Page 44 of Embrace

I took a thorough shower and made sure all of the oil and dirt from the day was washed off my body. The entire duration of my shower, I thought of every way tonight could go. It reminded me of how women had a script for every conversation. I tried to guess how Suvi would bring up today’s event. If I could gauge her potential argument and have a response or two waiting, I’d be able to avoid any real damage.

“You leave me any?” I teased as I joined Suvi at the dining room table. She had a show playing on her laptop while she ate her wings and pizza in peace. Then I came and disrupted all of that.

“Yeah.”

I grabbed a paper plate and tossed three slices of pizza and eight wings onto it before I sat beside her. I ate silently and tuned into the reality show she watched. Suvi loved cooking competitions. She said one day she’d go on one of the shows just to get a chance to meet Gordon Ramsey or Bobby Flay. We’d visited a couple of restaurants mentioned on the shows. We loved Tiffany Derry’s soul food spot in Farmers Branch, Texas.

We went through the whole meal before she finally spoke up. As she wiped the grease from the crispy fried lemon pepper wings, she looked at me with a frown. “You need to get your old bitches in line because we don’t need this fucking drama when what we have is still so new. I don’t want to keep seeing your past flings out and about.”

“Su, you have to understand I didn’t know Brielle was gon’ pull some shit like that.”

“I know, Blaze.” She sighed. “I’ve never been an insecure woman. I’ve always known I was comparable to other women, but I’m not about to keep going through the same shit with a different bitch every other fucking week.”

Suvi’s vulgar words had increased by at least ten. She was pissed, and rightfully so.

“You are right, bae. You shouldn’t have to look over your shoulder with the threat of an ex looming around every corner. When we get our official images back from the photographer, we can put a video together and post them on all socials.”

“Fuck that. We can make some shit with the stuff from the honeymoon,” Suvi demanded.

I laughed. “Fa sho. Once I’m done eating, we can go lay down and pick the best ones to post.”

“If you are really serious we can pick them now while you’re eating. There’s no sense in prolonging shit when we could get it all created at the dinner table,” she replied. Her tone was lighter than before.

I smiled. “Come on.”

She grinned. “Yay!” She stood from her chair and cleaned up the trash. She threw away her plate and broke down the empty pizza box. There weren’t any more wings left, so she tossed the container into the trash as well. She wiped the table around me and then closed out the show she was watching. When she sat back down at the table, we locked in on the arrangement of pictures from our vacation.

“You’re a really great photographer,” I complimented my wife. The images were breathtaking. Most of them were in selfie mode so she could capture us both in the moment, but some of the abstract and scenery shots had me speechless.

“Thanks, baby.”

We flipped through pictures and videos. We picked our favorite five images and three videos, and Suvi went to work her graphic designer magic to create a collage of our honeymoon. She added music and effects. Then we watched the final product. I damn near got teary eyed watching it.

“It’s going to go viral, fa sho,” I stated.

“I’m not trying to go viral. I’m trying to make sure all your past bitches know they better move the fuck on,” Suvi stated.

“I like when you get all territorial, baby.” I licked the sauce off my fingers and wiped my hands with a napkin. I gulped down my wine in seconds. Then I grabbed my unopened bottle of water and chugged it under a minute.

“Damn. Thirsty ass.”

“You gon’ win biggest hater of the year,” I announced.

“It’ll be well deserved,” Suvi replied.

I shook my head and chuckled. “I love you, girl.”

“I love you too, loser.”

HOUSE HUNTING

“Today feels like such a waste,” I complained.

“Why do you say that?” Blaze asked as he glanced at me before putting his attention back on the road.

“The two houses we’ve seen so far werenotit. They were decent homes, but I know you saw those dead roaches ducked off in the fucking corners ofeverydamn room in the first house. The second house was okay… But then when you get to the backyard there was just a patch of dead grass, and the rest was dirt and mud. Nobody wants an ugly backyard like that. You can’t set up anything in a backyard covered in dirt.”

Blaze guffawed. “Bae, you know grass can be planted and homes can be fumigated.”

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