Page 17 of Free to Love You
“Wait!” He glared at me for a moment. “So, you can be alone with men? You just didn’t want to be alone with me.”
He caught me in a little white lie.“Well, it is frowned upon that we be with a man behind closed doors. I didn’t lie about that. You make me nervous.” I mumbled the last part.
“Would you believe me if I told you that you make a nigga nervous too?” His brow lifted in the most seductive way. When I asked him why I made him nervous, he tittered. “I like you, want you, and the reality is that you may not feel the same. You’re a different kind of female. All the things that would be impressive to most women, you don’t care about.”
I nodded. “It’s not that I’m not impressed. Your accomplishments are amazing. I just know that I have my own goals that are not connected to anyone else’s but my own. I’ll support the goals of whoever I’m in a relationship with. I just know that I want to reach my own goals as well. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah, it does. I like that shit. You’re focused on you, but still supportive. I respect that,” he told me.
We talked about things in my culture as well as his. We talked about his past, which was shocking and interesting. I never wanted to assume that he used to be in the streets because of his looks. He was a doctor, so that spoke a lot for him. He was not the type of man that I ever thought would be attracted to me or that I would be attracted to.
He asked me how I felt about the change within myself. “It’s refreshing, but scary. I’m thirty, so most people would think that I was set in my ways. The thing is that they were all pushed on me. With that, can I really say they were my ways? I want to make sure that the decisions I choose for my life are truly mine. With that, it feels like I’m starting my life over.”
“That’s understandable. It sounds like your free will was taken from you and you thought that was right. Now that you’re not in that environment, you realize you can make your own decisions. I can only hope that one of the decisions you make is to be mine.” His smile was so beautiful.
Earlier he had those diamond, gold teeth in his mouth. He took them out to put them in a retainer case when we started to eat. His teeth were even beautiful.
For the rest of the date, we talked about various topics. He made me smile. He made me feel things that I never felt before. I said I wanted to make choices that were mine.Now is the time to start.
A Little Time Later . . .
I had been on five dates with Erygon. Each one was better than the other. For one of the dates, we took Ayriss to a trampoline park. It was so fun. She was such an inquisitive little girl. She had a thousand questions about our relationship status while we ate pizza. Her father told her that we weren’t in a relationship yet but very close to being in one. I agreed.
It had been almost two weeks since I started school. I understood everything but math. Math had never been my strong suit even way back when. Now my thirty-year-old mind was lost. The way math was done now was completely different from what I learned. It had been an hour and a half since I started this math homework and I had only finished six of twenty questions. This made me understand why people cursed.
Knock! Knock! Knock!I already knew who it was. I told Erygon to come in. He started his new position at O’Brian Surgical Center. It seemed like a perfect fit for him because he had more time to spend with Ayriss and me.
“What’s up, Love? What got my baby lookin’ so stressed? I’on like that,” he said before he came over, kissed my cheek, then sat down.
Every time his lips touched my skin, I couldn’t help blushing. We hadn’t kissed, kissed yet, but I felt like it was coming. We got closer every day.
“I don’t understand this math. I can’t fail this class,” I whined. I blew my frustration out.
Erygon sucked his teeth. “Love, it’s only been a little over a week. The class is eight weeks. Plus, my mama told me you was struggling a few days ago. Didn’t I tell you to let me know so that I could help you?”
He did tell me that. “Yes, you did. I just figured that you had better things?—"
“Don’t play with me, Love. I will always make time for you and my daughter.” His stare was intense. “Give me that damn paper so we can work through this together.”
I laughed at his clear annoyance. We finished my homework just in time for Ms. Beauvia to call us down for dinner. I went to school in the afternoon into the evening three days a week. Once again, I told Ms. Beauvia that I would take an Uber, but she refused. She took me and picked me up if Erygon couldn’t because of a surgery.
“Let’s get down here for dinner before Mama come up here and ack a donkey,” he said with a chuckle. I knew he was serious. His mother was a little off her rockers.
My apartment had a door with a privacy lock that led to Ms. Beauvia’s house. It had a lock on her side, and on my side, it had an extra lock that I controlled. The staircase led into the hallway.
I led the way into the dining room. My feet stopped when I entered. Ms. Beauvia, Beyuna, Ayriss, Benyon, and their father, Beaunir, who I’ve met a handful of times, all stood there with wide smiles on their faces. Beyuna didn’t tell me that she was here, and I talked to her earlier today. My eyes widened before I spun on my heels to face Erygon. “What is this?”
“You see it, Love. I figured since you’ve never had anyone ask you to be their woman that I would pull out all the stops. I want to make memories with you to show you how you deserve to be treated.” He pulled me into his arms. When his lips touched mine, my soul left my body, taking all my fear with it, then returned with only joy. “So, what do you say?”
“Say yes, Love! Say yes,” Ayriss demanded with jumps of excitement.
I gazed around the room again. There were flowers and balloons everywhere. On the back wall there were balloons that spelled outWill you be mine, Love?When he told me that he wanted to be with me, I assumed that we would just slide intoa relationship. I had no idea that he would turn it into such a beautiful girlfriend proposal. I’ve seen these on TikTok and thought they were the most heartfelt thing. Now, I was the girl that got to get this treatment.
“Yes, Erygon, I will be your girlfriend,” I replied with excitement. Wow, I had a boyfriend now. The chapters in my life were getting interesting.
Some Time Later. . .
“I knew hiring you would be the best thing for my business and patients. You have done amazing in the short time that you’ve been here,” Croy praised. “I heard the hospital tried to get you back.”
