Janiyah leaned toward me and whispered, “I’m excited,” then clapped her hands.
“Good.”
We watched Lex for a minute, then we tried it ourselves. For the first five minutes or so, Janiyah and I were quiet as we focused on the project. Every few minutes, I would peek over to see her progress, and she had done well.
“Looks better than mine.”
“I’m an artist in every way, baby,” she joked. “I thought you were supposed to be good with your hands.”
I leaned over and lowered my voice. “You know just how well my hands are.” I kissed the spot under her ear, and she shivered. I laughed as I moved back to my spot.
“Anyway, how was your day?”
I told her about the terrible day I had. A member of the local motorcycle club had been stabbed multiple times, and no one seemed to know who did it. My theory was that someone knew, but they weren’t going to tell for multiple reasons. It was the code of the streets, and they might have been afraid that if they told, they would be next.
It was sad when I had to tell his sister and the members of the motorcycle club that filled the waiting room that he’d succumbed to his wounds. It was crazy because they were well-known and respected in town. They often gave back to the community, so it was baffling that someone killed that man like that.
“Aww, I’m sorry. That’s sad.”
“Yeah. Days like that made me wonder if this was something I should continue. Death starts to fuck with you sometimes, especially when it’s someone close in age.”
“What would you do, though?” Janiyah asked.
That was the same question I’d been asking myself. Trauma gave me an adrenaline rush. I could be a regular ER doctor, but some of those patients come in there for the simplest shit.
“I really don’t know. All I know is, the shit made me fumble you, and I’m not trying to do that shit again. I can’t imagine what would have happened if you had divorced me and moved on.” My jaw tightened just thinking about Janiyah with someone else. There was no way I would allow that to happen.
“I told you I wasn’t going to leave you for good. I just wanted you to understand where I was coming from and that I could leave if I had to. I don’t want to. Ever.”
“I wouldn’t allow you to. I’m a surgeon, baby. I know how to make shit look like an accident.”
She laughed, but I was dead ass serious. I wasn’t letting another man get close enough to my wife to even smell her perfume. If she thought she could move on, she had another thing coming.
“That’s not something we have to think about. We are stuck like glue, and we have a little girl to worry about now.”
I thought about Mikayla and how she probably had the time of her life with my parents. They spoiled that little girl so much. I often thanked God for her, because she was the reason why Janiyah and I were back together sooner than I expected.
“Exactly. I wanted this night to show you that no matter what is going on in our lives, I will make the time to prioritize you and our marriage. I’m sorry I didn’t see this for us sooner, but we are here now. We have more things planned for the night.”
“We do?”
“Yes. I wanted to make the most of our time together. I still owe you a day to yourself. You’ll get it soon.”
I had a day off coming, and like I told Janiyah, I would keep Mikayla so she could get out of the house and do whatever she needed or wanted.
“Where are we going after this?”
“To get some mozzarella sticks.”
She turned her head to face me. “Oh, at Applebee’s?”
I nodded, and she did a little shoulder shimmy.
Ever since college, Janiyah loved their mozzarella sticks. It didn’t matter how many fancy restaurants we dined at; she would always get excited about eating at Applebee’s. We both had money to go anywhere we wanted, but most of the time, we kept it simple.
“I can’t believe you still like them.”
“Because they are good.”
