Chapter 18 Ketai
“Shirley, could you come here, please?” I yelled out once I was dressed.
Looking myself over in the mirror once again, I couldn’t help but laugh.
This shit was lame as hell, but for my baby, there was nothing too cheesy.
I held my breath when I heard the light thud of her racing toward our bedroom.
She appeared in the doorway but paused when the soft hooting of birds could be heard because I’d played the music on cue.
As the beat began to build, I slowly danced my way into the room. She cupped her hands over her mouth as she cracked up at my performance. I motioned for her to come closer, where there were some gifts for her, but more importantly, there was a card to help it all make sense.
“Baby, what is all of this? Why are you dressed like a macaw?” She walked closer and picked at the feathers of my costume.
I smacked her hand away, and she hissed with a giggle. Picking up the card, I handed it to her. “It’s all a part of the experience. Read it out loud.”
She could barely contain her excitement as she savagely ripped open the envelope to get to the card inside.
“I know traveling is your love language, and loving you is all I want to spend my life doing, so I booked us a trip to kick off a year of going anywhere your heart desires. Look at me, and let’s see if you can guess where we’re going first.”
Her head popped up, and I could see the puzzle pieces clicking together in her mind. She shrieked happily. “Babe, are you serious? We’re going to Rio?”
I took her hand and kissed the back of it. “Yes, baby, we are.”
Rio was one of Free’s favorite Disney movies.
She had me watch it so many times that I knew songs from the soundtrack.
She was constantly showing me TikToks to the point I knew I had to take her there.
Since we decided to elope, I promised Free the honeymoon of her dreams. She was a girl who loved to explore and see the world.
An all-expenses-paid vacation was always going to be the key to making her smile.
I nearly fell when Free hopped on me, wrapping her legs around my waist. Her screaming was the best reward. “I fucking love you, Stanley! Nobody doing it better than you, baby. I promise.”
I smirked, looking up into her beautiful face. “Say that shit again, bae. I’on think they heard you.”
Free dragged me down the lively streets of Rio like I was a dog on a leash. I didn’t mind it, but I knew it had to be a funny image to see. I was twice her size, yet she was handling me as though it was the other way around. Turn here, cross the street here, and guess what? I didn’t miss a step.
We’d only been in the city for a couple of hours. As soon as we checked into our hotel, Free made us get ready to hit the streets. I thought she would want to get some food first, but no . . . Adventure was the first thing on her mind.
Somehow, I’d let this woman talk me into paragliding across the city.
Well, my dick at the back of her throat was how she convinced me, and like a fool, I fell for it.
I was going back and forth on following through with our bet, but I couldn’t let her get the best of me.
It wouldn’t be too bad, right? I prayed it was over quickly because I was going to keep my eyes closed the entire time.
When we made it to the check-in point, my heart started racing fast. We were at the top of a mountain, where there was this slope we would have to go down to take off. I kept it together all the way up until the instructor told me to begin walking forward. I shook my head and tried to back up.
“Hell nah. I can’t do this,” I admitted.
Free had already taken off with her instructor, so he asked, “Are you going to leave your wife down there all alone on the beach? Come on. You can do this. You’ll be okay once we get into the air.”
I really wanted him to take this harness off me and set me loose, but he was adamant about making me do this.
I started to wonder if Free paid him to talk me off the ledge or something.
Closing my eyes, I took an unsteady step forward, then another until there was nothing left.
I screamed like a little bitch when I realized we were up in the air.
The instructor forced me to lift my head then told me to open my eyes. I peeked one open, saw nothing but green, and pretty much fainted. I couldn’t remember shit else after that. The wind was so powerful that I couldn’t even holler anymore.
“We’re almost at the beach!” he eventually yelled out, and I immediately locked in on the sand charging toward us.
I sighed in relief when we made it on the ground.
Falling to my knees, I gave God praise for seeing me through.
I was never letting Free talk me into anything else for the experience, because there was nothing pleasant about being a limp noodle thousands of feet in the air over a jungle that probably had lions and shit prowling in it.
Free ran over to me with a huge smile on her face, but it fell when she saw the mug on mine. “You hated it?”
“I’m pretty sure I died up there. You should be thanking God you’re even having a conversation with me right now.”
She slapped a hand over her mouth, then nodded innocently. “Well, thank you, God,” she teased before taking my hand in hers.
It took a minute for the instructor to get the gear off me, but once I was set free, we began walking down the beach.
There were vendors waving us down, selling any and everything you could imagine.
I ended up purchasing an anklet, a ring, and a hat for Free by the time we made it to the main street.
“I’m hungry,” Free told me.
I nodded. “You wanna get something from around here?”
“Absolutely. Thought you’d never ask.”
“Greedy ass,” I mumbled, but I pretended that I hadn’t said anything when she glanced up at me.
“That’s what I thought.” She jumped at me with her fist balled up like she really scared somebody.
I mushed her head to the side. “Girl, gon’. Ain’t nobody scared of you.”
She giggled. “Nah, you’re just scared of heights.”
I stopped walking and frowned. “I already told you I’m not afraid of heights. I’m afraid of doing shit that could kill me. That was the last thrill you get out of me too. I swear, from now on, you’re doing all that shit alone.”
She stuck her bottom lip out in a pout. I shook my head and put my hand in front of her face to shield myself from falling victim to her pretty ass. “Not going to work. Leave me alone, actually.”
I began walking faster, forcing her to run to catch up to me because I started sprinting when she got closer. I stopped when I heard her yell out. When I turned around, I saw her sprawled out on the ground. Pivoting, I rushed back over to her. I bent down when I was close enough to help her up.
“Damn, Shirley. You good?” I joked while checking her over. I saw a little scrape on her knee that would need a bandage, but other than that, she looked fine to me.
She moaned dramatically with tears in her eyes. She whacked me on the arm. “You play too much. I think I twisted my ankle, it hurts,” she whined. I helped her up, and she winced. “I don’t think I can walk on it. You’re gonna have to carry me since you made me fall.”
My head jerked back. “Girl, how the hell I make you fall, and I was damn near a block ahead of you?”
“Because you were running away from me. You were going a little too hard too. You trying to run out of my life, Stanley?”
I scooped her up, causing her to yelp. “Shut that shit up. You know I would never do that. You stuck with me for life. I’m just not doing no more crazy shit with you. We good for everything else though.”
She tossed her arms around my neck and snuggled her face against my chest. “Oh, okay. Just making sure.”
I kissed her cheeks twice, then her lips once, lingering a little longer to savor the moment. “You never have to double-check on that.” Glancing up, I saw we were in front of an Italian place. “How does pizza sound, baby?”
She hugged me tighter. “Perfect, just like life with you.”
I smiled down at her, and my heart began to fill up with light.
My life was complete from the moment I laid eyes on this girl.
I didn’t know how much she would come to mean to me, but I knew she was special.
I knew I had to know who she was. I finally understood what her name meant.
It didn’t cost me a thing to give her my love, but it was the most rewarding exchange I’d ever made.
Because of her, I knew what true freedom was, and nothing would compare to doing life with this woman.
My woman. My heart. My Shirley. Even if it was only us left in the world, I knew we’d be alright.