Perfectly Flawed

39. Easy to Please

“Okay.” Kasei clicks her seatbelt into place and turns to me as I start up the car. “The tile and studio flooring was the most important, but now we need paint and lighting.” She frowns at the little brown binder in her lap.
“There’s a hardware store in 2 miles.” Keila pipes up from the backseat. “Just turn left at the lights on Dell.”
“Budget is 2k for this section, and we need…” She’s reading from the binder, words trailing off as she does the math in her head. “Probably a lot.”
“Buy in bulk? When we repainted the club as a kid, we bought several 5 gallon buckets instead of the one gallon.”
I look back at Keila in the mirror. “That’s a lot of paint.”
“Well yeah, we’re going to need it.” Kasei agrees with her.
“So why are they not doing all the painting and stuff?” Keila leans closer to us.
“They are, I just wanted to make the design choices by myself, and I thought it’d be more fun to go into the stores then have to flip through those stupid lookbook catalogs.”
“That’s true.” I nod. “This turn?”
“Yes.” Keila scoots closer to Kasei. “What else is on the list?”
“Are you buckled up?” She goes mom mode.
Keils snorts. “Yes, the seatbelt moves, you know.”
“Okay, sassy ladies.” I chuckle. “We’re here.”
They rush to grab a cart and continue chattering as they head in without looking back.
I can imagine it was weird for Keila growing up without really any women in her life, just a club girl here and there, but surrounded mostly by men. I love her though, and I’m happy we found her and got along so well.
I shake off my busy mind as I enter, craning my neck to figure out which way they would have went, and find them in the paint aisle a minute later.
“Hey, deserters. Nobody ever heard of safety in numbers?” I tease.
They both look up at me, multiple samples in each hand.
“Well there you are.” Keila snorts. “God, you walk slow.”
“It was leg day yesterday.” I excuse, trying to push the memory of riding Blade in the changeroom out of my head.
“Oh she got all worked out, trust me.” Giggles Kasei, who was a shade of embarrassed pink yesterday when I told her about my…workout.
“What?” Keils frowns.
“Kase!” I roll my eyes. “It meant nothing.”
“Is this about Blade?” Keils looks between the two of us, excited at this tidbit of gossip.
“We aren’t anything.” I say, turning back to Kasei. “It’s just casual fun.”
“Mhm, sure.” She leans forwards and picks up another paint strip, warmer pinks then the last one.
“So…” I clear my throat in attempts to change the subject.
“So I already knew I wanted this one for the main area.” She points at a color called coconut milk, a shade of tan so light it’s almost white.
“Interesting name.” I chuckle.
“I think it’ll look good since she plans on having big windows and lots of natural light.” Keila elbows me.
“I agree.”
“But what about these? I’m torn between this dusty rose and this kind of cozier baby pink.” Kasei holds them both up to me.
“Sorry.” My head is swirling from all the samples I’ve been looking at, and the quick change of conversation. “What are the floors looking like again?”
“Um…” She fumbles through the binder in her arms. “This.” Kase pulls the wood sample out, holding it against the color.
“I think because it's such a pretty light color it’ll go good with anything, but to be honest I think it’d look so good with that kind of brown pink.” Keila points.
“Keils.” I snort a laugh. “That’s dusty rose. But yeah.” I turn back to Kasei. “I agree, I think dusty rose is the vibe.”
“It’s actually called love letter.” Keila sticks her tongue out at me like a child.
“Okay you two.” Kasei rolls her eyes. “I’m convinced. Can I get that lobby strip?” She carefully opens the binder again, slipping the paint strips into the slot where the paint for the outside and bathroom are already placed.
“So that’s it for the main interior, lights are next.”
“You know what would be so cool?” Keils grabs the binder from her, flipping to the last page where the interior blueprints are. “See this empty wall here? What were you planning on doing in the space?”
“Oh, um getting some kind of lettering for the studio name. That way when you walk in it’s right there.”
“Yeah, so smart but what if…” She closes the binder and starts quickly walking towards the lighting aisle.
“Where…?” I frown at her retreating figure.
“I don’t know but I don’t trust her alone with my binder.” Kasei runs to catch up with her.
I chuckle and shake my head. When she first dragged me along, I wasn’t so sure but I’m so invested now. Who would have thought this is what life is like after we graduated?
“Leaving me in the dust once again.” I mutter at the ladies now several rows ahead of me. “Y’all need to stop walking so fast.”
“Okay, now that you’re finally here.” Keils jokingly huffs. “See these?” She points to a twisted tube of LED in front of us, and we both nod. Obviously.
“I know a guy who makes custom LED signs. What if, instead of having lighting and then getting a sign, or acrylic lettering or whatever you were thinking done, you get them both in one!?”
“Oh my goodness.” Kasei gasps. “That is the best idea!”
“I know, it came from me.” She pulls out her phone and starts typing. “I’ll reach out and see what he can do in your pricepoint and time frame.”
“I have about 2 weeks before they’re done the interior and need the fixtures in. I guess they just keep the wires hanging out a hole in the wall for a while?”
“Oh that’s weird.” I look around us, noticing that beside us is the motion detected section. “Hey, it’d save a lot if you got motion detected lighting in the bathroom and locker room, that way you wouldn’t have to worry so much about the kids turning it off and on.”
Kasei snatches the binder back from Keila. “Yeah, I think I had the same idea earlier this week when I was making the organizer.” She flips through it.
“When did you start making it and decide to go shopping independently?” Keils crosses her now empty arms.
“JT had the idea a couple weeks ago.” I interrupt. “He was talking to me about my design plan and mused that it would be fun to go shopping for it all so we could really make it how she wants.”
“Wow. My brother had a good idea.” Keila snorts. “That’s impressive.”
I laugh at her. “I know, I should have written it down, it’s gotta be few and far between.”
“When you guys are done making fun of my man…” Kase huffs. “He’s a keeper. He gave me Starbucks money this morning before I left.”
I shrug. “You're easy to please. A day of paint shopping and starbies and you're happy, don't know if he has much to do with it.”
“Shut upppp.” Her snorting laugh comes out. “We’re just teasing, Kase. I love you two together.”
“I agree.” Keila nods.
“He’s so supportive of it all, helping me and Rosa and checking in on my mental health, taking me out of the headspace when I need a break…”
“I’m so happy for you.” I pout.
“Yeah, that’s actually super important.” Keila adds.
“J is actually the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” The smile brightens her whole face. “It’s crazy that it’s only been like, half a year. We haven’t even had any holidays together…”
“Oh yeah!” I get the idea. “Speaking of, what should we do for halloween?”
“Dude.” Keila snorts. “What? That’s so far away.”
“What do you mean? So?”
“It's more than a month.”
“It’s better to not be last minute with it, I agree with Kota.” Kasei shoves me.
“So what usually happens?” I turn back to Keila.
"Well the Hawks usually have a Halloween party." She shrugs. "It's either in the gym or at my place or another who lives off compound."
"Okay, that's so fun. People dress up?"
"Yeah most of the time. You know how competitive our boys are." Keils snorts. "Usually me and Tyler match."
"Wait what?" I butt in. "If you're doing couples costumes how the hell is it not obvious to you that you’re into each other? Or other people?” I laugh. “You won’t match someone you aren’t doing... What did you dress as last year?”
Keila rolls her eyes, pulling out her phone and swiping for a sec before showing me. “Lola and Bugs Bunny from space jam.”
“Okay, you’re so cute. But yeah I have questions.”
“Shut up.” She laughs.
“Me and Kase were Lara Croft and Kim Possible last year.”
“Oh yeah, that was fun.”
“Except the party was lame there were so many ballerinas there I felt like a cow all night.”
Keila frowns at me. “You're actually so skinny and gorgeous shut the fuck up.”
“Just wait til ur in a room with dancers you'll understand.” I laugh.
“We have dancers at the clubhouse.” She reminds me. “Most of them are burlesque or strippers at the place down the road. So I understand.”
“Okay, touche.” I look down as my phone buzzes with a text from Blade.

