I waved him off. “Let’s go put on something decent so we can go to your surprise.”
He shot me a crazed look. “Lovey, it’s damn near one in the morning.”
“Okay, and?”
“You’re crazy,” he replied.
“Bat shit crazy. Now c’mon.” I pulled him back inside where we threw some lounge clothes on and headed down to the parking garage. When I reached for the car keys, he pulled his hand back.
“You know I don’t want you driving right now.”
“Ahkeem, I’m fine. It won’t be much of a surprise if you drive.” I shot him my infamous puppy dog eyes and pout combo. He tried his hardest not to cave in but failed. He dropped the keys right into the palm of my hand before helping me into the car. He got in beside me, and we pulled out of the parking garage.
It was my first time driving since the accident, and I could admit my nerves were a little bad and I was a little shaky. For the sake of ensuring my husband had a great birthday, I pushed my feelings to the side and persevered. We drove listening to slow jams that I belted my lungs out while singing to serenade him. All he did was laugh and shake his head. His mother always weighed heavily on his mind whenever his birthday came around, so I tried my best to keep his spirits high.
Once he recognized the neighborhood we entered, he leaned up in his seat. “Lovey, the fuck we doing here?”
I turned into the driveway of his mother’s house. I had gotten it repainted and cleaned on the inside. I made it clear that we wanted everything to remain the same, but we just needed to tidy up the place and restore the electricity, cooling, and heating. It took a few weeks, especially since Ahkeem had his eyes on me like a damn hawk after the kidnapping, but I managed to get it done. It was my first time seeing everything in person too, and it looked so good.
“Surprise!” I motioned toward the house.
He took a minute, just shifting his eyes between me and the house. “Lovey…yo… you did all this?!” He excitedly hopped out the car.
I followed him as he rushed up the short steps of the home. “Yo, I ain’t been here in years. Last time I stopped by, it looked so fucked up. You even got the lawn cut? Lovey, I don’t even know what to say.”
The excitement in his eyes was enough for me to see that I made the right choice. I was a little hesitant because I knew how dear the home was to his heart and his mother. I feared that he would have thought I overstepped a boundary by doing this without consulting with him first. Luckily, that wasn’t the case.
“I didn’t want to ask you for the key, so I kinda made Mirsad break in and unlock the door. I replaced the window, though.”
He laughed before wrapping his arms around me and lifting me up from the ground. “Thank you, Lovey. I been pushing this shit off because of everything we had going on. Honestly, I ain’t know if I could handle seeing the house in a bad state too.”
I cupped my hands around his face. “It’s alright. I handled it. Let’s go inside.” I reached into the pocket of my hoodie and pulled out the new set of keys I received once I got the locks changed.
I let him do the honors and unlock the door. We stepped inside, and instantly, the smell of fresh lavender hit our nostrils. He turned the light on in the foyer, and even I was taken aback by how spotless the home was. The cleaners I hired told me there were signs that someone had squatted in the house. They damaged a few things, which I had to get contractors in to fix. Luckily, it wasn’t too big of a fix, and they handled everything quickly. We did have to get new furniture put in, along with new appliances. Other than that, everything else remained the same—the family photos, the decorations, and family keepsakes.
Together, we looked through the home, and he took a moment to reminisce after every room. Once we got to his mother’s bedroom, he hesitated to enter. Julianna passed away at home. She stopped treatment and went peacefully in her sleep. Because of her decision to stop treatment, Ahkeem was upset with her, so they never got the chance to talk after the last argument they had. Ahkeem battled with himself a lot about the way he handled things. He always told me he wished he could turn back the hands of time so he could’ve been with his mother during her final moments.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” I set my hand on his shoulder.
He ran his hand down his face before letting out a deep sigh. “I got to. It’s been too long, Lovey. My pops right. I need to get over it.”
“You don’t need to get over anything. No disrespect, but your father is always drunk off his ass, so nothing he says is ever right. You lost your mother. A great mother. You don’t need to get over it because your father said so.”
“You’re right.”
“If you can’t go in there today, I won’t judge you. The house is yours now, so whenever you’re ready, you’ll be able to get your closure.”
Grief was something that couldn’t be rushed. Ahkeem and his mother had a great bond that cancer cut short. My strained relationship with my mother was nothing compared to what they had. I knew my husband struggled with his mother’s death, and instead of grieving how he should’ve, he fixed all his attention on hustling and running behind Kareem to make sure he didn’t drink himself into a fucking grave. I just wanted him to know he had space to be vulnerable and grieve openly, no matter how long ago it had been since his mother passed.
He pulled me into an embrace and kissed the top of my head. “Thank you. I can’t put into words how much this mean to me.”
“I just want to make you happy. This is only the beginning of what I have planned for you.”
“You planned a party, didn’t you?”
I threw my head back in laughter. The man knew me like the back of his hand. “Just a little one. Nothing major.”
“I should’ve fucking known some shit was up when Kross extended his stay out here and Jersey kept calling me about where he could get a suit.”
