Baby stopped long enough to turn to me with teary eyes.
“What are you crying for, beautiful?” I asked, tipping her chin up.
“Because you go out of your way to make everything so special and a momentous occasion for me. I appreciate you and the way that you love me, Harlem.”
“It’s because of how you love me, Baby, that I want to love you this way. You let me protect you, cherish you, and spoil you, and I don’t have to fight you to do it.” I brushed my lips over hers and sweetly kissed her before we traveled further down the beach.
When we arrived at our table, there was a single candle in the middle of the table with rose petals radiating outward to create a starburst effect.
“What’s this?” Baby pointed at flower petals of two overlapping circles that created interlocking rings. They were placed just in front of our table.
“Circles.”
She gave me major side-eye. “I can see that, but what’s it for?” she asked as I helped her step into the space that overlapped.
“It stands for unity and eternity,” I explained as we stepped out of the circles and moved to our table.
“Aww, it’s beautiful and so sweet, Harlem,” she declared, giggling and looking at the other girls. She waved at them. “Hey, y’all.”
“Hey, girl. Finally made it, I see,” Nicole declared, winking at her.
Despite the fact that the sun had set, I could still see Baby’s face turn red from blushing.
She turned sideways in her chair to face Nicole. “Honey, barely. This one was?—”
“Aye, come on now. Can’t a man and woman have anything sacred?” I asked.
Baby and Nicole both laughed as Eli and CJ both replied, “I know, right?”
“You look gorgeous tonight, Baby,” Courtney called out from her table.
“Thank you, boo. So do you.”
“Babe, we should all pull our tables together so I don’t have to feel like I’m shouting at my girls.”
“Nah, I have it just the way that we need it. I think all the couples need a little private time tonight on our last night. Besides, we’ll be hanging together after dinner when we check out the fireworks show.”
“Okay,” she replied, bobbing her head as the servers came.
Five waiters all descended upon the five tables at once, bringing everyone their orders. We had enjoyed a beach barbeque earlier in the day thrown by the bars. We had barhopped to each one to sample the food and drinks they wereserving. It was all part of their Labor Day celebration, and we had eaten our share of barbeque.
Tonight, I ordered something different for Baby and me. She was having the grilled salmon skewers with the miso glaze, and I had basil butter grilled lobster. She had a seaweed and cucumber salad along with herbed potatoes, and I had a cucumber gazpacho salad and risotto.
We talked about how she wanted to move forward with the cooking classes, the online bakery, and the new location after we returned. She shared that she worried it might all be overwhelming trying to do so much at once.
I wiped my mouth with my napkin and reached for her hand and rubbed my thumb in the center of her palm. “Baby, I didn’t mean to overwhelm you by giving you a second location.”
“You didn’t overwhelm me, Harlem. You just breathed life into my dream.”
“Well, I want you to know that I got you. You’re not on this journey by yourself, and we’ll hire the staff that you need to make sure that it’s a success. I’ve got two consultants that our family uses for business expansion on standby. They’re ready to dive into the projects that you’ve got going on and help you create a plan for a successful launch and to make sure that you keep on the right path after the launch.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet. I was thinking that maybe the online orders won’t be a problem because we can take them right along with the in-store orders. We’ll have to have a system to differentiate the two.”
“And you can contract a service that will pick up and ship them for you, so that’s one thing that’s not on your plate.”
She bobbed her head as she chewed her food thoughtfully. We talked some more about our businesses, and I informed her that with all she had going on, I also wanted her input on a project that I was doing.
“What’s that?”
