Behind the Shadows of Deception-Chapter 7
Despite the fact that he stayed up half the night reminiscing about what had transpired between him and Mya, instead of sleeping until noon as he usually preferred, JC awoke early. His mind was too consumed with yesterday's events.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw her. It might have seemed somewhat obsessive, but like reading her journal entries to find out more about her wasn’t. Besides, he just couldn’t get that damned kiss out his head.
JC licked his lips. He still felt her lips, warm and soft. He even tasted them still, well along with his morning breath of course.
JC grimaced at the sudden change of taste and climbed out of bed. He went to the bathroom, grabbed his toothbrush, and the toothpaste tube. He exited the bedroom and made a left down the hall to go check on Mya. He knew for a fact that she wasn’t awake and he would take great pleasure in waking her.
He opened the door slightly. The large bed was located in the center of the spacious room with Mya sprawled across it. Somehow she had kicked all the blankets and sheets onto the floor. He figured she’d gotten hot during the night.
JC placed the toothbrush in his mouth and proceeded to wake her. He walked over to the bed. He shook her lightly and she groaned, but didn’t open her eyes. She was either too tired or too dead to the world to feel him shaking her.
"Mya."
Mya slowly opened her heavy lids, squinting at him. "Where the hell am I?"
"You’re in my room."
"Your room?" She suddenly focused on him as if he said something crazy.
"I didn’t mean-" He stopped realizing there was no time for explanation, "you’re in my guestroom." JC got up and went to the bathroom to continue brushing his teeth.
"JC why do I feel like somebody dropped me, took a sledgehammer to my head, then knocked me out cold." She groaned with her face in the pillow as the pounding in her head continued.
JC advanced back into the room. He removed the toothbrush to answer her question. "You got a little tipsy when we were about to play cards, fell out your chair and passed out." He explained, purposely leaving out the most important details.
"I don’t remember that." He figured she wouldn’t. "Why’d you let me do that?" She rolled over and accused him.
His jaw literally dropped in her lap. "I didn’t! I tried to take the fourth drink from you but you started whining, leave it alone."
Mya gasped, sinking further into the pillow. "I don’t usually drink like that, so whatever happened last night I want you to erase from your mind." She demanded hoarsely.
"Humph." JC laughed, "I wish it were that easy."
She lifted her head from the pillow, contemplating his last comment. "What do you mean? What did I do last night?"
"You did nothing. Nothing at all." He lied for her benefit, knowing she wouldn't take how she had behave lightly. Damnit only if I had things my way!
She groaned again and on instinct, he reached out to rub her back. "You gonna be okay?"
Mya sighed, slowly swinging her legs out of the bed, and sitting upright. She looked at him brushing his teeth. "You got a toothbrush for me?"
JC nodded. "Yeah plenty." He mumbled.
Despite the discomfort it caused, Mya smiled. "Can I freshen up in your bathroom?"
JC couldn’t believe she was asking these silly questions. "Hell yeah, do whatever you like." He sat on the bed next to her. "Oh, the toothbrushes are in the cabinet. I’ll go get you a fresh towel."
"Thanks. Oh can you wash the clothes I had yesterday? I need something to wear home." He watched her walk, more like sway to the bathroom. The extra-large tee shirt she wore did nothing to hide the figure that he’d always admired, from his piercing gaze.
"JC?" Mya peered out the bathroom moments later, confusion shadowing her face. "I got something on my neck. Where’d it come from?"
"Hmm." JC stood up, still brushing his teeth and walked over to her as she grabbed a handful of hair away from her neck. He gazed at the mark for a while. "Uh..." His mouth had suddenly gone dry.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Ya shirt es fabuloso Evie." José complemented.
"Thanks José"
"What did you do last night Eve?" Vanessa asked.
Mya partially listened as her friends, Evette, Vanessa, and, her hairstylist José, conversed around her. As always, early Saturday mornings was their day to come to the hair salon, get their hair done, unless Mya was working, and gossip about how they spent their week. She had come to the salon, after going home from JC’s just to hear their stories.
Mya especially loved hearing how Evette spent her week. She always had some unbelievable but funny story to tell. Things happened that couldn’t happen to anyone else but her.
Vanessa had lots of amusing experiences too but didn’t enjoy sharing them. Only on a few occasions would she slip up and spill the beans on her night out, which often left her too embarrassed to mention anything else.
As for José, he owned the title Gossip Queen. He went out everyday then came to the salon and gossip about it, except if he was on schedule to create a magnificent hairstyle for some famous celebrity. He lived everyday as if it was his last. Going to all the hotspots, the most flamboyant places. At times, he often dragged Mya with him to the clubs where drag queens put on outrageous but certainly entertaining shows.
However, today, Mya wasn’t up for hearing Evette’s uncommon experiences, José’s wild adventures, or even sharing some of her own. For some reason, she woke up with at severe headache, more like a hangover, and a mark on her neck. JC had told her she’d been drinking, one of his homemade drinks, and they’d played a game of poker, but she couldn’t remember much of last night or what was in that drink of his.
Evette closed her magazine as she finished her story. She knew Vanessa wasn’t going to dish out anything so she turned to Mya. She noticed Mya in a daze; hand on her forehead, while José curled the long strands of her hair.
"Mami please move yer hand. I don’ wanna burn ya precious." José said to Mya.
Mya sighed and dropped her hand. She had no idea Evette was watching her and had now directed Vanessa’s attention to her. They watched her curiously but Evette was the first to say something.
"Mya you okay?" Evette kept observing her in attempt to find something.
