Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 101662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
“But he should know,” Ava said, “You should keep pushing his mom to tell him. I’d hate not knowing the truth.”
“I know. Me too.”
But I also knew that pushing Amma wouldn’t bring about anything good. Yet I tried.
For the next few weeks, every single day when I showed up to Gabriel’s building to drop Ava off, I’d stop by Amma’s office and exchange a few words with her.
I’d told her how important it was for her to tell Gabriel.
She told me to go away.
I’d begged.
She’d ignored me.
Still, I tried.
The last time I saw her, I told her that if she didn’t tell Gabriel the truth soon, I might have to do it myself.
She told me to go to hell.
Though, for some odd reason, I already felt as if I was living in the burning fires.
17
Gabriel
Kierra: Ava is going to be staying home today. She has a small cold.
Gabriel: I hope she feels better.
Kierra: A day of rest will do it.
Gabriel: Wild question for you.
Kierra: Shoot.
Gabriel: Do you want to eat a cinnamon muffin with me this morning?
Kierra: Be there in twenty.
***
The problem with Kierra was that there weren’t any problems with Kierra. The more time I spent around her, the more time I craved. I knew it was an issue, and I knew I was making up a million reasons to be in her presence, but I couldn’t help it. She felt like sunbeams in the middle of the night. Unusual and bright, showing up at the oddest of times, but still it felt right. My whole life has felt like darkness. I didn’t even know it until her light came around me. It was ridiculous how I felt, and I couldn’t stop it. That fact alone was extremely alarming.
One Saturday, Ramona and I had planned to help Henry and Kierra pick out fixtures for their property. Normally, Ramona handled the interior design aspects of projects, but I couldn’t help but want to be involved this time around. Was it an excuse to spend a full Saturday with Kierra? Perhaps.
We’d met up at the first stop—bathroom fixtures at Arch Tubs Supreme. The four of us had stood in front of the shop, and I’d rolled up the sleeves of my button-down before shaking Henry’s hand.
“Good to see you both,” he said as he shook hands with me and Ramona.
“You too,” I replied. “Good morning,” I said, smiling toward Kierra.
She smiled back and nodded slightly. “Good morning.”
I clapped my hands together. “Today is going to be a long day, but a successful day if we tackle it right. We’ll start with the bathroom fixtures and move on to the fixtures for the kitchen. This area is packed with all those types of stores, so we’ll be able to walk to a few of them from here. Lastly, we’ll end up at the marble shop for countertops and tiles. How does that sound?”
Henry was looking down at his phone, half listening to me. “Sounds good,” he said, tapping away at his phone. “Sorry, work never ends.”
“Gabriel knows that better than anyone,” Ramona mentioned.
Kierra raised an eyebrow. “A bit of a workaholic?”
“It keeps me on my feet,” I joked.
“Yeah, not everyone works a basic nine-to-five like you, Kierra. Some of us have careers, not jobs,” Henry said as he opened the door and held it open for us all to walk through.
“I’d confidently say her job is the most important out of all of ours,” I said, feeling annoyed at how he tried to undercut Kierra and her position. She was the one with a PhD, after all.
That little comment was enough to make me realize it was going to be a long, long day.
And a long day it had been.
After watching Henry downplay every choice that Kierra picked out, I had watched him completely gaslight her out of choosing the options she wanted to go with—the better options if you’d asked me. Unfortunately, whenever I had tried to vouch for Kierra, Ramona would go into deep interior-design talk about why Henry’s option was the better one.
The only time Kierra seemed to be enjoying herself was when she and Henry split up in the stores. As Ramona and Henry went off to discuss sink faucets, I found Kierra completely laid out in an oversized tub that seemed big enough to fit a football team. Her eyes were shut. She seemed so relaxed that I almost felt bad interrupting the moment.
“Comfortable?” I asked, making her open her eyes. The soft smile on her lips showcased that.
“Oh yes. This is my kind of heaven.”
“It’s in your price range.” Truthfully, everything was in their price range. “And it would look amazing with the other items you chose,” I said, stepping into the tub and sitting on the opposite side of her. We still had ridiculous amounts of room surrounding us both.