Hinged, Grown and Sexy

35. Other Words

By the time Divine finished telling me the good, the bad and the ugly, we'd both shed a tear or two. There was plenty more to learn about her as the years went on, but this was more than a start.

As she laid herself bare to me, it became more and more obvious that Divine was finally willing to let me in and to be her comfort when she needed. She was taking that same comfort as she laid her head on my chest, directly over my stammering heartbeat.

"I was wondering when you'd finally lay that last boundary between us to rest." I muttered as my hand trailed along her body.

"You knew?" Divine questioned, turning around in my embrace to look at me.

"If you hadn't noticed, our best friends enjoy playing cupid a lil' too much, and neither of them are too big on secrets these days. They didn't tell me about your brother, though." I shrugged.

Lord knows they knew how much secrets could weigh on the heart and open chasms where they shouldn't be. Happy endings didn't come from filtered words and tightly sealed lips. They came from an unbridled willingness to be vulnerable, hoping the other person wouldn't shy away from your darkness or shield themselves from your light. I guess I was finally learning that myself.

"I shouldn't be surprised." Divine laughed.

"Yeah, and when I heard, I went and got tested to see if me and your pops were a match. Now, that was a harder secret to keep under wraps."

"Now, Momma's assurances that everything would be fine and her secret smiles with my dad made sense. I was wondering why Dezmon seemed to have left everyone's mind in the blink of an eye when I'd been begging for that sudden case of forgetfulness for years!" Divine exclaimed in surprise.

But I could tell she thought my generosity seemed too good to be true. Too much of a fairytale that she probably didn't feel very deserving of. Well, she was wrong.

"But you got tested for the kidney donation? Eli, that's too much."

"You know, I want to say that I did it because I'm just that good of a person." I chuckled before growing serious. "But that would be a lie, pretty."

I gripped her chin with my thumb and turned her gaze to look into my own. My other hand fingered the collar of the trench coat she still had on and a tinge of nervousness rippled through her frame. What was she hiding underneath this?

"I did it because I wanted to show you that I need a place in your future. I need you to see that I'm standing here, waiting to be the one you come home to because I've been in love with you since the day you demanded I ask for your number." We both chuckled as she slapped her hand against my chest.

"I did not!"

"Mhm, I think we remember that night a little differently, but there wasn't a world where I wasn't going ask your number by the end of that night. That was the beginning of the end because now, a kidney seems like small change when you already own my heart."

"I think love you, Eli Thomas." She said as she stared up at me, raw emotion hanging precariously in the air between us.

We were dangling on the precipice of vulnerability and desire, and it wouldn't take much to tip either of us over into indulgence.

"I need you to be serious about this, D. When the gloves come off, that's it for me." I said as I set my forehead on hers for a second. "I can't take you pulling away from me anymore."

"I promise, I'm in this, Eli. And I plan on showing you just how much. All. Night. Long." She swore before pulling away from me to stand up.

She swayed slightly before running her hands down her frame to pull slowly at the ties of the cast. Once it opened, the first touch of cool air against her skin made her breath hitch. It fell in a heap at her feet, but my eyes struggled to focus.