Page 15 of Love You Like That

We stood there like that for a second just breathing, rocking a little.

“I don’t wanna mess up ya day,” I said, voice low. “You got plans?”

“I had some,” she said. “Cancelled ‘em.”

“For me?”

“For my peace. But yes… also you.”

That made me hold her a little tighter. “Aight,” I said, grabbing my phone. “I’m not lettin’ you feed me sad ass cereal and turkey strips.”

Yavanni turned to face me and looped her arms around my neck. “So what are you feeding me, Ezra?”

“Somethin’ we probably gon’ regret in a few hours.”

She kissed my jaw. “Perfect.”

I pulled up my usual breakfast spot on the Uber Eats app. It was a Black-owned spot near Harvard Street that did buttery-ass grits, French toast with strawberry glaze, crispy fried catfish and cheesy eggs. Some real food.

“Aight,” I said as I placed the order. “I got French toast, eggs, and fried catfish on the way. Grits too. And I added to the order and got you a bougie oat milk latte with cinnamon from that place on the corner you said you liked.”

She laughed. “You remembered I said that?”

“I remember everything you say.”

She blushed hard and I swore my chest grew three sizes. I kissed her on the forehead and stepped back to the couch, collapsing into it. Her spot was peaceful as hell with plants, soft lighting, Black art on every wall and crystals around. Everything about it screamed soft and intentional. Just like her.

She curled up beside me, under my arm, and we fell into a quiet that didn’t need filling. I scrolled my phone a little. Shescrolled hers. Every so often, she’d show me a meme and I’d pretend I didn’t already see it but laugh anyway just to hear her laugh.

“You wanna… just chill with me today?” she asked after a beat, her voice small but certain.

I looked at her, serious now. “You want me to?”

She nodded, her fingers brushing over my wrist. “I don’t want this to be just… a thing.”

“You feel that too?”

“Yeah and it’s not supposed to happen this fast but it is. And I don’t wanna slow it down.”

I kissed her. “Then I’m staying.” And I meant that. Because with her? I wasn’t just in it. I was already gone.

T h r e ew e e k s.

That’s how long it had been since Ezra Lowe stopped me outside that lounge and rewired something in my chest. Since then, everything had changed and yet somehow, everything had stilled too. It was like the world around us kept moving, demanding and spinning fast, but he and I? We existed in our own rhythm and it wasn’t perfect, but God, I loved it.

We’d seen each other almost every day since that night. And when we didn’t, he texted me like he missed me more than made sense for a situationship that didn’t have a title yet.

We’d had dates that started on rooftops and ended in my bed. We’d laid under my stars-and-sky projector at the park eating takeout and watching throwback movies with greasy fingers and tangled legs. We’d argued over who had the better diss track between Kendrick or Drake and made out on my couch like high schoolers when it ended in a draw.

Ezra painted my back in kisses one night, slow and reverent, right after telling me about his mother passing when he was thirteen after being struck by a stray bullet. The way his voice broke when he said “I still have nightmares about it sometimes,” made my heart lurch, and I rolled over and held him until neither of us could tell who was comforting who. He talked in layers and laughed from the belly. And the sex?

God.

It wasn’t even fair nor was it just physical. It was emotional every time like he knew what I needed before I could ask for it. He touched me as if he wanted to make a home out of my body, and I let him because maybe I wanted the same. But life didn’t stop just because I was in this love-drunk haze.

Clinical had me exhausted. Four days a week in a pediatric unit where the beeping of monitors played like backgroundmusic in my head long after I clocked out. I’d leave the hospital with aching feet, a sore back, and barely enough energy to microwave something, let alone socialize. And my girls? They'd been blowing up the group chat for the last week and a half.

Dianna:Girl are you alive or just living in Poet Bae’s lap now???

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