Page 18 of Kissed By the Trillest Thug 2

The words came easier after that. One thought led to another. One memory led to the next.

By the time we eventually made our way to the couch, I wasn’t even sure how much time had passed. I curled up against one end while Tahari sat beside me, listening the same way he had been listening all night.

At some point I stretched my legs across the cushion and rested my feet in his lap without even thinking about it. His hand immediately settled around one of my ankles. The gentle pressure made me sigh. Somewhere in between one of my trips down memory lane, he had reached for the remote to the television and turned it on. Neither one of us paidmuch attention to it playing in the background. I kept talking. Sometimes about my father. Sometimes about MJ. Sometimes about nothing at all. Mostly because I wasn’t ready for the quiet. I’m sure he was tired of hearing me talk, but he let me ramble anyway. Every now and then he responded.

Most of the time he listened while his thumbs moved slowly across the bottoms of my feet. The motion was comforting. It felt steady and safe. And little by little, the exhaustion I’d been fighting all night started catching up with me. A yawn escaped before I could stop it.

Then another. My eyes felt heavier each time I blinked. The last thing I remember was Tahari’s hand still resting against my foot and the soft sound of the television playing somewhere in the background. Then the weight of the day finally became too much. And before I knew it, I had drifted off to sleep.

BLEEK

Something was staring at me. At least that was the first thought that crossed my mind when I opened my eyes. For a second, I just frowned up at the ceiling, trying to figure out why I felt like somebody was watching me. Then I rolled onto my side and found Eternity sitting beside me, smiling. My brows pulled together immediately.

“What?”

The smile on her face somehow got bigger. I pushed myself up slightly against the headboard and looked at her harder.

“What?” I repeated.

Because whatever this was, she was enjoying it way too much. Her eyes were shining. Actually shining. The sight alonewoke me up more than the sunlight pouring through the bedroom windows.

She came in so late last night that I was already knocked out by the time I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom she was on her side of the bed asleep. I remembered standing there in the bathroom doorway looking at her for a second before climbing back into bed myself. She hadn’t moved. Hadn’t stirred. Now she looked like she had been awake for hours. Just waiting on me to open my eyes. I rubbed my face.

“Ma, you’re starting to scare me.”

That only made her laugh. It was a soft laugh. The kind I hadn’t heard in a while. Then she lifted her hand.

At first, I didn’t understand what I was looking at. My eyes moved from her face to the object in her hand. Then back again. Then back down.

The world seemed to stop for a second. I stared. And stared. And stared.

“Eternity…”

My voice came out lower than I intended. Her smile trembled just a little because suddenly she looked emotional too. She wasn’t just excited. She was also emotional, and I could read that shit all over her face. Like she had been carrying this by herself for a few hours and was finally getting to let it out.

I sat up straighter. My eyes never left the pregnancy test. For months we had been doing this dance. We were in what felt like an endless cycle of hoping, praying, waiting, getting disappointed, and then starting all over again. The empty spaces in between trying were filled with doctor appointments, deep mental conversations, and more waiting. There were times when neither one of us said it out loud, at least not to each other, but I knew we were both wondering the same thing. Maybe it just wasn’t going to happen. The thought hurt every single time it crossed my mind. And now… Now she was sitting in front ofme, smiling like she was holding the answer to every prayer we’d whispered when nobody else was around.

“Are you serious?”

The question barely left my mouth. Eternity nodded, and then the tears in her eyes finally spilled over.

“Yes.”

That was all it took. I grabbed her so fast she squealed. The sound filled the room as I pulled her into my lap.

“Malik!”

I laughed, actually laughed. The kind that came from somewhere deep. The kind I couldn’t remember the last time I heard come out of myself.

“Are you serious?” I asked again.

She nodded against my shoulder.

“Yes.”

I buried my face against her neck and closed my eyes. We just sat there holding each other.

So much disappointment started to build when it came to this baby shit, and somehow it was finally happening. When I pulled back, I cupped her face in both hands.