“No way! You guys are opening a school?”
“I’mopening a school.”
Her eyes ballooned. “Are you serious?”
“I am.”
“Wow, Emery. Th-that’s amazing! How is this possible?”
“Anything is possible, my love. As you can see, anything I want, I get.”
She smirked. “Clearly. This is nice, Emery. I’m very proud of you.”
“Thank you. For you.” I handed her the rose, then held my palm out for her to take. She took my hand as I led her to the elevators and pressed the button for the fourth floor. When we reached our stop, I took her down the hall to the room I had set up for us.
I let her walk in first, and she stopped in her tracks upon seeing the setup. There was a dinner table in the corner, with serving trays on one side and a huge blank canvas with paint and materials on the other. The lights were dim, but the candles surrounding the room provided enough light for the intimate setting, and rose petals were scattered throughout. I planned to make this room the teacher’s lounge so I put a couch to the far right and brought a blanket just in case. Blackstreet’s “Before I Let You Go” played softly on the Bluetooth speaker.
She gasped. “Emmy . . .”
“Did I tell you that you’re wearing the fuck out of that dress?” I asked, eyes scanning her slim-thick ass frame. Yumi didn’t have a lot of ass and titties back in high school. She had a tablespoon at best. However, this Yumi’s body was fit, breaststhe size of oranges, and a dinner plate of ass that I wanted to devour. The sage green dress with the middle cutout that stopped at her knees and the gold Saint Laurent heels gave her ass more definition.
She turned to me with that pretty ass smile still adorning her face. “You like?” she asked, doing a spin.
“I love.”
“Thank you. You look good, too.”
“Thanks, baby.” I kissed her cheek. “I don’t want our food to get cold, so we’re going to eat, then paint. Sounds good?”
“Sure.”
I guided her to the table, pulled out her chair, and then took my seat. I took the champagne from the ice bucket, grabbed the cloth napkin, and popped the top. I poured a glass, said grace, then lifted the tops to our food. Tonight, we were having shrimp stir-fry with butter-lime sauce and garlic breadsticks.
“This smells so good.”
“I hope it’s good to you. I made it.”
“You made this?” I nodded. “You’re just surprising me at every turn. I guess there is a lot that I don’t know about you. I mean, the way you used to dress and talk back in high school allowed me to see remnants of who you are today. I guess my vision of you got blurred after I heard what you really did for a living.” She took a bite of her food, closed her eyes, and her head swayed from left to right. “Oh my goodness. Good dick and good food. I think I may be in my winning season!” We both laughed.
“I’m glad you like it.”
“I love it. The only thing you’ve ever mastered was those pineapple-glazed ribs,” she said, taking another bite.
“Doing what I do doesn’t define me, Yumi.” I circled back to her first statement. “It’s something that I do, but it’s not who I am. I’ve always had dreams and aspirations to become something bigger than my family’s life of crime. The young manyou had grown to know and love is who I am today. It’s just unfortunate that I couldn’t be who I wanted to be back then.” I shook my head as my hand swung around the room. “This is who I am.”
She nodded. “I’m seeing that now.”
“I’m glad you do. I want you to know that you never have to worry about being in the middle of anything illegal with me. This phase of my life is where I take back the life I never got the chance to live with the woman I always loved.” We were silent for a moment before she took a sip of her champagne and looked at me.
“Does your family know about this?”
“The school?” She nodded. “Nah. You’re the first person I’ve ever shown besides Juno, my driver.”
“Why?”
“Because I want it to be a surprise to them. I’ll invite them to attend the grand opening. It’s only right that I share my first investment with my wife first.”
She blushed and placed her chin in her palm while staring at me. “Why do you want to marry me, Emery?”
