CHAPTER 10 (THEN)

Love is a beautiful thing. 

Whoever created it must have known its feeling because, hell, 

I would turn the clouds' shapes into the best love shape, 

move mountains for the queen, 

and dry up rivers if the queen was not in appreciation of the same. 

Yes, I was in love, and being a man and saying this, hell, you know I was.

I knew a lot of things during my talks and dates with Kate. 

First, she hated her coffee super hot; quite obvious since I also did not like it too hot. 

She liked her nails done every Sunday, and that was checked because I worked at the chemist almost every weekend, and my pay would cater for that. 

She liked thrillers; note investigative movies; Dang, she would kill for those and so, not an issue for me, as I liked combat and fight scenes, but criminal movies were never as bad. 

She liked her hair neat. 

She liked her food hot... really hot. 

She loved tacos and hated burgers, reasons known to her. 

She liked driveway foods and snacks more than homemade meals. 

She liked being listened to. 

She hated noise, but when drunk, she was more of a loaded gun herself. 

She liked all types of music. 

And above all, she was a Capricorn, the reason for telling me this better known by her.

She was into the signs and whatever; I barely cared about that. Astrology was never my thing. Just felt unimportant and, more especially, unreal.

Truth is, Kate had occupied every part of my being. 

She was the first and, sure be, might be the last with whom would make my mind and whole body swim into the oceans of love and just yearn to know more and more about her.

For;

Knowing her favorite color was not enough. 

Knowing she loved laughing on serious occasions was far from being enough. 

Knowing she loved her men tall was far from being a consideration for me; I was tall anyway.

Knowing everything about her seemed never enough; it just seemed not enough. 

There was always a want, like now, I just want to call her and hear how her class was going. She was studying interior design in the Faculty of Art at NYU. We were on the same campus. Yeah, lucky. I never knew that. We were in the same year, the second. So, it was all a wrap. I was grateful anyway. Now I understood why we were on the same block…, same housing area.., plots I mean.

"We shall have practicals from next week," the professor stated as he headed out with students groaning and everything. Practicals were more lively than theory, and we expected them this week, but so, I guess I had time. Practical lessons took hell out of our time. We would head in at seven in the morning and head out almost eleven at night. It was something really hard but entertaining at the same time. So, I needed to give my all to her this week.

"Hello... Hello, Kate... how are you doing? How is the day?" I asked her, after she answered. After she answered the call…, hell I was dying to talk to her.

"Fine... the day is healthy," she stated.

"Okay... have you taken lunch?" I asked.

"No... I'm really hungry... mmphhhh," she whimpered.

"What do you want to eat?" I asked.

"Meatballs... no... haha, sushi... haa, noodles... no..." I knew she always had a hard time deciding what she was going to eat. She always had. She always had a hard time. I just wondered why really, but anyway, it always seemed like a girl problem.

"I'll send some cash, and then later on I wanna take you somewhere, like a certain, serene in our estate. It is really cute," I stated, and then she said her bye and then hung up. She always hung up on me. It sometimes made me mad, but I had never addressed it to her, because truth be told, if it were up to me, I would listen to her voice till morning. I hope we never part ways... I really... damn... I don't know... but love is what you make it, and women are so easy to love. Just give her your love and it's all a wrap.

"Now you have someone. A month ago, you could not leave us on read," the queen bee states.

Yes, it had been a month since that date with Kate. 

All these weeks, I have been so focused on her. 

Did I tell you'all I took her mountain climbing? 

Oh, and made sure we went for movies and enjoyed one thriller? 

Did I tell you we went to one of the gigs together?.., Luke's infact.

 Oh, greatest of all was Funky's birthday. She was too drunk. At first, she was brought to the car by Billy, since I was bored and I was no drinker. Anyway, she was brought to the car by Billy, and she perfectly laid her head on my lap, with her long hair slightly hiding her beautiful face. How much I told her that day how pretty she was, and how much I told her that I wanted to see that face every day when I wake. God...

Anyway, today at the rooftop, I'm gonna confess, I promise… and ask her to be my girlfriend. I'm pretty confident. 

The queen bee...

"Oooh, yes... no, she's... she's not my girl yet," I stated.

