Chapter Twenty

“Hey, come on in. We’re just finishing up the menu now.”

Nova-star-level heat nerves flow through me as I invite Zahra to come through the door. I’ve been looking forward to this all night, and I’m worried I’ve built things up to be more than what it might be in reality. This step feels right, it cements things on a different plane for me, and even though we aren’t official, Kyle’s birthday party later today could change things. Today has “EPIC” written all over it. I can feel it. The minute I kiss her cheek to say hello, though, all my other thoughts disappear in a plume of smoke.

I escort Zahra into the dining area, where Unk and Lennox, his new love, await. The food has been laid out buffet style, which surprises me a bit. I thought we were sitting down to eat. Oh well, I guess I’ll shake that off to be the other host for this occasion. “Unk, Ms. Lennox, I’d like to introduce my friend, Zahra Assante. Z, you already know about my uncle, but Ms. Lennox was the other person I told you about last night.”

Unk rises from his seat at the head of the table and saunters over to greet Zahra with a handshake. “I’m thrilled you could make it. I know last night was particularly rough. Even Yasir looked like he’d been through a fight or two, and he wasn’t even on the field.”

Zahra flashes a smile, looking over at me as if to ask if Unk knows what happened last night after the game. I shrug; I didn’t plan to tell him much of anything…unless I had no other choice. “Thank you for inviting me. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“And the feeling is mutual. He’s been floating around here the past few weeks.” Unk chuckles. “Please, have a seat. Enjoy whatever looks good to you. Ya-Ya and I have been at it all morning to make sure you all can enjoy.”

I cringe at the mention of my nickname in Zahra’s presence. No, he didn’t just drop that in the middle of the conversation…ugh. “Yeah, I had a hand in the shrimp and grits and a few other things.”

“You didn’t say you could cook.” Zahra cuts her eyes at me as she sits in the seat at the other end of the table. “You’re just full of surprises…Ya-Ya.”

“You’re lucky I like you—only family calls me that,” I correct her. I’m never gonna live that down. If she ever calls me that in school, there goes my rep. “I’m not gonna lie, though, it sounds good coming off your lips.”

“Oh my God, you two are so freaking cute,” Lennox gushes as she takes a bite of her pancakes. “You two are so connected. Don’t ask me how I know. I just have a feeling when I see you together. You just…fit.”

Unk pulls Lennox to him, placing a finger to his lips. “They’re just friends, babe. I don’t know what’s the hold up, but that’s their story, and they’re sticking to it.”

“I don’t care what they’re talking about. You two are absolutely stunning together. You are gorgeous, Zahra.” Lennox sits down in the chair across from us, shaking her head as she gazes at us. “From what Xavion has told me, you’ve had a positive effect on his nephew. I can see why; there’s a glow about you, young lady.”

Zahra blushes and leans into me. “Thank you, Ms. Lennox, but I don’t know if I’ve had as much influence as people think I have. We haven’t been around each other that long, but I’ll take it if you’re saying it, too.”

“You should take the compliment, I’m awesome like that, but you’ll find out soon enough. Both of you will,” Lennox quips. “Look, Yasir, I’ve grown to care for your uncle deeply, and I hope that we will have the chance to build a friendship, too. You’re important to him, which means you’re important to me, okay?”

Okay, she pulls that card on me real quick. She’s right, though. I don’t remember the last time he smiled like that. It’s a good look. “I hear you, Ms. Lennox. I look forward to it.”

Unk does his best to cut the convo short and save me from a few more embarrassing moments. “Okay, I need to get you out of here before you really have my nephew regretting doing this get-together. Besides, they need some privacy, and we still have a series to finish streaming.”

Lennox rises from her chair, grabbing some of the dishes as she makes her way into the kitchen with Unk. “Fine, since your uncle wants to leave you two to your privacy, I guess I can lay off the inquisition for now. Oh, and I’m really not buying that ‘best friends’ bit, okay? I’m just saying.”

Zahra watches Lennox head outside, and once she closes the door, she lets a giggle escape her lips. “Are you sure your uncle is ready for all of that?”