"I got a headache." She wouldn’t dare tell them, she was suffering a hangover from a drink with no name.
José smirked. "No Mami is hungover." He laughed; using the nickname he’d given her.
"Shut up José." Mya snapped.
"Lo siento Mami." José apologized and continued doing her hair.
However, Evette wasn’t giving up that easily. She knew Mya was being tight-lipped about something. "What you do last night Mya? You went out with JC again."
"Yeah Qué pasa Mami?" He grabbed a piece of hair and curled it around the iron.
Mya sighed as they all waited with amusing grins. "We went to the fair."
"And?" Vanessa asked, wanting more.
"And Mami got a mark on her neck!" José finished, smacking his lips in a downright ghetto fashion, holding her hair in a ponytail away from the mark. He beckoned, Evette and Vanessa to inspect further.
"What!" Instantly, Vanessa jumped up. Evette pushed her short frame in front of her and maneuvered Mya's neck at a perfect angle for all of them to see. "Mya where’d you get that?"
Mya winced as José gripped her hair back, still scrutinizing her as if she some kind of ground-breaking disease. "I fell out of my chair." At least that’s what JC told her.
When they started laughing, Mya realized they didn’t believe her. She didn’t believe them either.
"Who told you that?"
"JC."
Evette took another look at the mark, "Mya, boo...that's a hickey."
Mya reached up to caress the spot, "Whatever, y'all always gotta make things more than they actually are, especially you Eve."
Eve rolled her eyes. "Mya, take a look in the mirror. How can you not tell that's a hickey?! What in the hell happened on that date of yours?"
"Had few drinks, played cards, fell out of chair, passed out, and JC took me to bed."
They started snickering again. "Yeah, he took you to bed alright."
~*~*~*~*~
Soon as she got home, she went straight to bed, trying to sleep off her headache. An hour later, she woke up, and now she was giving her puppy a bath.
"Okay Beaker sit still." Mya ordered, holding the small black and white puppy down in the soapy water. She was trying to give him a bath but he was scared that he’d go down the drain. She fought to keep him from jumping out as usual, while smoothing suds over his white coat. Beaker shook wildly, extracting the suds from his body, and splashing it all over her.
"Ugh! Damnit Beaker." Mya put her hands in front of her face. "Wait in here." She said expected him to follow her command but he tried to jump out just as she turned and scooped him up with a towel.
"Why must you put mommy through all this trouble, huh?" Beaker cocked his head in confusion. "Rambo and Rex love to take baths." She pouted referring to her other two dogs.
As if on cue at the mention of her name, Rambo ran in the bathroom and leaped into the tub, splashing more and more water out of the tub.
"Rambo. No." Mya pointed at her. "Get out." Although big in size, Rambo only lightly barked back at her in response and Beaker scrambled from her embrace into the water.
"Now you wanna be in the water." She smirked. "Ain’t that a bitch."
Rambo released a low growl and Mya laughed, "Sorry."
She honestly adored her dogs, all three of them, though they disobeyed her at times, like when they pissed on the carpet. Yet, she still loved them and her babies, as she called them, loved her back.
"Well y’all can just bathe yourselves. I’ll make myself useful elsewhere." Mya took a second glance at them splashing in the tub before preparing to exit the bathroom.
Walking down the hall she passed by a mirror. Mya faced the mirror, she brushed her curly tendrils away from her face as she stared at her reflection. I don’t know what they’re talking about. "I know a hickey when I see one." She said speaking from experience as she cradled her hair into a ponytail on the top of her head examining the now fading mark.
Mya squinted as she moved in closer to the mirror. She titled her head towards the mirror, attempted to see the mark at the same time. It didn’t work.
Exasperated, she allowed her hair to settle back among her shoulders. "Besides if it was a hickey, it would be the only real action I had in months." Mya laughed. The ringing of the telephone interrupted her task.
Mya briskly walked to her room. Reaching the side of her bed, she read the caller ID, and grabbed the cordless phone.
"JC."
"Hey Ms. Harrison."
"Don’t say that shit," Mya laughed. "It’s sounds so formal, like I’m your friend’s grandmother or something."
"Oh no. I definitely don’t want you to be somebody’s grandmother." JC grimaced. Her comment didn’t paint a nice picture. "Although Justin's grandmother does make some damn good peach cobbler."
"Okay." Mya giggled. "That’s better." She headed back to the bathroom.
"I hear splashing in the back you’re not taking a bath again are you?"
"Well I do take a bath every now and then," She joked. "But no I’m not taking one right now."
Good I don’t need to be thinking about you naked right now, JC sighed, but didn’t realized he muttered that aloud.
"What?"
"Oh." Shit! "I was talking to somebody else."
"Is that so?" She stopped short of a giggle. "Well…you’re only supposed to be talking to me right now." Mya replied teasingly.
She’s doing it again, JC grinned. She’s flirting with me. Now what would she expect me to say back? He began tracing his mind for some type of hint, something that he might have read. "I know." That’s the best line you can come back with you loser! His mind condemned.
"I-" JC cleared his throat. "I was thinking we could hang out again."
"Oh?" He heard the sound of her tongue rubbing against her teeth. "Well, let’s see I already been out with you on two occasions, one of which I got soak and wet in the rain, and got some mysterious mark on my neck." She smirked.
JC bit his lip as he nervously awaited her response. He hoped she wouldn’t turn him down.
"I guess we could hang out again."
"How ‘bout something adventurous?"
"Why the hell not. I like adventure."
"Then it’s a date?" JC grinned, hopefully.
"I guess it’s a date." Mya rolled her eyes and smiled.