Final Chapter One Year Later #2
“I can’t do that, baby. It fucked me up, Bird.
You getting rid of my baby,” he answered.
“But I took some time to look at the board from every angle and I understand why you wouldn’t keep it.
You deserved more than lies and a baby. I was being selfish.
I wanted you to have my baby to keep you trapped with me, Bird.
So, you couldn’t leave, and I wouldn’t have to change my ways because I would automatically have you.
I was wrong, but I do love you and I want to do this right with you.
You deserve a nigga that will do everything he can to do right by you.
I’m sorry for every way I’ve ever hurt you. ”
She felt dizzy, like she wasn’t breathing, like the room was spinning. She didn’t know how she had let 390 days pass without this energy.
Demi took the brilliant ring out of the box.
“Nobody has ever touched me like you touch me, Bird. Burn me, baby,” he said. “Burn a nigga for his whole life. Marry me, Charlie.”
She searched his face for clarity, for an indication that this was a joke.
“Damn, Bird, a nigga trying to get his shit together for you and you just gon’ act like it don’t mean shit,” he said.
She smiled, slowly, reluctantly, irresistably and then she shrugged. “Why not?” she answered. He snickered.
“That’s all you got for me?” he asked. A hand to her cheek singed his fingertips. His burn. The burn he felt for her was back. It was the sweetest pain he had ever felt. “A nigga missed you, baby.”
She blushed as the hue of love conquered her skin. “I have some conditions,” she answered. He slipped the diamond on her finger. It was flawless. A single stone and a white band because the quality was so official that it needed nothing else to accentuate it.
Demi grabbed her chin roughly, forcing her to look into his eyes and then he pressed his forehead to hers.
“What’s your terms, Bird? Put ‘em on the floor. What does a conditional engagement look like?” he asked.
“I want to go slow. Everything went so fast last time and we crashed and burned. I want to get to know each other and date and meet your son and your parents.”
He tensed.
“See, you don’t like that, and I need to know the history behind that,” she said, feeling his angst. “I just want to go slow. A long engagement.”
“How long?” he questioned.
“As long as it takes. If you’re good with that, then my answer is yes,” she whispered.
“I can live with that,” he replied.
“Then, I guess I’m a fiancée,” she said softly, playfully, smiling wider than he had ever seen her smile. She was heaven. His heaven. He worshipped this woman. He had no idea that even if he disagreed she would have still said yes.
Charlie kissed him, long and deep, soul-stirring, and slow, and Demi felt it in his soul. A year’s worth of I love you’s tangled between their lips as he felt the heat from her soul. Her burns. Her touches. They were no longer foreign because she was his.
“I’ma be good to you, Bird. You can trust that,” Demi said.
She didn’t know how or why she had so much faith in him, but she believed him.
He climbed out of the car and walked around to her door, pulling her to her feet, and lacing his hand in hers.
Connection. Charlie had touched him. Stained him in a way that he couldn’t scrub her out.
Demi was dirty with her love. Charlie was the single bird in his sky, the one you would see flying alone on a bright, blue day as the sun blinded you as you tried to admire it.
Sometimes, it would rain. Sometimes, it would storm.
It wouldn’t always be sunny, but they would endure.
They would choose to love anyway because they knew what it felt like to be apart and neither Charlie nor Demi could bear the thought of living another day without the dysfunction of their love. What a beautiful sky indeed.
“My soul stuck on you, Bird,” he said, holding her hand up and forcing her to spin so he could admire what he had almost lost. She fell back into his chest. Only Demi could make her feel this beautiful.
He pulled her into his body and his large hand cloacked her neck, if he squeezed, he would choke her, but he didn’t; he caressed there then used the other hand to undo the top three buttons of her silk shirt.
Her scar greeted him, and he lowered his lips to it, kissing the place where she had been hurt.
“I collected this debt for you, Bird. I’ma hold your life in my hands and you gon’ hold a nigga heart in yours. How that sound? You can handle that?”
Like the money he gave her when they first met, he needed to give her collateral to make sure she would always welcome him in her world.
He knew she was good for it. She would keep it safe, and in return, he would love her forever.
He had made that promise to himself before she even walked into the house.
It was his honor to love her, to have her, and he was forever grateful. She looked him in the eyes.
“I’m in love with you. Always, Demi. Always.”
The End