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ChapterEight

“Iknow that look.”

Dragging his eyes away from Sevyn, Dallas looked down at his mother. “What look?”

“Oh, boy please,” she waved him away. “It’s the same look you used to wear whenever you looked at Sevyn before things went south between you two.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, woman.”

“Like hell, you don’t. What’s going on, Dallas? And I have a spatula in case you even think about lying to me.”

Chuckling, his eyes fell on the cooking utensil that was indeed within arm’s reach. “I don’t know what’s happening, ma. The only thing I’m sure of right now is that I don’t want to do life without her anymore. Something weird happened recently and I feel like it’s a sign that we should at least try to see where we could go.”

“What happened?”

For the next few minutes, Dallas filled his mother in on everything. From the date up to him asking Sevyn for a week to change her mind.

“And you think this is going to work?”

“I do.”

“Mmhm,” she hummed, placing the dough inside of a bowl and covering it with a towel. “And how does Sevyn feel about it?”

“She’s… reluctant,” he admitted. He and his mother looked at one another for a moment before falling out into laughter. “Aight, I won’t lie. She’s not making it easy for me. But I think I can change her mind.”

“Be intentional in all that you do, son,” his mother advised, diligently cleaning the counter of the mess she made. “I support all of your decisions, you know that. But I want you to make them for the right reasons. I love Sevyn. If you think she’s the best fit for you then by all means go after what you want with everything you have. Just be sure that it’s what she wants as well. Her feelings matter too. You hear me?”

His eyes traveled back to the dining room. Dallas smiled at Sevyn and Isis working diligently on their handcrafted ornaments for his family’s Christmas tree. It felt like he was gazing at his entire heart outside of his body.

“Dallas,” his mother called again, snapping him out of his daze. “You hear me?”

“Yeah, mama. I hear you.”

“Dal?” Demi’s voice traveled down the steps, followed by the sound of her quickly jogging down. “Is that you?”

Demi shrieked as she hit the bottom step, nearly galloping over to greet him. Having gotten a job in her field, his sister moved away almost immediately post-college. She came home as often as she could, but it wasn’t nearly enough for him.

The excitement increased ten-fold when Demi realized that Sevyn was also there, creating a whirlwind of activity that kept Dallas from finishing his conversation with his mother. Not that he needed to. He’d heard her words loud and clear. Dallas planned to spend the next few days doing everything in his power to prove how he felt to Sevyn. If she didn’t want anything to do with him after that, he’d let go without any resistance. No matter how hard of a task it would be.

Breakfast went over a little longer than he anticipated, making them late for their next destination. Sevyn didn’t make things easier, wasting the next few minutes refusing to comply with his demand.

“You are not blindfolding me. Are you crazy?” she fussed, folding her arms over her chest.

“Sev, it’s for five minutes at the max. Damn. Why are you making it so hard for a nigga to surprise you?”

“Why can’t I see whatever it is that you’re trying to surprise me with? For all I know you might push me in a ditch, bury me alive, and then my family would never find my body.”

“We just left a house full of witnesses that saw you leave with me. I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t be able to get away with murdering you, Sev.”

“Doesn’t mean you won’t try,” she replied stubbornly, quickly flicking her index finger in his direction.

As annoying as he found her to be at the moment, Dallas couldn’t help but laugh at her shenanigans. “Sev, you gave me a key to your house for months. If I wanted to kill you, it would have been easier to pull it off back then.”

Narrowing her eyes, Sevyn stared at him for a moment. “Okay, this is true. But that was then and this is now. Just tell me what the big secret is.”

“You don’t trust me, Sev?”

“Oh, that is such a loaded question.”