Someone Who Truly Appreciates Her

Chanel Camryn sat at the table, notebooks spread open. She looked up and asked her stepmom for help. Dee Williams leaned in, and the air between them changed. A warm perfume hit Chanel. She breathed deep, looked at Dee’s neck, and smiled. “You smell different,” Chanel said. Dee paused, clearly pleased. The compliment slipped out before she could stop it. Her husband hadn’t touched her in weeks. The new scent was an attempt, she admitted, a quiet plea for attention. She cut herself off, turned back to the homework, and her voice became brisk. Every day after that Dee tried something new. A tight dress one afternoon. Soft waves in her hair the next. Chanel watched each change land against cold silence from her stepfather. She couldn’t understand why any man would turn away from a woman like Dee. One evening the apartment felt still. Chanel found Dee in front of the bedroom mirror, body wrapped in black lace that framed the curve of her waist and the swell of her breasts. Light traced the edge of the bra and slipped lower, gliding down her thighs. Chanel’s skin flushed. She stepped into the room and spoke. Dee turned fast, heat blooming in her cheeks. She said her husband still hadn’t looked, and now she was trying this, the lingerie, as the next attempt. Chanel shut the door behind her. Her voice dropped low. “If he won’t take care of you, he doesn’t get to have you.” The words landed, sincere and sudden. Dee stared, the tension around her mouth easing. In that moment she understood someone had been paying attention—someone who found her beautiful without effort. The truth pulled the air thinner. Heat curled between them. Chanel crossed the space slowly, eyes never leaving Dee’s body. Every inch of the stepmom deserved touch. Chanel was willing to give it, to press the marks of her lips where they would be remembered and not forgotten, to press deeper still until the need inside Dee belonged only to her.