Trust Issues

Epilogue Part I

ONE YEAR LATER:
ARMONI POV:

"Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Noonie, happy birthday to you." Jerome sang to me as our FaceTime call connected. Jerome had a beautiful singing voice and I loved when he sang to me. A huge grin was on my face as I attempted to hide my blushing face by facing my phone toward the ceiling. "I'm sorry I can't be there with you." I heard him sigh.

I took a brief moment to collect myself and get myself together before putting my face back in the camera. "Thank you Jerome. Same to you, birthday boy." I smiled.

"How is your birthday so far? How you feeling today?" He asked me.

I took a deep breath before smiling softly at him. When I woke up this morning, I expected to get my usual phone call from Granny. She was always the first person to call and sing happy birthday to me. After waiting for about an hour for her call, I picked up the phone to check on her. Then realization hit me; Granny was no longer here with me.

It's been almost three years but sometimes it's still hard for me to grasp the fact that she's really gone and not coming back. I spent the majority of my morning crying in the shower. But my day was made when I got a call from my Daddy, singing happy birthday to me.

"Blessed." I stated simply. God didn't have to wake me up to see this day, but he did. I have family and friends that love me. Two kids that adore me. Life, health, strength, clothes, food, shelter and all of my needs are met. My life was far from perfect and I could think of a few things that I would love to change but, things in my life could be so much worse. I was so grateful and thankful to God.

"What about you?" I asked him.

"I wish we were together." He mumbled with a pout on his face. He had a game tonight so he was currently in Miami Florida. He was under the impression that I was back home with the kids in California but in reality I was only a few floors below him in the same hotel as he was.

"It's okay, we can celebrate together when you get back." I assured him. Not only was I going to be surprising him tonight, but I also had a little something planned for him back home as well. I knew he'd love it. He turned twenty five and that was a milestone. A lot of people didn't make it to see twenty five where he was from so I grateful that he was one of the lucky ones.

"Yeah ..." He mumbled before sighing. I knew he was down about us not spending our day together but I didn't want him to be sad.

"So what do you have planned for tonight?" I asked him, picking up the conversation and changing the subject.

"I don't know yet. The boys were talking about getting a section but I might stay at the hotel and just chill at the bar or something. We'll see later tonight, I might just go back to my room depending on how I'm feeling." He shrugged.

"Jerome, go out and have fun. All you do is sit in the house and be under us when you're not working. You deserve to have fun and enjoy life." I encouraged him.

"I'd rather be laid up with you and the kids." He replied, making me shake my head.

"Yeah, I bet." I smirked. Jerome and I still were not in a relationship. It had been almost three years since we were committed to each other. We were building up our friendship and raising our kids. Now that Jerome has stopped trying to force me into a relationship with him, I find myself clinging to him and actually enjoying his company and appreciating our friendship. After completing six months of counseling together; we began building our bond all over again and I can honestly say, it helped us a lot.