“She’s here, Bri. I’m going to go help her with her bags,” Tyson said. “Be right back.”
“You as well,” Gabrielle told her. “Come on in.”
“Wow. This is amazing. I finally have a sister,” Tamera said, excited. “Gosh, we have sooo much to talk about.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“Gabrielle, have you had lunch?”
“No, and I’m starving.”
“Okay. Let’s see what Tyson has planned. Ty-son!” Tamera called out to him.
“Be right there,” he said, then came jogging downstairs. “So, you’ve met my lovely wife,” he said to his sister, throwing his arms around Gabrielle.
“Sure did. Now we want to know what your plans are today so we can have some girl time.”
“Already?” he said with a smirk on his face, looking at Gabrielle.
“Yep...you have her full time. I’m sure you don’t mind me stealing her for an hour or two. Or three.”
“Don’t mind at all,” Tyson said, “As long as my baby doesn’t mind.”
“Okay, sweetie. I have to go by the food house to get some desserts ready.”
“Right now?” Tamera asked.
“Yep.”
“Then Gabrielle and I are going to lunch. Come on, sis.” She took Gabrielle by the hand.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Tyson said. “You can’t just snatch her away from me without daddy gettin’ some love. Come here, Bri.”
“Love you, too.”
“Call me if you need anything, ‘kay.”
“Oh, leave her alone, Tyson,” Tamera said. “She’ll be fine with me.”
“Okay, sweetie.”
Gabrielle smiled. “Don’t know about famous, but yes, I’m Gabrielle.”
“Tyson talks about you a lot, you know,” she said. Her eyes had gotten bigger when she said, lot.
“He does?”
“Oh, yes, girl...never seen my brother so crazy in love. Wait...I take that back...he was feelin’ Desiree for a while. I’m sure you heard the story.”
“Yeah. He told me.”
“But now, he has his diamond, so the past no longer matters,” she said watching Gabrielle reciprocate her smile.
“For work?”
“Yeah.”
“Nothing right now. Well, I help out Padma here and there.”
“How is Padma, anyway? I haven’t seen my auntie in a minute.”
“She’s doing well...stays busy all the time.”
“Yeah...that’s Padma. I have to get over there and see her before I leave.”
“Definitely. She would love that. When are you leaving anyway?”
“Tomorrow night.”
“Oh, just a short trip, huh?”
“Yeah. Just in and out...had to come see my new sister-in-law, and my big bro of course.”
“Well, if you want to see Padma, you’ll have to get over there sometime today because I’m going with her to Chicago tomorrow.”
“Really?”
“Yep...she invited me to a restaurant expo.”
“Cool...have to see if I can get over there today, then.” Tamera took a sip of water. “So you like being married?”
“Yes...to Tyson.”
“Why are you laughing at me?” Gabrielle questioned.
“Oh.”
“I heard about what my idiot cousin did to you.”
“You did?”
“Sure did...Tyson mentioned it to me right after it happened...around the time you moved in with him.”
“Oh.”
“He knew I could relate...something similar happened to me and I ended up staying with Tyson for a while.”
“What happened to you?”
“I was in an abusive relationship...marriage actually.”
“What kind of things did he do to you?”
“Oh my gosh.”
“Not only that, but he punched me in the face several times...gave me black eyes. He would hit me in the stomach like he was hitting a punching bag. Now that I think about it, that’s exactly what I was...his punching bag. I just hung around and didn’t say anything.”
“What made you say something?”
“Probably the same thing that made you say something about Dilvan. I was tired of being abused. I knew there was a better life out there for me and I couldn’t tolerate living in fear of a man who’s supposed to love me. So I told Tyson what was going on and jeez...he almost lost it. I’ve never seen my brother so furious, Gabrielle. He and he beat the crap out of my ex. Now, he’s in jail. I have a restraining order already in place so when he gets out, he can’t bother me.”
“Wow. Sounds like you’ve been through a lot.”
“Girl, you don’t know the half...”
“What?” Gabrielle asked with raised eyebrows.
“Yeah,” Tamera said after she’d taken a bite of her sandwich. “He was one of Dilvan’s friends...another reason why Dilvan can’t stand Tyson to this day.”
“Wait, let me get this straight. Your ex-husband and Dilvan were friends.”
“Hmm...that’s interesting. Since I’ve known them, there’s always been animosity between Tyson and Dilvan.”
“Yeah, because Mark, that was my ex-husband’s name, had been bragging to Dilvan about what he was doing to me. Dilvan hadn’t said a word about it to anyone. And he and Mark would go out all the time picking up women from clubs, sleeping around and doing all kinds of nonsense.” Tamera took a sip of water. “I had no idea Mark was like that when we met.”
“How was he then?”
“He was charming...nice...never hit me. Then one day, he flipped like it happened overnight, and he became this monster...guess he was tired of the nice guy front and started hitting me.”
“Jeez...that’s bad.”
“Yeah...I’m sure you know after putting up with Dilvan.”
“What did he do to you?”
“Anything he wanted. But unlike Mark, Dilvan never punched me...his abuse was more mental than anything else, and he seemed to enjoy every minute of it.” Gabrielle took a sip of water and got her thoughts together. “But nothing hurt more than the miscarriages.”
“Miscarriages?”
“Yeah. I had one early on in the relationship and the second one the weekend Tyson rescued me.”
