I didn’t realize how much my family’s opinion on Asante mattered to me. I hadn’t thought about it since I hadn’t expected to tell anyone about him but now that King and I were having this conversation it was impossible to downplay it. I was happy he approved.
“I think Asante is a nice man. He’s driven and goal oriented and if he’s even half the person you said he was, he’s an amazing person for you.”
“Yeah. He is.”
“That’s why I want to make it clear that when I said that you had my blessing I meant to get married.”
“What?” I looked from King to Rook and back.
“You heard me. You have to be married by your birthday and uh, there’s nothing really in the rules that says it has to be to a woman. That’s just the way shit has always been done, but uhm, I’m making the matches now and it’s been decided that if you want to marry Asante, or any other man, you can do that. I mean, we can add some to your binder or some shit if you want and you don’t lock in with Asante.”
“King,” I locked eyes with my brother as I asked. “Are you sure about this?”
“It’s already decided and the only approval it needed to go through is mine.”
“Mom and Dad?—”
“Don’t necessarily get a vote, but if it makes you feel better, they’re on board.”
“Where the hell is this coming from? Be real with me. What’s going on?”
King exhaled. “Rook and I had a talk about you deserving happiness. Knight and I got a fair shot because we walked into this with open eyes and open hearts. If you’re already in love, we’re setting you up for sadness and misery. That’s not fair and it’s a new day. You should be able to be with whoever you want.”
“So, you and Rook are talking about my bedroom?” I shot my twin a look and he shrugged without remorse.
“Look, he came to me and told me he wanted you to get to choose your partner, man or woman. We didn’t get into specifics about Asante or none of that.”
“And Rook saying that I should get to choose my own spouse was enough to change family tradition?”
“Nah. Rook made a deal that if he married Winnie and gave up his choice to have any input on his wife, you’d get to explicitly choose who you married. Mom and dad couldn’t argue with that. It was a strategic choice for them and I guess me too at first, but honestly, you do give up a lot for this family, B and I may not be good with feelings and shit, but you deserve to be happy and I want you to hear me when I say this shit. I’ve never, ever been embarrassed of you or who you fuck in your free time. Nigga, we share blood. You could fuck anybody outside of Xavia and I would stand behind you. If you needed to hear it, there it is. Don’t ever question that.”
“So that’s why you married Winnie?” I faced my twin.
“And I’d do that shit again if it means you and Asante get a chance. You deserve that shit, Bishop,” Rook said simply.
“And you don’t care about the fact that your divorce will be one of the first, if not the actual first one in our family?”
“Nah. I’ve never really given a fuck about all that tradition shit anyway, and ay, I’m not sacrificing shit. You know like I know that I didn’t want to get married. I’m in this marriage now with a woman who knows that and won’t expect regular husband shit from me. It’s a business deal and just like you get to be with Asante, I get to spend two years deciding what I want to do and enjoying my life a little bit more.” He shrugged. “It’s a win for both of us.”
“I appreciate you doing this for me, Rook,” I said softly, my brain running a thousand miles a minute.
“Nigga, I’ll do whatever for you.” Rook scoffed..
“I know.”
“Look, Rook set this whole shit in motion and Knight and I both agree. Fuck the outside noise and all that other shit. At the root of this family business shit is family and we’ve got you, no matter what you decide. Alright?” King asked. “I know getting to choose isn’t the normal thing around here so I don’t want to puttoo much pressure on you, but I do need to know sooner rather than later because if you decide to do shit the traditional way, I have questionnaires and interviews that need to happen before I can even compile a book. You’d have to pick some from there and I’d still have to do second rounds and have them in to meet mom and dad. It’s a process.”
I nodded mutely, sniffed and cleared my throat. I wasn’t as in touch with my feelings as Knight or anything but I definitely wasn’t as aloof as King. I fell somewhere in the middle and right now those emotions were threatening to surface as tears. I bit them back to the best of my ability though.
“Do you think we should have a family meeting?”
“For what?”
“For how this is going to affect the family.”
I knew King was trying to be an ally and prove his love to me but ultimately shit like this wasn’t done often and with the temper my brothers had, I was probably setting the family up for a lot of bullshit just so I could stay with Asante. I would ultimately be putting my happiness first and in this line of business I wasn’t sure being selfish was the best move no matter how much I wanted to.
“No. This isn’t a family decision. It’s yours.”
