The Final Chapter
Aliya had just opened her front door, when she saw James about to knock on her door. His hand froze in midair. For a moment, she froze as well, and then she regained her composure.
“What in the hell are you doing here?” she blurted out. “How did you find me? Wait, don’t answer that. You and your brother have got serious stalking skills. School records, huh?”
James nodded, looking sheepish.
“Knew it,” she said, barely looking at him. “Now if you’ll excuse me.”
He barricaded her with his arm outstretched on her doorframe. “Let’s talk. Please.”
Please. It sounded like he was begging, just a little, but it wasn’t enough to sway her attention, nor her sympathy. She shook her head. “Get out of the way.”
“I did that before, I got out of your way. I regretted it,” he said, breathing out.
“Why would you? Because you hadn’t done enough damage?”
“You could have called me,” James said, seeing her apartment, a smaller one compared to her first. “You needed help.”
“But not from you,” she said. “I’ll do fine, like I always have. I did fine before I met you. Wait—I’ve been in deep crap because I met you.”
“We had good times…” he reasoned.
Was she hearing this? “You’re not using that against me, James Warren Douglas. You don’t deserve forgiveness. Now, leave me alone before I call the police.”
“And turn this conversation into a media circus? I wouldn’t think you’d want that. I certainly don’t.”
“Because of you, I can’t work anymore. They went to the office earlier.”
“What office?”
“Where I work now, since you closed the café down,” she told him. “The media invaded my workplace earlier; they asked me stupid questions. Questions like, if I knew that Mark wanted to take over your company. Damn it, they asked me that! What is wrong with you two? Do you think it’s funny to trick a person?”
“I had no intention of letting you meet Mark,” James told her. “He’s a vile—”
“You’re both vile,” Aliya said, pushing James’ hand away from the doorframe. “Now, excuse me, I have to be somewhere you’re not.” She closed the door behind her loudly.
James watched as she walked away from him, never looking back. He stayed rooted in his spot. He had given her time, and yet, she still wouldn’t listen to him. She was still too hurt, he could see. She couldn’t even look at him. He wanted to fight the pain away, if he could. Was it the only way he knew how to solve things?
“Aliya, please,” his voice rang out before she could turn into a corner.
She stopped walking, refusing to look at him. She could feel her palms curling up, as if she was bracing herself to slap James. “Please?” she repeated. “If I asked you to be honest with me, would you be completely honest? If I asked you to stop keeping things from me, if I asked you to be nicer—you can’t do those things. You’re not the type, and I’m not the type to be stupid enough to listen to you again.”
“I’m true to my word; I’ve kept control of myself.”
She shook her head. “That wasn’t control when you beat your own brother up.” She turned to face him, and for the first time that day, she looked directly into his eyes.
“I admit it wasn’t fair, but what I don’t get is why you’d let yourself be tricked by Mark. How could you not see him for the asshole he truly is? Did you sleep with him? He saw your birthmark—” His last accusation made her head snap up.
“You’re both assholes. And for the record, I didn’t sleep with him; he hasn’t even held my hand,” she hissed. “I didn’t see it, because he was too busy playing nice, and because I had to find ways to forget you—” She stopped, realizing she was saying too much. The mouth spoke what her heart had wanted to say, after all.
“So, you did miss me…” His voice was soft, and it didn’t gloat.
She shook her head. “Did. I don’t anymore. You settle the stuff you need to settle. You obviously have enough drama and don’t need more. I feel the same way.” And she proceeded to walk away, her steps echoing down the staircase.
James stood there, at a loss for words.
*
So much for winning her back, huh? James thought, unable to concentrate at work. Again. There was a pervasive feeling of restlessness that wouldn’t go away. Or was it even restlessness? He didn’t want to touch alcohol to assuage that ill feeling, but tonight, it seemed like a good decision.
He was outside the apartment he had gotten for her, on the balcony, holding a glass of whisky in his hand. There was a cool breeze coming from the ocean, with a full moon across the horizon. A fine night, a fine night to reminisce the good times, and a fine night to replay all the mistakes he had done. He felt like crap, as the smooth liquor rolled down his tongue and into his stomach.
What in the hell was he thinking? That he could get her back? He had never begged for anyone to get back with him. There was too much at stake. There was his reputation, his time, his ego. It was his ego that had done him wrong. He didn’t need a shrink to tell him that. I’m doing this to survive, I need to act this way, so I’ll survive, he reasoned to himself.
