"Babe, did you wash your hair or something?" Hunter called from the bathroom, with a muffled voice.
"Yeah, why!?" I asked, looking up from my magazine and to the doorframe of the bathroom.
He appeared in the doorway with a toothbrush in his mouth and his shirtless chest. It was a bonus that he also happened to be in his underwear. My eyes gazed his face and down the rest of his body, admiring his masculine physique. I was so busy checking him out that I almost missed his annoyed facial expression. He held up his pointer finger and returned into the bathroom. I heard him spit the toothpaste out and clink his toothbrush against the sink. Then, he appeared in the doorway again.
"Because I was in the shower and your hair was everywhere. The water was going down the drown kind of slow. You need to start cleaning up your hair. Babe, hair does not go down the drain, it goes in the trash." He said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Sorry." I face palmed myself. "I was gonna pick it up, but I was moisturizing my hair and I forgot."
"It's okay." He chuckled.
"And you cain't talk!" I accusingly pointed at him. "It's just like when you don't put the toilet seat down."
"Okay, but that's different." He laughed. "You can easily just let it down yourself."
"No, it's gross." I narrowed my eyes at him.
He waved me off, as he walked over to the bed and got comfortable on his side.
"Can I turn the light off?" He raised his eyebrows.
"No, I'm reading." I shook my head.
"Babe, come on, it's like eleven at night—almost twelve in the morning." He whined. "I just wanna go to sleep and cuddle with you."
He was still the same Hunter I fell in love with in high school. He loved to be affectionate, and he loved to receive affection. He was also still an emotional guy, but he didn't cry as much. I didn't mind it when he cried, though. Of course, I would be upset because he was upset, but I liked it how my man could cry in front of me because he trusted me. If that made any sense at all. He wasn't afraid to show his vulnerability around me.
I ignored his pleas and continued reading the magazine.
"Hey, babe?" He said after he realized I wasn't going to let him turn off the light.
"What, Hunter?" I huffed, turning my head to face him.
"Remember that one time we were at my house in the basement and you were checking my crotch out." He said nonchalantly.
"Oh my gosh!" I shrieked. "I was not checking it out! And why are you even thinking about that?"
"You were." He held up his chin and smirked. "But I was thinking about how you know what size it is now."
"Hunter, what the hell?" I furrowed my eyebrows and laughed. "You so random."
"I'm also so hor—" He started to say, but was interrupted by crying on the baby monitor.
"It's yo turn." I stated.
"What? No, it's not." He shook his head.
"Yes, it is." I tilted my head to the side.
"Fine, I'll go." He got out the bed and pointed at me. "But when I come back, the light is going off."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I waved him off, as he walked out of the bedroom.
He came back twenty minutes later with a tired face expression.
"Who was it?" I asked him.
My bet was on Taliah; she was the twin that was a bit harder to manage. On the other hand, Cassidy was a good little baby. She cried sometimes, but it was only if she wasn't getting her way. They were in their terrible twos—any parent would know exactly how that felt. Kids started to understand a bit more around that age, like other people's names and how to do certain things. I cracked up every time Cassidy would ask me for my phone just to watch other kids play with toys on YouTube. I would never understand why kids liked watching those type of videos, but it kept them quiet, so I wasn't complaining.
"Taliah." He sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"I figured." I chuckled. "I don't know why she cries so much."
"Yeah, me either." He shrugged his shoulders and turned off the light on me.
"Hey!" I poured. The only source of light now was the television screen mounted on the wall.
"I told you I was turning the light off when I came back, did I not?" He laughed, hopping in the bed.
"Yeah, but—"
"—but nothing." He interrupted me.
He grabbed the open magazine from my hands, closed it, and reached over my body to set it on the bedside table. I laid down to give him more room to put it on the table. Then, he scooted closer to me and wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me closer to his body. With his bare chest against my back, he rested his head on the crook of my neck and pecked my shoulder lightly
"Let's watch Power." He said. "We didn't even get to watch the new episode because we were busy all week."
"No, baby." I chuckled. "You always fall asleep every time we watch TV together. That's why I don't like watching TV with you."
"Okay, I be tired." He joked.
"We can watch it tomorrow, when you're not sleepy." I patted his arm.
"We have to see if Ghost got out of jail." He laughed, grabbing the remote.
"Okay, but if you fall asleep on me, you owe me."
"I owe you what?"
"I don't know, you gotta do the laundry all week. Or I'ma think of something." I shrugged my shoulders with difficulty because I was lying down.
"I already do the laundry."
"I meant for my week of doing laundry."
Hunter and I took turns doing the laundry. We believed that everything in a marriage needed to be compromised, including house chores. So, every week one of us would do a chore, than we would switch it around the next week. This week I had to wash the dishes and clean the house. He had to do the laundry this week and yard work things. He never liked me doing yard work, said it was work he really enjoyed doing on his own. I understood him completely; it was time to himself away from life. I had my time to myself whenever I would just sit back and watch TV shows all day. Having a house schedule like that might have been considered weird to some people, but Hunter and I were weird. We liked doing things in ways some people wouldn't do. That's what made us us.
"Oh, okay, deal." He laughed.
We spent the rest of the night cuddling and watching TV. I smiled to myself when I saw that Hunter had fallen asleep. It looked like I was out of doing laundry for a week.
•••
I thought I'd start off the book with a little bit of the funny Hunter and Aniya😂. And also the fluffy Haniya.
I hope you all enjoyed it, thanks for reading!
Don't forget to VOTE, SHARE, and COMMENT.
xx
P.S. - I'll try to put images in chapters to help visualize what's going on but the people in the pictures ARE NOT what the characters look like.