No Ordinary Love (31 page)

“Oh, we would be here,” he assured her. Daemon bent to take her lips with his. “’Cause there’s no other place I’d rather be than me here with you and you with me.” It was so easy to state the simple truth.

Their friends

“This is such a pretty song for them,” Briannah murmured as she leaned her head on Catrina’s shoulder

“Yea, look at them. Our baby is married and having a baby.”

“Well, by the end of next year we might all be married and have babies,” Briannah laughed eyeing Catrina.

Catrina frowned even as her heart tripped over the thought. “It’s not in the schedule to have a baby next year. But I damn sure will be getting married. You see this ring, girl?”

Briannah rolled her eyes. “Yes, I see the ring; we all see the ring.”

“I can’t believe this happened. All that time I was so scared of him, of just loving him, and letting all the past stuff go. But when he asked me, all I could think was yes.”

“You deserve to be happy. I can’t say that I’m not surprised by the turn of events. And that you were keeping secrets about getting busy with him.”

“It was so confusing. Our whole relationship has been a huge ball of confusion.”

“Dave would be the only thing that Ms. Perfect Catrina has ever been confused about,” Alieas joked as she approached.

“Please, I’m not perfect,” Catrina admitted.

“No, she only practices perfection,” Briannah corrected.

“Is that how it is? Y’all gonna double team me while my best friend is dancing with her husband?”

David and Tyree appeared.

“They related, bey, you know they will always take sides against you. And if you want, you can come over here and be perfect with me,” David told her.

“I think I will, bye heffas,” she said as she placed her hand in David’s awaiting one. “You were eavesdropping?”

“I was interested in finding out when we gonna have our bathroom break.”

Catrina shook her head. “We are not having a bathroom break.”

“I guess I’ll have to wait.”

“Umm, they look so good together finally man and wife, right?” Catrina asked.

“No one else would look any better with either of them. Y’all did a wonderful job with all this. You think you gonna get the show?”

“I hope so, and you better be praying. If not, I’m thinking at this point I have everything I ever wanted.”

David tightened his hold around her waist, tipped her chin up so that he could look into her eyes. “I love you, Catrina.”

“I love you too, David.”

Close by on the dance floor Briannah and Tyree danced with one another.

“I can’t believe that he finally manned up.” Briannah said to Tyree, twirling in his arms as they danced. Their eyes were on each other, but their minds were on their friends.

Tyree kissed Briannah’s forehead. He was glad that he had his own wife to be thankful for. “I guess I never understood his love for her all this time but when I think of love and what it means, I would’ve waited forever for you, and done absolutely any and everything to have you.”

Briannah smiled and put her head to his chest. “I’m glad that you know it.”

“I’m glad that all our friends get to have it. Get to experience this,” he said as he watched Casey and Daemon sway as one on the dance floor.

Briannah turned her attention to them as well. “Be glad she don’t have him pressed up against the wall showing her ass up in here. She’s having a ball. Ohh,” Briannah murmured as she watched Charine walk over to Casey with a mic. “So glad she couldn’t drink.”

“The Bride and the Groom have something to say,” Charine announced.

Casey moved to the center of the dance floor and asked for silence. The music faded as she clasped Daemon’s hand. “It’s not every day that you get to celebrate the joy of two people committing to one another. Y’all can imagine why I’m so happy right now. But as much as it is about us I wanna pay tribute to our supporting cast for making us possible. They helped keep us grounded while we loved one another. To Catrina, Briannah and Alieas who taught me about friendship while they taught me about love.” Casey gestured to her friends. Catrina was snuggled on David’s lap. Casey’s heart swelled with joy as she saw David’s grip tighten and Catrina’s slow smile. She was confident that they’d hold on to one another now. Briannah and Tyree who had been dancing were standing in each other arms. Beside them stood both their children, they represented the family unit she would soon have for herself. Alieas stood off to the far right corner of the ballroom and was leaning up against a wall twirling a straw in her cocktail while dreamily smiling back at her. Casey’s smile deepened as Alieas’s date surprised her from behind by wrapping his arms securely around her waist. From her observation, Casey could see that Alieas was enjoying him but that she had yet to allow him into her heart.

