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Four months later...
"Wait, I want to see ours last," I said, tugging on Towa's hand to slow him down. He looked down at me, the blue hoodie he wore with baggy jeans and white sneakers matching the navy blue bodysuit I had on with a blue and white plaid coat and my white Stan Smiths. Every time his eyes landed on my growing bump, they lingered, his fingers barely able to fight the temptation to find their way to my belly whenever I was close enough to him.
He nodded and gave me a peck on the cheek, then turned his attention to the others, who were huddled around a huge canvas painted in bright pastel shades. We joined them, and a gasp escaped my throat as soon as I could comprehend what I was looking at.
"Your words are so beautiful, Ash," I gushed, the hand that wasn't cradled in Towa's covering my mouth as I stared up at the work of art in front of us.
The Love And All Its Faces exhibition was officially live, and we'd taken a road trip with Alex, Cheyenne, Andrew, and Ashley, all of us excited to finally see what Aisha had done over the past few months. The gallery's main floor had been transformed into a showroom for this specific exhibition, with each canvas done in its own unique combination of colours, but the style of painting done in a way that created synchronisation between the different art pieces. On a tiny stand in front of each art piece was a printed version of the full interview that inspired the artwork, giving people more context.
"Oh, it's nothing," Ashley humbly replied, though she was looking at the displayed canvas with pride in her eyes.
"I think about how there's no one else on this planet like me," Ashley had expressed, "I think about how God, who created all the beautiful things in our world, thought me up, planned me out, added all my little details and decided that just like everything he created in the beginning, I'm good enough to be here. He made me and decided that the world was actually incomplete without Ashley Wembo in it. How can I not love myself?"
The canvas itself was black, with a cartoonish version of Ashley posing proudly in the centre, the picture Aisha had painted of her perfectly encompassing her sass and her warm aura. Her words were painted in pink, beige and yellow pastels all over the black background, with artsy flowers randomly popping up between the letters, adding more detail to the painting. It was mesmerising, and I was excited to see what ours looked like.
I got closer to read her printed interview, my curiosity piqued. "I don't think practicing self-love in a single season means settling or gaslighting oneself," read one of the answers. "I think it's a way to remind yourself of your worth while you wait. I'm worthy of the flowers and chocolates, so I get them for myself. I deserve to feel good about myself, so I affirm myself with kind, encouraging words. I take care of my body, mind, and spirit, so I can always show up as the best version of me. And yes, it does get lonely sometimes, and I wonder why I have to be the one to wait forever, but that doesn't mean I have to be miserable.
