so.” There’s a flicker in his brown eyes I haven’t seen before. He’s breathtakingly gorgeous and knows it. “I want you to get to know me and my world.”

  I shake my head. “Thank you but I have bills and responsibilities here. I can’t just leave like that.”

  “I got them,” he replies and closes the distance between us, “I’ll pay any bills you have.”

  Soul smells like everything – a touch of musk, a bit of woods, and definitely all man. He has a power about him that he wields carefully and with restraint as he knows the power of his words and actions. His parents might have coached him but life was clearly his biggest teacher. “I have a life here, you know?” I defend, though we both don’t believe a word I’m saying. What life? I’m boring and I don’t ever do anything. That’s what Eddie told me before when he cheated on me the first time. It’s been his go-to excuse every time since then.

  Maybe catching him gave me the courage I didn’t know I needed. “On second thought, when does our plane leave?”