“Yeah, I think he is, but it’s going to be a wild ride, I can tell.” I rise from the couch, offering my hand for her to stand. “Would you like to see the surprise I have for you?”

“Lead the way, handsome. I can’t wait to see it.”

…

“By Nyati, these paintings are beautiful,” Zahra says. “It’s like you captured the essence of my home country with each stroke and color. I almost feel like I can step inside and be right there. Are you sure you’ve never been there before?”

“No, I created them from a few pictures Unk had. Do you like them?” I roll up the most recent painting she viewed, moving to place it into the bin with the rest. “I think they still need a lot of work, but I’ve been studying some new techniques to try to give them a more hyper-realistic feel. I want people to feel like they can step inside them.”

Zahra turns around and slips her hands around mine, gazing into my eyes. I want to turn away, but she’s so captivated, I don’t want to ruin the moment. “I could feel everything…the sun on my face, the ocean breeze, even the water near the river tribes. You made me miss home.”

I smile, pressing my forehead against hers. “I was afraid to show them to you,” I admit. “Outside of Unk, no one has seen my paintings before. I figured that I could trust you with some of the things that mean the most to me. I trust you, Z, for real.”

“Ugh, if you wanted me to fall for you in one singular moment, this was that moment. I’m glad you can trust me. It means a lot to me.”

I glance toward the ceiling before meeting her gaze again. I will the words to come out of my mouth and pray that they don’t sound like something out of a sappy Lifetime movie. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? “I know we’re supposed to just be friends and everything, but the weird part of it all…”

Zahra picks up on my voice trailing off. “Tell me.”

“It feels like we were made for each other, as cliché as it sounds,” I confess. “There’s something that I feel deep in my core every time our eyes meet, like there’s more between us, but I can’t figure out what it is that connects us deeper.”

Zahra looks away, so I don’t force the issue. I want her to feel safe, but I have to get my thoughts out before they eat me alive. She focuses her gaze on a corner of a painting on the easel in the center of the studio. She breaks from our embrace to peek under the cloth that conceals the rest of the painting.

I grab for her hand in a knee-jerk response to not wanting her to see what lies beneath the cloth. “I’m sorry, it’s just that…it’s sort of a work in progress, and I don’t know if I’m ready for you to see it yet.”

“Too late to be shy now. What’s the image of that has you so nervous?”

I know I said I trusted her, and now it’s proving to be my downfall. Oh well, it’s not like she won’t see it eventually. “It’s a painting…of you.”

Zahra widens her eyes as her gaze falls back to the concealed painting, then shifts to my face before pivoting back to the painting. She turns to face me and slips close enough to tiptoe and brush her lips against my face. “I understand if you think it needs to be perfect, but I promise I’ll love it regardless. I want to know how you see me.”

I breathe deep, turning her around to face the painting. “Take off the cloth so you can see how I see you…well, at least one version of you.”

She tugs on the paint-splattered cloth, watching it slide off the top of the easel. Everything seems to flow in slow motion as the painting reveals itself from top to bottom, uncovering a stunning, full-bodied portrait of Z in a formal dress and head wrap. She gasps as she sees her body adorned in golden arm cuffs wrapped around her biceps in a spiral, snake-like pattern, and rings on her index fingers and thumbs. A diamond- and amethyst-encrusted pendant rests against her chest, along with matching earrings that look like they drip from her earlobes.

She keeps turning her head back to me as though she can’t believe what she sees. From the meticulous attention to detail around her eyes and the contouring of her cheekbones, to the way her lips are splashed in the black, gold, and purple color scheme of the Kindaran flag. She marvels at her portrait on the canvas. Her braids are swept up into a ponytail with a matching headwrap encased around her hair, giving a playful-but-serious look to her face.

Zahra covers her mouth with her hands as she stares at the dress, and I notice her fingers shake. A halter-neck maxi dress, also in the Kindaran flag colors, shows cut-out patterns on the sides of her waist, and from the slight side profile of the portrait, it’s clear to see that the dress is backless, stopping a few inches below the middle of her back. From there, the dress flows down to about three inches from the ground, where diamond-encrusted strapped heels are on her feet.

