“Fine,” I said with a smirk, trying not to blush.
He walked around the counter and pulled me into his arms.
“That’s all I needed to hear. I think you’re ready,” he stated.
“For what?”
He pulled back, licked his lips like he was hesitant to say it.
“For me to apply real pressure.”
Most of the time, if I heard a nigga say some shit like that, I would doubt every syllable. But with Love, I was learning that doubting him was something I shouldn’t do.
Chapter 25
Loving Love
Love was trying to have me singing his name like Keyshia Cole, the way he kept a smile on my face.
Love wasn’t a talker; he was a stepper, and he didn’t have a problem showing it.
He wasn’t loud with it. He wasn’t forced. He was PRESSURE!
I could be texting him, telling him how patients had been irritating, and minutes later, my name was getting called, telling me that it was flowers at the nurse’s station for me.
The notes attached were never long, but they always kept a smile on my face throughout the day. And by the time my break came daily, that nigga was having fresh meals pull up for me.
He made sure that I was taken care of without me having to ask him.
And that was different for me—he wasn’t a Gio.
Gio needed guidance, time, hell, for me to hold his hand and walk with him sometimes, but Love? He paid attention and moved off that. If I mentioned something one time, just talking, just venting, just being me, he acted on it.
I started thinking about Gio less and less, blocking him on everything, even deleting our pictures from my phone. And focusing on Love more, learning him like he was learning me.
He showed me I was special each time we were together, and each date topped the last. Whether it was private dinners, shopping sprees, museum dates, an overnight stay in an aquarium; this nigga had a whole bed brought in. I told him I wanted to see a movie that was coming out he bought out the theater on the release day. I thought Gio didn’t play about me, but Love, Love was a whole different creature, and I was slowly getting used to it.
But after Gio, what I was getting from Love was needed.
“Girl, you over there smiling at nothing, you thinking about that man, ain’t you?”
Deja’s voice cut straight through my thoughts.
I blinked, coming back to the room, and laughed. “Something like that,” I said, trying not to smile. “Love is… something else.”
“You are right about that,” Renee said, passing by without even looking at me. “He’s been taking up all your time.”
She looked at me, walked into a room to check on a patient, and walked out a few minutes later, giving me a stank look, and I laughed at her.
“He’s not taking all my time, just…”
“Taking up all your time,” Kenya said, chiming in. “And let’s be clear, we are not hating, I swear that art exhibit only worked out for you; we just miss ya.”
All three of my girls tried to give me puppy dog eyes to make me feel bad.
I sucked my teeth and chuckled. “I hear y’all, and I’m sorry, and I can make it up to you tonight. Love has to wait on some jewelry to come in, sooo, drinks tonight?”
They all smiled and agreed.
