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He leaned in and kissed my lips in the restaurant in front of everyone, and I blushed hard. “Leon, people are staring.”
“Let them stare. I’m kissing the prettiest woman here tonight.”
“I once told you that you had a way with sweet words. You see it now?”
“I only tell the truth.”
We started eating, but by then, our food had gone cold and Leon was not enjoying it anymore. He paid and we left to look for something else to eat. As Ramon drove, Leon was focused on his phone.
“I’m looking for another restaurant we can go eat at since I’m still really hungry.”
“I am too.” I took out my phone and joined in the search. We found some restaurants but for some weird reason, we kept refusing to go to each one.
Eventually, we found a food truck that had tacos. Leon told me that he’d never had street food and so we bought some and went to an open park to eat it. We spoke about plans for Ava and revisited the topic of her school. We decided that she’d attend the expensive one Leon wanted.
Leon also brought up the topic of him not being comfortable with me still staying in the same neighborhood. I brushed the topic off because I wasn’t ready for something as big as a move. Maybe in the future I would be but for now, I wasn’t.
We invited Ramon to join us and eat the tacos but he declined politely, saying he’d eaten at the restaurant. After eating, we got ice cream before going back to his place. There was no lovemaking. We just spent the night talking and laughing about our times apart in the three years we weren’t in contact.
Epilogue
Leon
The buzzing sound of my phone made me stir in my sleep. It was the middle of the night and whoever was calling me had to wait until it was bright. The phone kept vibrating on the bedside drawer but I was too exhausted to reach for it and turn it off.
“Babe…” Valentina said sleepily. “Get your phone.”
I sighed and sat up before reaching for the phone. It was Lucian calling. I answered and he told me that Brooklyn had just given birth to a bouncing baby boy and that they were all at the hospital. I got up and started getting dressed when Valentina woke up to ask,
“Where are you going?”
“Brooklyn’s baby is here. It’s a boy.”
“Oh my goodness, I’ll go with you.”
We both got dressed and went to the hospital to be with them. Before dawn, we were back home to prepare Ava for nursery school and to get ourselves ready for work. Valentina left the house with Ava and Steve, while I left with Ramon.
Lucian sent us a picture of his son, Lionel, on the ride to work. It evoked a lot of emotions for me to see my brother this happy. I started wishing I was around when Ava was born. It would have meant the world to me to just hold her baby hands. I guess everything happened for a reason.
I had to get Ava from school because Valentina had to see her therapist. For months, she has consistently pursued improving her mental health, and I loved that for her. It had made her a better woman to be with and in turn, she made me a better man.
When I dropped Ava off at home for her nanny, I went over to Lucian’s house. He had invited us for drinks. Brooklyn was asleep when I arrived, so we went to the other wing of the house. Logan arrived shortly after and joined us.
As we drank, we toasted to fatherhood. I cleared my throat and told them, “I’ve been thinking of proposing to Valentina.”
“You think it’s time?” Lucian asked.
Logan scoffed. “It’s way past time. They’ve been together for a while now.”
“I’m very much in love with her and I want to seal things up.”
“I support you,” Logan said and we clinked glasses to that.
I went home and Valentina was just getting out of the bathroom with a towel tied around her chest and a large one tied around her hair. She stood in front of the Vanity mirror, applying some eye cream when she saw me walk in through the mirror.
“Hey, handsome.” She said and I went to hug her from behind.
“Hi, beautiful. How was your day?”
