She raised my chin and made me face her. Tears clouded my eyes. I was hurting. She’d mourned this death over and over. It was my first time, and grief had slapped me across the face. Anger budded and sprouted quickly. Someone had intentionally poisoned my woman.
That would never sit well with me. While August and Koen were there to protect her from visible threats, it was an invisible one that had nearly claimed her. Claimed us.
“I want to get my hands on whoever did this to you–”
“Shhhhh. All I need you to do is play ball. I’m going to dance my heart out tonight knowing you’re on that court preparing to bring me home that trophy. And, when it’s all said and done, we meet here to celebrate. Just you and I. No friends. No family. Just you and I.”
“Just us.”
“Just us.”
She rubbed the side of my face as she kissed my lips.
“You need to rest before you go on stage tonight.”
“Rest would only kill my spirit. I need to feel the wood beneath my feet,” she admitted. “I need to be in the studio. I have less than three hours before the show.”
“I was going to wait–” I started. “Until you came home with me after the first show. But, that never happened. You ended up scaring the shit out of me, instead.”
A smile turned her lips upward. I could feel my mood begin to shift already. It was funny the way love could heal you and hurt you simultaneously. You didn’t want to live without it but you’d gladly die for it.
“And everyone else.”
I slid from bed and extended my hand.
“Come here.”
She took my hand and allowed me to lead her through my home.
“The gray and white decor had grown on me. It was sleek. Sophisticated. Simple. Just like you,” she told me.
“Thank you. I didn’t know you weren’t feeling it.”
“It’s not that I wasn’t. It was just–blah.”
“Blah? Hell that mean?”
“I don’t know. It was just so plain. I’m starting to like it now. It doesn’t tell you how to feel like most colors. It takes direction from you.”
“True. True.”
We descended the stairs. Made our way through the kitchen, and then down a second set of stairs. Stairs she didn’t know existed.
“Well, this is new.”
“Eyes closed,” I prompted her.
“How will I see where I’m going?”
“I’ll be your eyes, Mellow.”
She sealed her eyelids, allowing me to be her eyes. The trust she put in me was liberating. Her submission was natural. She didn’t care to lead. She wanted to follow as long as she was following the right person. The right leader.
We walked another three feet, turned a corner and stopped. She waited for instruction as her heart beat wildly in her chest. I watched as a smile curved her lips. Her bare foot lifted, displaying an unbelievable arch. And, then, on the tips of her toes she went. Eyes still closed, she spun in circles.
Around.
Around.
