He looked at me then. Just me. And said, “I do.”
I choked slightly on my sip of tea, and the table erupted in whooping and laughter.
Selena fanned herself dramatically. “Whew! You didn’t have to say it likethat, sir!”
Tasha leaned in. “And feed her he does. Look at her face!”
I covered my mouth, laughing, but didn’t deny it because they weren’t wrong.
But what they didn’t see—what even I was still trying to untangle—was that there was more to him than hands and heat and slow mornings.
There was a shadow behind his smile. A weight behind his silence. Something buried that hadn’t yet surfaced. And I didn’t know if I wanted to dig it up… or wait for him to offer it. I only knew I couldn’t stop wanting to know.
15
NAIMA
The sun was dipping low when we gathered on the back deck—me, Selena, and Tasha—three women in a pocket of quiet, a jug of iced tea sweating between us. Golden light washed over the trees, softening everything it touched. It was the kind of evening that made you forget the world was complicated.
We’d known each other long enough to recognize when silence meant peace, and when it meant something else. That day, it hummed with a question they hadn’t asked yet.
“I know you think you’re being all low-key,” Tasha said, swirling the ice in her glass. “But, girl, we see you.”
Selena’s smirk curved slow, eyes dancing with mischief. “Yeah, we see you, Moonchild.”
I rolled my eyes and reached for the amethyst at my chest, rubbing the stone like a talisman. Its cool weight centered me, reminded me who I was. “See me doing what, exactly?”
They exchanged that look—one of those telepathic best friend glances that could speak a whole paragraph.
“Falling,” Selena said softly.
Tasha’s tone followed, firm but kind. “For Lennox.”
The air shifted. I opened my mouth to laugh, to tease, to deny—but the words caught, thick in my throat.
“It’s not like that,” I said, too quickly.
Selena tilted her head, eyes warm with knowing. “We’re happy for you. Really. We want this for you. We want that kind of love.”
“But?” I asked, because with them, there was always abut.
Tasha sighed, leaning forward. “We’re just worried. He’s… not a sure thing. A guest instructor? That’s temporary, Nai. He could pack up tomorrow.”
Their words landed like small stones in my chest. Not heavy enough to break me, but enough to stir the stillness.
“What do you really know about him?” Selena asked, her tone gentle but unflinching. “Other than the way he makes you moan.”
“Selena!” I swatted her arm, laughing weakly.
She grinned, but Tasha’s gaze stayed serious. “We know how you love. Deep. Whole. You give your all once your heart opens. Just promise you’ll guard the parts of you that took the longest to heal.”
I ran my thumb along the amethyst again, tracing the smooth edge like a prayer. I’d promised myself I’d choose peace this time. That I’d stay rooted. But Lennox—he’d slipped through my carefulness, quiet as breath, sure as sunrise.
“I hear you,” I whispered. “And I’m not losing myself. I’m just… seeing where it goes.”
Tasha squeezed my hand. “As long as you keep your footing. And if you don’t, you know I got hands.”
That laugh stayed with me through the evening. But so did their words.
