Anyone in the world could tell me how proud they were of me, but that shit just hit a little different whenever my pops would say it. Even throughout my successes, and all my years of boxing, the millions that I made, and the millions that I’ve continued to make, he’s always been that one person in my life that I would look up to, and his opinion that he had of me always meant everything to me.
“Thank you, pops. You know that shit means the world to me to hear you say that,” I voiced, finished with fixing his tie, so I stood back, so that I could take him in.
I gave him my approval, letting him know that he looked good, and moments later, my son was coming from the back, and he had on a tux that was similar to the one that I was going to be wearing.
“Hell yeah! Goddy boy, show them young niggas how the fuck they supposed to rock a tux!” Khari boasted for Zayne, who strolled in, confidence on one hundred, walking with a limp, as if he was a pimp, knowing that he was fly in his tux.
I’ve been pouring into this little boy since he was brought into this world. From day one, myself, and everyone around him have always let him know how handsome he was, and the hearts that he was going to break when he was older, and his ass knew that shit too, that’s why he was confident the way that he was.
“Aight daddy man. You clean,” I told him, lifting him up, so that he could stand on the stool that was in front of the mirror. I wanted to snap a couple of pictures of him so badly, and send that shit to my mama, grandma, my Goddy, and Toni, but I wanted it to be a surprise, and the ladies to see Zayne in his tux on the day of the wedding.
One of the consultants came over for Zayne, and she wanted to know how I felt about the fit of it. I let her know that I wanted some corrections on the length of the pants, and that the jacket could have been a little tighter on him. She used pins, so that she was able to mark the areas, and once she was done, Zayne went ahead to the back, so that he could change out of his tux, and put back on the clothes that he’d originally came here in.
Then, it was finally my turn to go to the back, so that I could try on my tux as well. No lie, standing back here, slipping on these pants, and putting on the matching jacket, for a moment, this shit felt like déjà vu. I did this shit before. I was married before. Back when I married Sapphire, my pops, Khari, Enzo, and Kenyon were all outside of the dressing room, waiting for me to come out, so that I could show them a first look at my tux. Here I was, years later, doing this shit again, and for some reason, I got a little sad for a second.
I wasn’t sad because I was having regrets or anything. I just got in my head a little bit, worried, hoping that the devastingshit that I went through with my first marriage wasn’t something that I would ever have to go through again. I couldn’t afford another loss like that. This shit that I had going with Toni, I wanted us to grow old together, and if I could have it my way, we would die together, that way neither one of us had to ever feel what it felt like to live without one another.
I looked at myself in the mirror, and I was hyped about what I was looking at. Toni didn’t tell me any kind of look that she was looking for from me on our wedding day. She allowed me to have free game, and do what I wanted to do, but all she asked was that I wore white. She was wearing white, so of course, she wanted me to match her.
The tuxedo jacket that I had on was crisp. It had a good fit, but it could be tailored to fit just a little tighter. Underneath the jacket was a white dress shirt, and it was pressed to perfection. The buttons on it were dark, which I liked, so that it had a little contrast going on. I was going to wear a black bow tie with it. The pants were slim cut, and it didn’t need any alternations because it fit me perfectly. When Toni saw me on our wedding day, I knew that she was going to want to damn near tackle me.
After checking myself out a little bit, I went ahead, and opened the door, so that I could walk out, and allow everyone to see me. Like this was already my wedding day, the men that I had here started clapping for me, giving out compliments, letting me know that I was rocking this tux.
“You look good, dad,” my son told me, standing there, looking at me in admiration.
“Thank you daddy man,” I said, going in front of the mirror, checking myself out.
“That came from my loins right there,” my pops bragged on me, standing there, looking at me like he couldn’t be anymore prouder.
I got compliments from Enzo, Montana, and Khari, all telling me how good the tux looked on me. One of the consultants came over, and she was just taking measurements where she could, finding out from me if I liked the fit, and wanting to know the adjustments that I needed. As she was doing that, the men were standing around me. Zayne was sitting down in one of the chairs, and Marcellus was sitting next to him, watching whatever it was that Zayne was showing him on his iPad.
