Your Love Is King (13 page)

“Sure.”

I followed him out onto the balcony, and there we stood, hand in hand, watching a gorgeous, orange sun rise over St. Louis.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands,” he whispered, reciting Psalm 19:1—one of my favorite scriptures.

I squeezed his hand as we took in the breathtaking view. It was the first time in my entire life I’d ever seen a sunrise and it was absolutely beautiful.

Fourteen

“The Sweetest Taboo”

It was another hectic night at work, and when break time finally came, I decided to hide out in a far corner of the ER lobby. I sat down and dialed Chris’s number.

“Hello?” he answered softly.

“Hey, did I wake you?”

“Nah, just stretching. How’s your night been?”

“Don’t even ask.”

“That bad, huh? I bet you were ready for your break.”

“I was, and I was ready to hear your voice, too.”

“Really? You wanna see my face?”

I smiled. “Yeah, I’d love to.”

“And kiss my lips?”

My smile widened. “Mm-hmm.”

“Your wish is my command. Come outside.”

My smile grew even wider, if that’s possible. “Why?”

“Just come outside, woman.”

I walked outside but didn’t see Chris’s car anywhere. “Where are you?” I asked.

“Turn around.”

I spun around to find Chris leaning against the outside wall of the ER. Somehow, I’d passed right by him without noticing him. With a grin on his face, he walked over to me and kissed my cheek.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, although I was thrilled to see him.

“I missed you.”

“Aw, I missed you, too. You wanna join me in the lobby?”

“Nah, I was thinking that maybe we could have a little make-out session in my car. I’m parked right over there.” He pointed to the middle of the parking lot where I could see his shiny Mercedes.

“Make-out session? Wow, you really
are
white. You almost had me fooled there for a minute.”

“Aw, now, there you go with that again. Come on.”

He took my hand and led me across the parking lot to his car. Once safely inside the back seat, he locked the doors, tuned his cell phone to some soothing sounds on Pandora radio, and before I could get settled in the seat good, his lips were covering mine. As he pulled me into his arms, my heart began to race. His touch excited me.
Everything
about him excited me. My heart was beating so hard I could feel in my throat. I wondered if he could feel it, too.

I was so lost in his embrace that I forgot where I was for a moment. I grabbed the back of his head and leaned into the kiss as Chris tightened his grip on my waist. When he finally released me, I had to gasp for air.

“Okay, so you really
did
miss me, huh?” he said breathily.

“Just a little bit.”

“Dang, girl. I need to go away for a few days and see what I get if you miss me a lot.”

“I could say the same thing.”

He sat there and stared at me for a moment as the music continued to play. “You are so beautiful, Marli.”

I dropped my eyes. “Thank you.”

“Why do you always do that?”

“Do what?”

“Whenever I tell you you’re beautiful, you look away.”

“I do?” I shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess it’s because no one’s ever told me I was beautiful before.”

He reached over and slid his fingertip gently across my eyebrow, then my eyelid, then my nose, cheek, and lips. “Then everyone around you must’ve been blind.” He leaned in and brushed his lips across mine. “Because you are absolutely beautiful.”

I looked into his eyes. “Thank you.”

“You are most welcome. I got something for you.”

I smiled. “Really? What?”

“This.” He reached into the front seat and retrieved a single red rose.

“It’s lovely. Thank you.”

He smiled. “You’re welcome. Remember when I told you your next rose would be a different color?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I remember that. What does red mean?”

“Red means love.”

“You’re saying that you love me?” I asked.

“I’m saying that
you
love
me
.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, wow. Chris, you’re just too much.”

He looked me in the eye and shook his head. “No, I’m just what you need.”

When Raheem DeVaughn’s “You” began to play, he opened the door, stood next to the car, and reached for my hand. “Dance with me.”

“Out here? On the parking lot?”

He nodded. “Yes, right here, right now.”

I shrugged, thinking to myself that he was crazy and that anyone who saw us would think we were
both
crazy. I took his hand and let him pull me into his arms. With his phone sitting on the roof of his car providing the music, we danced beneath the stars on the hospital parking lot. I closed my eyes and thought to myself that I loved the way his arms felt around me. Just like he said, I was a perfect fit—we were a perfect fit for each other.

