It was quiet for a few seconds, and the sound of a baby letting out a brief whine filled the entire church. I knew that whine. I knew that it belonged to our son, so both Tank and I looked on the front row, where we knew lil Tank was. My mom had him. She was cradling him in her arms. He was in a white tux just like his daddy. He was still sleeping, but he just felt the need to let out that outburst to let us know that he was here too. My mama gave Tank and I a head nod, basically letting us know that she had him, and we didn’t have to worry about him. Her ass swore that was her son.
“Family, friends, and loved ones, we’re gathered here today to witness and honor the union of Dionne, and Tavion,” Pastor Dukes continued.
“They stand before us today, choosing one another, with the goal, that this will be a lifetime commitment, and not just for the moment,” he went on, and when he said that, it received a lot of ‘Amens’. I even nodded my head and said ‘Amen’ because I wholeheartedly agreed with everything that he said.
Pastor Dukes then went on to give everyone a brief acknowledgement of our journey. During therapy, we shard everything about our journey to him. He knew about me running from Tank in the beginning, not wanting anything to do with him. He knew about some of the tests, and the challenges that we faced during our time being together as well. Just hearing him tell the story from the beginning, and leading us to this moment right here, I allowed tears to freely fall from my eyes. Tank and I had been holding hands, but he let mine go for a second, just so that he could use his hand to wipe away my tears.
From there, we went on to exchange our rings. The same way that my man had broken the bank for my ring, I made sure thatI did the same thing for him. I took Tank with me to get his ring because it wasn’t like he told me the kind of ring that he wanted. We saw so many options that day, and he fell in love with the black gold band. The entire ring was made of black gold. The black diamonds that were dancing on the ring was right up his alley.
Now that his ring was on, and mine was too, we could move along.
Next there was vows, but we decided not to go the traditional way. My vows were so sacred, and so intimate when it came to my man. I had things that I wanted to tell him, that I didn’t want to have to say in front of everyone. Some of the promises that I wanted to make to him were too personal for the room. I came with old trauma, so some things were too fragile for me to say in front of an audience. Tank and I had already had our moment where we stood face to face with each other, and we read out our vows, and promises that we had. So, as we stood here, those promises had already been made, and we didn’t have to perform our love right now. That was sealed in private.
Pastor Dukes put on a prayer over our union that was so deep, that it brought us both to tears. The prayer was so intentional. It held so much weight. He knew the challenges that married couples often faced, so he went to God, asking Him to grant our marriage grace, and for us to know how to navigate our way out of any challenges that did arise. You could tell that a man was praying over us that loved us and wanted our marriage to work. These lashes of mine were soaked from the tears that had fallen.
I felt seen. I felt like Tank and I were covered, and that’s what ultimately had me crying the way I was.
When he finished, we proceeded with the moment that Tank and I had been waiting for.
“By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Tavion, you may now kiss your bride,” Pastor Dukes went on, and our smiles towards each other came so naturally.
His large hands cuffed the sides of my face, and I leaned in to meet him. We did a couple of quick pecks, and I went in, slowly tongue kissing him, but I put my hand up, so that I could block the crowd from seeing it. I loved my man too much, and he looked too good for me to not have kissed him the way I just did.
Before it could get too crazy, we pulled away from each other, and right in front of everyone, he lifted me in his arms, carrying onto me bridal style, going completely off the program. I smiled, and giggled while he was holding me, just as in love with him as he was with me.
“I love you, girl,” he let me know, making my heart flutter like it always did whenever he admitted those words to me.
“I love you more, baby. I don’t know why I ever told you that IWasn’t supposed to be yours.We were meant for each other,” I sealed it by placing another kiss on his lips.
My man carried me out of the church just like this, as Etta James played again, crooning about the love that we finally had... at last!
Epilogue
Rico Briggs
“What’s up? How you doing?” I casually asked, walking over to Kalani. This was my first time seeing her in person, but she’d texted me, telling me exactly where she would be, so when I approached, I knew that it was her.
Kalani went through Dionne, who then told Tank, who reached out to me, getting the message to me. She told Dionne how Bash really wanted to see me because he had been in his head for months, feeling like I was angry with him, and that I hated him for the shit that he’d told to the detectives. I didn’t have any malice in my heart when it came to him. I’m sure he did what Toby told him to do before he took his last breath. Besides, he was a kid, and I would have been crazy to be beefing with a young child.
When Tank got the message to me, I knew that I wanted to get to Bash, but I’ve been in extensive training in Massachusetts, which was my new home for now, gearing up with the Patriots. Icouldn’t just pull up on Bash so quickly, but here I was, doing it today, before I flew back in a few hours.
I was only in Miami because yesterday was Tank’s and Dionne’s wedding, so I’d come down for that. Their wedding was so fuckin beautiful. No lie, I wanted that for myself. Not right now because I was married to football right now, but in the future, I wouldn’t mind having it.
With the free time that I had for the next few hours, I chose to come out to the park, where I learned from Kalani that Bash would be training. I had Dionne give her my number, so that’s how we’ve been in communication.
“I’m doing good. Wow. I can’t believe you came. He’s going to be so happy,” she let me know. She was smiling, and taking her in, she was a beautiful woman. I could see why Toby had been dealing with her.
“I’m a man of my word. I wouldn’t tell you that I was going to pull up, and I don’t do it,” I let her know, and she smiled, nodding again.
I took my eyes off her, so that I could look over at the field. The field is where Bash was. He was so locked in to what was going on with the trainer that he had, that he didn’t even know that I was out here. I stood on the side, watching him with his mom, and we made small talk here and there. I was asking her questions, wanting to know how he was doing in school, and with football, and she bragged on her boy, letting me know that he was excelling in both. I thought that she would bring up Toby, wanting to know if it was really me that killed him, but she never brought that nigga up, and I was glad.
Ten minutes into me standing here, Bash took a water break. He looked in our direction, squinted his eyes, really trying to see if it was me, and once he saw that it was, he took off running. He damn near broke his neck getting to me, and when he did, his arms instantly wrapped around me, so he could hug me.
“What’s up, man? How you doing?” I asked, hugging him back.
Young boys had this reaction when they would see me out all the time. So many of them looked up to me. I could tell that it meant a little bit more to Bash though because lil man had really convinced himself that I hated him.
“Man, I thought you hated me,” his voice cracked a little bit, and when he pulled away, his eyes were watery.
