Page 40 of Barefoot Chaos
"For future reference, do you ya'll have like a phone tree or something?" I asked.
"A what?" Bailey asked, scrunching up her face.
"You know, like a diagram outlining who to call in case of an emergency and then it tells you who that person should call."
They all busted up laughing. "No, but that's a damn good idea. This group is getting unwieldy. That'll be your assignment, Hessa. Make us a phone tree, wouldya?" Shasta ordered.
After hugs all around, they left, leaving my apartment eerily quiet.
I left the glasses in the sink, promising myself to clean them first thing in the morning. I walked to my bedroom, memories of the night with Kai running through my brain. I looked at my bedframe where he'd told me to put my hands while he pleasured me from below.
Suddenly, I couldn't stand to go to bed all alone. I needed to talk to Kai and let him know I was all in. I wanted to give us another chance. Hell, I wanted another night together.
I figured I had just enough wine on board to do something stupid, so before I could back out, I put my plan in action. I texted him, asking for his house address, saying I had something to drop off to him. Then I whipped off my pajamas, spritzed myself with perfume, dabbed some smokey shadow on my eyelids, brushed out my hair, and added bright red lipstick. I slipped on a winter coat over my naked body and topped off the look with my black heels that Kai said he loved so much.
Time for Operation Get My Man Back.
15
Hessa
I knew I should have thought this thing through better. The coat I'd chosen looked sexy as hell, but it was a wool blend, scratchy enough in all the wrong places to leave me no option but to scratch myself like a major league baseball player. With my luck, by the time Kai got this thing off I'd have hives and attractive red splotches all over me. Plus it was chafing my nipples so badly I'd need a balm of some sort. Not that I'd ever seen a nipple balm in the Walgreens aisle. Maybe a thick lotion. No alcohol in it though. Damn, just the idea of burning nipples made me shiver.
I finally swung into a parking space just around the corner from his apartment. I was thankful for the darkness this late at night when I flashed all of Huntington Beach getting out of my low car. The cool air that flew up my coat felt good though on my itchy skin. I was overheating, thinking about what I was doing.
The alcohol was starting to wear off a bit, making me question my sanity with this ridiculous plan. It was too late to go back, so I grabbed my purse and locked the car. It shouldn't have taken me longer than a minute to walk to his door, but damn, all the doors looked the same in the dark. I ended up circling two of the apartment buildings twice, sinking one of my heels into the lawn on the latest unfortunate lap. It was as I was wrenching my heel out of the grass that I got spun around and saw the correct building. Heel recovered, lady bits covered, and destination in sight, I felt emboldened, ready to execute on the fun part of my plan.
Seduction, baby.
Standing in front of his door, I tried out a few poses before knocking, trying to find the right one that screamed 'take me to bed' without looking like I was trying too hard. Hand on hip? No. Feet together or wide apart? Wide felt weird, but again, the draft felt glorious on my feverish skin. Definitely wide. Facing forward or sticking my booty out and looking over my shoulder at him? Probably facing forward, giving him a view of the girls. Purse on shoulder or held in my hand? No, better for it to be down on the floor by my feet so it wouldn't get in the way of my pose.
A lightbulb moment had me leaning against the doorframe, other hand up in my hair. Totally carefree, right? I knocked, then quickly put my hand back up in my hair like he'd just caught me casually running my hands through my luscious locks.
The door flew open right as I arranged my face in the duck lips all the kids were doing these days.
"Hessa?" Kai was looking at me like he'd never seen me before.
I leaned forward to kiss him, but my shoulder slipped off the doorframe. My other hand was useless to aid in my recovery, seeing as how it was still locked in my hair, frozen in mid-pose. Likewise, my feet were useless as they were nice and wide, perfectly stable in case of a lateral push, but ineffective in a forward fall. I was falling, watching Kai's face transform in slow motion from confused and amused to horrified.
You know those moments that slow down and you know exactly the horrible thing that's about to happen, yet can do nothing to stop it? Yeah, that was me. Free falling to the floor, my seductive pose frozen in place, even as the ship went down.
Moments before I face-planted at Kai's feet, strong hands grabbed my body and instead of a wood floor, I felt hard muscle cushion my fall. I squeaked on impact, not sure whether to rejoice at the averted disaster or apologize for my embarrassing entrance.
Kai pulled me back to standing, which was no easy task, since I had very little mind-muscle connection going on and since my hand bag was now tangled up in my feet. Once I kicked off the bag like an offending piece of seaweed, sending it shooting across his hallway floor, I decided to go back to the original plan.
I assumed the position: feet planted wide apart, hand on hip and the other in my hair. Come to think of it, I was going to make this my new power pose. Start every class like this. Definitely start my public concert in this pose. I felt like I could take on the world as long as I hit this first.
"Hessa. What are you doing?" Kai had his hands on his hips too.
Looked like he had his own power pose going on. Mine was considerably more friendly though, if I did say so myself. His pose included a scrunched up face and an air of irritation. Well, now we just had a power pose stand-off going on. What was I supposed to do next? I'd only planned to show up and figured he'd have his way with me as soon as I walked in the door.
The first trickle of doubt creeped in. Perhaps a bit belated, and certainly surprising as most sane people would have started doubting the plan the minute they'd fallen through the doorway, but I was always optimistic. I'd been so confident that Kai would want me, ridiculous plan and all.
I flung my hands down to my sides, power pose forgotten in my distress. I turned to have a seat on his couch and explain myself. My ankle wasn't in on the plan though, rolling in my sky high shoes and nearly sending me back to the floor as my heel slid sideways on the slick wood floor.
"Jumpin' Jehoshaphat! Why is it so hard to stand up?" I'd caught myself, hanging onto the side table lining his hallway for dear life.
I heard a snicker from behind me and dared a slow pivot to see Kai's arms crossed over his chest, one hand pressed to his mouth suppressing his mirth.