Casey sincerely hoped that some strong, self-confident, patient man would come along and peel away the hardened layer of cynicism about relationships she had developed over the years. She hoped even more that Alieas would be wise enough to realize it when he did.

“To Dave and Tyree who were like my big brothers and best friends to my husband. Thank you for all that you’ve been to us, to what you’ve been to each other. Thank y’all for not talking him out of getting with me. We couldn’t have found a better group of friends. So no, it’s not every day that we get an opportunity to celebrate love for those who are in love, dreaming about love, and living in love with all the hoopla of wedding ceremonies but we do have the opportunity every day to love like it’s our last.” She could still remember those days when she was just dreaming. “So love like it’s your last chance to love.”

Casey turned to her husband who pulled her in for an embrace and a kiss. When she was done, Casey looked out at her friends again. She reveled in their joy as well as she celebrated her own.

Love, no it was not as ordinary as she’d assumed when she was still chasing it, but decided that since she had found it, she was going to hold on to it forever and hoped that they would too.

COMING SOON
SUMMER 2013

HURRICANE

Sharae

I guess you can only be disappointed by someone else’s actions if you give them the power to actually disappoint. Maybe my new journey in life will be to harden my heart and not be so naïve to believe every word that comes from a man’s mouth. Even if the man happens to sleep next to me every night. Another evening designated for quality time disrupted by work
, twenty-nine year old Dr. Sharae Jones thought as she attempted to hold back her tears.

James had spent another night working and disregarding her need for his time. She often attempted to soothe her need and her own loneliness by reminding herself that building his studio and music production company was important to both of them, the home they were building and their future. The thought was easier to bear than the actual acceptance of his constant absence and what it meant to their relationship. He’d sent her a quick text the night before saying that he wasn’t going to make it home as expected and that he was sorry. She’d texted him back ok and that she loved him, had even called but he hadn’t responded to either.

The lack of response sent her heart into turmoil because they weren’t floating on the trusting waters of believing one’s word. The constant nights out, vibrating cell phone, the quiet calls taken in other rooms, the fact that he never left his cell phone out anymore and took it with him even when he went into the rest room, or that he sometimes didn’t answer his phone when they were together were all signs that something was going on. Signs that all women should wake up and pay attention to, Sharae knew. When she’d brought them to his attention James had sworn up and down that he was working and the calls along with her suspicions had nothing to do with his reality. He’d even gone as far to tell her that if she trusted him she would believe him.

Believe him?
She thought.
Hhpmm, not as far as I can see.

Stressed, Sharae stood from her seated position to look at herself in the bathroom mirror. Through blurry hazel eyes she could see the marred shadows and puffiness beneath them that could tell the tale of a brief crying jag the night before. It did nothing to heal her heart to have found evidence that the baby she’d been hoping for had not been conceived.

Sighing, Sharae turned on the shower faucets, tested the heat of the water with her fingers. She peeled away her nightclothes stepped into the tub. She adjusted the shower curtain so that water wouldn’t hit the floor. For a minute, she leaned into the shower wall letting the hot water strip away that layer of disappointment and nighttime worries. It was there that Sharae felt free to let a fresh rush of tears go, sure that the tears like the shower water would be washed down the drain and soon forgotten.

Sharae chastised herself as she washed her body. Strong women did not cry, she challenged her mental but let her mind give way to the rationale that strong women were able to identify a weakness and spend an allotted time mourning over it. When the shower was over, so be it the mourning time. Sharae had learned early in life that time waited for no woman and she did not have any expectations that the rule would change for her. It was the reason she awakened every morning at five am, when more than a third of the people she knew were still cuddled in bed beneath their sheets to hit the gym.

