Deceiving Dexter

Chapter Seven - Pretty Faces and Fashion Choices

Natalia POV

Black skirt? Blue dress? Green top? Oh no. Not the green top. Blue top?

Urg.

I dress in one style. Little back dresses and high fashion accessories, I swear my closet at my real apartment is just a bunch of stylish items in shades of grey, white and black. This closet however, was filled with colour.

Colour.

What do I do with colour?

I wasn’t in third grade. I dressed to impress, not dressed to be comfortable, which some of these pants seemed to have that invisible slogan.

‘I’m ugly – Yet oh so comfortable’

Yep. That’s exactly what they should say.

I looked around the closet again, straining my neck to see if there was anything at all close to a mixture between Natalia and Natalie, only to find a whole, giant, bunch of nothing.

There wasn’t even any pumps or boots, at all. The only heels in this closet were ones you would wear to work and this was a date. My normal dates involve tiny dresses and the highest heels I owned.

Don’t take me wrong, I don’t dress like a slut. I am Russian, I can pull off these outfits, while still keeping my class.

That sounded a bit racist?

Am I racist?

Of my own people?

What?

Get your head together Natalia. 

I paced the bedroom of my tiny apartment, well Natalie’s, tiny apartment, silently stressing over what to wear to this date.

Yesterday Dexter had called me, asking me out to dinner, and he would be here in, uh, an hour.

An hour!

Oh god.

I had no idea what to wear, no idea. Natalie dresses so different to me, I have no idea what to wear on a date. Business clothes? A dress?

I called Dominika for the tenth time, trying to get her fashion advice. If that girl new anything, it was fashion.

I put the phone to my ear as I threw that god awful green top over to the other side of the room.

She picked up, ‘Dominika, finally, I’ve been calling you for forever, come over, I have no idea what to wear toni-’ I started into the phone before being cut off by a deep male voice, carrying a Russian accent.

‘Natalia stop! It’s me.’

‘Erik?’ I asked, why was Erik with Dominika?

If one of my brothers was going to be with Dominika I would think it would be Leo, she and Erik weren’t as close as her and Leo. Erik was two years older than Leo, and was always the more practical and responsible one of us three. That personality teemed with Dominika’s craziness was not a good combination.

‘Is Dominika murdering you? What did you do this time?’ I laughed, speaking sarcastically.

The way that Erik annoyed Dominika always lead her to planning out his murder to me, in quite specific detail, I might add. She didn’t really hate him, but he was more of a hard exterior, hard inside, sort of person, which didn’t match with her outgoing and expressive personality.

‘Murdering me?’ he asked confused.

‘Because you guys don’t exactly get along. Take a joke please,’ I laughed at my oldest brother’s blatant lack of humour. His jobs for my father involved some not-so-great stuff, which I believed assisted his overly realistic and sometimes pessimistic views in life.

‘We are working Natalia,’ He told me harshly.

 

‘You don’t have to be rude Erik,’ I told him, careful with my tone, I didn’t want him to think I was actually angry with him.

‘What are you working on?’ I asked him, hoping to change his tone to something a tad more excited or even un-hateful would be an improvement from the hard tone I was receiving from him today.

‘Getting inside a rival prostitution ring. Leo and Dominika have gone in undercover, we are going to bring this one down from the inside. Leo is pretending to be her previous pimp, we are going to see if they are looking to get a new ‘employee’ and Dominika is just their type,’ He told me, his tone lightening slightly.

‘I don’t think that Dominika is looking to get back into the big time stuff, Erik, you need to respect that,’ I warned him, ‘Why don’t you just get one of the many prostitutes on your speed dial and ask them? I’m sure you have some great options to choose from,’ I laughed. I knew that my brother wasn’t into prostitutes, but I still found it funny. My family were the only ones I could truly joke with, even if Erik wasn’t the biggest fan of humour in any form.

‘Look Natalia, we are working, I don’t have time for your silly nonsense,’ he took a deep breath ‘You’ve somehow convinced father that you’re a capable woman, so act like it.’

I was shocked. Erik was never open with his emotions and sometimes didn’t have much of a filter, but this. This was taking it to a new level.

‘What are you talking about Erik? This has nothing to do with Papa.’

‘Well, he certainly wouldn’t have put you on this task, of which, you are evidently not ready for, unless you convinced him that you had grown up from that childish girl you used to be.’

‘I am ready for this. I am working hard to bring Wyatt down,’ I replied, hating the small break in my voice.

‘Natalia, you are all pretty face and no brains. Just let me do my job, I do fathers operations and you can go back to making coffees.’

‘What?’

‘You heard me Natalia,’ I could feel the tears pricking my eyes.

He hung up then.

My own brother said those things to me.

My flesh and blood. If father had heard what he had said then that boy would have already lost his fingers.

I had half a mind to call up my father right then and there and inform him on his son’s derogatory and absurd assumptions of his only daughter. That would teach Erik a lesson.

But, then again, it would also be proving him right. I needed to be capable, I needed to be the type of woman who could handle her problems on her own, I didn’t need my brother or my father to swoop in and safe the day.

I was no damsel in distress.

I was Natalia Cherkesov.

Loved and feared.

I would prove my brother wrong and I would make my father proud.

I wasn’t just going to get close to Wyatt, I was going to find out everything he knew, then rip his life to pieces.

Showing everyone just how capable I really was.

‘Just a Pretty Face’ my ass.