Eternal Blossom

She stirred the contents of her crock pot, and started to back away when she was stopped abruptly by a hard body. She jumped a little in surprise until his hands settled on her hips, and his chin landed on her shoulder.

“What is that? It looks funny,” he said as he leaned over her to get a better look inside.

“Gumbo,” she responded easily, and looked up at him, wondering how he was so put together now after his entire morning of irritation.

“I like Gumbo,” he said with a soft smile.

“Who said you were invited,” she asked him playfully, resting her hands on her hips over top of his.

“I did,” he chuckled lightly.

Aiyana grinned, and stepped away from him to stretch out her aching shoulders. After the craziness of the last 48 hours, her muscles were stiff and sore, and her pain pill from this morning just wasn’t cutting it.

Brian watched her, and stepped over to direct her to the couch. Normally over the last month if she was hurting she either dealt with it until she was in tears, or they smoked some pot together. He figured he should go ahead and help her head the pain off if he could since he didn’t think they were going anywhere today.

For the first time since they got together, he actually sat down and rolled a joint for the two of them out of the tin she’d left on her coffee table the night before when they got involved in each other. Usually, it was her doing it, but he wasn’t going to ask her to do it when he was just as capable.

He’d made up his mind while playing that he was going to show her how much he cared instead of telling her. If she was just another one of the ladies he’d slept with or dated, he would have told her, not caring if she believed him or not.

Aiyana watched him with curious eyes, confused at first as to why he was suddenly in her pot stash, and rolling a joint for them. He hadn’t said anything when he guided her, so she was trying to figure out if this was because he was trying to still improve his mood.

“Here,” he said as he held the freshly rolled joint and his lighter out to her, “I know you’re hurting.”

Aiyana looked from him to the joint, and her face went into a rather sheepish grin. She knew that Brian knew her well enough to be able to tell, but before he’d just let her make up her own mind as to how to deal with it. It was endearing to her that he desired to take care of her in one of her preferred methods of coping with her pain. She accepted the joint and lit it as she took a long drag before handing him back his lighter.

Holding her breath, she watched him carefully put everything back in her tin in the way she’d previously had it. Perceptive or not, it was nice that he was being so caring, and she appreciated it. She took another drag after letting her breath out and handed it back to him.

Brian accepted it and patted his thigh as he took a drag. With a big smile, Aiyana laid down
with her head in his lap, and when he began to run his free hand though her hair, she finally began to relax. She had no idea what his breakthrough was, but lord was she ever thankful for it right then.

He smiled down at her and passed the joint back to her, motioning that he was done. Leaning his head back against the back of her couch, he began to hum, completely content with life in that moment.

Aiyana listened to his humming as she finished off the joint, and then put out the roach in the ash tray before relaxing into him and the couch again. The day may have started off rocky, but right now, all was right with the world.


That night after eating dinner, Aiyana looked over at Brian and couldn’t help the smile that fell over her full lips. She couldn’t help feeling cherished, but she wasn’t sure if his extra care with her today had been because of he felt guilty of his irritable mood that morning. However, she was glad that it had passed, and she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Looking in her direction, Brian caught her staring at him and chuckled.

“If you don’t stop staring at me like that I’m not going to tell you how good your gumbo is,” he said with a lop sided grin.

“I don’t care. I know my gumbo is the shit,” she shrugged with that damn smile that she couldn’t seem to shake.

He laughed and finished his bowl before walking to her crock pot to grab some more. She just raised her eyebrows at his second helping, assuming he probably still had the munchies from their earlier smoke session.

“Honey, don’t forget this week to remind the guys about the bar b que at daddy’s house this coming weekend,” she reminded him as she put her own empty bowl in the sink.

Brian paled a moment and then sat back down and continued eating like he hadn’t heard her. She looked at him and leaned back against the counter, her hands resting beside her on the edge.

“Don’t tell me you forgot. You were all excited the night of the ball,” she chided him.

“I may have forgotten, but in my defense, I wasn’t thinking about much other than getting you out of that green dress,” he said with a nervous chuckle.

“So you never mentioned it to any of the guys, did you,” she asked as she pushed off the counter to walk over to him.

“Nope,” he replied before stuffing his mouth so he couldn’t say anything else.

Aiyana shook her head and walked over to her phone to go ahead and text everyone herself.
Brian watched her texting, and grinned to himself. He had forgotten, but the images of her sliding out of that green dress were some of his favorites. He regretted nothing other than the fact he hadn’t made her get into it between each time they’d had sex that night so he could undress her again and again.

“Alright, I let everyone know,” she said with a yawn before picking up her living room.

As she crossed into the kitchen with her special tin, she grabbed her stool and carried it over beside the fridge to climb. Brian stood up and put his bowl into the sink before loading the used bowls into the dishwasher and starting it for her while she stashed her tin away again.

“Thank you for picking up my slack,” he told her as he helped her down from her perch.

She just laughed and waved him off before wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her forehead on his chest when her feet hit solid ground again.

“I know you have that digital thing you’re working on tomorrow, but are you free for dinner,” he asked while wrapping his arms around her.

“Yes, I think I could manage to whip us up something,” her muffled words came up to him from where she was still speaking against his chest.

“You’re not cooking,” he replied with a yawn of his own.

“Okay, so,” she yawned in response, “are you staying tonight, or going home?”

He thought about that a moment, and let go of her to stretch his arms high over his head.
She let go of him when he started to stretch, and began to put the crock pot that was cool now to the touch in the fridge. He usually went home if she had to work the next day because he didn’t want to be woken up early.

“I’ll stay,” he said simply, and waited for her to finish before leading her back to her bedroom.

Surprised, she followed him, watching his back move as she tried to figure out what had gotten into him. They enjoyed their time together any time they were together, but they also spent days apart at a time without thinking much of it other than a few calls or texts.

Shrugging, she started to pull her shirt off when she noticed he was getting into bed with his boxers still on. Stopping her movements, she crawled onto the bed and put a hand to his forehead.

“Wait a minute. Who are you and what did you do with my boyfriend,” she asked in amazement as she put her hand to his forehead, mockingly taking his temperature.

“I’m fine,” he laughed as he swatted her hand away, “Just because I’m staying doesn’t mean we have to have sex.”

“Brian, dear, any time you’ve stayed the night other than that first night or when I’ve been in too much pain, we’ve had sex,” she said with a laugh.

“Well, I won’t complain if you’re taking control of the situation, but I was thinking I’d just hold you tonight,” he said simply as he rolled onto his side facing her.

Aiyana raised an eyebrow and then shrugged before changing into an over sized shirt and a pair of underwear. She turned off the lights and crawled into bed beside him, resting her head on his chest. His arms instantly came up to hold her, and she smiled to herself in the darkness.

This was nice. It showed her that they didn’t always have to be intimate when they slept in the same bed. Not that she was going to complain about the sex, because it was great, but it was nice to enjoy just being held too. She wasn’t sure what had gotten into him, but she was enjoying it. Those bricks in that wall just kept slipping out of place, she noticed.

As her mind was racing with those thoughts, she felt his breath even out under her cheek, and she placed a soft kiss to the flesh there before succumbing to sleep easily herself.

Notes

Sorry ya'll didn't get an update last night. For some reason I couldn't log in.

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