“Good. These are solo shots of my girl anyway,” she told him. “We gotta go into the building across the lot though. There was a room there that I think you’ll love as a backdrop.”
The shoot ended up being curated for the early 2000s. It was the cutest thing. I absolutely loved how my jean outfit fit me. The jeans were snug at the waist and loose at the leg. I kept them open to let the bump breathe. I wore a cropped wife beater under the jean jacket, and Pryce and I both had on a pair of Uptowns. We looked like a couple straight out of a Nelly video.
“Across the lot? Didn’t nobody mention switching locations.”
“Stay here then, Pryce. Damn.” Key matched his tone.
The two of them together could be a sitcom.
“Bae, just come on,” I encouraged softly. “She said three more. And you agreed to the photoshoot.”
“Exactly,” Key chimed in, walking out behind the photographer.
“Aight, man.”
We followed them across the lot to a bigger building. When we walked inside, I could hear music playing.
“Did somebody overbook?” I asked Key.
“They bet not had,” she said, snatching the door open.
“Surprise!”
I blinked twice and thought I was losing my mind. Denim everywhere. Family with smiles as big as the room everywhere.
“Ahhhh!” I screamed out, jumping up and down.
Everyone came crowding me as much as they could with Pryce standing at my side as security.
“Y’all did not!” I said to Ebone and my mother, who clung to me the longest.
“We did,” they replied in unison.
“Girl, we’ve been planning this for months,” Ebone said. “Well, I helped execute, while Ma did most of the planning.”
“Oh, my God. Mommy, this is so nice. Look at this.”
The décor matched the shoot theme to a tee.
“Baeeee,” I cried, looking back at Pryce, who looked just as surprised as me.
“Yeah, they got me too, Ma.”
“I almost told yo’ ass to go home with that attitude,” Key said, shaking her head.
“You knew too?” I asked, pulling her in for a hug.
She crossed her arms proudly. “As of two days ago.” She laughed. “You see what Big Key can do in forty-eight hours though. David Tutera ain’t fuckin’ with the girl.”
I chuckled and turned to my mother. “You said you’ve been planning in your head, Ma. This,” I looked around the room, “takes planning to a whole other level. How’d you even get everybody to show up?”
“Baby, I’ve been putting this together since you were in Houston. I just knew I couldn’t tell anyone about the pregnancy. So, I worked around that. As far as how I got everybody here,that’s Daddy. He paid for two charter buses to pick everybody up from one location.”
“Like the ski trip days.” I smiled.
“Yup. And everybody showed up off the love they have for the two of you and now this baby.” She bent down to kiss my belly.
“Well played, y’all. Well played.”
