Afterglow ❃ l.m.j

• epilogue lvii •

"Am I making a right here?" I asked, pointing at the next corner above my steering wheel.

Jitters danced all through my body and it took everything in me to just focus on driving. Right foot on the gas, hands on ten and two, and somehow my head's still on my body. Great. This is going just great.

Meanwhile, my girlfriend sat in the passenger seat, tapping away at her phone. Normani finished sending a text before looking up at me, her eyes curious and falling over my body.

"No, the next one. Are you okay? You seem nervous."

Nervous? No, nervous wasn't even the word. Anxious, yes. Terrified, completely. Was it normal to be this worried about meeting your girlfriend's parents? If anything, I feel like she should be crawling out of her skin. But nope. Normani is cool as a cucumber and I'm about to sweat out my turtleneck.

"It's your birthday and I'm meeting your family. Of course I'm nervous." I mumbled, turning on my blinker. "I feel like my heart's in my ass."

"Lauren." The brunette chided. "It's just another day."

I shook my head fervently. "It's not. If it was another day, we'd be home doing parallel play or whatever it is that you call it, and I'd be eating the rest of that crumb cake you keep hiding. I—" I pressed down on my horn, stopping the car just short of some asshole in a green Toyota. "You've got to be fucking kidding me!" I looked at my girlfriend. "That wasn't me, you seen that, right? He cut me off!"

Normani was fighting a smirk. "Are you sure you don't want me to drive?"

I rolled my eyes, turning back towards the light. I ran a hand through my hair callously.

"I can drive, you know. I'm just stressed." I grumbled. I leaned my head forward in anguish. "I just really want this to be a good birthday for you. You've never had a birthday with a girlfriend before."

She blinked. "I've had birthdays with my girlfriends."

"Not with me!" I exclaimed. The light turned green and it took everything in me to not step on it.

Maybe I do need to calm down.

"Baby," I felt a hand in my hair, tucking it behind my ear. Normani caressed my cheek. "You're worrying too much. You've already made this a great birthday. I'm pretty sure you single-handedly put Michaels out of business."

"A couple canvases and paint kits will not put Michael's out of business. If that's the truth, they have bigger problems."

"Lauren." The brunette laughed. "Make a left here, it's gonna be the third house on your right. Oh... Looks like the driveway's blocked so just find somewhere on the street."

My lips knitted into a pout as I did as told and took some time to gracefully park the car. When I turned off the ignition, she looked around before unbuckling her seatbelt. Her face leaned in to mine.

"Does this lipstick smear?"

"No."

"Good."

My love pulled my head towards hers and crashed her lips onto mine, practically crawling into my lap all the while. My seatbelt kept me restrained from moving towards her much. I placed a hand on her thigh and reveled in the feel of her kiss.