Blade🙄: good workout yesterday... wyd tomorrow? Cedes has June
Me: not you lmao
Blade🙄: we'll see about that.
Me: you're a whore
Blade🙄: pot calling the kettle black, much?
Me: nope ur the only whore here
Blade🙄: just for you ;) see you tomorrow

I ignore the flutters that sentence gives me, roll my eyes and stuff my phone into my pocket. I guess he hasn't talked to Gearhead yet. I tuck my hair back behind my ear, looking up into the expectant faces of my girls. “What?”
“Suspicious.” Keila narrows her eyes at me.
“What is? Checking my phone?”
“No. The little smirky grin as you text and then rolling ur eyes pretending to be annoyed.” Kasei laughs.
“Okay, whatever. Blade’s actually so annoying.”
“Shore.” Keila nods. “Anyways. What are you dressing as for Halloween? Miss plan ahead.”
My mind goes to a cute couple costume for me and Blade but I force it out of my mind. You guys aren't anything. Be for real, D. “Oh I don't know I haven't thought of it yet.”
“Me and J are probably going to do something cheesy like Nat and Cap.”
“Who?” Keils frowns.
“Black widow and Captain America…we recently started watching those and I think it's so cute.”
“Yeah for sure.” I agree. “Either way, I'm so excited to see everyone dress up.”
“A bunch of the ol' ladies did alcohols last year. That was cute.” Keila adds. “It's fun to see what they do, because usually the boys are just accessories.”
“Ugh, love that. As they should be.” I snap my fingers.
“Right?” Keila giggles. “Walk him like a dog, sis. Walk ‘im like a dog.”
All three of us girls collapse into giggles in the lighting aisle. I'm sure we're getting odd looks, but I could care less.
I love them. No matter what Halloween brings, it'll be so fun with these two.
___________
Happy Wednesday!
This Halloweeny one was supposed to be out in time for the season, but oh well.
It also won't let me add pictures. Annoyingggg
Okay ily