Fervor

Chapter 18

I set her flowers on the windowsill and brought my gaze back to hers. I bit my bottom lip so she could see I had my grill in. She loved that shit. She gave me a slight smile when she saw it. While I was glad to see her, I was somewhat nervous about what she wanted to talk to me about. Although she’d preceded that with how she missed me, I was confident in the direction things would go. I stepped closer to her and slid my hand on top of hers. “Hey, baby.”

She smiled and puckered her lips. I leaned over and kissed them. When I pulled away, she said, “Hey. You look great.”

I glanced down at my jeans and T-shirt then back up at her. Gently stroking her cheek, I said, “You look great too. So much better than you did yesterday.”

She blushed. “I feel better than yesterday.” She scooted over in her bed, indicating she wanted me to join her. “I have two hours until my next session. Can you hold me? Please?”

I released a sigh of relief and quickly kicked off my J’s, not giving a damn about scuff marks, and got in bed with her. A low grumble vibrated in my throat as I slid my arms around her. Shit. My heart was excited as hell. I kissed her cheek then her neck. “Damn, baby. I missed you so fucking much. Shit.”

A tremble went through her as she tilted her head back to stare into my eyes. “I missed you too, Harlem.” She lowered her head for a moment and cleared her throat. Looking back up at me, she said, “When I get out of here, I want you to be the one to pick me up. I want to live with you. My house represents so much struggle. Memories of that struggle are all over the place… in every room. I want a fresh start in every way possible.”

Fuck! I bit my lip as I allowed my fears to dissipate. “Yunique, I will give you whatever you want, baby. I’ll get all your shit moved into my home or storage while you’re here. When you get out, I don’t want you worried about a thing. I love you so much. It feels like you’ve breathed life into my soul. I was scared I was gonna lose you. Damn.”

She brought her hands to my cheeks as she stared into my eyes. “No man has ever made me feel the way you do. I never would have thought a street nigga could be so tender and passionate. I love your sensitivity with me. It was what I needed. You touched my soul, Harlem, and in a short amount of time. Our time in Tahiti made me truly see you. Your mom instilled so much into you simply by her actions. God made you for me. You being connected to Mo forced me to heal.”

She closed her eyes as if she was realizing the power in what she’d just said. My revelation forced her to deal with her demons head on. She lost a few battles, but she surely won the war. The reward was lying here in the bed with her, loving her with such fervor it was seeping from my pores. That wasn’t me being cocky or arrogant. I knew I was who and what she’d always wanted in a spouse because she’d said as much. So, yeah, I was her reward.

“I was moving on through life, pushing my trauma to the background, pretending I had healed. Your revelation forced me to deal with it. I almost lost, baby. I was almost defeated, but like Rocky Balboa, I came back with a vengeance. I refuse to lose in any way. Not having you would be losing. I don’t care about who you’re related to. You can’t help that. I’m falling in love with who you are.”

She opened her eyes and stared into mine. “I’m not falling, Harlem. That’s a lie.” She took a deep breath and lowered her head, causing my anxiety to kick up a notch. She looked back up at me and said, “I already love you. I’m in love with you, Harlem. I don’t ever want to be without you.”

I closed my eyes, feeling thankful her mind was willing to accept me for who I was. This was a mental battle for her, and she’d overcome it. I lowered my face to hers and kissed her softly, allowing my tongue to slowly invade her space. She was who I needed in my life, and I was glad I wouldn’t have to work as hard as I anticipated to convince her of that.

When I separated the kiss, I stared into her eyes and said, “I love you too, baby. Thank you for loving me.”

“No. Thank you for loving me . I can be a hard case. I gave you every reason to run in the opposite direction. I was so embarrassed.” She shook her head. “I pissed on you. That’s horrible.”

The tears left her eyes right after she said that. I gently wiped her cheeks with my thumbs. “Love is patient. Love is kind. It’s not envious or puffed up. It endures all things, baby. That’s the love I have for you. I ain’t going nowhere unless you snap and kill my ass. I’m not perfect, but I will always strive for perfection when it concerns you. My intentions will always be pure. Everything I do will be to show you how much you mean to me… how much I love you. I’m gon’ always be right here, baby.”