“Unc, you been married the longest. What’s some free game that you can give to all of us?” Khari asked my pops.
All our eyes went over in the direction of my dad, looking at him like he had the golden ticket to successfully get through marriage. The film crew was standing around, big ass cameras out, recording this moment.
There was a smile on my pops face, as he stood there, waiting to see how he was going to answer Khari’s question. When it came to marriage, my parents were something that I looked up to. The same way that I carried on with Toni, where I couldn’t keep my hands off her, and how I was always kissing up on her, whispering sweet nothings in her ear, and just so in love with her, my pops was still that same way with my mom till this day. You would think that the two of them were still in the honeymoon stage because the way that they carried on.
In all my years of being on this earth, I have never seen my pops disrespect my mom, call her out her name, make her cry, or step out of their marriage. He was the husband that I wanted to be to Toni.
“To me, it’s simple. Treat your wife the way that you would want someone to treat your daughter. Handle her with care. I don’t care if she getting on your last fuckin nerve, and you feel the urge to body slam her ass, always respect her man. You supposed to respect a woman anyways, but that respect gotta be tripled once she has a child for you. A woman is closest to deathwhen she’s in labor. Anything can happen while she’s trying to bring your child into this world, and she can possibly lose her life. For that, respect gotta be given. Protect her peace. It ain’t easy being a woman. I’m no woman, but I’ve been married to one for years, so I see all that life has thrown at them. Stay consistent with her. You started out getting flowers for her every Monday, keep that shit up. You started out taking her on dates every weekend, keep that shit up too. Men like to look at women as science experiments, feeling like there so complex, but they not that complex at all. All they need is consistency, and some fuckin reassurance,” my pops said some real shit, and we all stood here, hanging onto his every word, nodding our heads to what he was saying, respecting it.
“That’s some real shit. What about you Montana? You married too. School me, and Khari,” Enzo said, knowing damn well that him, nor Khari had any plans of ever settling down. I really believed that the two of them would be dogs until the day that they died.
“Shit, I’m in agreeance with everything that unc said. What I’ll add is that to make marriage easier, you can’t argue with these women. My wife is a whole lawyer. I’ll be damned if I sit here and argue with her ass. She gets paid to be in a courtroom and argue with motha fuckas, so I’ll be damned if I go against her. It didn’t take me long to realize that one of the keys to a happy marriage is just letting her ass be right, even when I know she dead ass fuckin wrong. You said the sky purple bae? Then that motha fucka going to be purple. You said the grass yellow baby? Then shit, it’s yellow, even if I can look at that shit, and tell that it’s green. Everything don’t gotta always have the back and forth, feel me?” he asked, and it’s as if every man in here could vouch for that shit because we’ve all dealt with women, and we all knew how they would go out of their way to prove to be right in every situation, even when they could be dead ass wrong!
“And to add to that, you can’t be afraid to eat pussy around this motha fucka, feel me? Like unc said, it ain’t easy being a woman. They deal with a lot of shit, and sometimes all their problems not even that deep. Just eat some pussy, let her get a few nuts off, and I swear she’ll calm the fuck down. Works like a charm every time,” Montana threw in, wilding like a motha fucka, and I was damn near ready to body slam my pops when he nodded his head in agreeance, saying that Montana was speaking facts. I didn’t want to think about none of that shit going on between him and my mama.
My night here was cool with the guys. I needed this shit. We were getting closer, and closer to the wedding, and I just needed to be around the fellas. I needed us to sit around each other, have some deep, manly talks, and just ease my mind, and allow me to get out of my head about all the things that could go wrong in my marriage.
Don’t get me wrong, I had hella faith that Toni and I would make it to the finish line, but if I learned anything with Sapphire’s death, it’s that the unexpected could happen at any time. I didn’t want any unexpected tragic shit with Toni. I needed her around for the long run, just as much as I knew she needed me around.
Chapter 6
Toni McCall
FOR HIS EYES ONLY
“Yes. Yes. That’s sexy as hell. Stay just like that!” the photographer, Mannie said to me, as he stood over me with the camera in his hands, snapping pictures of this spicy photoshoot that I was doing.
