Beautiful and talented painter, Selma Halpern + charismatic architect husband, Jamal Halpern + bubbly baby boy, Rae Halpern. The stars had finally aligned in Selma's favor.
But by the strike of midnight on a fateful day in April, it seemed like the...
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24.
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Selma leaned over Jamal from behind, her arms encircling his shoulder as she placed a tender kiss on his neck. "What are you doing, baby?"
Jamal tipped his head all the way back to glance at his distraction and placed a kiss on the bridge of Selma's nose. "My architecture mood board. I'm updating it with buildings I recently visited and got captivated by their designs."
"Ooo, looks really nice. Where is... this one?" The first building Selma pointed at was the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. "Kind of looks like an ark to me," she commented to which Jamal chuckled.
"Designed by Frank Gehry with the intention of making the random curves on the exterior catch the light. A masterpiece, I tell you. I'm sure you've visited the one here in New York?" Jamal asked, his smile upside down from where Selma stood behind him.
"Of course, I'm an art geek, remember? I'm ashamed I haven't visited this one in Spain." Jamal nodded in agreement, his eyes mocking her. She hit his shoulder with a small laugh and focused on the mood board again. "What about this one?"
"The Falling Water House by Frank Lloyd Wright. He designed it for the Kaufmann family as their weekend home. We can go there sometime, bebe."
As he murmured the last line, Jamal guided Selma from behind him to sit on his thighs and rubbed his nose against her cheek, lovingly.
She pushed his face away with a pout. "When will you design our weekend home, Jamal?"
"Who says I haven't. It looks something like... this! The Walter Gropius House. One of the first residential buildings I studied. I had you in mind when I visited it. Classy and elegant, just like you," he told her with a look in his eyes that made her feel warm.
Her arms tightened around his neck as she leaned closer into him. "Really? You designed one? When was that?"
"The first day I met you," he replied without skipping a beat, the seriousness in his eyes made it difficult for her to tell if he was only teasing. Selma took in a deep breath to calm the heat she felt from his stare and words all the way in her lower belly. Her left hand played gently with the curls of hair at the nape of his neck as she resumed pointing at the buildings and hearing his thoughts on them.
"... this was built for a wheelchair-bound veteran. The curving shape, thoughtful details for accessibility. I studied it extensively before visiting it at Rockford. It's truly the type of design I'd like to do more in my career."
Selma could not wipe off the smile on her face as she stared at Jamal's face as he described how Frank Lloyd Wright designed the doorknobs and even the cutlery used in the Laurent House.
Her body sank deeper into the comfort of his as she closed her eyes in bliss, letting the passion in his voice as he described his inspirations caress her.
