Page 111 of Falling Into Gravity

“I know what I bring, I know what I’m worth, and I refuse to love a man who’s still tryin’ to figure out if he deserves me.” She took a shaky breath.

Malik’s tongue touched his cheek. “You came all the way over here to argue?”

“No,” she said, stepping closer. “I came to tell you this is your last chance…for real.”

He blinked, his long lashes curling.

Her voice trembled—but her spine stayed straight. “I’m not gonna keep loving you through heartbreak. I’m not gonna keep showing up for a man who hides behind his past like it’s some kind of excuse to half-love me.”

His mouth opened to speak, but she cut him off.

“I’m not mad that you come from the hood. I’m mad that you stay there mentally, when you don’t have to. I’m mad that youknowhow rare this love is…and still treat it like it’s disposable.”

Malik stood, slow, facing her with his hands at his sides. “Aku…”

She shook her head, she had more. “I want the house. The ring. The kids that look like us and got your eyes but my smart-ass mouth. I want Sunday mornings with you in the kitchen, burning pancakes and cussin’ at cartoons.”

She stepped to him now, chest to chest.

“I want a man who fights for his peace the way he fights for the pain, and I want that man to be you.”

Malik’s throat worked hard, swallowing guilt and fear and whatever else had been choking him for years. “Aku…” he whispered again.

“No - you don’t get to say my name like that, unless you mean it with forever attached.”

He reached out and took her hand, kissed her knuckles softly. “I’m scared as hell,” Malik confessed.

She nodded. “Me too. But I’m here anyway. I’m showin’ up anyway.”

She touched his forehead, fingers brushing the faint scar where he’d been cut. Her voice broke. It was softer now, laced in the kind of tenderness that comes from soul-deep knowing.

“How many times I gotta tell you…I don’t need perfect, Malik. I just needhonest. I need effort. I need to know that I’m not building dreams with a man who’s addicted to his own self-destruction.”

He nodded once, eyes glossing.

“I wanna love you so bad,” he said. “Wanna wake up every day knowing I didn’t ruin the one good thing that could’ve saved me.”

She sniffed, biting her bottom lip.

“Then don’t ruin it,” she whispered. “This is your moment…right now, to love me right or let me go.”

He stepped forward, pressing their foreheads together. “I ain’t letting you go.”

“You better not,” she whispered, palm over his chest like she was feeling for proof.

She sank into his arms, not caring if she was hurting him or not. Nose pressed against his neck. She cried hard—real, ugly crying. He just held her, rocked her like a song he couldn’t stop humming.

“I missed you,” she whispered.

“I ain’t stop missin’ you.”

They didn’t say much after that.

He took her hand, led her to the bed. He needed to sit down or he was going to pass out.

But Aku had other plans. She dropped to her knees.

Aku needed to feel him and taste him to make sure his words were real, even though her heart knew they were.

---