BEAUTY MARKS

PARTAY III

Kaede passed him, picked up her backpack near the door, and pulled out a pair of YEEZY high-heeled mules. She then went back on Joseph's chair and unzipped her knee-highs under Dominique's stare.

Dominque bit his bottom lip, "if you want me to leave you alone, you are going about it the wrong way," the man said as his gaze traveled down from her thighs to Kaede's ankles while she slipped on her mules.

"Trust me; I'm not playing up some kind of seduction ploy; my feet hurt, okay. I haven't worn heels since," Kaede stopped as she remembered her first date with Marco. She had gone all out for him as the woman tried on her whole wardrobe before ending up rushing to Galeries Layfayette department store to get something fresh.

Kaede was stressed, and she could not believe such a fine man as Marco was genuinely interested in her. Late for their rendezvous, Marco apologized a couple of times throughout the evening. He paid for the meal and played an authentic gentleman who did not even try to kiss her the first night, leaving Kaede's lips scorching.

"Heels, hurt, I think I sprainedㅡ."

Before she could finish, Dominque knelt at her feet and grabbed her ankle.

"Hey, what are you doing? Are you crazy?"

"You said it hurt."

Kaede glared at Dominque, "eh, like hello, I didn't mean for you to grab my ankle," she stopped, "and massage it."

The woman's eyes widened in front of the surreal scene. What left the woman speechless was how good the man was with his hands. Kaede sat up and attempted to regain her composure, "ahem, ㅡeh, I told you. ㅡIt isn't a ploy to have you touch me up. ㅡGet your soft hands off me; who touches a random girl's feet?"

"I already told you your not just anybody," Dominque lifted his gaze to face hers. Their eyes remained locked on each other.

"I ain't buying it. I don't believe that."

"It's a shame because I do. And I'm going to prove it," the man said, accompanying his words with a whiplash wink.

Kaede prayed for the timely knock on the door that would interrupt what appeared a mistake in the making. Instead, Dominique's phone slid and buzzed on the table like a breakdancer smurfing on the floor. Dominque got up and grabbed his phone.

"Marco."

"Man, where are you? Don't tell me you left."

"Nah, I'mㅡ," Dominque turned to look at Kaede, who got up and adjusted her dress, "I was charging my phone. I'll be down in a minute."

Marco moved towards the entrance to try to hear him better, "what, what did you say? I lost you."

"I'm coming down."

Dominque hung up, "sorry, what were we saying?"

Kaede waved the man off, "nothing much on my side; you were just raving about I don't know."

"Us."

The woman cocked an eyebrow, "pardon."

Dominque came to stand in front of her; with her heels, the man could almost fix Kaede without having to lower his head," I think there's something between us."

Kaede giggled, "eh, nope, I don't know where you fetched that idea from."

Dominque grabbed her hand, turned her palm, and placed his on hers, "this Kaede, you know I've never run after a woman in my entire life. I've never needed to."

Kaede looked sideways.

"Look at me, Kaede."

Kaede furrowed both her stare and lips in protest before meeting Dominque's eyes.

The man's stare seemed stern and determined, "test me."

"What?"

"Try me, Kaede."

"You mean like a test drive?"

The woman expected anything other than such a direct approach. Dominque was blunt. It said a lot about him; Joseph always said candid men don't lie. One could recognize a sneaky guy from the detours he took to express something.

Kaede faced a dilemma where she almost found the man's words relevant; it scared her because he was in appearance all she fled. Dominque was the type of man with whom she would feel insecure when beautiful women would approach him.

Once more, Marco came to mind. Scenes where women would ask his number in front of her, danced the nae-nae. She recalled her jealous outbursts, the tears, and the social media stalking she did on all of the man's female followers profiles.

Kaede would sit up all night, stalking the stories. The next day Marco threw fits as he had a clear view of his profile's activity since he only possessed professional accounts, also the girls would tell him.

No, the guy who stood in front of Kaede at this instant was one to avoid. Dominque and Marco were the same stereotypical men. Kaede was not ashamed to admit she openly discriminated by labeling them and throwing them in the panty-seekers trashcan.

All one could expect with men like them were hard knocked cries while singing Mary J. Blige I'm going down. Also, the men were friends.

It stressed Kaede to imagine them having a conversation about her as though they spoke of a car or a horse they both rode.

This time the knock on the door saved the situation as it stopped the woman from brewing a black coffee of her worst fears. Kaede detached her hand from Dominque's and answered, "come in."

Tara poked her head inside, "Kaede, Joseph needs you for the photocall."

"I'm coming down."

Tara left, and Kaede went to the door which she was about to open when Dominque pushed it shut, "so what do you say?"

Kaede smiled, "I say nay, no, never. Our encounter is only a few days old."

This time it was Dominque who grinned and opened the door, "never say never. Time is only a pretext."