Fervor

Chapter 9

“ I still can’t believe I was ready to fuck that man in a public setting. Big Nique was in full effect, and it was your fault, ho.”

Keke hollered over the phone. “How in the hell was that my fault? Ain’t nobody told you to get that drunk! You owe my man for carrying your ass out the club and taking you home.”

I laughed along with her. I closed my eyes as I sat in my car, eating lunch. Normally, I ate lunch in my office, but I needed this private conversation with my sister. Saturday, we couldn’t really talk since we were around everybody. Plus, I had a headache from hell. I didn’t throw up or anything, but I had definitely surpassed my alcohol limit Friday night. The worst part was that I remembered every fucking thing I did.

The way I bucked on that man’s fingers was seared to my brain and literally made me touch myself every time I thought about it. He turned me on so much, and my drunken state wouldn’t allow me to fight it. My restraint was nonexistent. In one instance, I was glad he restrained himself, and in another, I wished he would have taken full advantage of the situation. I didn’t regret a thing about that night, and that was so unusual for me.

I was usually a damn stick in the mud. I’d never behaved like that since I’d been in Tallahassee. In Houston was a different story, especially when I made trips home during my early college years. My mind had been consumed with Harlem since then. I didn’t reach out to him, though, because typically, I wasn’t a fast mover. The bigger issue was that his past hadn’t affected me like it did the first time I met him. I supposed that wasn’t an issue. That was a good thing. The issue was that I was still waiting on a match, and I was lusting over another man.

I rolled my eyes at the thought. That was the main reason I hadn’t reached out. I couldn’t get caught up with him and then get the call that I’d been matched. That would be like embarking on failure. I wasn’t up for wasting my money. I took another bite of my chicken sandwich as Keke rambled about a book she was narrating.

Once I finished eating, she was still going. However, when a call came through from Arranged Hearts, I cut her ass off. “Keke, I gotta go. That’s Arranged Hearts!”

“Get yo’ man, sis!”

I chuckled and clicked over without saying bye. I didn’t want to miss the call, fooling around with her crazy ass. “Hello?”

“Doctor Mott?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Hi! This is Kerri. I want you to know that you have been rematched. This time, we spoke to the groom first. We can not have a repeat of last time. His interviewer said he sounded excited. The dates are up to you. The only thing he asked is that it be at least two weeks away. Everything else is up to you.”

“Thank you for that.” I took a deep breath, hoping that this was real this time. “Let’s do it the second weekend of next month.”

“That was quick. Are you sure?”

“Yes, ma’am. I’d picked the date for the last one. I was toying with another date, though, so I didn’t say right away. Is this real? I’m going to get married in less than three weeks?”

She chuckled. “This is indeed real. We will inform him of the date. I’ll send you a form to fill out for all the details, like colors, wedding party, decorations, and food. Get that back to me as soon as you can.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll fill it out tonight when I get off work. I’m so excited!”

“I’m excited for you, baby! You deserve this so much.”

“Thank you, Kerri. I’ll have a pep in my step now. My goodness. I have to call my family.”

She giggled. “Well, I won’t keep you. Enjoy the rest of your day.”

“You too.”

I immediately called Keke back. She answered, screaming excitedly, then asked, “When?”

“The second weekend of next month!”

I screamed and laughed right along with her. We sounded like some damn hyenas. When I calmed down, I said, “I feel like this is it. They called the groom first this time. They feel so bad about what the last man did. I’m sure he lost his money.”

“That’s his bad. I’m so happy for you, sis. When will you iron out the details?”

“Tonight.”

“Okay. You have to FaceTime us. I would love to be a part of it. I know Sasha and Mama feel the same way.”

“I will. Let me call them and Giselle before I have to go back to work.”

“Okay. I’ll tell Vegas and Jungle about the date.”

“Okay.”

I ended the call and took a deep breath, allowing the tears to escape me. I was finally about to have a family… have a husband. This was exciting. I was anxious as well, hoping he would be everything I desired in a man. While I knew no relationship would be perfect, it could be damn close.