Okay…she still hasn’t said anything. “If you don’t like it, I can start over and rip this one up.”

Her hands are still covering her mouth, and I brace myself against the overwhelming emotions coursing through me. “By Nyati,” she says, “it’s like you took my essence and captured everything I wanted to exude. I can’t believe that’s how you see me.”

“So I don’t need to change it, right?”

She turns around and faces me, wiping a tear from her cheek. “Don’t you dare touch this painting. Please don’t change anything. It’s so vivid… I feel like I’m looking in the mirror.”

I exhale, bringing her hands to my lips. “You had me worried for a minute. I spent the past few nights trying to get this right before I got up the nerve to show it to you.”

Zahra wraps her arms around my neck, pressing her lips against mine so hard it blurs my vision. I don’t know where this is coming from, but I’m quickly losing myself in the kiss between us. I pull away, but she holds me in place, almost like she’s determined to keep me there in the moment with her. She deepens her kisses, taking steps with me as we move backward.

She giggles the moment we hit the wall, smiling as she encourages me to keep going. I slip my hands around her waist, the intoxicating scent of her perfume causing near-dizzy spells. She locks her fingers around the back of my neck as I lift her off the ground.

“Are you sure about this, Z?” I ask between kisses, shaking off the dizzy spells. By Nyati, her lips are so soft. “Should we be doing this? I mean…we can stop, this isn’t …”

“Don’t stop kissing me, Ya-Ya,” Zahra whispers in my ear before caressing my neck to make a path back to my lips. “We’re just kissing. Friends can kiss, remember?”

Before I lose my nerve, I pull Zahra closer, focusing on her lips before I close my eyes. I lose my breath all over again the second our lips touch and fight every instinct to pull away. Every nerve is on fire and getting hotter by the minute. Okay, so, um…I’ve never kissed a girl like this before, and the energy coursing through my body scares me beyond my capacity to understand what’s happening.

I almost rip myself away, bringing my fingers to my lips in disbelief over what we’d done. I can’t look up, can’t handle her reaction. I vibrate from head to toe, willing the insecurities that want to rise to the surface to stay in the depths of my mind. I swear I feel hot to the touch, and I’m close to passing out.

When I finally get my nerves together to meet Zahra’s gaze, I come face to face with a confused expression I hoped wouldn’t be there. “Umm…Zahra, I…I wanted to…well, that is to say…”

Zahra grins at me, placing an index finger against my lips to quiet me mid-sentence. “It’s okay, I liked it. Actually, I liked it a lot.”

I let out a long exhale, placing her hand against my chest to try to slow my rapid heartbeat. “It’s been a minute since… Let me stop lying… I’ve never kissed a girl before. I’m… Did I do it right? I don’t know what to say right now.”

Zahra leans in closer, purring in my ear, “Yasir…kiss me again.”

I blink a few times. Is this actually happening? “Are you sure? Like, really?”

“Yes, silly… I can show you how I want you to kiss me, if you’d like?” Zahra gives a knowing wink. “Did you like kissing me?”

“Is that a trick question?”

Zahra rubs her nose against mine, coaxing me as she stares into my eyes. “Then kiss me, Yasir.”

I cup my hands around her face this time, mimicking some movie scene I committed to memory or something. I stare into her eyes again, only this time I notice her studying them. “What’s wrong? Is there something on my face or something?”

“Your eyes…they’ve turned colors,” she says, her gaze never looking away from mine. “They’re this shade of purple, like an amethyst gemstone… They’re so beautiful, I can’t stop staring.”

The uncertainty washes over me like a waterfall. I have no idea what she’s talking about. My eyes have always been a mix between amber gold and light brown. For her to say my eyes are on a whole other color spectrum has me a slight bit panicked.

I draw back again, but Zahra keeps me with her. I don’t resist when she brushes her lips against mine, but I still have her last thoughts flowing through my head. What’s happening to me? My eyes have never done that before. Was she playing with me?

