Fault

Chapter 15

It was now 2 am. With a promise to visit again soon, my cousins decided to hit the road. There was less traffic at that time, so nothing we said would convince them to stay. Their original goal was to simply pass through, but they ended up staying a bit longer than expected. I truly value our level of closeness and the fact that they went out of their way to stop by and stay for as long as they did in the first place.

Once our company was gone, my aunt and cousins, all pitched in to help me clean up before bed. In the back of my mind, I was aware that Jeremy never got his callback as promised. At the same time, it was not my main concern, so I didn't really care— family time was more important.

While sweeping the floor, Tionna brought up the hallway situation. Apparently, the explanation given after the initial encounter wasn't enough and everyone was talking about it. At that point, I felt it best to lay everything out plainly to her from start to finish.

"...Auntie, let's just say, I'm definitely into him... but, he's clearly more into me than I'm into him right now. He's just doin' the most and acting like he's in love or something. It's too soon for all of that!"

"That's how it's supposed to be! Hell, those are the types of men every woman should marry," she responded. "The man should always love you more! No, he shouldn't lie about his living arrangements, but maybe he was just embarrassed. Get to know the REAL him, then go from there. Who knows, maybe Y'all can start building together. Other than that, you can't judge him! Remember, you don't have your s**t all the way together either, honey. Now, hand me that dustpan..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. A friend of mine told me that his lies were red flags though. She makes a lot of sense too."

"Could be," she responded plainly with a shrug. "He seemed cool to me when he came over last time, but you never know. All I know is, you need to tell him that he can't be poppin' up like that or he'll be permanently banned from my house!"

"Right!" I responded in agreement. "I would never just show up at someone's house unannounced!"

"My man doesn't even do that!" She said matter-of-factly.

"Girl! You don't even have a man!" We both laughed before heading off to bed.

Before dozing off, I decided to send Jeremy an apologetic message letting him know I would reach out when I woke up. Although it was close to 3 in the morning when I texted, his reply came back almost instantly, "ok, sweet dreams."

And sweet dreams they were...

* * * * *

The sunlight from daybreak gleamed through my window waking me up ever so gently, as the sun kissed my skin. Whenever the morning is peaceful in this way, the day typically follows suit. After taking care of the baby, I was inspired to wake the family up with the heavenly smell of a savory southern style breakfast— they were extremely grateful.

Today marked three weeks since the hallway incident had occurred, and I was so happy that things were finally the way they were supposed to be between Jeremy and I. On top of that, today was additionally major because he was returning home from his mission trip to Brazil. We'd become virtually inseparable prior to his departure since I chose to overlook the disinformation concerning his job title and living arrangements. Tionna made a good point. Who was I to judge when I didn't have my own place either, right?

While Jeremy was away, everything was business as usual. I pretty much split my time between the baby, Spencer, Mone and working long overtime hours. The plan to become a full-time student was still on track, so it was important to start saving as much money as possible. As a whole, it felt good to hear people once again say how proud they were of me. I had previously caught so much grief from people who expected me to fail after having a baby. Proving them wrong was of the utmost importance!

Now that Jeremy was going to be around again, I knew my time with Spence would start to suffer. Thankfully we would be attending the same school together in a few weeks, so I could make up for missed time with my dear old friend then. After that, I would eventually have to use my busy schedule as an excuse to pull away from him slowly now that my relationship was official. There was so much to prepare for,  but I thought it best to put it in the back of my mind for the rest of the day. Until then, it was now time to get dolled up and finally give Jeremy what I know we've both been waiting for...