Epilogue
ONE YEAR LATER
Amina Black
“You see daddy, Koa? Look at daddy,” I cooed to my baby boy, holding his little body in my arms, as we sat across the room inside of Gemini’s warehouse, watching him as he spoke with some of his employees.
Our son, Koa was three months old, and God he was so alert. We went with the name Koa for our baby boy because of its meaning. Koa stood for bravery, warrior, and someone that was fearless. Those were all the traits that we wanted our black son to have as he found his place in this world.
I’d just finished nursing Koa, waiting for the moment that he would doze off, but every time he heard his father’s voice, he kept moving those beautiful brown eyes around, as if he was trying to find him.
I knew he was looking for his daddy, and that’s why I switched the way that I held him, having him face forward. I used my finger to show him Gemini.
The second his eyes landed on his father, I could hear him letting out little coos.
As much of a mama’s boy that Koa was, he was a daddy’s boy too.
He loved himself some Gemini, and just like I always wanted to be in my husband’s skin, our son was the same way.
That’s because the father that Gemini told me he would be is the father that he ended up becoming.
Gemini made sure that our son knew who he was from the very beginning.
Throughout my pregnancy, Gemini would always raise my shirt, put his lips against my belly, so that he could talk to him.
Once Koa made his entrance three months ago, Gemini has never left his side.
I just remember all the things that Gemini told me he would do once he became a father.
He promised me that he wouldn’t get back on the road for months at a time like he used to.
He would always tell me that he wouldn’t let me go through my pregnancy alone, neither would he let me raise our child alone.
Whew, those weren’t just words. He put actions behind those words.
Immediately, once we were settled in Miami, he started moving his feet, saying that my nine-month pregnancy was going to go by fast, so he wanted to get everything in order.
Gemini purchased a warehouse. He needed the warehouse because he was getting ready to expand his business, hire employees, and have them go out on the road, just like he said he would.
Once he had the warehouse, he didn’t hire an outside architect to come up with the floor plan.
He came to his wife, and I gladly took over that part for him.
For the first time, my man got to see me in action.
He got to watch me work, come up with blueprints, and talk to him about the vision that I had.
So, this beautiful warehouse that we were all in, I designed it. It was perfectly designed to be able to store all the trucks. Being on that truck with him for two months, I knew the things that a warehouse like this needed, so I made sure to incorporate it.
The work for me didn’t stop there though. Even though I was pregnant at the time, and Gemini and I were settling in Miami as newlyweds, I felt like I sat down on that truck long enough and it was time for me to work again.
While I’ll forever cherish everything that happened on that truck, and sitting down for two months was lovely, I’ve never been the kind of woman to sit still. I had to move around, and work in my career field because I actually love what I do.
It was easy for me to get a job once we settled in.
Yes, my father’s legacy did help to open a lot of doors for me in the architectural design business in Miami, but that wasn’t the only thing that got me into those big rooms. It was my education, my experience, and the portfolio that I had that put me into these big rooms.
Within a matter of two weeks, I accepted a big position, working with one of the biggest architectural firms in Miami.
I only worked for the first eight months of my pregnancy, but within those eight months, I brought so much to the company.
I came up with the design for a luxury hotel out in Brickell. That design was sick.
I go through so many days of my life, craving to have my father here with me. When that design finished, that’s when I really craved his presence because I just knew that he would have been in awe of what his baby girl had come up with.
I’m currently on maternity leave. Even though I was only with the new firm for eight months before giving birth, I’d already earned their trust. My work spoke for itself.
What I designed for Brickell was something that the city of Miami has never seen before.
I’d already let the team know that the plan was to have a year of maternity leave with my son, and I didn’t receive a single objection.
They knew that I was a beast at what I did, and what I could bring to the company, so they told me to take my time, and they would be ready for me once I came back.
I had to have this year with my son before jumping back into work.
When my mom found out that I was pregnant, she shared some of the regrets she had in motherhood, and how she didn’t want me to live with those same regrets.
She didn’t take off an entire year after she had me.
Her and my father had very demanding careers, so at three months, I was already in daycare, and she was back to work.
That conversation stuck out to me, and that’s why I made the decision to stay home with my son for a year.
I put my head down to look at Koa, and his little butt was still up. His eyes were still looking across the room, glaring at his daddy.
This little boy was so beautiful. My genes didn’t put up an ounce of fight because he looked as if Gemini spit him out.
I mean, everything about him was his father.
His skin was chocolatey just like ours. He had his father’s fine hair, but his hair was curly.
He was such a chill baby too, just like his dad.
Koa rarely cried. He wasn’t the kind of baby to have us up in the wee hours of the morning either because he’s always slept through the night.