James recalled her laughter, the sound of it always fresh on his mind. He would never forget that. In those many nights he thought about her, he always wondered how she was, and hoped she was doing well. He also hoped she missed him, it didn’t matter how minute the feeling was, as long as she did.
Seeing her earlier made him disheartened. She had gone through great lengths to ignore him. Was she getting over him? Because he certainly hadn’t. There were better things to think about, right? Like the case Mark had filed against him.
He was just an ordinary businessman, given nicknames by the celebrity-hungry media. Couldn’t they cover other stories? Miami was filled with crime, happy goings-on, and it was swarmed with celebrities. They were too happy to dig up his childhood memories. Seeing Aliya was a risk, and he knew she would be forced to move again once they found out where she was. He stayed in the apartment he had given her for weeks on end already. They couldn’t get in the gated community. He had been stalked in the mansion, trespassing paparazzi had wanted to catch him with another woman or something. He had put that sleazy photographer in jail for a whole of two days, and yet the media couldn’t get enough.
He wanted to see her again tomorrow. He couldn’t stop himself. He wanted those memories with her to last longer, to last forever, if that was even possible.
He shook his head, his hands trembled, and then he laughed aloud to himself.
Damn it, he thought, I’m in love with her.
*
Aliya had placed herself under house arrest for two days already, never venturing out of her apartment. Kimmy had graciously brought along groceries, even staying with her for a couple of hours, and they didn’t even have to talk about James or anything remotely related to the incident. At least Kimmy was the one good person in Miami, that one good person who didn’t ask, and only listened.
That had been yesterday, when she almost felt normal. Today, she felt imprisoned. Screw this, she thought angrily, I’ll go out and do whatever the heck I want.
Major exams were next week, and she hadn’t even touched her books or her notes. She didn’t want to. It nearly came to the point that she wanted to fail her entire semester. What? Over a guy? She screamed to herself. One did not throw a scholarship away for a guy who wouldn’t throw away his own priorities for her.
Who was she kidding? The moment she saw his face, a surge of pain rushed through her. She shouldn’t see him. It would never stop. What was that adage again? Time heals all wounds? She needed time. Aliya almost found herself swearing off of dates. She had gone through great lengths to reassure her parents that she was fine, and that the media had blown it out of proportion. She had assured her brothers the same.
“If I’m not okay,” she told them, “I’d have gotten the first flight back home.”
Aliya stood up, quickly grabbing a cardigan to cover herself up, as she was just wearing distressed jeans and a spaghetti strap top. She needed a walk. She needed fresh air. Aliya checked the frontage of the building, and there she saw a few media men. To the fire escape it is, she thought.
Fire exits had become her best friend recently, and she quickly scaled down the stairs, walking down a block, obscured by bushes. She didn’t bring her cellular phone, nor did she bring a wallet. It was going to be a quick walk around the neighborhood, until a car began to trail behind her. She stopped walking, wondering if she should break into a run. The car came to a halt, and the door opened.
She knew who it was before his mouth opened. “I told you to stay away from me.”
“I need you to hear me out.”
“What you need is a bottle of whisky shoved down your throat,” she said. “Get away from me or I’m calling the cops.”
“You won’t do that,” he told her.
“What makes you think I won’t?”
“Because you would have done that the second you knew it was me,” he said. “Aliya, I know things haven’t been very easy for us—”
“There is no us,” she interrupted him. “I felt stupid. It was degrading, what you put me through—you and your psychotic brother. And here I thought you loved me, the tiniest bit of it would have made me happy. But love doesn’t work like that, J. You don’t appreciate the people who love you.”
“No one loves me,” he exploded, and he saw her step back in surprise. “No one. But I wanted you to love me; I wanted to be loved by you.”
She shook her head, and was about to say something, when she saw a camera pointed at them. “Damn it,” she muttered, her eyes bright with dismay. James looked sideways and saw a man holding a camera, along with a blonde reporter by his side, clutching onto a microphone.
James’ eyes darkened, and he walked for the cameraman, grabbing the camera, and smashing it to the ground. Aliya shuddered at the sight of it, as did the cameraman and the reporter.
“Hey, man!” the cam operator said. “What the hell—!”
“Privacy is something I hold dear to me,” James breathed out to the reporter. “You can write that down, lady.”
He walked for Aliya, steering her by her arm, and into the car. She was too shocked to protest, but once she was inside she glared at him.
“How could you?” she told him, as James pressed a button to separate them and the driver.
