“What’s up?”
“Let’s pull the band-aid off,” he stated.
I glanced back at him. “You sure?”
“I’m positive.” He kissed my knuckles. “Let’s do it.”
“Alright.” I plucked my phone up from my cup holder and told my entire family about our engagement in the least formal way I could think of. I texted in the family group chat filled with my brothers, their wives and our parents.
Me: Wedding 4 coming soon
Immediately people started texting congratulations.
Usually marriages in our family were made up of a weekend of events with a private wedding and formal party the first night, a club party the second night and a family breakfast or brunch to bring in the third day.
I didn’t think Asante and I would have our engagement formatted that way. We weren’t going to get married in the usual room upstairs like my brothers had before me. We were going to actually have a wedding, the first one my family had seen in generations. We weren’t people who did too much usually so honestly we were contemplating on having the wedding right in the backyard of the Barron estate.
I did a double take when I saw that my mother was calling. I reached over to answer.
“What’s up?”
“I can have a party put together for you and Asante tonight. Be here in four hours.” .
“What?” I chuckled. “Mom, you don’t have to do that especially today. We have time.”
“No. No,” she repeated herself and I knew she was shaking her head. “Your brothers had formal parties the nights they announced their marriages. You’re having a party.”
“Asante and I don’t want a party. We don’t want to do any of the big grand gestures, alright? We just want shit to be about us and our love.”
“Okay. Fine. Then, we can have a nice family dinner tonight then. How about that?”
I looked over at Asante and mouthed asking if he wanted to go. He nodded.
“Yeah. We can do that. Family dinner sounds amazing.”
“Okay,” she sang. “I’ll call you back in a few.”
“Alright.”
My mom hung up immediately. I added Asante to the family group message and had him message in it and announce that were going to have a family dinner tonight.
Asante and I went home and immediately got to work getting ready for the night, taking showers, making sure our clothes weren’t wrinkled and cleaning up our facial hair.
We sat in the backyard and smoked a joint together before we headed to the estate where the family had already gathered.
I hugged everyone and spent a little extra time letting my hand rest on Casmi and Nova’s baby bump to feel my little niece or nephew.
Then, Asante and I walked around talking to my brothers, their wives and my parents before a private chef came out and told us the food was ready for us.
We sat in the same spots we’d sat in at the brunch and dinner tasted amazing.
After everyone finished eating, we both stood from our seats and I lifted my glass.
“I just want to take the time out to thank everyone for being here. I know it seems like just yesterday we were watching King get married and sworn in on the same night and watching Knight get married and running through Eddie’s house the same night then being damn near held hostage on Rook’s wedding night.” I shook my head and chuckled. “I’m glad I was able to be the least stressful engagement this family has probably ever seen.” I smirked and a few people chuckled. “I want to thank you guys for helping me make this happen from ring shopping to talking me through my nerves to planning this dinner in amatter of hours. I appreciate all of it and I appreciate y’all. I’ll never ever forget the way y’all showed up and out for me through this journey. Thank you.” I let my glass lower and Asante lifted his.
“I just want to say thank you for having me and welcoming me into the family,” Asante said simply.
We all lifted our glasses in response then drank together.
