“I am sorry you feel that way, but you are not staying here. You are not working at a diner and shacking up with a man who has no plans of marrying you?—”
“You don’t know what kind of plans I have,” Ramel interrupted my daddy mid-sentence. “Matter of fact, there’s a little too much base in your voice while you’re standing in a place I pay the mortgage on. Gina, say goodbye to your parents. I can’t say it was nice meeting you.”
Ramel’s words were final as he excused himself from the living room and didn’t return. I did exactly as I was told andescorted both of them out. I would have a real conversation with my parents at some point, but ambushing me at someone else’s house wasn’t the way to start it off. Besides, if we were going to speak, it was going to be on my terms.
“And that’s a wrap,”Ramel said as we put the finishing touches on the last song that was going on my demo.
We’d been working nonstop on getting it complete, and now that we were at the finish line, I didn’t know how to feel. The project that initially had us spending all our time together was now done.
“I can’t believe we’re finally done,” I said as Ramel picked me up and twirled me around. “I’ve been dreaming about this day all my life, and now that it’s here, I don’t know what to do.”
“We about to send it out. That’s what we’re going to do. What you mean?”
“You’re right, but in the meantime, I am going to take some of my things back to Ms. Nadine’s.”
I dropped my head for a second before throwing my arms around Ramel to bring him in for another hug and kiss. I wouldn’t be there much longer, because now that the demo was done, I wanted to give him his space back. Not only had I spent most nights at his, working, but my things were also all over his place.
“About that. Since your parents left the other night, I’ve been thinking. Why don’t you just stay here with me? I know you want your independence and all. And if that’s what you want, then I’ll help you find an apartment. I’ll even pay the rent, but I don’t want you going back to your boss’s. If you’re not staying with me,I want you to be in your own crib. I want you to be comfortable and not feel like a burden to anybody.”
“Are you serious?”
“I am. I won’t give your pops too much credit, but I feel the same way about you staying at the diner. Why you think I haven’t let you go back since?”
“Here I am, thinking it was all about finishing the demo.” We both laughed. “I spend so much time here. I already feel like this is home.”
“I’m glad this feels like home. I really want this to be your home.”
“I’ve been what feels like alone my whole life, and most of my life, I’ve been longing to have somebody by my side, somebody who wants to be and doesn’t mind being around me. Someone I’m not an inconvenience to.”
“You can never inconvenience me. I love having you here, and I love waking up and looking at your face every day, so if you want to, you can stay here for the rest of your life.”
“I like the sound of the rest of my life.”
“I’m glad to hear that because I don’t want you to go anywhere. I know the life I’m building with you is what I want. I’ve never been in a real relationship before. I never had a girl that I wanted to call my girlfriend, let alone my wife. But I can see that with you. I can see my whole life in your eyes.”
“Oh my God, don’t make me cry,” she said, wiping fake tears from her eyes.
“I’m not trying to make you cry. I don’t ever want to see tears come out of your eyes.”
“Well, these will be happy tears because I’m so happy that I found you. Before I stumbled into that bar, I honestly didn’t know where my life would take me. I didn’t know what I would do or who I would be without the safety of my parents. I honestly didn’t even know if I could make it on my own. But just beinghere with you in this city, finding a job and working it on my own, working on this mixtape and finishing it, I know that I can accomplish everything that I set my mind to. And I honestly don’t know if I could have accomplished any of this without you by my side. I feel like you have been the strength that I needed to get through this season in my life. Without you, I don’t know where I would be.”
“I’m happy I could be there for you, but don’t give me that much credit, because you helped me through a storm myself. I wasn’t used to standing up to my parents. I wasn’t used to telling them no. I’ve always been a man who stood on my own two feet. But I always felt guilty about doing something different than what my parents wanted. But with you walking away from your family and saying, forget it, forget everything, just so that you can feel good with yourself? You gave me the strength to do the same thing. You let me know that it’s okay and that my parents can figure it out without me. I don’t need to be the one who figures things out for my family. It’s not my job to create a legacy for everyone that comes from my dad’s name. That’s his job. My job is to create a legacy for the people that’s going to come from me. So, if it’s something that my parents need to do, then it’s up to them to do it on their own terms. But for me, I need to do things on my own terms. And you taught me that.”
“I’m so happy that we could come together and learn from each other. I feel like that’s what every relationship should be about. It should be about growing together and learning from each other. And I feel like I can always learn something from you. And I appreciate everything you do for me.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Ramel
Two days had passed since Gina and I uploaded a lyric video of one of the songs from her demo, and it had already garnered over a million views. There had been too many TikToks and IG reels made in her honor to count. It was safe to say the one song we leaked was a bona fide hit, and Gina was on her way to being just as big as the two people who gave her life.
“My mother called this morning.” There wasn’t any excitement in Gina’s voice when she said it, but I knew she was happy about it. We hadn’t heard much from either of her parents since I politely asked them to leave my crib, and I didn’t feel sorry about it either. The way they were talking to my girl was way too reckless for me to stand for.
