her satin cocktail dress before sitting down in the chair that Joshua had pulled out for her.

He gently pushed in her chair, readjusted the white tie that matched her apparel then sat down across from her at the table.

The couple was in a fancy restaurant, located in Chicago, the latest stop on Ayoluwa's newest tour.

The atmosphere was romantic with candles placed sporadically and someone playing My First Love by Avant on a piano on the platform a few feet away.

Ayoluwa and Joshua glanced at the piano player and Ayoluwa lightly sung along, only loud enough for Joshua to hear, "I'll keep an old candy coated, valentine. Times keep changing, come sun or rain. I love this song."

"You can play and sing way better than that guy." Joshua said then took a sip of his water.

Ayoluwa snickered as she looked around, "Thank you for coming out here. I know it was hard, leaving practice early and all that."

"It's our third anniversary. I wasn't missing that. Tell you what I don't miss," Joshua's eyes rose to the bodyguard that Ayoluwa's manager, Gloria had hired, who was standing near the exit of the restaurant, "What's his name again? Rupert?"

"Rufus. Sorry. Gloria insisted." Ayoluwa pursed her red lipstick stained mouth.

"I guess it's fine," Joshua picked up his menu, "What are you getting?"

"Probably whatever salmon they have. I wanna talk about what's in the bag." Ayoluwa pointed her Christian Louboutin covered foot towards the gift bag by Joshua's hard bottom shoes.

"What's in your bag?" Joshua dropped his eyes to where her own gift bag for him was waiting by her feet.

Ayoluwa smiled but remained quiet.

"Then you have to wait, Palmer." Joshua sent her a sneaky grin.

"Annoying."

"You love me."

"That I do." Ayoluwa turned and looked around the restaurant, "Wonder where our server is."

When she looked back at Joshua, he had his elbow on the table and a loopy smile on his face while he stared at her.

"What?" Ayoluwa asked, as she touched her locs and her neck, "Is there something on my face?"

"No. You look perfect."

Ayoluwa blushed and before she had a chance to say thank you, a woman who looked to be in her mid twenties came up to them, her hands shaking a bit.

"Hi, I hope I'm not disturbing y'all too much. I just wanted to see if I could get a picture." The woman gave Ayoluwa a nervous smile.

"Of course," Ayoluwa smiled as she took the napkin and pen from her hand, scrawled her signature then passed it back.

"Thank you!" The woman scurried away.

"That will never not seem real to me. Like she listens to my shit. This is crazy." Ayoluwa confessed.

Joshua lightly dug his finger into her dimple in response, "Believe it."

Finally a server in a black and white uniform came over, "I'm sorry for the delay. What can I get you started with?"

"I'll just take a sweet tea." Ayoluwa replied.

"And I'll take a Coke."

"You know your nutritionist said no soda." Ayoluwa pointed out.

"Eh, I'm cheating." Joshua waves away her concerns.

Ayoluwa shook her head at his nonchalance before starting to reminisce, "Can you believe we used to hate each other?"

"I was just thinking about that earlier today. Like me from junior year of high school or shit, even fall semester senior year wouldn't believe that we got together." Joshua shook his head.

"We were so stupid." Ayoluwa giggled then picked up her gift to Joshua, "I want your reaction."

Joshua raised an eyebrow as he pulled out a jewelry box, then his mouth opened a little.

It was his grandfather's gold chain, recreated and iced out.

"I told you I was gonna make it right, didn't I?" Ayoluwa teased as Joshua remained silent.

"This is so fucking thoughtful. You gonna make me cry in this damn restaurant, Palmer."

Joshua sniffled just a tad, "Open yours."

Ayoluwa plucked the bag from his side and pulled out a tiny box, "Okay, now you know good and damn well, we're too young to get married. My grandma would kill us both."

"Just open it." Joshua was running his hands over his new chain.

Ayoluwa flipped the lid open to see two house keys.

When she looked up at Joshua, he was grinning back at her, "I thought living together even if it is part of the time would make this long distance thing easier."

"You got us a house?"

"An apartment. You told me once how you wanted to live in Manhattan at least once, so..."

Ayoluwa sat down her gift then laid her hand across the table, "I love it. I love you."

Joshua grabbed it with no hesitation, "I love you too."

"Three years, down." Ayoluwa smiled.

"Forever to go." Joshua kissed her hand, making Ayoluwa's grin wider.

Forever seemed pretty good.

the end🥲

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