“How could I? I don’t want them to get away with it,” he said. “They’re the insufferable kind of people. News? They don’t deliver news, they deliver gossip. They deliver separation. They feed on other people’s pain.”
“Where are you taking me?”
His frowned. “Why are you afraid of me? I’m not going to hurt you.”
“You already did!” she said, and then she bit her lower lip, realizing she had shouted. She sighed. “Please drop me off at school.”
“You don’t have your wallet with you, nor do you have your phone.”
“So?” she said. “I’ll be fine on my own.”
“I can see you’re not,” James said. “You think you can go back to your flat in peace?”
“I would have if you hadn’t broken that guy’s camera apart.”
“We are going somewhere safe,” he told her, “and that’s final.”
Aliya wanted to fight back, she wanted to open the door, and roll out, just to get far away from him—but she didn’t. She sat there, quiet, wondering where they were going. James took out his phone.
“Powell,” he began, “I need your professional opinion.”
Aliya shook her head, looking out the window. She listened to James recounting the incident earlier, and it seemed like Powell assured him they would sue first. She didn’t want to be a part of this kind of life. Drama followed James’ life whether he wanted it or not.
She saw that they were headed for the towers that James owned. He was taking her back to the apartment she had refused. Of all the lowlife things to do. He was doing this to sway her back into his life, he was manipulating her to the highest extent. Aliya couldn’t see the satisfaction on his face, though.
They rode up the penthouse in silence, an awkward silence Aliya wished would end. She couldn’t very well jump off a balcony to escape the whole scenario, right? The apartment had stayed the same when she had last seen it. She almost didn’t want to walk around, but then she realized she was thirsty. She excused herself for the kitchen, all the while observing James who began to head for the balcony.
She didn’t want to stand beside him, but in the end, she did.
“I don’t want for you to be apart from me anymore,” James began, almost sounding like he was in unbearable pain.
“You chose this path,” Aliya said, her voice calmer this time. “You chose to be this way, you chose to beat your brother up.”
“I still think he deserved it,” James interrupted her. “He disrespected you.”
Aliya looked down the carefully manicured landscape surrounding the buildings. “What did he say?”
“He said he saw your birthmark,” James mumbled, and he rarely mumbled. “I didn’t like hearing that from him. Are you sure—”
“I never slept with him. I’ve never been naked in front of him, except for the part when he was with me while I was picking out bikinis.”
James sighed and massaged his temples. “I guess that comes as a relief for me,” he said. “I hated the thought of it.”
“You weren’t required to think of it.”
“I was compelled to think of it,” he told her. “I kept looking for you.”
“But you stopped.”
“I thought you wanted to be left alone,” he reasoned.
“Then why are you here now?” she snapped at him, holding the railings of the balcony tightly. She could almost imagine breaking it apart with the anger growing inside her. She didn’t want to be angry. She wanted to be a rational thinking young adult, who listened to what her ex-boyfriend had to say—but she couldn’t help it. Word vomit was coming out of her mouth. “Oh, wait, I know why. You think that if I sleep with you, you can win me over again?”
James frowned. “I hadn’t contemplated it, but now that you mention it, will it work?” he said sarcastically. “I want to fix things between us.”
“There is nothing to fix,” Aliya insisted. “We are done.” She couldn’t feel the sincerity, it was all just lip service, it was all for show. James wanted to close this drama out of his life.
James shook his head. “I don’t want for it to be over.”
“Well, the world doesn’t revolve around you now, does it?” she told him, spinning on her heels. She didn’t care how she got home, she told herself, as long as she was away from him. Irrational, but when were breakups and heartaches ever rational?
“Aliya—” James called out.
She didn’t stop walking; she didn’t stop until she got to the elevator. She was walking out on him, she was walking away from the one person she knew had taken her heart whole.
*
Aliya breathed in the crisp air wafting from the sea. She was sitting on the porch, the old family dog, Jay-Z, by her side. She had closed her eyes, willing herself into a nap, when she heard footsteps approach her from behind.
“You okay there, sweetie?” her mother’s voice asked her.
She nodded. “Yeah.”
Leonora took a seat beside her daughter, and held her hand. “You’ve been here since yesterday, and yet I don’t know what’s wrong. Did you fail a subject?”
Aliya shook her head, her eyes opening. “No, I didn’t.”
“Then your father was right,” Leonora sighed. “It’s that boy, James.”
You’re right mother, he is a boy, a spoiled rotten boy, she thought. Aliya shook her head. “I’m just stressed out with school and work.”
