“That’s my only goal.”
Chapter
Eleven
Karina
“Kareem, I can’t believe you did all of this for me. How did you pull this off in such a short amount of time?”
I looked around the rooftop in awe. The smile on my face was so wide that my cheeks hurt. Just thinking about the amount of planning that went into this made me so happy.
“You’d be surprised how many miracles a man can pull off for you when he really wants to.”
Kareem was right about that. I’d dated a few men over the years, and none of them had put this much effort into taking me out. Granted, Kareem and I had years of history, but as he said, if a man wanted to, he would.
I followed Kareem further into the garden that had been perfectly curated on the rooftop and couldn’t believe what I was looking at. I was standing in the middle of my literal childhood dream. So many nights I laid awake dreaming of coming to Paris, and now I was in Paris, and all of it had been made possible by someone I thought I’d lost years ago.
We were supposed to be here on a business trip for him to shine a light on his company, and even though that light was turning out to be dim, Kareem made time to make this night about me. I wouldn’t have batted an eye if Kareem had wanted to sit in his room and sulk a little, because not getting the thing you had been dreaming of can be hard, but that wasn’t the case. Kareem not only wanted to get out, but he also wasn’t thinking of himself or the big decision he had to make. The more I smiled, the worse I felt about what he was going through.
“I don’t even feel right about being as happy as I am because your day did not go the way we expected it to.”
“What you mean? You took some bad pictures of me or something? Don’t post shit without my approval,” Kareem teased, and I nudged him.
It was just like him to make a joke out of something like this. He was never the type to focus on things he couldn’t change.
“You play too much.”
“Baby, I’m a man. I know every day won’t be the exact thing I want, but I can’t let that stop me from still wanting to be the type of man that shows up for my woman.”
“You are adamant about me being your woman, aren’t you? I haven’t said yes yet.”
“I already told you. I’m going to keep treating you like my woman until you know it’s true. I’m telling you… I’m not going to change my mind about this. Karina, I know I want to be with you. I just hope you feel the same way.”
“I won’t lie and say I’m not starting to feel it,” I said as he pulled the chair out for me to take a seat.
We were sitting at a candlelit dinner on this rooftop that Kareem had perfectly decorated out of my dream. I couldn’t believe everything that surrounded me. He had gotten every single detail just right.
The server brought out the food not long after we sat down. We ate a perfectly cooked steak dinner and drank a bottle of red wine. I wasn’t much of a drinker these days, so a few sips had me feeling myself. I was sure Kareem could tell by the goofy smile I couldn’t hide if I tried.
“I’m going to assume that smile means you like your food.”
“Yes.” I giggled a little. “It’s perfect. Everything is perfect.”
“Just like you.”
“Kareem, can I ask you a question?”
“What’s up?”
“How did you remember something I told you when I was sixteen years old and make it a reality so easily? I get the whole ‘if a man wanted to, he would thing,’ but this is next-level planning.”
I had kissed my fair share of frogs over the years, but I’d never met someone so intentional about me and what I wanted. Kareem was drawing a line in the sand and making it clear just how serious he was about me. That made me regret walking away from him all those years ago.
Sitting across from Kareem now, I was ashamed that we weren’t where we could have been if I had stayed. I felt like I had to do what was best for me back then, but now that I was older, I wished I had considered what was best for both of us. Kareem and I got too close too fast, and that was just something I never expected. Now, we were on a rooftop years later, and he was still proving himself to be the man of my dreams.
“It has always been next-level between us, Karina. It always will be.”
“Yeah.”