The soft sounds of early morning radio personalities from her favorite station joked carelessly about last night’s episode of American Idol. Sharae stepped on the scale she’d placed in front of her dresser as a reminder to weigh herself. She nervously bit her bottom lip in anticipation of seeing the numbers drop since yesterday morning. A confident smile appeared as the number displayed itself. She was one pound down with ten more to go. All the hard work of eating right and working out was paying off. If she didn’t get pregnant she’d vacation in the Caribbean this December in a two piece bathing suit, she promised herself.

Sharae closed her eyes for a brief moment. She could already feel the sunlight basking all over her honey toned body. A body that she’d spent the last year perfecting. She’d literally spinned, ran, squatted, and kick boxed her ass off to shed the excess fifty pounds she’d gained in the contentment of her relationship.

At five feet eight inches tall, Sharae carried the majority of her weight in her hips, thighs, and behind. It was a family trait that had been passed down. She had grown up receiving long looks from males who made it known that her body’s resemblance to the coke bottle was attention getting. Her light brown-skin was a shade darker than what most people considered redbone but she was easily referred to as light skinned.

Meticulously organized, she removed her sports bra from its designated drawer and then her underwear, sprayed them with some soft fragrance she’d fallen in love with during her youth. She forfeited smoothing lotion over her entire body for applying only to the areas she knew would be seen in her black capri-workout pants and form fitting lilac t-shirt with the words top model stretching across her breast. As she stretched her arms over her head the five silver bangles she wore every day for every occasion danced and clinked around her wrist. She wore simple star-cut 1 carat diamond studs in her ears. Her left hand was adorned only with a thin platinum band that represented her promise to James. One day it would be replaced by an engagement ring and then eventually a wedding band.

She grabbed her favorite everyday bag; the brown Gucci sukey tote, her gym bag and made her way downstairs. She stepped into a pair of retro Nike Bo Jackson cross trainer sneakers at the front door and quickly walked to the back of the house into kitchen to retrieve a half frozen bottle of water.

Finally ready, Sharae stepped out into the brisk August morning air. There was a slight chill to it that carried a cool breeze. It crept up the back of her thighs to her spine, tickled her cheeks, and caused the long black tendrils of hair to dance around her face. Briefly, she looked up into the darkened sky. The weather forecasters were calling for showers and tracking a hurricane heading up the East Coast.

Sharae, could feel it, there was a storm coming.

She hesitated before closing the door as she completed her mental checklist to ensure that her morning haze had not caused her to leave anything. She’d hate to have to go through her day without necessary items or make an unnecessary trip back home once she was in the city.

The iPhone she carried beeped alerting her that she’d received a text message. Once she was settled in her car, she looked at the message. Rolled her eyes as she read, “
Good Morning, Baby. I know

you’re on your way to the gym to work it out. Sorry I didn’t return your call last night but I was fuckin’ around with Troy and Shiz tryna mix down some tracks. Love you.”

“Lyin’ Nigga,” she murmured as she turned the key in the ignition of her car.

Immediately, Sharae turned up the car stereo to blast Philadelphia Rap artist Ms. Jade’s single,
Why U Tell Me That
. She nodded her head to the beat as Jade heated up the track with a story of a woman’s heart turned to stone. There’d probably be a nice note in her mailbox requesting that she keep her music down in the morning when she returned home from work. She sucked her teeth at the thought and backed out of her driveway.

Her cell phone rang as she shrieked her custom painted black on black 2009 Jaguar down the street of her quiet suburban block. She needed the hype music as she feared her worries would follow her to the gym and throughout the course of her day. She glanced down at the caller ID and saw that it was her best friend King. Sharae contemplated ignoring him but knew that he would call again if she didn’t answer. Never mind the fact that he would see her in less than twenty minutes. He had no sense of time or respect for hers.

“Good morning, Beautiful,” King’s deep voice spoke in greeting. “Can you turn the music down?”

“What’s up, King?” she responded, reaching to adjust the volume.

“Just wanted to let you know that I wil be late for our workout session,” he explained to her as he rolled onto his back in his bed. The woman beside him stirred and snuggled into his side.