“I saw you on TV; you’re a terrible liar,” Leonora told her with a shake of her head.
Aliya didn’t want to ask her mother what she had seen. Her father was livid, she knew, but he had a fine way of keeping this to himself. He had greeted her with a big hug and a kiss on her forehead as soon as she got home. All she could do was sigh this time.
“There’s a side to people that we barely see,” Leonora said.
“He’s an asshole,” Aliya told her mother.
Her mother nodded. “He could be, but the question is, why did you come all the way here?”
“To be away from him,” Aliya sputtered, feeling interrogated.
“What did he do?”
What about what did I do? Are you defending me because I’m your daughter? “He—he—we just weren’t meant for each other,” Aliya said.
“Did you love him, though?” Leonora asked her.
Aliya looked horrified at what her mother just said. “Love him? I—” She stopped, fell silent, pondering about the circumstances. The flight back home was what she needed, even if it was an unnecessary expense. But did she? She thought she was in love. It was more of an infatuation, right? Suddenly, she didn’t have clear answers. At a loss for words, she looked at her mother, tears in her eyes.
“I came back because I missed all of you,” Aliya told her. “He doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“Is that why you finished half a pie earlier?” her mother teased her, knowing that stress-eating was her daughter’s forte.
Aliya shook her head, and to her horror, the tears began to fall. “Don’t let Dad know,” she said, quickly wiping them away.
“Sweetie, he’s your father,” Leonora said. “Of course he knows you’re hurting.”
“I feel like I’m the stupidest person in the world for believing in his lies.”
“Were they all lies, though?”
“What are you, my shrink?” Aliya huffed, still wiping her tears away with her hand. “Maybe they were all lies, maybe they weren’t. Stop asking me things I don’t know the answer to.”
Leonora sighed, patting her hand. “You still didn’t answer my question.”
“What question?”
“Do you love him?” Leonora continued.
Aliya took a deep breath in, trying to remember all the good things to come out of that brief relationship. Was she intensely happy? No, she felt calm, and his presence was reassuring. Did he spoil her? Yes, he did, and he didn’t ask for anything in return, apart from her loyalty. She had been at fault too, right? She didn’t give him a chance to explain. What was the need for explaining? The media had done their part, and he had failed in doing so himself. His apologies weren’t heartfelt. It seemed forced, and he was only apologizing because he was obsessed with having her. He could have anyone, she thought, and yet, here he is, screwing me over.
Do I love him?
She looked at her mother and shook her head. “I want to get over him,” she said. “I was never in love with him to begin with.”
Her mother nodded, knowing her daughter’s convictions were not swayed so easily. She also knew when her daughter was telling the truth, but she said nothing. The choice was Aliya’s, and it was Aliya’s alone.
*
Aliya woke up with a hangover of sorts, having had three glasses of wine. She had effectively resigned from the school office last night, citing that she couldn’t be at her best until certain personal issues were dealt with. That was one down. Wait, shouldn’t that have been two? She had ended things with him…
“There is nothing to fix,” Aliya insisted. “We are done.” She couldn’t feel the sincerity, it was all just lip service, it was all for show. James wanted to close this drama out of his life.
James shook his head. “I don’t want for it to be over.”
Her bedroom window was open, and a breeze wafted inside her bedroom. Lazily, she got up, and decided to shower. It was past ten that Saturday morning, when Aliya found out her parents weren’t home. She saw a note pinned to the fridge, as they always had. They had gone to the city, her mother had written hastily, and that lunch was in the fridge. She saw her mother had made chicken and potato salad, and she smiled.
“Jay-Z!” she called out, wondering where their ten-year-old Labrador was. Jay-Z had been called as such, because Aliya had found him in a pound, while the rapper’s music was playing over the speakers. She found him sleeping on the porch, as usual.
Figuring she wasn’t that hungry yet, she decided to take a long walk down the coastline, seeing people enjoy themselves despite the cloudy day. A walk would help her clear her mind, she thought. Locking the door to her house, she walked down the pathway that led to the beach, where waves crashed against the fine, white sand that P-cola had to offer.
She saw a couple up ahead, walking, arms linked, and she frowned. James would never have done that. He just wasn’t the type. Was she idealizing someone else in her head? Someone who didn’t have James’ character? She had made the conscious decision to cut all ties with her social media accounts, even her cellphone. Aliya’s grades weren’t as stellar as she had wanted them to be, threatening her scholarship, and she had only one more year to go. She willed herself to pull herself together. You are not failing dentistry because of a guy, she told herself. Work—she could find another job, once all this was through. She had made an arrangement with her parents, and they were going to lend her a few thousand dollars just to tide her over until internships began. Internships were crucial for this year, and she had no intention of letting herself down, or her parents.
