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I grinned, then winked at him.
He shook his head, biting his lip, then he asked, “So, how does a single mom go to college full-time?”
I smiled, “When we get closer to the whole making us yours with Crew’s approval, I’ll tell you more on the other side. But I was raised in the foster system. The family I was placed with in elementary school wasn’t the greatest, but at least I didn’t get beaten. I had a teacher in second grade, and almost as if it was kismet, I couldn’t tell you. But each time I had to move to another school, she somehow found a way to move with me.”
“When I was fourteen, I had asked her why she did that. And she told me that sometimes God puts people in your life and it’s up to you to open your eyes and see the wonder in that. She told me that she was never blessed to have a child, but there was something about me that told her I was her miracle.”
“What she never told me was that the reason she couldn’t have any children was that she had cancer as a kid. And the chemo did a lot of damage to her body. Anyway, when I was sixteen, the cancer came back. She was unable to beat it. She left everything to me when she passed. Including the name of a prestigious college that offered daycare to single moms.”
“So, thanks to her and her generosity, I was able to get into this school, have daytime classes only, and always be there for Crew until I find a job when I graduate.”
He nodded, “Damn, sounds a lot like my story in a way.”
I tilted my head, “How so?”
“Well, I met a man one day, and he showed me how a parent is really supposed to be. His family took me in when I was nine and adopted me. I don’t know where I’d be without him. And the rest of how I met him, again, is for another time.”
I nodded, showing him that I got it.
And wanting to lighten the mood, I asked, “So, tell me, do you prefer sugar cookies or chocolate chip?”
He actually visibly cringed. What the hell?
“Neither. Anything with peanut butter. Always.”
I gasped, “Are you serious?”
He nodded, then looked perplexed, “Why?”
I grinned, then moved, and lifted the lid off the cookie jar I kept on the coffee table. It was one of those farm-style old red trucks that really was a Christmas decoration, but I loved it so much that I kept it out year long.
I reached into it and pulled out Crew’s favorite cookie, then I handed him one.
He raised a brow, then took a bite, closed his eyes, and moaned.
I had to clench my thighs together at the moan. My god.
Don’t go there, Aliyah. Don’t go there.
Instead, I whispered, “Those are Crew’s favorite too.”
He grinned wide then, “Fuck yes. Can I have another one?”
After he ate that one in two bites, yes, two bites, he asked, “Where’d you get these?”
I giggled, “I made them.”
He looked at me, shook his head, and then mumbled around a bite of the one I just handed him, “Swear to Christ, if we were actually together I’d get down on one knee.”
I laughed and then after he had a third cookie, he told me to put the lid back on, and that the rest were for Crew.
And he had no clue how much he had just slipped into my heart with that one little statement.
We went back and forth then, learning about each other.
I found out he hated sushi.
He found out I hated lobster.
