Chapter Eight

JUST AS JASMINE PARKS the car near the front door of a small grocery store, a group of women come out. Their faces are filled with excitement and laughter. Bags of groceries in their hands. They, I’m sure are buying wine and snacks to prepare for a night of fun later. We too, are here to buy the same, but tonight our faces will be void of excitement and laughter, and our bag will include a few boxes of Kleenex. “I’ll run inside,” Jasmine says as she follows my stare. “You come in when you’re ready, okay?” I nod slowly as she steps out of the car, closing the car door, but my attention remains held captive by the woman wearing a white T-shirt with the words “I Said Yes” on the front of it. Almost immediately, the memory of the day James proposed comes to mind.

It was on a Tuesday.

“Hey,” I said to him that evening, “if you’re going to be here every day, you better pay rent.”

“I’ll bring my things over after Friday,” James had nonchalantly remarked, lounging on my couch as was his post-work routine. He worked at a small law firm back then.

“Friday? What’s happening on Friday?” I inquired.

“We’re heading down to the courthouse,” he replied, his tone carrying a sense of anticipation.

“For what?” I pressed, genuinely puzzled.

“So I can do more than just sit on your couch, watch television, and then leave,” he answered, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

“Oh, so you’re ready to stay the night?” I teased, concealing my own eagerness.

“It’s been a year. Of course, I’m ready,” he asserted.

“Very presumptuous, but I’ll allow it,” I acquiesced. “What time are we going?”

“I scheduled the ceremony for ten o’clock,” he disclosed.

“Why so early?” I inquired, genuinely curious.

“Because then, we’ll have the rest of the day,” James responded, casting a meaningful look that set my heart racing.

“Well,” I stammered, my cheeks flush with warmth, “I’ll need to see if I can get the day off.”

“I already took care of that,” James then said as he got up from the couch, walked his tall, mocha-chocolate self over to me and got down on one knee. “Raine Rene Johnson, if you love me, you’ll give me forty years and forever.”

My eyes had rested on the burgundy velvet box he held out to me, while my heart took in the love on his face.

“Are you sure you’re not just asking me to marry you so you can get in my bed?” I’d asked jokingly as tears flowed copiously.

“I certainly am,” James said with a sly smile. “Why else?”

“Then, my answer is yes.”

True to his word, James and I stood in front of a judge with his parents and my father present that Friday. My father cried because I was wearing the dress my mother had left for me.

My mother had died four years before then, from cancer.

It was a gorgeous crepe-back satin, strapless dress with a lace-trimmed V-neckline front. How to describe it…? Let’s just say it hugged me like it was my mother wrapping her arms around me. I tried not to cry like my dad did, but when I thought about her, the only thing that pushed back the tears was remembering that I was saying forever to a man who actually made me want one with him. Oh, and James and I didn’t leave the apartment until Monday morning.