I kissed her lips and whispered, “Right here.”

She hugged me around my neck, allowing me to feel just how open she was to our love. She was an angel in disguise, despite her trauma. She was right. God made her specifically for me, to love until the day after forever.

“Hey, you two!” Mrs. Joan said.

I walked in, holding Yunique close to me. She wasn’t feeling too well today. She was trying to get used to her new meds. She was extremely fatigued and had gained a few pounds. She’d been out of the psychiatric hospital for a week and was all moved in. When she told me what she wanted, I got her keys from her and got busy. I had help from Vegas and Jungle, plus we hired a moving company.

I’d sent pictures to her so she could let me know what furniture she wanted to put in storage. I had two empty bedrooms and an office space at my place that I’d never gotten furniture for. She only ended up putting her living room furniture and some of her dishes in storage. Everything else made its way to my house… our house.

I worked day and night, organizing her things. Keondra and Sasha helped a lot with that. They told me how organized Yunique liked to be, so I let them handle most of it, especially organizing her clothes. Yunique had enough clothes to fill a small boutique. Some of her things had to be put in a guestroom closet. I didn’t even try to figure out how Keke and Sasha decided which clothes would go in the other closet. I was organized, but that was way too detailed for me. I was just happy they’d gotten it done.

The house was now fully furnished, and when Yunique got there, I changed out some of the curtains. She refused to say what she wanted unless I asked. She thought she was a burden because she wasn’t feeling well. I had to remind her that I promised to be here through sickness and health. She wasn’t a burden. I was just happy that we were still together.

We were at Arranged Hearts for our thirty-day evaluation. Although Yunique wasn’t feeling well, she didn’t want to miss our appointment. It seemed since this incident, she was an open book, willing to share her struggles with anyone who wanted to listen. I loved that she was getting it out of her system.

Mrs. Joan’s smile dimmed as we made our way into her office. She was watching Yunique carefully. When Kerri joined us, she looked just as concerned. After Yunique sat, I made sure she was comfortable, then I sat next to her and wrapped my arm around her then kissed the side of her head.

Mrs. Joan finally said, “We could have rescheduled the visit if you weren’t feeling well, Mrs. Moore.”

Hearing someone call Yunique Mrs. Moore made my heart swell. We hadn’t talked about her officially taking my last name though. I didn’t want to ask after everything she’d been through. She gave Mrs. Joan a slight smile. “It’s okay. I didn’t want to miss informing you on how right you actually got this.”

I smiled as Mrs. Joan and Kerri sat across from us with huge smiles on their faces. “Well, do tell, Missus Yunique!” Kerri said with a snap of her fingers.

I chuckled at her excitement. Yunique looked up at me, so I started first. “Well, we’d already met prior to the wedding. She’s my dentist. I flirted, and she shut me down.”

The ladies’ eyes were wide as laughter escaped them. I continued. “We met again at a club. We are both from Houston. I’m cool with her sister’s husband. Our families umm…”

As I thought about how I wanted to say it, Yunique took over. “Kerri, you remember when you said I was wanting to be free, but something was holding me back?”

“Yes.”

“You were absolutely right. The trauma I went through as a child was still buried deep within me. It was because I walked in on a man my dad trusted, molesting my baby sister. That man was his father.”

Their hands flew to their mouths. To offer some clarification, I said, “I didn’t know about that until after our last interaction at a club. She had already been matched. There was no need in revealing that to her since that would most likely be my last time seeing her outside of the dentist office.”

“Surprise,” Yunique said as the women looked on sympathetically.

It seemed they didn’t know what to say. Yunique revealed the rest of the story, how it affected her when I revealed it to her and how she was able to heal from it and accept I was the man she was supposed to do life with. I also added the details about my relationship with Mo or rather the lack thereof. When we were done, they both clapped. I frowned slightly as Yunique chuckled.

