Chapter 14 Bishop #2
I didn’t think Asante and I would have our engagement formatted that way.
We weren’t going to get married in the usual room upstairs like my brothers had before me.
We were going to actually have a wedding, the first one my family had seen in generations.
We weren’t people who did too much usually so honestly we were contemplating on having the wedding right in the backyard of the Barron estate.
I did a double take when I saw that my mother was calling. I reached over to answer.
“What’s up?”
“I can have a party put together for you and Asante tonight. Be here in four hours.” .
“What?” I chuckled. “Mom, you don’t have to do that especially today. We have time.”
“No. No,” she repeated herself and I knew she was shaking her head. “Your brothers had formal parties the nights they announced their marriages. You’re having a party.”
“Asante and I don’t want a party. We don’t want to do any of the big grand gestures, alright? We just want shit to be about us and our love.”
“Okay. Fine. Then, we can have a nice family dinner tonight then. How about that?”
I looked over at Asante and mouthed asking if he wanted to go. He nodded.
“Yeah. We can do that. Family dinner sounds amazing.”
“Okay,” she sang. “I’ll call you back in a few.”
“Alright.”
My mom hung up immediately. I added Asante to the family group message and had him message in it and announce that were going to have a family dinner tonight.
Asante and I went home and immediately got to work getting ready for the night, taking showers, making sure our clothes weren’t wrinkled and cleaning up our facial hair.
We sat in the backyard and smoked a joint together before we headed to the estate where the family had already gathered.
I hugged everyone and spent a little extra time letting my hand rest on Casmi and Nova’s baby bump to feel my little niece or nephew.
Then, Asante and I walked around talking to my brothers, their wives and my parents before a private chef came out and told us the food was ready for us.
We sat in the same spots we’d sat in at the brunch and dinner tasted amazing.
After everyone finished eating, we both stood from our seats and I lifted my glass.
“I just want to take the time out to thank everyone for being here. I know it seems like just yesterday we were watching King get married and sworn in on the same night and watching Knight get married and running through Eddie’s house the same night then being damn near held hostage on Rook’s wedding night.
” I shook my head and chuckled. “I’m glad I was able to be the least stressful engagement this family has probably ever seen.
” I smirked and a few people chuckled. “I want to thank you guys for helping me make this happen from ring shopping to talking me through my nerves to planning this dinner in a matter of hours. I appreciate all of it and I appreciate y’all.
I’ll never ever forget the way y’all showed up and out for me through this journey.
Thank you.” I let my glass lower and Asante lifted his.
“I just want to say thank you for having me and welcoming me into the family,” Asante said simply.
We all lifted our glasses in response then drank together.
“Welcome to the family!” Rook cheered.
Asante chuckled as we sat back down and we all drank together and laughed for what felt like a few minutes but ended up being hours.
I found myself looking over at Asante every once and a while.
Even though he was smiling and working my family well didn’t mean that everything was cool for him.
Shit. The talk we’d had with his family hadn’t exactly gone well.
No promises had been made but it was obvious Asante didn’t feel confident with where things had left off.
He was cool with how shit was but I wasn't. Nothing was more important to me than him, not even my pride. If I had to do a little begging to get my future husband what he wanted on our wedding that was just what the fuck it was going to have to be.
I was ready to do that and a whole lot more to keep a smile on his face.
I looked at the watch on my wrist then over at Asante who was laid out on his stomach. After our makeshift bachelor party at his club had turned into a brawl at his club, it made sense that he was exhausted. Rook had got into it with someone. I’d jumped in so of course Asante had jumped in.
It was some stupid shit. It looked like it was always going to just be some stupid shit and that was why I was never going to stop going hard for him.
I admired his sleeping face for just a little longer before I forced myself up and out of bed. I ran through my hygiene needs then headed out making sure I was as quiet as possible.
I stopped at a little cafe to grab a cup of coffee and smoked a cigarette in the parking lot before I got on the road and headed out.
I got to his hometown in three hours flat and double then triple checked the address Nadira had sent me after a lot of begging, pleading and assuring her I wasn’t going to pistol whip her pops - even if I wanted to.
