I nodded with a smirk. “The rush is for y’all to get the work done. It’s no rush for me to get here.”
I walked off, and he followed behind me.
“I want to lay the foundation for a house today so that it will be straight for me to get married on it in a few days.”
The contractor looked at me, confused.
“Excuse me?” he said.
I took out my phone and sent him the blueprints I made.
“This is what I need it to look like,” I said with no care about what he was about to let go to make this happen.
“You know this is a lot of work?” he said while looking over what I sent him. “We would have to work damn near through the night to get it all done.”
I nodded. “So y’all are getting started now?”
The man laughed at me. “Listen, boy, I don’t think?—”
“Who the fuck are you talkin’ to?!” I asked, raising up just enough for him to back up. “I’m not your fuckin’ boy! I make more fuckin’ money than you and your whole fuckin’ team combined. Who the fuck do you think you are about to down-talk to? I will put your ass in one of these fields and wouldn’t think twice about it.”
The contractor raised his hands at me, and this time talked to me with a softer tone.
“I am sorry, Mr. Mayer. I will get my team on it right now.”
I nodded, and he walked off.
I walked around my land for a lil’ for the first time, having a vision for it, and smiled to myself. My grandma always said her place was about family and love, and I was going to keep that going.
Once I was done, I headed back to the city, just in time to pick up Islah’s parents from the airport. As I stood there, Islah texted me a picture showing me what her hair and nails looked like. I smiled hard as hell at my phone. I responded,You look like a wife to me.
A few minutes passed, and I was still staring at her picture when I heard somebody clear their throat. I looked up, and it was her mom and dad.
“Mr. and Mrs. Walker, I am sorry,” I said, putting my phone in my pocket. “How was the flight?”
“It was great,” Mrs. Walker said. “I am so happy that you called.”
“Yeah, and where is our daughter?” Mr. Walker asked.
I laughed. “She is out with her girls right now. I’ma get y’all settled in a hotel; she doesn’t know y’all are here.”
“She don’t know that we are here?” he repeated. “Does she know she’s getting married?”
We walked out to my car. I placed their bags in my truck, then opened the doors for them, feeling a lil’ bit in over my head.
“She don’t know that we are getting married. We hit a lil’ rough patch after everything she’s been through, and I think now we just need to do it.”
They stared at me for a second. I was hoping they didn’t laugh in my face or tell me Islah wouldn’t want anything like that. But instead, they smiled.
“We won’t tell her,” her mother said.
We got in the car, and I drove them around the city, letting them see what Atlanta was about. I showed them where Islah used to work, where we used to live, my store, and our house now. At the same time, I sent a message to Keith to have everybody meet me at Sammy’s.
I took them out to eat downtown, wanting to spend some one-on-one time with them before I married their daughter.
I learned about how Islah was growing up, how she hated school but was smart as hell. How she used to dance around the house twenty-four seven, singing songs and dancing.
They also told me the shift they saw when she got with Gio. How she stopped doing the things she loved, how she stopped working even though he could hardly support them, but she believed in him.