I opened my eyes and looked up at his face. His eyes were closed as he mouthed the words to the song, and he looked
so handsome.
I reached up and gently caressed his cheek, letting my fingers fall to graze his neck. I wanted to kiss him so badly. I
always
wanted to kiss him.  I couldn’t get enough of him or his kisses or the feeling of his arms around me.
Was I in love with him?
If I wasn’t, I definitely
wanted
to be, and the feeling of wanting to be in love was strange, almost foreign to me. I’d spent most of my adult life running away from that feeling.

He opened his eyes and grasped my hand as it traveled to his chest. He brought my hand to his lips and kissed it softly. Then he leaned forward and kissed my lips again. When we finally parted, it was well past the time for me to return to work. Chris walked me to the employee entrance and I glided into the ER with a smile on my face. Throughout the remainder of my shift, my thoughts were of Chris and his kisses. I couldn’t wait to see him again.

~*~

I’d been in St. Louis for two-and-a-half months and had spent most of my time between two places: the hospital and Chris’s apartment. I only had two more weeks left on my assignment and had just about decided to sign on for another three months. The thought of leaving St. Louis and Chris King seemed unreal to me. I was happier than I’d been in years. Actually, I don’t think I’d ever been as happy as I was with Chris. But best of all, the feeling was mutual. He adored me just as much as, if not more than, I adored him.

We spent our time together laughing and talking and just getting to know each other more and more. Little by little, I became comfortable enough with him to talk about some of my past experiences, most of which I wasn’t proud of. I even opened up and told him about my relationships with my parents and my ex.

One evening, while Chris and I were lounging in his living room watching TV, he asked, “Why did you get a divorce?”

 “What?” I replied, caught a little off-guard.

“Why did you and your husband get a divorce?” he repeated.

“Oh… well, we really hadn’t been getting along very well for a couple of years. I did everything I could to make it work. I really did. I never wanted a divorce because my parents’ divorce had been so horrible, and it really affected me. I just didn’t want that for Tiffany, you know?

“Well, anyway, I couldn’t make it work alone. As hard as I fought, Tim’s heart just wasn’t in it. So one day, he told me that he didn’t want to be married anymore. And just like that, he moved out of our house and in with his current wife… and my marriage was over.”  

He sat up and looked me in the eye. “That must’ve been hard for you to deal with. I know it had to hurt you.”

I nodded. “It did, and for a long time, I really and truly despised him. But I came to realize that just like it takes two to make a marriage, it takes two to break one. We were too young. I didn’t know how to be a wife and he definitely didn’t know how to be a husband. Plus, I was just a teenager when I had our daughter, and she became the tie that bound our relationship
and
our marriage. You can’t build a relationship on the fact that you have a kid together. It just won’t work.”

“And then you had to raise her as a single mother? I know that took some strength. I’ve been there. Those years I had Russ were hectic, but they were also the most fulfilling years of my life.”

I smiled. “Yeah, well, Tim was around, but I really did most of the raising alone. But it was definitely worth it. I feel like Tiffany is my greatest achievement. She turned out really well despite the fact that I had no clue what I was doing when I was raising her.”

He laughed. “Well, they don’t come with a manual. I ran my phone bill way up calling my mama when I first had to take care of Russ on my own.”

“Well, my parents were right there with me the whole time, and for the most part, that was my biggest problem.”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

I sighed. “My family puts the
dys
in dysfunctional. My parents divorced when I was, like, seven, and they still can’t stand each other. The only thing they can agree on is what a screw-up I am.”

Chris cocked his head to the side and gave me a curious look. “Now, you don’t believe that, do you? They’re your parents. I know they love you.”

“I guess they do love me in some twisted way, but all I’ve ever heard from them is how I should’ve done
this
or I could’ve done
that
. Never a word about how well I
did
manage to do. They just never got over my getting pregnant as a teenager and all that went along with that. I try not to dwell on how they feel about me, but it’s hard when your own family doesn’t accept you. I was depressed for years trying to deal with that stuff—suicidal, even.”

He grasped my hand in his and gave it a little squeeze. “I’m sorry things were like that for you, baby, I really am. But what you have to remember is that God accepts you, and so do I. I love you, Marli.”

“I know God does, and I know I would never have made it this far without His love and… what did you just say?”