She keeps at it, playfully kissing my chin, then my nose. “Oh, no, you’re not getting away again. Kiss me… Yasir, kiss me.”

Despite my best efforts, I can’t concentrate on being in the moment with her. “Zahra, there might be something—”

“We can deal with that later… Kiss me.”

I give in to her wishes—or at least my body does—slipping my hands around her waist and losing myself in the embrace. I retreat to the recesses of my mind, intent on traveling as we continue our interlude. I hope it will settle me down so I can enjoy this moment.

I conjure the first image that comes to mind, taking me across the Atlantic and to one of my favorite places on my bucket list, Victoria Falls in Zambia.

In a blink, I’m floating above the majestic beauty of the largest waterfall in the world, its size literally forming the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. I gaze over the expansive curtain of falling water, marveling at the columns of spray rising from the falls, almost feeling the water against my skin, providing a refreshing reprieve from the heat of the day. I smile as I locate the Knife-Edge Bridge, setting down on the platform to take advantage of the special vantage point of the Eastern Cataract and the Main Falls and the area called the Boiling Pot, where the Zambezi River turns and heads down the Batoka Gorge. The awe-inspiring sight was exactly what I need to get in sync with Zahra.

I’m so taken with the view that I don’t notice Zahra standing next to me with a stunned expression on her face. I struggle to understand how she’s there, too, and can’t find the words.

Let’s be real. I’m at a loss for words to explain how she’s here with me. How in the world is this even possible?

She grabs my arm, almost too scared to move. “How are we here, Yasir? We were just in your room, and now we’re in…Africa? How are you doing this?”

I shrug at her questions, unsure how to answer them. How the hell am I supposed to know how she’s here with me? I was in a zone, trying to balance my psyche, but I’m really worried over how I did this and how can I get us out of whatever I just did.

Even though I’m terrified and doing my best to keep Zahra from freaking out with me, I’m happy she’s in the space with me. That’s probably the only reason I’m not screaming right now. It’s bad enough we’re floating inside my head and can feel and see and hear everything surrounding us. What scares me the most is staring into the bottom of the falls and praying that I don’t lose concentration and we end up falling out of the sky.

No point in arguing the why of it all. I’m content to enjoy the ride—even if I’m confuzzled as hell with no way to figure out how to get out of this conjured daydream. “Do you want to see more? I think we still have some time to kill.”

“You still haven’t explained how we’re literally somewhere else other than back home in Oakwood Grove,” Zahra insists as she grabbed my hand. “I feel like I should be freaking out, but I can’t understand why I’m not freaking out. What’s going on?”

“I have no idea how to answer your questions because this is the first time someone else has been in this space with me.” But she seems to be okay. “Do you trust me?”

“Do I have a choice?” Zahra holds my hand tighter, wrapping her arm around mine. “I don’t know if I’m dreaming or if this is real.”

She’s not the only one. I suppress the rising fear in my heart and keep moving forward, holding her tight around her waist as we lift from the bridge and take flight. In seconds, we land at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, taking in the snowcaps that adorn the three volcanic cones and the rest of the top of the mountain. The descending sun provides the backdrop to a tide of elephants making their way across the savanna outside of the massive mountain forest that encircles it. I smile wide as I observe the captivated look on Zahra’s face. We take a few more seconds to enjoy one of the Seven Summits on the planet.

“Ready for the next stop, pretty girl?” I’m getting a little more comfortable with what’s going on, and I begin to remember how I leave when I’m meditating. That calms me down a lot more and gives me more control over things.

Before she can answer, we fly in a flash farther north into the land of the pharaohs, arriving at a location that draws another confuzzled glance from Zahra. “Where are we now?”

“Abu Simbel. It’s one of my favorite places in the world.” I’m beaming as we gaze up at the statue of Rameses II and the smaller statues at his feet.

“Well, don’t keep me in suspense. Why?”

“Because Rameses had a temple dedicated to his wife, Queen Nefertari, and the smaller statues that surround his feet are of her and their children, along with his mother.” I guide her around the base of the statues, enjoying the monument all over again through her eyes. “Standing monuments to their love to last beyond their lifetimes. Who wouldn’t want that?”

