Page 39 of Ony If It’s You

Chapter Twenty-Four

K ehlani

Putting the top back on my pen, I grinned at the thought of my plans.

Javyous and I had the night to ourselves since the twins were with Pharaoh’s parents.

It was their anniversary, so they were having a party.

I hadn’t hesitated to tell them yes when they’d asked for Si and Jocey.

They loved my kids and the feelings were mutual.

It was hard to believe that their son actually was their child with how trifling he was.

Javyous had just recently gotten the opportunity to shoot a commercial for Black Ops, the bourbon distillery in here in Crescent Falls. He tried to act like it wasn’t that big of a deal, but I wasn’t going to allow him to downplay it. The opportunity was huge and I was proud of him.

After cleaning all of the things that I had used, I went searching for Javyous. I found him in the living room on the video game.

“Dominique, where the fuck you at? I’m fucking surrounded,” he fussed into his headset.

Tonight was one of the rare nights that he had off, so he was home relaxing. Even Dominique went in early just for him.

“Baby,” I called out to take his attention from the game. When he looked my way, I was holding up two index cards. He couldn’t see what they said because the activities were facing me. All he could see was the words Date Night on his side. “Pick one.”

“In a minute, bae,” he responded before looking back at the TV.

Frowning, I stepped directly in his line of vision because he had been doing this shit the entire afternoon. I was cool with it at first because I had some facial creams and body butters to whip up, but now it was time for him to show me some attention.

“Kehlani.” He frowned.

“Javyous.”

Sighing, he shook his head and pulled the headset off, tossing it to the side. He powered the game off next. I smiled and held the cards up in front of him again.

“Spoiled ass,” he mumbled. “Fuck is this?”

“A date night idea I found on TikTok. Pick.”

Laughing, he eyed the cards trying to decide which to choose.

One read Drive thru - your choice , the other read Dine in - my choice .

Leaning forward, he snatched the bottom card and looked at me.

“How are you taking me on a date, but the restaurant is your choice?” he fussed.

“Because I’m planning. Now choose.”

The two new cards read dress up or dress down .

This time he grabbed the card on top. We both smiled at each other before I grabbed his hand and pulled him up from the couch.

“Come on, we have reservations in an hour.”

“How?” He laughed as I pulled him along. “You didn’t even know what I was going to choose.”

“I kind of did which is why I went ahead and started to get ready. I’m dressing in Jocey’s room, so hurry.”

“Wait, why?” he asked after pulling me into his arms and raining kisses down my neck.

“Because of this… move, Javyous,” I whined. “We have reservations.”

“I’m not hungry for food.”

“I am,” I responded, trying to wiggle free from his arms. “Your baby is hungry.”

He paused and scowled at me.

“Why you have to go there?”

“It’s true.” I laughed. “Now hurry.”

I rushed into Jocey’s room and locked the door to keep him out.

I didn’t think that he would try anything in her room, but that was just to be on the safe side.

I had already done my makeup, so all I really need to do was dress and fix my curls.

I’d gotten my hair blown out by Sheniq, one of the best hair stylists in Crescent Falls, so I had her pin curl it so my curls would last.

I slipped into the tight-fitting, silk, red dress that I’d gotten from The Shops at the Falls. Javyous loved the color red, so I wanted to wear it for him. He claimed to like any color on me, but I saw how his eyes lit up any time I wore red.

After dressing, I went into Jocey’s bathroom and started on my hair. I pulled all of the pins out of my head and used my fingers to rake through the curls. They came out big and perfect; just how I wanted them.

I applied some red lipstick followed by a coat of gloss then grabbed my black, strappy heels.

I gave myself a once over in the full length mirror that sat in the corner of her room.

My stomach was still nonexistent since it was early in my pregnancy and I was glad.

I wanted to still be able to wear whatever I wanted without a belly interrupting it for as long as possible.

Javyous was knocking at the door, which meant time was up. I was done dressing anyways, so I walked over and pulled the door opened. My breath got caught in my throat seeing him dressed in a black, slim-fitting suit with a red dress shirt under it that complemented my dress perfectly.

“You look good as a mothafucka, Lani,” he said, breaking the silence that surrounded us.

“You too.” I grinned, pushing out of his arms when I felt him getting too touchy. My phone vibrated, letting me know that the car I’d ordered from iDrive was outside.

Right on time.

