TLWM: The Hate Experience

\XLIII/ Cream

These men really had me sitting in timeout thinking about all the things I did wrong. If only Ace could see me now... That little boy was always getting sent to the corner. Though my punishments never had to go beyond a few straight words and a look, he'd still have a good laugh at this. A grownup in timeout. At this point, put a chalkboard in here too. Let me write across it a million times I WILL NOT BACK TALK SECURITY. Tuh.  

  "You know what..." I slid out of my hot seat. "I am not a damn child."

Deanna came in staring at me through the mirror. She was head of wardrobe; a brass woman old enough to be my mother who always smelled like a 3.3 fluid ounce bottle of perfume.

What she bathe in today? White Diamonds again? Maybe she thought if she put enough on, she'd turn into Elizabeth Taylor herself.

"What happened, Letty?"

Oof. That's not Elizabeth. I got a good whiff of my visitor while she stood behind my chair. "Well." I cleared my throat. "It started with suspicious activity in the front row—"

"Not that part of it. I'm talking about what you did when Duane told you to step away."

Ah hell no. I didn't know Ms. Deanna that well. We were just Paisley Park kitchen buddies. Our body clocks always had us in the snack drawers at the same time. We only did small talk so I was a little taken aback to be on the other side of her sass.

"What did you do that you weren't supposed to?"

Nuh-uh. Turning away from her reflection, my grimace found her eyes and she came to stand in front of me. But when she untangled my earring from my braids, my defenses dropped a few notches. Benefit of the doubt said it was her maternal nature questioning me out of genuine worry for my safety. She did have seven daughters.

But damn. Back up, Ms. Taylor. The heavy smell of that musk gave me a flash flood of nausea. One hand went over my nose and mouth, the other pressed on my belly.

Deanna uncapped a fresh bottle of water and handed it to me. "Are you okay?"

After sitting back down and taking in a good gulp, I told her with my face twisted in disgust, "No. Your perfume smells horrible, Deanna."

"Well, well, well." She placed a hand on her hip. "I guess it is true what they've been saying."

"Who has been saying what?"

"The hum around camp is that Letty is bad at biting her tongue." Deanna then smiled. Pink lipstick marked her front tooth. Lord.

Setting the water on the busy tabletop, I traded my drink for a tissue and handed it to her. After tapping my own tooth, she pivoted to meet herself in the mirror.

"Now I wonder..." She wiped. "I wonder how long that's been sitting there." She wiped more until just her usual coffee stains remained. "That's why you're okay in my book, Letty."

My grin said thanks.

"But you know better."

"Ma'am, what?" my grown-ass-woman'ness asked. Because she had the nerve to tsk-tsk her finger in my face too.

"You have to be careful. I've been working with Prince for six years now and he's come across some unhinged characters."

"Yeah, I've met some."

"Yeah," she said shaking her head. "People sometimes want to hurt the ones they love but can't have."

Deanna left but her stink didn't. There was a small fan on the corner of the table that I cut on HIGH. I just let it blow in my face. Prince had a few bottles of perfumes lying around... Don't even bother.