Chapter 12 Bishop #3
“Alright.” He took a sip of coffee. “Do you know how you want to propose?”
“I don’t have a clue,” I admitted. “I was in bed with him this morning and I was like ‘If I had a ring right now I’d just ask him at this moment’ you know what I mean?”
“Nah. King told me I was marrying Winnie.”
“Nigga, you offered.”
“Barely.”
We both laughed.
I could see shit shifting between Winnie and Rook whether he wanted to admit it or not but it wasn’t my relationship to speak on and ultimately I just wanted them to be happy.
Winnie was a nice woman and Rook meant the world to me. However they navigated their relationship was fine with me as long as they weren’t dogging each other out in the streets.
“Whatever Rook.”
“Whatever Bishop,” he echoed.
I leaned back and crossed my arms over my chest while I stared at the ring in front of me just a little longer before closing the box and shoving it in my pocket.
“Ay,” Rook got my attention. “When the time is right you’ll know.”
I nodded and picked my coffee mug back up.
t was Knight. I answered instantly.
“What’s up?”
He skipped any sort of greeting. “Bishop is having a breakdown about his engagement.”
I exhaled. “Yeah, alright. I’m on my way.”
“Thanks.” He hung up the call without waiting for a response.
I let my head fall back and groaned.
Rook and I parted ways after breakfast and I headed to the estate to get some work done then over to Knight’s spot to help him craft some passports. Afterwards, I went back to the crib and saw that Rook and Winnie were both gone.
I sat in the living room and looked at a few different spots to propose to Asante. I looked online for about three hours before I felt like I was suffocating and headed out.
Instead of going to Asante’s club I went to The Crooked Cross and I was two drinks in when Knight’s name popped up on my caller ID.
“Hello?” I took another drink from my beer bottle then set it down.
“Where you at?”
“The Crooked Cross.”
“For what?”
“Just drinking and chilling.”
“Rook there?”
“Nah.”
“Asante there?”
“Nah.”
“A’ight. Me and King on the way.”
“For what?”
“Because obviously you going through some shit. We’ll be there in a minute.”
“Man, what were you calling about originally?”
“Don’t matter.” Knight hung up before I could ask again and I shook my head but turned to the bar and ordered some wings to see if I could sober myself up a little bit before they got there.
That realization made me text Hawk and Wes to make sure they were aware of everything going on at home in case I ended up incapacitated.
King and Knight walked in, in less time than they’d told me it would take. King threw an arm around my shoulder and led me away from the bar and to a little table and we collapsed at a table together.
King and Knight had just gotten their first drink when Rook walked in.
“What’s up?” He dapped up each of them in turn before really taking me in. “You good?”
“Yeah, I’m just freaking out, I guess.”
“Then you aren’t good?” Knight offered and the table laughed slightly.
“Look, I just want to make sure that when I propose I do it in a way that’s authentic to us, alright? And I mean, we never really talked about the whole marriage thing because we both knew it wasn’t a possibility. Now I’m second guessing if he’d even want to do the getting married shit.”
“If you propose to Asante and he says no, I’m stomping that nigga out.” Rook made that clear. “I ain’t marry Winnie to have you not get what you want.”
“Here this nigga go.” Knight chuckled. “Nothing is wrong with that woman.”
“And you seem to like her,” I added.
“Yeah. He just likes to complain.” King shrugged. “Y’all just realizing Rook just likes the sound of his own voice?”
“Fuck all three of y’all. How that sound?”
“Like you can’t handle the truth,” King said simply. “But you could do worse than Winnie.”
“A whole lot worse,” Knight co-signed. “And shit, two years is a long time. You may actually end up liking her.”
“For what?” Rook scoffed. “Two years may seem like a long time but it ain’t that fucking long and I’ll be damned if I change up my whole life and catch feelings for a bitch that’s already got a departure date locked in for my life and our relationship.
Winnie is cool people. I’ll give y’all that, but she’s temporary. This is a business transaction.”
“Most marriages are,” King said. “Until, you know, they’re not.”
“Either way, I’ve made it down the aisle already. The focus should be on Bishop. Ain’t that why we all here?”
I chuckled quietly. Knight faced me.
“If you love Asante and he loves you, keep the ring on you and propose when it feels right. If you don’t want to do a grand gesture, don’t.
This ain’t just about the family this time.
You get a say in when and how you propose.
It doesn’t have to be a big spectacle just because people will expect it.
Fuck them people. Do what works for y’all for your engagement, just like you’ll have to do what works for y’all throughout marriage. ”
“Yeah, alright.” I sighed.
“And have you met our mom? You could propose to Asante right now and she’d have your engagement party set up in four hours flat and that’s if she don’t put us to work hanging up streamers and picking flowers up and shit.”
“Okay. Now, that’s true.” Rook chuckled.
I gave a small smile. “Yeah, alright. Y’all are right. Fuck it. I’m just going to ask him. I don’t need to book out a whole building or something.”
“You got a ring?” King asked.
“Yeah. Me and Rook actually went off and got it earlier.” I dug into my pocket and plucked out a small velvet box. I flipped it open and set it on the table between us.
Knight and King both looked it over and nodded.
I lifted my hand to order a round of beers and plucked my ring up to look over it.
It was beautiful and it was perfect for Asante. I was still staring at it when our beers came to the table. I put it back in my pocket.
We all had one beer, then another before Knight said he needed to step out and make a call home to his wives. Then, King got up to go to the bathroom and as soon as he left, I turned toward Rook so we could sneak in some talk about what he and Winnie had going on.
Afterwards, we hung out for about an hour longer then headed out.
I called Asante to pick me up so I didn’t have to drive and he was halfway to us when I stopped staring at his potential engagement ring long enough to notice.
I was down fucking bad for this man.