She felt the sand on her feet as she carried her slippers in her hand. It was cool, and inviting; and she found herself smiling. Miami had great beaches, but there was nothing like home. There was nothing like the feeling of being content, of being safe.
Was that why she couldn’t find herself with him? Because she didn’t feel safe from his words? James wasn’t all that bad, she thought, he only acted that way because that was the only way he knew how…
She had been right to wear shorts, and she found herself wading close to the water’s edge, the water splashing up to her thighs. She felt a sense of peace course through her... and then she heard someone else walking on the sand behind her.
Aliya had hoped it was her father, at least she could show him she was feeling better already. She spun around with a smile, an abrupt stream of sunlight blinding her eyes momentarily. She squinted, and as soon as her vision cleared, she saw James standing in front of her, wearing a button-down shirt, with his trousers folded up to his ankles.
“James,” she whispered, surprised to see him.
“Aliya,” he breathed out, looking at her intently.
“What are you doing here?” Her eyes frosted over, suddenly realizing that he had probably called her parents to ask them if he could see her. She shook her head. “Damn it, you talked to them!”
“And with good reason,” James said. “I was worried where you’d gone.”
“You always say that, as if you could gain my empathy.”
“I don’t want your empathy,” he reasoned. “I want your love.”
She took a step away from the water. “You never loved me. Why would you want someone’s love, when you can’t even love yourself?”
James had a sharp intake of breath. Then he looked down at the water caressing his feet. “You’re right, I had no idea how to love myself, and I couldn’t be kind to myself. I’m highly unlikeable, definitely not long-term relationship material, I’ve been rude to you, I disregarded your thoughts and emotions, because I couldn’t grasp my own, and yet you saw through me, it was something I couldn’t see.”
“You’re an asshole,” she breathed out.
“I’m an asshole that loves you,” he finished.
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
“You heard me right,” he said, his voice louder this time. “I love you. It took me a while to realize it; in fact, it took me a long while, but I’m here to set things right with you.”
“You can’t fix your wrongs with this one right,” she said.
“But you think it’s right…” His voice trailed off. “But it’s all that matters to me, that you think I did something right for once.”
“You’ve always done right,” she told him. “Look at your company.”
He shook his head. “I want us to be right. It’s not that the company doesn’t matter—but—Aliya, you’re the first person to make me feel this way, you’re the first person to make me question my decisions, and you’re the first person to challenge me, emotionally and psychologically.”
“You could have slept with anyone and still say the same thing.” She had wondered about this many times. Had he? She couldn’t imagine it, she didn’t want to, but he had every right. They had broken up for a while now, anyway.
“I haven’t. That article you saw, all it did was spread gossip. My mistake was that I didn’t let you know ahead that I was meeting with someone I had dated once. Nothing happened between us.”
“I believe you,” Aliya said. “That part, I believe.”
“Why?” he said, thinking it had been one of the major causes of their rift.
“You demanded loyalty from me, I expected you’d do the same.” She saw him take a step closer, and she stopped him. “It took a while for me to understand that it was part of your expansion plans. Everything has to be about money, right?” she said. “I can’t be with someone who will only place me second, because his company comes first.”
“You have to understand I worked blood, sweat and tears for this company to grow bigger than ever,” James told her. “I won’t apologize for surviving, but I can’t survive without you in my life.”
“You can easily get others to replace me.”
“There are no others,” James told her. “There’s only you.”
“You took my job away from me, you took what chance I had at a normal life,” Aliya said, her voice rising, just like the waves on the shore.
“I want to bring that back to you, with a few more comforts. Believe me Aliya, I want a normal life, a life wherein I’m not so hated—”
“Did you solve stuff with your brother?” she interrupted him.
He shook his head. “The case is still on. The other assault case was dismissed, however.”
“How?”
“Someone was kind enough to upload footage of him taunting me,” James said, almost smiling. “Aliya, don’t take it the wrong way. My brother and I—we just don’t meet eye to eye. We’re too different. I wanted to understand him, and along the way, I just gave up. There’s been too much bad blood between us. I care for his younger siblings though, and that’s the best kindness I can do for someone who’s only spent company money on booze, women, and gambling. I punched him on instinct, Aliya, because he wasn’t respectful to you, I defended you from those annoying TV—”
“And now, media won’t leave me alone?” Aliya said. “You’re a high-profile guy, and I’m just a college student, working my way toward graduation. We’re not a good fit.”
