Page 17 of A Layperry's Hope
“Fine,” I say with a sigh. “Speaking of date night, you and Timalah gonna make me another godbaby?”
“He keeps trying to get me pregnant but it just won’t stick,” Miles says, completely serious. I sputter before letting out a long, hearty laugh. God, I’ve missed Miles so much while I was back on Earth. It’s so good to be back with him.
“I wish I’d never asked.”
“You’ll understand when you’re older,” Miles says, patting my shoulder.
I finish my brown tea and hand the cup over. “I should head back and start dinner.”
“Ghenie will make a houseboy out of you yet.”
“It’ll be a cold day in hell before I let someone call me their houseboy,” I say with a grumble, standing up and dusting off my pants. “Love you or whatever. Bye.”
I walk away before Miles can respond. He tries to yell something back but I cover my ears as I walk across the road over to my house. Before I walk inside, I turn around and flip him off for good measure.
The house feels weirdly empty without Ghenie and Maribel here. I thought having the place to myself would leave me feeling peaceful and content, but instead, all I do is miss them, counting the hours until they’ll be back.
I get straight to work making dinner. I put some type of poultry-like meat into the oven to bake and then chop veggies for a salad. It keeps my hands busy but doesn’t do anything to settle my mind.
Thankfully, I don’t have to be lost in my thoughts for too long before Ghenie is walking through the front door, calling out for me as he comes inside.
“In here,” I call back, setting everything down and quickly washing my hands. When I turn around, Ghenie is standing in the doorway. “Hi.”
“Hello,” he says in greeting. He smells the air and smiles. “Smells good in here.”
“It’s nothing,” I say, waving him off. “Where’s my girl?”
“Oh. Umm, about that,” Ghenie says, picking at his fingers. He looks nervous and my stomach turns to stone inside of me. What’s going on? What’s wrong? “She’s with my parents.”
“Okay,” I say slowly. “For how long?”
“Not too long. Just a few hours. She still only eats from my chest so I can’t be away from her too long,” he says quickly. “I just thought…” Ghenie’s words trail off and he looks past me at the wall, biting his bottom lip.
“You just thought?”
“Would you like to go for a walk with me?”
“You want to go for a walk? Right now? With me?”
“Yes. Just a little walk. I thought maybe we could find a nice spot to sit and talk.”
My stomach explodes with nerves. Is this the part where he finally tells me this isn’t working out? Has he grown tired of my presence here? Is he going to tell me he’d rather parent Maribel on his own?
Fuck.
“Christian,” Ghenie says softly, pulling my eyes up to his. “Breathe. It’s just a talk, nothing bad. I promise.”
I can’t find my words so instead, I nod my head. I turn around and turn off the oven. I take the food out of the oven and carefully put everything away so it will still be good when we get back home.
“Okay,” I say, turning back to him. “Let’s go for this walk that’s definitely just a talk and nothing bad.”
Ghenie cracks a smile. “You have always been so suspicious of me,” he says, shaking his head. “I really should not find that charming.”
“You really shouldn’t,” I say in agreement. “It says something about you that you find me charming at all. Your standards are too low, Ghenie.”
“They’re exactly where I need them to be.” He reaches over and takes my hand in his own. Tingles run up and down my arm at the simple touch and my stomach flips, but this time it’s not from nerves, it’s from excitement. “Come. I have the perfect place in mind.”
I’m powerless to do anything but follow, doing my best to hold on to hope that this is the time to talk things out instead of break things off. I want anything and everything that Ghenie is willing to offer, now I just need to convince him to offer it.
