“You gon’ love it then. I promise.”
An hour later, we had already stopped by to pick up little Ms. Butterfly and were finally being seated for dinner. When the waitress came to take our order, Forever didn’t know what she wanted. Her eyes bounced around the menu as she indecisively looked over all the options.
“I can’t decide if I want steak or crab cake.” She sighed.
“Get both,” I suggested.
“I want both,” Tahanii proudly announced.
“I got you.” I ordered her a New York strip,and a crab cake for them both and they were both satisfied.
We talked and laughed the whole time while we waited on our food. I learned a lot about Ms. Butterfly and her mom wasright; she was really smart. When the food came out, we all dug right in.
“Mmmmmm. This steak is really good, and the crab cake tooooo,” Tahanii sang as she stuffed her mouth. “We gonna get steak tomorrow too,” she giggled.
“Do you have money for steak tomorrow?” I asked her.
“Yep, ’cause your money is me and Mommy’s money. Right, Mommy?” She looked at her mom, and I was in a fit of laughter. I liked the way this baby girl think and I had to respect it.
“Noooo, Hanii. Legacy’s money is his, and my money is our money, baby,” she told her.
“Nah, you had it right the first time. I got enough for you and your mommy, Butterfly. We can have steak whenever you want it.” I looked over at her then her mom to let Forever know that I meant what I said.
She didn’t say anything; she just sipped on her drink and continued to quietly eat her food. It was a beautiful night, and I was glad to put a smile on their faces.
Once we finished dinner, we headed back to the hotel. It was getting pretty late, and Tahanii was already falling asleep in the backseat before we even made it halfway there. By the time we got upstairs to the suite, Forever was in full mommy mode helping Butterfly get ready for bed. I let her do her thing while she handled her routine with her daughter.
“Come on, stink. You gotta get out of those clothes because you got sauce on your shirt,” Forever laughed.
“I was hungry, Mommy,” Tahanii mumbled.
I chuckled and shook my head before heading toward the guest bathroom to handle my own hygiene. When I came back out a little while later wearing a black T-shirt and gray sweats, the entire suite felt quiet and peaceful. Forever was standing at the massive floor-to-ceiling windows looking out at the city. Her hair was down for the first time since I met her since she wasnormally wearing it in a messy bun. My God. This woman was beautiful. She was fine as fuck, but my attraction to her wasn’t just a physical thing. It was everything else that made her, her.
“It’s a beautiful view,” I said,walking toward her.
She turned slightly and smiled at me.
“Yeah. It really is. Years ago, when I first started working here, I used to come up to the suites just to stare out at the skyline and talk with God.” I leaned against the nearby wall, carefully watching her.
“You got some beautiful hair, lil mama,” I told her.
“Thank you. It’s honestly too much work. I try my best to take care of it and thankfully, I only lost a little hair during my chemo. The sides of my hair came out and thinned the most, but I found this hair growth oil that helped grow it back. Losing my hair was one of the things that I was afraid of.”
I had an idea and I hoped she would go for it. Yesterday, I ordered art supplies and had them couriered over to the hotel. I liked to have my supplies with me at all times because I never knew when I’d get the urge to paint. I could be sleeping and dream about something that should be on a canvas and the moment I woke up I started painting it. And after looking at her, that’s exactly what I wanted to do—put her on a canvas. I wanted to include every detail about her, the softness in her eyes, and all of the emotions that hid behind her smile. Everything.
“Can I paint you?” I randomly asked her.
“What—You want to paint me?” she questioned, face full of confusion. I stared at her for another moment and damn right I wanted to paint her.
“Yes.”
“Okay.” I could tell that she was nervous, but I was just glad that she agreed.
I pulled out my supplies and got myself set up then for the next few hours, I painted. With each stroke of my brush,my feelings for this woman became a little deeper. She was beautiful in every essence of the word. I could understand why her confidence level might’ve been down, but it didn’t need to be. She was able to pull some shit out of me that I never thought any woman could. Not once did I have to question her true intentions or worry that she was interested in me for her own reasons or ambitions like with other women. Lowkey, I was dreading going home tomorrow because waking up and going to sleep to her every night wasn’t something I could go back to not doing.
13 /FOREVER
One Month Later