Grabbing Javyous by the hand, I pulled him down the steps and out to the awaiting car. The driver was standing by the back passenger door waiting for us to climb inside. I went first followed by my husband. Once we were inside and settled, I pulled two more cards from my purse.

One read tickets to the Royals Game . The Royals were our local basketball team and the season was set to start soon. The other card read ten bands.

He smiled as his hand hovered over the two cards before he finally snatched the top card. His smile dropped when he read it and noticed me pulling the prize from my purse.

“What are you doing? I’m not taking that from you.”

My smile slowly started to fade.

“Why not?”

“Because you’re my wife. You doing all of this for me tonight is enough for me.”

“That’s not fair.” I pouted. “This is some of the money I had put to the side to do my renovations, but you did it for me.”

“I’m your man. I’m supposed to do that kind of shit for you.”

“And I’m your wife, I’m supposed to do stuff for you too, now here.” I forced the money into his hand. “I split the rest of it between Si, Jocey, and our new baby’s savings accounts.”

Javyous and I were doing good for ourselves, which meant that our kids were too, but I still wanted them to always have a rainy day account and a savings account. I’d started one for each of them.

“Come here.” He yanked me into his lap and kissed my lips. “I love your fine ass.”

Smiling against his lips, I said, “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing that.”

“You better not. I’m the only nigga that’s going to be loving you for the rest of this life and any other ones.”

“How can you claim me in another lifetime?” I laughed.

“Just like I just did.”

I laughed because he was serious. He didn’t crack a smile at all.

After kissing his lips one more time, I climbed out of his lap and laid my head on his shoulder.

We rode in a comfortable silence the rest of the way to the restaurant.

I’d chosen Diablo’s, a popular, upscale steakhouse.

The driver pulled up to the entrance then got out to open the door.

JV exited first then helped me out. The two of us walked hand in hand to the hostess stand.

“Reservation for Goldsmith,” I said with a smile that faded quickly when I noticed how she was eyeing my man. “Hello!” I snapped.

She snapped out of her trance and turned red in the face since she was caught. “My apologies, I didn’t catch the name.”

“That’s because you were too busy eyeing my man,” I spat.

“No, it wasn’t like?—”

I cut her off. “It was. Hurry and find our table before you get your ass beat.”

“Baby, chill.” Javyous laughed from behind me, closing his arms around me. “Goldsmith.”

She looked down at the tablet before asking us to follow her to the table that they had reserved for us. She waited until we were seated before apologizing again then excusing herself.

Stupid bitch.

“Yo’ ass is crazy,” JV said.

We were seated on the same side of the table with me in his lap. I tried to sit in my own seat, but he caught me by the waist and brought me to my rightful place in his lap.

“No, that hoe had me fucked up with her disrespectful ass. We’re clearly together and she looked like she wanted to dive on you right then and there.”

“Jealous ass,” he said before his soft lips landed on my neck. “What are you eating?”

“Parmesan crusted steak,” I answered with a groan. I’d been thinking about it since I decided that I wanted to bring him on a date today.

“Yo’ ass love cheese.” He turned his nose up.

He ate cheese too just not as much as me. He was lactose intolerant just like the kids. I would probably die if I was. I ate some combination of cheese every day.

“What are you getting?”

“A ribeye. Probably, mixed veggies and a potato.”

“I want rice pilaf and broccoli. I wanted cauliflower too though,” I whined.

“Aight, keep eating all that shit,” he joked.

“I can’t help it.”

The waitress had finally come over to our table and took our drink and food orders. I ended up getting an appetizer as well. I could never resist the spinach dip.

“A toast.” I lifted my glass of water in my husband’s direction.

He grinned. “For what?”

“All of your accomplishments, really,” I answered. “You have really been on a roll lately and I’m proud of you and all of the progress you’ve made.”

“Thank you, baby.” He leaned in and kissed my lips before drinking from the Crown and Coke that he had ordered.

“I mean a whole commercial!” I beamed. “My man is turning into an all-out actor.”

“Facts and I’ve been writing out some scenes I need you to help me perform.”

“Javyous, stop.” I simpered and blushed as he eyed me and felt me up.

“Why? I like feeling on your fine ass.”

“I know, but we need to just date tonight. No freaky stuff.”

“If you didn’t want a nigga to be copping feels and shit, you shouldn’t have worn this fucking dress,” he growled in my ear before biting my earlobe. “You smell good too.”