Page 65 of Made to Love Ya

“I’m thinking that we need to skip dessert and head straight to the hotel. Shit, ain’t nobody else thinking about eating,” Jaylen mused.

“Hotel? Why can’t you just go home, nigga?” Tahj asked.

“Trying to be romantic with my baby tonight.”

“Do that shit at home and save ya coins.”

“Tahj, take your cheap ass home if that’s what you wanna do. I’m taking my baby to the hotel tonight,” Jaylen disputed.

Everyone laughed and Eve yawned and stood. “Well, I don’t know about you all, but Andrew and I are tired. We’re thinking about getting a head start on that hotel.”

Andrew stood and linked his fingers with Eve’s. “Thanks for the fun, great conversation, and even better food, everyone.”

“Thanks for coming out and chilling with us. We’ve gotta do this again soon,” Izael said with a head nod at Andrew.

We all stood, and the women exchanged hugs while the men dapped each other up. Izael and I were the last ones remaining.

“All that talk about hotels and shit has me missing you, baby,” Izael shared.

“I know. How much longer?”

“I think we can go to your place since it’s closer and spend the night together. Let’s try cuddling and see how well we do.”

I groaned. “You’re trying to torture me, baby.”

“Not at all. I just miss holding you in my arms. If you want to have sex, we can.”

“Are you getting horny too?”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed myself against his erection.

“Always, girl.”

“How about this? Let’s take a long walk after we get back to my place and then if we still want to have sex we can, but if not, we chill and cuddle for the night.”

“I like that idea, baby.”

We headed back to my place and did exactly what I suggested. After our long walk we were both exhausted. We showered and headed to bed and cuddled. I loved exploring a relationship on a mental level with this man and moving beyond the physical. Yes, our love would endure whatever came. I just knew that we were on the right road.

TALIA

THREE WEEKS LATER

I missed Izael.It wasn’t that we hadn’t been spending time together since he moved out three weeks ago. But I wanted to fall asleep in his arms at night and wake up to fix his breakfast in the morning.

He had taken me on a picnic at one of the waterfalls in Cherokee Springs, to a paint and sip, and to an escape room and then dinner. But it didn’t replace the feeling of seeing him walking into the kitchen naked to get something to drink, sitting on the couch bare chested while he watched a movie, or sleeping in my bed.

Although I’d been missing him all along, it slammed hard into my chest when I got a phone call two evenings ago from theBold Beautiful Black Girlmagazine inviting me for an interview. I wanted to run to his room and tell him about it, but he wasn’t there.

I picked up the phone to call him, but I only got his voicemail. I sent him a text to call me because his voicemail was full. I never heard back from him until yesterday. He apologized because he had missed my text and had several back-to-back meetings.

When he asked if everything was okay, I told him yes. I lied and said that I just wanted to hear his voice. We talked for about fifteen minutes before I heard him yawn and say that he needed to get to sleep because he had an early morning board meeting.

I felt so lonely and ached for him to be with me. Even on the nights when he had to get up super early the next day, he would crawl under me and rest his head in my lap on the couch or even in bed if I were sitting up and watching TV.

“I would love to hear more about your vision for this section of the magazine, Talia,” Asante Dillard, the owner of the magazine stated as Kenyatta Wilder, the magazine’s editor, bobbed her head.

I opened my iPad and showed them the sketches I created, the flowchart of ideas that I had, and finally, what I hoped the section would look like if I were the writer for that column.

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