He sat before me in a cute denim overall, with a white shirt underneath, and little booties on his feet.
As we were sitting here, Gemini wrapped up his conversation and walked over to us. Koa started cooing even more, once he saw that his daddy was coming over. Hell, I wanted to start cooing too. Gemini got finer by the day.
He was dressed in a black polo shirt with his company’s logo on the upper left side.
He wore black jeans, that fit him perfectly.
Sporting a fresh pair of Jordan 11’s, as he approached us, I got a whiff of his cologne.
Gemini always smelled so good. His beard looked so nice, and well groomed, just like it always did.
If there was a competition when it came to hair waves, he would forever be in 1st place.
No one was seeing my baby in the waves department.
“What’s up daddy man?” Gemini asked, reaching his hands out, so that he could grab our son.
He took him, kissed his cheek, and then leaned over, so that he could kiss me on my lips.
“He’s been staring you down since you’ve been over there. If he could talk, he would have told you to come back,” I let Gemini know, as I stood up.
I knew we were getting ready to leave. These days, our days consisted of being in the house with the baby.
Gemini was on maternity leave with me in a sense.
He would only leave for a few hours out of the day, so that he could come out to the warehouse, and micromanage.
Most of his drivers were about to get on the road, and that’s why he came down today to talk with them.
Those long, month drives that he used to go on, they were getting ready to do have a turn.
“Let’s stop and eat before we go back to the house,” Gemini said to me, walking up behind me, and pressing the front of his body against the back of mine.
I was picking up the diaper bag that was sitting in the other chair when he did that. I turned my head around to look at him, and just that fast, Koa had already fallen asleep on his father’s chest. That’s what he was waiting on anyways. He wanted his father to come over before he fell asleep.
“You had me take out ground beef. I thought you wanted tacos tonight,” I said.
“I still want that tonight. Baby, we talking about right now. Look at me. I gotta eat,” he said, wrapping his arm around my waist. This man was going to eat us out of a home. Our home. The home that we closed on when I was five months pregnant.
Gemini did have a nice condo once we made it off the truck and that’s where we lived, while we shopped for a place.
Our place was beautiful. We purchased a nice home out in Southwest Ranches.
What we shared in that house together, the memories that we were creating, the way that we loved our son…
all those things were exactly how I imagined my marriage to look like.
It reminded me so much of my parents, and their love.
The way we were both so consistent with our love for each other.
The nonstop laughter throughout the house.
The way we would sit at the table for dinner as a family.
That’s what I saw growing up, and I was glad that we were able to give the same thing to our son.
I wouldn’t say that London was a thing of the past because it wasn’t.
My mom is still there, so London would always be a place that I go back to.
I visited my mom a few times in my pregnancy, and she came to Miami even more.
She was just here. She flew back a couple of days ago.
She’s been in Miami since I hit my 9-month mark in my pregnancy.
She took a leave of absence, so that she could be here with me.
She didn’t play about being here with me while I went through my first few months of motherhood.
I cried like a baby when she flew back, but I’m fine now.
We talked every day and I was always updating her with pictures, and videos of Koa.
She was all that I had left in London. I promise, I don’t even think about Jacob.
When friends from London called or texted me to check up on me, they knew not to even bring him up because I didn’t want to talk about him or hear anything that he had going on.
I can’t tell you if him, and his girlfriend are still together because I don’t know, and I don’t care.
Whatever the two of them are doing… I guess I wish them well.
Gianna and I see each other just about every day.
She makes it her business to come over to the house and see her nephew every day.
Gemini’s parents were the same way. Everyone was in love with baby Koa.
Even Gemini’s grandmother has flown down quite a few times, so that she could soak up the love from baby Koa.
I grabbed the diaper bag and turned around to look at Gemini.
He stood there, holding onto Koa, and even though Koa was sleeping peacefully, Gemini still had his hand on his back, rubbing it in a circular motion.
I couldn’t help but stare as I watched the two of them. My stare caused Gemini to smile.
“What happened baby?” he asked me.
“Nothing. My heart is just full. I’m happy. Just looking at my husband, and our son,” I told him.
He smiled when I said that, and then stepped closer to me, so he could kiss me on the lips.
“I’m happy too, baby. I’m rich. I’m not even talking money right now. I got a beautiful wife. A handsome, healthy son. I have peace. A nice home. A business. I’m rich, baby. The richest that I’ve ever been,” he ended it with that.
I knew exactly what he meant without him having to explain it to me. I smiled at that, and grabbed his arms, so that we could head out.
This was it. This was our story.
As I walked away with my husband, and our son, I just knew that little Amina, who believed in fairytales, and happily ever after’s was so happy right now. The happy ending that she always talked about with Gianna had finally found her.