Page 32 of Tell Me You Love Me Again

“Gabe? Whose house is this?” she asked again.

This time, I led her straight to the door and punched in a code for the door to open. As I pushed it open, Chiara glanced at me before following my head nod to go inside. When we got inside, there were dozens of yellow roses littered throughout the downstairs. I heard her gasp and turn to face me.

“You didn’t?” she quizzed.

“I did. I wanted it to be a surprise. I knew you wanted this house, and I started taking on more loads so that I could give it to you by the end of the year without it hurting our pockets too much. I guess I should’ve been more concerned about the way you viewed me, though. I told you, Chi, that there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you, and that shit still stands. I went through missing you, the arguments, the distance, all of that just so that I could give you this.” I gestured at the house.

“Gabe,” she croaked out. “I-I’m sorry,” she sobbed. That shit tugged at my heartstrings, and I immediately pulled my wife into my arms to console her.

“Shhh…don’t cry, Snook. You didn’t know.” I kissed her lips and dried her tears. “Even though I was doing all of this for you, I should’ve paid more attention to how you were feeling. I never asked and for that, I apologize.” I kissed her lips again.

“I need to be the one apologizing. I made you out to be this horrible person and husband and you were only doing what you promised me and that was to give me my heart’s desires. Even if it’s material. I’m so sorry, Gabe. I’m sorry for not trusting you. I’m sorry for not believing in you. For leaving for that trip. The accident was unfortunate, but I can’t help but feel like it was necessary to get us to this point.”

“I agree. I promise to make more time for you and continue to treat you like the queen that you are. Just promise to communicate how you’re feeling instead of holding that shit in. I can’t operate like that, baby. You got to talk to me.”

“I promise.” She smiled.

“You ready to see the place?”

“I am.” Placing a kiss on her lips, I gave her the tour of her dream home. The tears returned but so did my wife. This was the end result I was going for. This was all that mattered.

“Do you like it?” I asked.

“I do, but I love you more. Thank you for this.”

“Say that shit again. Let me hear you tell you love me again.”

“I love you Gabe.”

“I love you too, Snook.”

Chiara

Foolish.

That’s how I was feeling at this very moment. Here I was, acting like a spoiled brat that couldn’t get her way when my husband was doing that the whole time. I couldn’t believe that I was standing in the middle of my dream home. I had to give it to Gabe. He remembered every single detail that I mentioned when we talked about the kind of house that we would raise our children in. I was too embarrassed to even face him right now.

“Baby, I really don’t know what to say. This is…is everything I asked you for or ever mentioned. I can’t believe you really did this,” I cried.

“Believe it. You know anything that makes your day a little brighter, I’m going to always be down for. I wanted all of this tobe a surprise. It was hard as hell keeping it a secret, and I almost folded a few times, but I had to follow through. I even had Quita help me at the end.”

“That’s explains her strange behavior,” I voiced.

“I only told her because you were getting suspicious, and I couldn’t have that. I asked her to decorate since she knew your taste. Shan even helped too.”

“So everyone knew except for me?” I asked.

“Nobody but Gary until the very end.”

I stood in the middle of what was our bedroom and just admired all of this effort this man has put into making me happy. Here I was about to throw all of this away because of my hating ass daddy. I got a few choice words for him as soon as I laid my eyes on him. Hearing my phone ring snapped me from my thoughts. When I looked at the screen and saw that it was Chiquita, I immediately answered.

“You sneaky hoe,” I said as soon as her face popped on the screen with a smile a mile wide.

“Do you love it?” she asked.

“I do. I can’t believe y’all kept this from me. I still need to check out everything that you picked out because you swear you know me.” We both laughed because we both knew that she did.

“And I do. That house is gorgeous, sis. Gabe did his big one,” she praised.

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