Riptide /GxG/(Completed)

TWENTY-NINE

J A Z M I N E

I got up off the couch leaving Aria alone to play with the dollhouse I got her for her birthday as I began to move into the kitchen where Britt was currently working on dinner.

We had arrived home about two hours ago and since then Aria had me glued to the floor doing voiceovers for her dolls until she got bored of my lack of ability to portray the proper emotions that her lady doll held for the man doll.

"You okay?" Britt asked softly the minute I settled into the kitchen with a miniature frown on her face.

"Aria fired me," I explained amused and she smiled, directing her gaze to her daughter before returning it to me. "But otherwise from that I'm good,"

The smell of the food she was preparing continued to suffocate my nostrils in a compelling way that awakened my hunger.

"Hungry?" She inquired, covering the pot once more as I leaned against the island leaving my back to face the living room.

"I'm starving," I joked and she smiled walking over to me.

"You're so fucking dramatic," She pointed out softly, and I released a small grin accepting her vessel into my hold.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm just tired," She mumbled as I placed a small kiss against her forehead.

"Do you want me to finish cooking?" I offered jokingly while enjoying the sound of amusement that left her.

"So you can burn the kitchen down," She uttered, closing her eyes while allowing comfortable silence to settle around us, and I accepted the lack of words gladly as I drifted into the serenity of her essence. "Jazmine,"

I simply hummed in response.

"Tell me about your tattoo," She requested, referring to the one on the right side of my hip.

"What about it?"

"What does it mean?" She asked as I appreciated just how at peace she looked in my hold.

"It's an Adinkra symbol, it means strength"

"An Adinkra symbol?" She repeated, silently asking me to explain.

"It was created by the Ashanti people which is the largest tribe in Ghana, Adinkra symbols are used to express deeply symbolic proverbs related to life, death, wisdom and human behaviour. The tribe usually placed them on cloths known as Adinkra cloths that were traditionally made for royalty to wear at religious ceremonies. Over the years people have also decorated the clothes to tell stories or express their thoughts or feelings," I explained and she smiled, opening her eyes to look at me. "What?"

"Your mind is just amazing," She confessed while I gazed into her beautiful brown orbs.

"So is yours,"

"Yes, but I'm smart and you're wise," She pointed out and I chuckled looking at the floor in an attempt to depart from her appreciative gaze since the intensity it held left me feeling vulnerable.

I had people compliment many things when it came to me but it was a rare instance for a compliment to be directed at my mind and not my body.

"Why did you get it?"

"Well at a certain point in my life I felt lost and without a purpose, like a part of me was missing and in hopes of making my present clear, I went back to the past. I dug up history and I did the research of myself and my people for myself in hopes of finding the truth since the only black history taught in school revolves around slavery because, in reality, they want that to be the root of who we are when in reality we are more," I started loving how interested she was when it came to me.