Page 84 of Betrothed To Love

“You welcome,” Niya says. “Okay, bye bye.”

“Bye, sweetie,” my wife says, then ends the FaceTime. “That was too sweet. I love her so much,” she gushes.

“She loves you too.”

“I’m so ready now. You and now Niya. I’m good.” She smiles then looks at her phone. “Okay. Ten minutes. Let me text Jae so they can come back and get me right.”

“You look gorgeous, kyau. You don’t need them.”

“I love you for that but I’m still going to text them.” She nods then sends the text. “But can you check and see if the girls are here? I told Duke to reserve the front row on my side for you, Kenya, and them.”

“Okay, while you waste Jae 'nem's time, I’ll handle that.”

“Give me my good luck kiss before you go. After DVonne’s last touch up, my lips are off limits.”

She presses her lips to mine and we kiss passionately. I don’t release her mouth until we hear taps on the door. After pecking her one more time, we ease off the sofa. She returns to her makeup station and I open the door for them.

I run into Duke in the hall and ol’ boy is pacing back and forth, looking stressed as fuck. He’s dying to be back in the room with Mireya. He’s worked so hard on this debate behind the scenes and this is his job, so I relieve him of his stress.

“You can go back in,” I say as I walk past him.

“Whew! Thank you,” he exhales and practically runs to the room.

I laugh a little as I continue through the designated door that leads to the main floor. We are in the historical Irene Redmond Center. Her family restored the old Chamber of Commerce building in her honor and it’s now a community center for meetings and events.

When I make it on the floor, I see Kyrah and Alex right up front. Giselle decided to watch from the comfort of her home. She didn’t think her business was a good look for my wife here tonight.

As I journey toward them, I hear, “Quintus,” and stop in my tracks. To my complete surprise, I turn to see Ace and Sade. My brother came out to support.

I step over to them and he stands. We embrace. “Thanks for coming, bruh.”

“Of course. Gotta support, fam,” he says.

I embrace Sade next and she asks, “Is she nervous? I couldn’t do this.”

“She’s good. A little nervous but she’s ready. Thanks for coming, sis.”

“Where’s Niya?” he asks.

“We didn’t know how far this might go, so she’s with Shuga. They’re going to watch it on TV,” I tell him.

“Where you at with this Shuga shit?” he asks.

“Still trying to wrap my head around it. It’s wild. None of us knew, not even Asali’s ass. That’s why she really put a lock on the basement.”

“Facts! I had no clue. She gon’ divorce that nigga, right?”

“Oh for sure. There’s no coming back. I’m giving her time and I’m going to let her approach me first. I’m a criminal defense lawyer but I’ll handle that shit. She’ll be straight,” I assure him.

“I know she will be with you handling it,” Ace says.

We dap and I continue to the front. I hug and greet Alex and Kyrah then get back to my wife. I’m actually going to walk her out to the stage then take my seat once it starts.

“You ready?” my wife asks as soon as I open the door. She’s standing, looking gorgeous in a dark blue pantsuit, blue heels, and a diamond lady of justice brooch on her lapel. The judge is here.

“I see you are definitely ready,” I say, smiling. As badly as I want to kiss her, I refrain. Instead, I place my hand on the small of her back and lead her out of the room.

“What Richardson failed to state when he so dismissively looked at my career was that I was top three in my graduating class at CFU Law and I was editor in chief of the Law Review Journal while he was in the lower fifty percentile of his class.”