Page 94 of Arris, Jayme & Dyani
“Anything for you, baby.”
I squeezed his hand in mine and he gave me a grin as we continued to walk together.
The two of us headed into one of my favorite spots and got a place to sit pretty quickly. I took my time looking at the menu since I’d made it my mission to try something different every single time I came through. I was still flipping back and forth between the second and third pages when I felt someone staring at me.
I did a once over of the restaurant before realizing what I’d felt was Arris staring at me. I peered at him from behind my menu.
“Are you just going to stare at me all lunch?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
“You make me nervous when you do that,” I admitted.
“Why?” Arris reached over, grabbed my menu, and slowly lowered it to the table. “And look at me while you answer me.”
“I don’t know,” I confessed. “I just really like you and it makes me nervous I guess, wondering what you’re thinking about when you look at me.”
“Usually it’s how lucky I am to be your friend and man for the most part… about how beautiful, sweet, and smart you are. I think a lot about how nurturing you are and how good you are with Blake. I stare at you sometimes and just imagine our future years from now.”
“Yeah?” I propped my face up on my hands. “And what do you think that looks like?”
“You, me, and Jayme all living together in a nice ass spot with Blake and maybe one or two other kids. Y’all would have some nice sized rocks on y’alls fingers because we did some kind of binding ceremony since The US don’t really fuck with the whole multiple wives shit, and we’d all just be happy.”
I felt a big, stupid smile crossing my face, even while I tried to stop it.
“That’s really sweet, Arris.” I reached across the table and twined our fingers together.
“It’s easy to think of our future when I’m looking at you and Jayme honestly.” He ran his thumb along my finger. “Dyani, I love you,” he blurted. “A lot.”
I opened my mouth then closed and opened it again and nodded.
“I love you too.” I stuck my lip out and he smiled.
“Why you looking like you want to cry then?”
“Because I love you too,” I repeated, which made him outright laugh. “And it’s just scary to be this in love with not one but two people.”
“Ay, there’s nothing for you to be scared of, Yani. I’ve got you and I’m always going to have you, whether we’re together for the rest of our lives or not,” he made clear, “but I want you to know without a doubt, the plan is to finish this life with you, Jayme, and our babies, born and dreamt up, and I mean that shit. I love you and I’m not going nowhere. Ever.”
“Me either.” I nodded in agreement.
“Good.” Arris reached over for my chair and jerked it closer to him so we were sitting side by side. Then he leaned in and kissed me. “So is now a good time to ask if you want to move in with me and Jayme or is that too much today?”
I shook my head immediately.
“It’s not too much. It’s perfect.”
“Good.” Arris kissed me again. “Fuck. I love you,” he said against my mouth.
“I love you too.”
Chapter 21
Arris
I didn’t standup to greet Darryl when he walked in. I just looked up at that nigga and held his gaze until he sat down across from me.
I had a good ass lunch with my baby. Then Illiana had stopped by to scoop her up so they could go meet some people together so I just invited Darryl to the spot where we’d had lunch. Since he was still in the area, he agreed to pull up.
