“Yes.”
“You thinking about the future with her in it?” Pops chimed in.
I grinned. “Yeah.”
The amount of times I thought about us living together or her having my babies . . . proposing . . .
Duh, nigga, you ain’t ’bout to propose to someone you ain’t in love wit’.
My face mugged up.
“You in love,” Pops said as Mama clapped her hands in excitement. Denise rubbed my back lovingly while I digested this information.
“Man, how am I in love and I ain’t know that shit?” I asked.
They laughed like it was a dumb question, but I was dead ass serious.
“Sometimes you fall and don’t realize it, baby. Love has a way of sneaking up on you,” Mama said. I swear I saw tears in her eyes, and I groaned. She’d been after me and Denise for a long time to give her some grandbabies. I was positive she saw that in her near future, now that I confirmed I was in love.
Damn, a nigga was in love.
My heart beat a little different at that thought, and I realized I felt good as hell, like I didn’t have a single reason to frown or bully someone ever again. Arielle Nichols had me feeling like I was on top of the world, and suddenly, I wanted to be up under her.
Abruptly, I stood up. “I gotta go.”
“But wait. I want to hear about her?—”
“I’ll call you later, Mama,” I said as I waved at everyone and exited the dining room.
I heard my mama and Denise fussing, but I was suddenly on a mission.
I exited my parents’ home and hopped into my car. The entire ride to Arielle’s apartment was completely silent. My heart soared as I thought about the words I was about to confess to her. It was all I could think about. This moment was special to me, and it would be the only moment I would ever get like this. I thought about stopping for flowers but quickly discarded that idea. I would get her some later. The thought of making a pit stop on this mission had my nerves going haywire.
When I pulled up to her building, I parked quickly and went inside. The elevator wasn’t moving fast enough for me as I jammed my finger into the call button. A man stood next to me looking like he was on the brink of laughing. I mugged him but didn’t say anything. He wasn’t about to blow my high.
As soon as we got into the elevator, I pressed the number for Arielle’s floor. The man went to press a button that would have caused the elevator to stop before I could get to Arielle’s floor.
“Go ’head and take the stairs, homie,” I said as I stuck my arm out to stop the elevator doors from closing.
“What?” he asked with wide eyes.
Losing patience, I inclined my head toward the lobby of the apartment. “Take the stairs. You holding me up.”
“But—”
With one arm, I scooted the little white man out of the elevator and pressed the button to make the doors close in his stupid ass face. He was lucky I didn’t evict his slow ass.
So much for not bullying people. Maybe love wouldn’t change me all that much after all.
As soon as the elevator doors opened again, I rushed toward her door with my keys in my hand. I had yet to walk into her house without knocking, but baby would just have to understand. I had to get these words out of me before I exploded.
I unlocked her door and made a beeline for her bedroom. I knew her ass wasn’t doing nothing but lying in bed. She swore up and down the hours at her job weren’t fucking with her, but I knew that had to be the lie of the century because she was always exhausted and falling asleep at the drop of a dime.
The smile that plastered on my goofy ass face when I saw her should have been illegal. I knew I looked like a mad man right now, but I didn’t care about none of that.
“Kareem, you scared the shit out of me,” Arielle said with her blanket pulled up to her chin.
I didn’t mean to scare her. Trying to be calmer, I inched over to her bed and kneeled beside her. I took her hands, and suddenly, a lump formed in my throat as I looked into her confused eyes.
