Page 25 of Tell Me You Love Me Again

“Mr. Hastings. I’m glad you stopped by,” he greeted with his hand outreached toward me.

“Yeah. I got your call, so I came to see what was up. It’s looking good in here.”

“Thank you, sir. I was calling to let you know you can get your inspector out here and start your move in process. After me and my crew heard what happened to your wife, we made sure to get this job completed for her. We put in the extra time at no extra cost to you, and your wife’s dream home is now ready to move in.” That was the best news that I could hear all day. It was good seeing all my hard work paying off. Hopefully Chiara would now understand why I was working so hard.

“I really appreciate it, man. You don’t know how much this means to me. For your extra effort, you and your crew can look for a little something extra.” He thanked me and headed out back. Just as I was about to head upstairs, I heard my name being called.

“Gabe!” I turned and went to meet Chiquita. I knew she was wondering what was going on, but she would find out in a minute.

“Gabe, what’s going on? Whose house is this?” she asked, still looking around.

“Chiara’s,” I mentioned. I watched her face go from confusion to shock in a matter of seconds.

“You did this?” she almost croaked out.

“I did. This was the reason I was working so much. I had the money, but I wanted to replace it. This was supposed to be her Christmas surprise,” I revealed.

“Wow,” she uttered. “I-I don’t even know what to say. She called me this morning and told me about the truck. I wasn’t expecting you to call me about a house.” I watched as she walked around in amazement.

“I know y’all thought I was on bullshit, but I’d leave this fuckin’ Earth before I do something to intentionally hurt Chi. All I ask is that you don’t tell her and help me put the basic furniture in here.” She was standing before me, crying like I just gave her the damn house.

“She’s going to love it. I know she was giving you a hard time, but I hope you don’t hold it against her forever. She really does love you, Gabe.”

“I know she does. It took her having that accident for me to realize that time was precious. I can still be a provider and make time for my wife. I’m definitely going to work on that going forward.” She gave me a soft smile before hugging me.

“Come on and give me a tour so I can go meet your spoiled wife.” Looping her arm into mine, I gave her a tour of the five bedroom, six bath house. I went all out and had a home office, man cave, and library room added. Outside was decked out with an in-ground heated pool and a basketball court. I got every amenity I could think of so that she wouldn’t have a reason to complain. Hopefully, when she saw it, she’d see what depths I would go through just to see her happy.

Chiara

A week later

Today was the appointment I had with my primary doctor for my follow-up. I was anxious to see if they could tell me a little more about my amnesia, since the doctor at the hospital only gave me the bare minimum. I had a few memories come back to me, mostly things I was familiar with around the house, or certain things that Gabe said. I still don’t remember much about the accident, but I’m starting to think it’s for the best.

Speaking of Gabe, he’s been the perfect husband. At first I thought he was putting on an act, but his actions seemed so genuine that I quickly pushed that thought out of my head. When he left the house, he made sure he told me he loved me. If we were out, he was the perfect gentleman. And once a week,he gave me a fresh bouquet of yellow roses. I couldn’t be happier with this man than I was now. If the memories that I suppressed are half as good as the ones that we were currently making, then I couldn’t wait to finish this lifetime with him and enter into the next.

I was finally done getting ready for my appointment, so I went downstairs to look for Gabe. When I reached the bottom step, we almost ran into each other.

“I was just coming to see if you were almost ready,” he said, wrapping his muscular arm around my waist. Since we had sex last week, we couldn’t keep his hands off of me and I didn’t mind, not one bit.

“I was coming to tell you I was ready. You look nice,” I complimented. He had on a simple tan thermal with a pair of dark denim jeans with a pair of wheat Timbs on his feet. His line up was sharp and crispy and the diamonds in his ears did nothing compared to the simple Cuban Link on his neck. The crème de la crème was the gold grill that he wore on the bottom row of his teeth. When I first saw it, it threw me by surprise because he didn’t have it in when he came to the hospital. I mean, it fit into his persona. I just wasn’t expecting it.

“You keep looking at me like that and you gon’ be rescheduling.” He smirked.

“Don’t tempt me, but you’re right. I got some questions for the doctor, so let’s go.” I grabbed my purse off of the counter while Gabe waited for me by the door. Once he locked the house up, we were on our way.

We rode most of the ride in silence with our hands intertwined. Moments like these were priceless, and I cherished them. We had conversation here and there about the upcoming holidays. I told him if I didn’t get my full memory back soon, I’d prefer to spend the holidays with just us. He thought the opposite would be better, so we decided to just play it by ear.

Twenty minutes later, we were pulling up to the doctor’s office. Gabe let me out at the door so he could find a parking spot while I went inside to sign in. He walked in just as I was taking my seat, and he took the vacant one that was beside me.

“You good?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I simpered.

We sat in silence while we waited for my name to be called. Almost thirty minutes later, I was called to the back.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Hastings. I’m Nurse Tasha. I’ll check your vitals before the doctor gets in.” I nodded and sat at the end of the exam table while she took my blood pressure and temperature. As she wrote a few things down, Gabe was busy on his phone.

“Work?” I asked, breaking him from the trance that he was in.

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