I stare into her eyes, smiling over the wonder in her expression. “What’s on your mind, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Ask me when we get back,” she says.

One last burst across the burning sands of the Sahara with what feels like light speed and we’re back in my studio. We settle into our bodies again, breaking from our kiss and searching around to see if anything has changed around us. I hold her in my arms, waiting for her to get her bearings.

“Umm, that was one helluva kiss, boy. Are you sure that was your first time?” Zahra’s trying to catch her breath, fanning herself the entire time. “What would you do for an encore? Good grief.”

I chuckle, keeping my hands around her waist to keep her steady. “That depends on whether you want to stick around to find out.”

Zahra looks at her watch, shocked that only five minutes have passed by while we were, quite literally, on the other side of the world. “Oh, I’m definitely sticking around, but… Wait, how in the world did you… Was any of that real? Our bodies were still right here and… Wow, all that from just a kiss?”

“I really have no clue, but it was all real,” I reply. I’m serious, I really don’t. “All I wanted to do was show you what was in my mind. Everything else is as surprising to me as it is to you.”

Zahra plants a series of kisses across my lips over and over. “I only have one more question, in light of tonight’s ‘excursion,’ Mr. Salah.”

“Yes, Ms. Assante?”

“When can we do that again?”

I crack up laughing. “I don’t have a problem with that at all.”

“You know, we’re going to have to talk about how you did all of that, right?” Zahra remarks. “My head is still spinning.”

A knock on the door makes us jump.

“Ahem…Ya-Ya, I wanted to check on you two,” Unk bellows through the door. “It’s almost two in the afternoon. We have to get to it if we’re gonna get this order to your friend’s birthday party. You need time to get back, get ready, and not be late.”

I break from our embrace, looking skyward, wanting to scream. “Gotcha, Unk. I’ll be ready to roll in ten minutes.”

“All right, bet, kiddo. Wheels spin in ten.”

Zahra buries her face in my chest, shaking her head. “Do you think he heard?”

“I know he heard us, but I’ll deal with that during the delivery,” I counter. “Am I wrong for thinking that everything around us completely disappeared while we were…well, you know?”

Zahra shuts her eyes as she taps her forehead against my chest a few times. “You’re not wrong at all. I was in that space with you, and I didn’t want to come out, period. I’m still feeling some kinda way about being ripped back to reality without my consent.”

She blushes for a moment, pulling me over to a mirror on the other side of the studio. “Umm, we might need to not be so obvious.”

I search for a napkin to wipe the traces of her lipstick from my face and lips. “I’m with you on the rip, that’s for sure, but there’s nothing we can do about that now. Come on, I’ll walk you to your car.”

Before we leave, I catch a glimpse of what Zahra tried to explain before we kissed. My eyes have a strong purple glow around my irises. I blink a few times, not believing what I’m seeing, and the glow seems to consume the whole of my irises now. What’s happening to me? This isn’t normal.

“Are you okay?” Zahra slips into my sight, moving her head so I don’t have a choice but to face her. “Is it the thing with your eyes?”

I shake my head violently like I’m trying to get rid of whatever is happening. I breathe a sigh of relief when I look in the mirror and see my eyes have returned to their usual hue. “I think so, not sure what that was about. I guess it was some residual whatever from when we came back.”

We walk downstairs, bypassing the adults as they continue chatting, stopping long enough to wave goodbye to Zahra before returning to their conversation. Once outside, the warmer-than-usual-for-fall South Georgia air hits us, which does nothing to quell the residual heat we tried to temper only minutes ago.

I kiss her lips once more before tucking her into the driver’s seat. I wink, and she pushes the ignition to start the car. “You know we’re gonna have to pick this up again soon, right? And I don’t mean just the kiss, either.”

“That’s an understatement,” she says, then motions for me to lean down to steal one more kiss. “Now, be a good boy and get things squared away with Unk. I need you freshly oiled and looking good enough to eat later tonight, okay? See you in a couple of hours.”