|A L W A Y S & F O R E V E R| B O O K 1

17|| L o v e i s H a r d

Date: 8/20/15
Day of the Week: Thursday
Location: Seattle, Washington
Place: Russ' Place

Ciara
I woke up to Russ still lying next to me, sleeping peacefully. I looked to my left at the clock on the nightstand, 4:44 AM. I sighed deeply and rolled over in bed, snuggling against him. I closed my eyes and attempted to go back to sleep for at least a few more hours. Of course, that didn't work, though. I was restless. I couldn't stop thinking about the events that took place last night. Or should I say, the events that almost took place last night? It was so embarrassing, and I almost got caught up. The last thing I want to do right now is get caught up in another situation like I was in before. The last thing I need right now is sex. All it would do is cause a bunch of confusion and complications. The last thing I need is more complicated situations in my life. I'm already in a stressful situation with my son's dad, my ex-fiancé. God knows I don't want another. If I'm going to have sex, I want it to be done at the right time. If I don't wait until marriage, I at least want to wait until we're at a more stable point in our relationship. I want to build a strong foundation on love, commitment, trust, and faith. I don't want our relationship to be based on sex. There's so much more that can be offered, and if we can't build a solid foundation off of those things, then we can't be together. Seconds later, my thoughts were interrupted by Russ.

"Babe, go back to sleep." Sleep dripped from his voice. He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer to his warm chest. I was still sleepy, so I tried my best to relax my mind and get some sleep before I had to wake up in the morning. In about five minutes, I was out.

>>>
I woke up to the sound of a low voice in the background, almost a whisper. I opened my eyes slowly, and I looked next to me to see the other side of the bed was empty. My eyes scanned the rest of the bedroom to see Russ sitting in his lounge-like chair in the corner of his room. I sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. I looked at the clock afterwards to see it was 11:45 AM. 

"Weren't you supposed to be at the firm earlier? It's late." I asked in confusion. He's usually up at 6 AM getting ready to head to work.

"I decided to work from home today." He smiled, placing his phone in the pocket of his pants.

"I hope I didn't wake you. I had to make a quick call to one of my agents." I waved him off.

"No, you're fine. I should've been up tending to Zahir right now, anyways. Why didn't you wake me?" I threw the covers off of my body, getting out of the bed.

"Zahir has been taken care of, and I didn't wake you because you need the rest. So you don't have anything to worry about. He's already been fed breakfast, and now he's in the next room watching cartoons." I sighed with relief.

"Russell...thank you so much. Really, you didn't have to do this."

"I know, but I wanted to. If you're gonna be in my life, so is he. So I'm gonna treat him as if he were my own."

"I really do love you." I didn't know what else to say. What else was there to say?

"I love you too, and I mean that, Ciara." He began making his way over to me as I stood next to the edge of the bed.

>>>
It was now a little after noon, and I was getting ready to give Zahir his bath. Usually, I would give him his bath in the morning when we woke up. Today, he'd be getting a late one, considering I just woke up recently. After adding the bubble bath and checking to make sure it was the perfect temperature, I turned the water off. I got him a towel to dry off with from the towel cabinet and sat it on the seat of the toilet. I went to the guest bedroom and picked him up from the floor where he was playing with his toys.