“Yunique, I’m so proud of you. You’d told me there was some childhood trauma there. The fact that you were able to work through it and accept Harlem as the man God meant for you to love is progress like you wouldn’t believe. Harlem, I applaud you for being the man she needed throughout all of this. I’m more than sure you made the decision to stay with you easier, simply because of the man you had been to her in such a short amount of time,” Kerri said.

“So the other man backing out was a blessing in disguise,” Mrs. Joan added.

“Hell yeah,” I said. “I wanted her before I knew her. I went to her office because of the picture I saw of her online. There was no way I wanted to let this dark chocolate goddess walk away from me.”

Mrs. Joan laughed. “I remember you saying how much you loved dark complexioned women. I’m so glad this worked out for y’all, baby. Your story is one of triumph and agape love. For you two to feel that strongly about one another only thirty days after the wedding proves that this was meant to be. I’m so happy Arranged Hearts had a hand in it, although we felt bad about the first matching falling through, Yunique.”

“I thought I felt bad too. However, the minute you called saying you had another match for me, my excitement about it caused me to forget all about him. I’m so grateful he backed out, because we probably would have screwed that success rate all the way up. My heart was meant to love Harlem. Trying to love anyone else wouldn’t have been easy, especially once I would have seen Harlem again in four months for his cleaning.”

They chuckled. “Well, we won’t keep you. You need to get back home and get some rest. Hopefully, your body gets used to those new anxiety meds soon.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Yunique said as I helped her from her seat.

Both came to Yunique and hugged her tightly, then hugged me. After taking a picture, we left the office, my arm wrapped around her. Once we got to the car, I helped her inside, then walked around to the driver’s side. I opened the door and slid into my seat then started the engine. “Baby, do you want something to eat?”

“No. I’ll just do soup. My stomach is feeling queasy.”

“Okay. Well, I’ll eat soup too. Do you want me to stop at Jason’s Deli or somewhere else to get soup? You gotta be tired of that canned shit, right?”

She chuckled. “A little bit. That’s fine, Harlem.”

I leaned over and kissed her head, then headed to Jason’s Deli since it was right down the street. When I got there, I glanced over at Yunique to see she didn’t look so good. I quickly got out and ran to her side to open the door. I hopped out of the way, and she leaned over and puked her guts out. Because of how she’d been feeling, I’d prepared for something like this to happen. I went to the back and got a towel and bottle of water for her.

When I got back to her, she was crying. “I just wanna stop taking that shit. It’s not helping with anything, because I’m becoming depressed with how sick I am.”

“Call Doctor King and let her know. Maybe she’ll tell you to discontinue it.”

She nodded. “You’re right. I’m gonna call while you’re inside. Thanks, baby.”

“Of course.”

I closed her door, being sure not to step in that throw up, although it was only liquid, and headed inside to get her some chicken noodle soup and the potato soup for me. As long as she was eating soup, that was what I ate when I was around her. I refused to eat anything else in front of her. When I went to the carwash to wash my SUV, I hit up IHOP. A nigga was starving.

I couldn’t wait until she was feeling better so I could take her out on the town. The two trucks I’d purchased were doing extremely well. This month alone, they added ten grand to our profits. I’d also amended the paperwork for the business, adding Harlan’s name to it. He was doing most of the work, but the financial investment was coming from me. My baby deserved to be catered to, not to mention made love to.

Shit! What if she was pregnant? She thought it was the medicine, but I’d been shooting the fucking club up for the past month. A wide smile spread across my face. While I had only graced her insides once since she’d been home, if a test revealed she was pregnant, I was going to slide into her soon after. I was willing to bet her sick feeling would dissipate with a positive pregnancy test.

After getting our soup, I headed back to the vehicle with a smile on my face. I was about to be a father. I just had that damn feeling. When I got in, I smiled at her. “Doctor King said I could discontinue it.”

“Good, baby. Just, if you’re feeling like you can’t deal with something, know that I’m here for you. I will help you through anything.”

“I know you will. I love you, baby.”

“I love you too.”

I smiled as I headed to the convenience store.