When I pulled up outside of Asante’s childhood home his father was outside leaned beneath a car and digging around for something.
I cleared my throat to get this attention and he lifted and looked back at me. It was obvious he was shocked by my presence and his eyes flicked to the gun I had tucked into the front instead of the back while I closed the space between us.
“What’s up?” I greeted him.
“What are you doing here?” He wiped his hands on his jeans and faced me head on.
“I just wanted to talk to you.”
“About?”
“Asante.”
“He sent you here to talk to me?”
“Nah. He doesn’t even know I’m here. If I’d brought it up I know he would have told me to let it go but I couldn’t do that knowing what I know about him.”
“Yeah? And what’s that?” He plucked up a tool and went back to work obviously not seeing me as a threat any longer.
“That he loves y’all.”
“I don’t doubt Asante loves us.” His father messed with something beneath the hood then faced me again. “We love Asante and we want what’s best for him but-”
“You don’t think that’s me?”
“No. I don’t. I don’t think the love of his life is a fucking man. I want grandchildren and I want him to understand that just because the flesh is weak doesn’t mean he has to be weak mentally or spiritually. If God had intended-”
I cut him off. “I didn’t come here for a sermon.
I came here because he loves you and I want to invite you to the wedding again face to face and man to man.
I’m one of four boys and I don’t respect or agree with everything they do all the time but I love them and show up for them.
You think this is what my pops wanted for me?
Fuck no.” I scoffed, “but he gon’ be there because I’m his son if nothing else.
We not asking you for money or even your blessing.
I don’t need it, want it or give a fuck to be honest, but I do think it would be cool if you just attended and hugged Asante or some shit. ”
“I respect you coming here and talking to me but I can’t support this and Asante knows that.”
“Alright, cool. Well if you change your mind, the option is open and if you don’t that’s cool too and you ain’t got to worry about us ever again. So uh, just think about if you really want to let shit get that far with you and your son and uh, we can have kids to, you know?” I exhaled.
His eyes jumped.
“Two men raising-”
I cut him off before he could even start his sentence properly.
“Ay, I’m respecting you as Asante’s pops but don’t say something wild to me about the life we deserve to have and will have whether you’re there or not, alright?
Our kids adopted or made in a science lab ain’t gon’ want for nothing and damn sure won’t be looking for us at their school functions, recitals, graduations or weddings.
Know and believe that.” I looked at my phone when it vibrated and saw it was a message from Knight.
I took a deep breath and did my best to center myself.
“Look, I’d love if you were there for your son and those future grandchildren,” I said softly.
“Family means a lot to me. It’s one of the core values me and Asante share heavily and he may act like shit is cool but I know it’s going to kill him to not have you there.
” I waited a moment for a response that I didn’t get.
He just picked up a different tool and looked back beneath his hood.
I nodded to myself. “Thanks for your time though, man.”
I looked both ways before jogging back to my car where I grabbed my phone immediately.
Knight: Baby 1 is coming via Nova. No need to head to the hospital yet. I’ll keep y’all updated when shit becomes active.
A huge grin took over my face and I looked back at Asante’s dad briefly before backing out of his yard.
I’d just wanted to give it one last try and even though he had said he wouldn’t attend I would have been surprised if he genuinely didn’t.
My own life had shown me that traditional men could be swayed by familial love and I wanted that shit for Asante.
Bad.
I headed back home with thoughts of holding Asante’s dad at gunpoint running rampant. I knew for a fact my brothers could help me get that shit done if I committed to it but ultimately decided not to. He looked like a cop caller and crier.
The original three hour drive out to him was a four hour drive back because of traffic.
I’d told Asante I had work to do for the family so he hadn’t been looking for me but when I got back in town I picked up some dinner for us to share and headed to the club.
Asante was standing at the bar talking to a small group of women and I gave him a lil wave so that he saw that I was around and headed straight back to his office.
I started to clear his desk to set the food up for him since I was sure he hadn’t eaten just yet but did a double take when I saw that he had a past due note among his paperwork.