“It’s not about money,” he told her, irked. “It’s about how we feel about each other.”
“You still feel?” she scoffed.
He threw his hands up in the air, exasperated. “Didn’t you hear everything that I just said? This is exactly why I couldn’t see myself in a serious relationship, there’s so much of this, and I’m so new and bad at this… but… I’m willing to try, I’m willing to learn. I want to earn your love.”
She shook her head. “You don’t have to earn my love.”
“No, I do,” James said. “I need to earn it. You’ve called me asshole, and I deserve it. You took me as I am, and it’s only right I take you for what you are. I thought I could control you, it was wrong of me to. I was just so used to it, so used to bossing people around, that I forgot people have different attitudes. I was a mess without you, even if I thought my life was fine as it was, I was hungry for more things, I didn’t know I was hungry for a relationship I can’t live without now. Being with you—it’s opened my eyes. Being with you means I can be a better version of myself, without forcing myself to change everything about me.”
Aliya took a deep breath, unable to believe she was hearing this, but deep inside her, she wanted proof. She wanted solid proof that he would never back down on this now. This was a life-changing decision for the two of them, she knew. This was a decision that could pull them closer together, or pull them apart.
“What makes you so sure it’s gonna work out this time?” she asked him, taking a step closer, her feet wading in the water.
“I know it’s going to work. This thing we’re in, it’s a two-way street, and I can see it in you, I can see you still want to give this a chance, I can see that you want to make this work with me, as much as I badly want to make it work with you.”
“You’re so full of yourself,” Aliya told him. “What makes you think I want to get back with you? Because I look miserable? Because I’m still not dating anyone? You think I haven’t gotten over you? Well, you’re wrong.”
“Because I know you love me. If you didn’t, you could easily brush me off, without the need to fight back, even if you were angry, you still tried to reason with me.”
“Because I need to survive too,” she exploded. “You’re not the only one who needs to live through this.”
“I can’t live without you, if that’s what you think. It wasn’t easy without you,” James said. “Whether you want to hear it or not, I can’t imagine life without you.”
“What are we?”
“I’m yours, and you’re mine. We belong to each other, and it’s not like we own each other,” he added. “I love you, Aliya Jones, and I don’t want a life without you in it.”
“You can’t live without me?”
He shook his head. “I can’t. I know there’s a lot I need to work on, but with your patience and help, I know I can be a better person, a genuinely nicer person.”
“I might have some competition soon,” Aliya said, biting her lower lip. “I don’t want that.”
James found himself smiling. “You won’t find yourself in that situation. If I carried on miserable without you, I can carry on happy with you. I’m happiest when I’m with you. I’m a real person when I’m with you. I see things in a different perspective because of you, I appreciate more, I’ve grown patient, I’m someone I can’t recognize—that kindness I didn’t know I had.”
“James?”
“Yes?”
“Shut up and kiss me.”
James walked up to her, gladly, and he gave her the sweetest kiss that meant the whole world to them. She was his world now, and he was hers. She pulled back a little, laughing.
“I can’t believe I’m falling for this again,” she said.
James nodded with a smile. “I’ve been waiting for you my whole life, Aliya. You can fall for this anytime, all the time.”
“Do we need arrangements for this?” Aliya joked.
“You’ll have to teach me how to salsa,” he laughed, and then he held her hands in his, holding them tight. “I’ll never let you go,” he said, seriously this time. “I’m staying right here, with you.”
“You mentioned you didn’t want no more drama in your life.”
“Bring on the drama,” James said with a smile. “It’s part of the package.”
“I promise I won’t be too annoying,” Aliya told him, looking at his eyes. Those eyes that had thawed from icy blue pools, into inviting, cool waters. She saw the truth in his eyes, saw the desire, the passion, the promise, that eternity. She saw the love.
“Do you love me Aliya?” he asked her.
She nodded. “I don’t want to make things hard for myself. Yes, I love you. I love you!”
James bent down to kiss her, and she kissed him back with all the love she could give that very moment.
THANKS FOR READING!
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I really hope you enjoyed my novel and I would really love if you could give me a rating on the store!
Thanks in advance and if you turn the page you will find a FULL LENGTH bonus novel that I included for your enjoyment.
Thanks for being loyal!!