"She is not your girl?"

"Yes," I stated.

"Men are always in denial," they stated, and for the first time, they left me rooted in this ground. Anyway, I was barely lying.

******

'Was it the skin color? 

Was it your height?'

No, scratch that. 

I really like you. Too direct... scratch that. 

The stars are beautiful. Too weird, we will end up talking about stars... 

Call Luke... 

Call Luke, man.

"Hello, Luke..."

"Dude, what's up?"

"I need your help…"

I was trying to find the perfect words to tell her. 

She was an art student, so she had obnoxiously a lot of ideas and desires when it came to art.

And she had added she loves fantasy novels. 

She loved novels of billionaires falling in love with some random woman, 

an angel falling in love with the devil, 

or works about reincarnation and of a character being born again as a villain. 

And all sorts of novels... so this meant she was quite a daydreamer, and the best I could do was to bring her fantasy to the world.

Luke sent me a song to play for her... his own work of art.

And I, on my way here, some hours earlier, I had bought a bouquet of flowers and a little card. However, I burnt the card. I felt it was too obvious. 

She might not like my art, nor my writing. 

She might hate my thinking of writing letters as if we were in the ages of our parents. Well, her parents. For me, it is complicated. I believe my father was busy living under the torture of slavery as he seduced my mother. Anyway, that's a thought. 

Mother was not that old; maybe she was not born when slavery ended. 

So all I did was send a little boy with a note: 

'On the rooftop, 8 PM. - Zen.' 

It was simple. It was the simplest thing I could craft, but I was nervous. 

Hell, I was.

 I even bought some wine and whisky for her. 

Maybe today I would drink. 

Drink with her.

Outside was cold, the rooftop. 

The stars were barely observed, of course, due to the city's lighting. It seemed more of a lighted heaven, but the moon shone. It shone brightly, as if smiling at me for the achievement I had made so far. 

8:03 PM. 

My wristwatch stated, and I started nervously tapping on my left leg, something I always did when I was in fear of being left on read. 

I had placed the bottles well on the corner of the rooftop, but sitting there would make me more nervous, so I was just pacing around like someone whose wife was almost giving birth.

"It's cold," a voice stated from behind me, and if happiness could be measured, hell, it would surpass the scale test. 

I was so happy that I hugged her for the first time.

"I missed you," I stated as I took her to the place I thought we could just chill and enjoy the cold breeze. She wore something like someone heading to bed, right and direct. I guess she was late because she was showering or something. 

Her schedule was two showers a day. I knew that.

"How was class and food?" I asked as I gave her a drink and poured myself one.

"You drinking?" She asked.

"Yeah," I stated. "Surprised?" I added.

"No, I'm just... anyway," she just stated, and then took in the drink, as she flinched a little taking in the whiskey.

"What did that boy tell you?" I started…, again

"He just gave the letter and pointed at your door. So I knew," she stated, and I smiled. Hell, I was smiling so much this night; 

I'm sure she could see from wherever she was. 

It was really not easy to hide my feelings when it came to her.

"I have something for you. Here, wear some earphones." "…Okay, I'm going to play... right there." I was to play Luke's song. I hoped she liked it. And then I gave her a little bracelet which I had just formulated the words, 'Will you be my girlfriend?' with a question mark. And if hell, this is how men wait for a woman to say yes, I'm not going through this kind of hell…, again.

"Yes, Yes, Hayzen," she stated, stood making me stand, and hugged me tightly. 

My breath hitched, and I took her in my hands, having her face in between my long, slender fingers, and caressed her lips with my right hand thumb and then kissed her. 

It was all real. 

It was all real. 

I had to kiss her again to believe that it was no dream, and I pushed her into the nearest wall, as I felt her breath hitch and her balance seemed to be losing. 

It was like she too was waiting for this. 

And hell, I was too. 

Heaven was sure no better than this. 

Or heaven was sure this. 

This sin. 

This type of sin was all worth it. 

And I knew the kiss would haunt me for days. 

And she was now my girlfriend. 

But she still made me yearn more for her, like she was not enough even knowing she was mine. She just was. 

She just was being… 

She just was beingee…

Kate. 

Just Kate.

Just KATE..,

I sighed..,