“I’m so sorry that happened to you.”
“No, Gabrielle. You can’t blame yourself. It’s not your fault.”
“I know. I just feel bad about it.”
“I get it...I used to feel bad too, ‘til I realized that I have no control over another person’s feelings. Mark did what he did to me because he wanted to. I can’t be the blame for that.”
“Yeah. You’re right.”
“But enough about all this depressing stuff. We’ve endured it so there’s no use in dwelling on it, right?”
“Yep...got that right.”
“So how’s my brother treating you?”
“Look at you glowing,” Tamera commented. “Just the mention of Tyson has your face lit up.”
“I’m glad. He’s so happy, Gabrielle. Mom told me he was beaming at the reception.”
“Yeah...so was I.”
“I wish I could’ve been there, but my work schedule is so messed up right now.”
“What do you do?”
“Well, I have two jobs actually. During the day, I’m a health inspector. At night, I’m a food blogger for Charlotte Magazine.”
“So you go around to restaurants, have a meal, then review them?”
“Yep, after I take a picture of the meal. I rate the presentation, flavor, ambience of the place, friendliness of the staff...it’s fun, but it can be challenging at the same time because I have to meet a monthly quota.”
“I bet.” Gabrielle thought it was interesting how Tamera and Tyson seemed to enjoy working in the food and beverage industry.
“So tell me about the proposal, the wedding and how everything went down.”
“Um...well, Tyson proposed in a rather short time frame. I mean, we started off as friends and then we were really into each other and everything, but we’d gotten into a small disagreement. Well, small for me but big for him.”
“What happened?”
“While I was living with Tyson, I went to see Dilvan and didn’t tell Tyson I was going. Tyson was pretty upset about it...didn’t understand why I would go to see the man who abused me. But in my defense, I only went so Dilvan could offer up his apology and so that I could make it clear to him that I had no intentions on getting back with him. That was all, but Tyson wasn’t trying to hear it. So we went out separate ways. I moved back home to Greenville, to my father’s home, and guess who showed up?”
“Aww...” Tamera said, covering her mouth with her hand. “So what did he do when he came there?”
“Well, he sure did a good job of sweeping my father off of his feet.”
“He cooked a fancy dinner for us.”
“Of course.”
“Then he declared his love for me...said he wasn’t going to leave Greenville without me. A couple days later, we’re on a private beach in Rodanthe exchanging vows. Have you seen the pictures?”
“Not yet.”
“Then I’ll show you tonight.”
“Cool. I know my brother is making something good for dinner. He loves to cook.”
“He’s so good at it.”
“He is. When he first told me he wanted to be a pastry chef, I was like, really, Tyson? A pastry chef...”
“But he stuck with it. After the Marines, he wanted to do something on the opposite end of the spectrum and culinary arts is on the opposite end of the spectrum. He studied in Paris, too.”
“Yeah, he told me.”
“And I’ll be doggone if the man can’t cook his behind off.”
“Does he still get up every morning to go jogging?”
“Yep.”
“He got you going with him, huh?”
“Every morning. I enjoy it though...gives us more time together.”
“Yeah. That’s true.”
“What’s on your mind, sis?” Tamera asked.
“Nothing.”
“Oh, spit it out already. I’m not going to tell Tyson anything we talked about.”
“Well, you had mentioned something about Desiree earlier and I know Tyson loved her—”
“Oh, let me tell you about that heffa.”
“Girl, she called herself trying to be a player...telling Tyson that she loved him and was creeping behind his back with his best friend. So trifling...”
“So if I understand correctly, Desiree and Dennis were married?”
“Yeah, but that was short-lived. Dennis got killed in a robbery. Desiree tried to convince the police that Tyson had something to do with it and, don’t get me wrong, Tyson was one of the best sharp shooters the U.S. government has ever seen, but you can’t be in two places at one time. He was in Atlanta the weekend Dennis died.”
“Why would Desiree say those things about Tyson?”
“Because she was mad...thought her life with Dennis was going to be picture perfect, but what people sometimes fail to realize is, you really do reap what you sow.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m just glad Tyson ended up with you instead of her. I’m sooo glad!”
“Well I am too.” Gabrielle laughed.
“Listen...I’m going to give you some advice about my brother.”
“Uh oh.”
“No, no, no...nothing bad. Tyson is a very responsible, stand-up guy. He just likes a lot of order. And he’ll go to the ends of the earth for you. He will. I know you look at him and see this big, buff, tough guy, but he’s so sweet. When we were teenagers, he was extremely protective of me...still is in a way. He told me the next man I dated had to pass his approval.”
“Yep. He sends mom flowers every month. I told him to stop making me look bad.” Tamera giggled. “I’m sure you get flowers too.”
“Yes, very frequently. I use them as centerpieces for the dining room table and pretty much all throughout the house.”
“Yeah. Tyson’s an honest soul. All he asks for is loyalty, honesty and trust. Once he sees those in a person, he’s down for life. If one of those are broken, he’ll walk away from you in a heartbeat.”
“Well, I love him too much to ever hurt him so I’m good.”
“Perfect. Now let’s get out of here, girl,” Tamera said looking at her watch. “I can’t believe we’ve been here for almost three hours.”
“Wow...doesn’t seem like we’ve been here that long.”
“That’s how you know you’re in good company,” Tamera said standing.
“Yes,” Gabrielle said. “Good company.”