“So I think I want some shades of purple. I’m going to send you this color scheme I found online,” I said to Mama, Keke, Sasha, and Giselle.

I’d gotten home and gone straight to filling out the form Kerri sent. I was way too excited. I didn’t want to dawdle one bit. This weekend, I planned to go shopping for a wedding gown and bridesmaids’ dresses. Mama was talking about flying out to help me and just staying here until the wedding. I couldn’t wait.

“Oooh, that’s really pretty,” G said. “If you put a couple of shades of gray with it and maybe a seafoam green, it would be so beautiful.”

“You’re right. I’m looking at the grays now. I’m going to put together a color scheme right quick and send it.”

My fingers were moving at the speed of light as I pieced the colors together. “Oh my God. This is it.”

“Nique, I can see the happiness on your face. Send it over,” Sasha said.

I did as she requested. I stared at my screen, watching for their facial expressions when it came through. Giselle was the first to lift her eyebrows. Mama’s lips parted when she saw it.

“Nique-Nique, this is so beautiful,” Keke said, getting teary eyed.

“Keke, please don’t start,” Sasha said as she wiped her eyes.

I slowly shook my head, but I couldn’t stop the tears from falling either. When I looked back at the screen, everyone was shedding tears of joy. I giggled, and that only caused them to giggle too. “It’s been a long time coming, ladies.”

“That, it has,” Mama added.

“I guess I should include Alexz and Skyler since we are about to look at bridesmaids’ dresses. I want all of you to be comfortable. We can have multiple designs, as long as the colors match.”

“I’ll call Alexz while you get Skyler on,” Keke said.

Alexz answered with a frown on her face, and Skyler answered with her eyes slightly widened. Alexz was the first to speak. “Hey, y’all. We doing an intervention or some shit?”

Everyone laughed. I knew she would say something crazy. She never bit her tongue, and I loved that about her. When we calmed down, Skyler spoke to everyone as well.

“Ladies, I’m getting married, and I would like you to be in my wedding party.”

They both screamed in excitement, doing our signature AKA call, while Keke put her finger to her ear with one eye closed.

“When is it?” Alexz asked. “Wait a minute. When did you get a man and shit?”

I slowly shook my head. “I went through Arranged Hearts like Giselle did. It’s in a little less than three weeks, the second weekend of next month.”

“Oh my goodness! I can’t wait!” Skyler said.

“Well, I wanted to look at dresses for y’all to get a sense of what you like. Here is the color scheme.”

When I sent it over, they both smiled. “It’s gorgeous, sis,” Skyler said.

“Yes, it is,” Alexz added.

I took my time going through dresses and notating their likes and dislikes and approving designs that some of them picked out. I still couldn’t believe this was actually happening. We ended up staying on the phone for another hour, looking at dresses and talking about what the groom could possibly look like. The conversation only made me even more excited. After I filled in the other details about flowers and food, I went and took a shower and did a DoorDash order for dinner.

I listed multiple choices for food. I wasn’t sure what the groom liked or ate, so I wanted them to discuss the food options with him from the list I provided. I wasn’t extremely picky, but I knew that there were people who limited what they ate for health reasons, like Giselle.

After eating, I watched TV for a little while, wondering if he could possibly look like Atwater from Chicago PD . The man was fine as hell. When I finally went to bed, I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned nearly all night. My mind wouldn’t rest. I knew I would still spring out of bed in the morning like I’d gotten a full night’s sleep. That was just how excited I was.

That was a lie. I was dragging. I didn’t know what I was thinking. Last night, I got out of bed and played around on the computer, looking at wedding gowns to get an idea of what I liked and what I didn’t. I didn’t finally get tired until three o’clock this morning. Here it was seven thirty, and I felt like I’d just gone to sleep. My ass was too old for this shit. I needed at least six hours of sleep in order to function the next day. I knew better.

Three and a half hours of sleep wasn’t gonna cut it. The shower I took this morning, hoping that it would wake me up, only succeeded in making me sleepier. My body was trained to go to bed after a shower since I always took my showers at night. I had to wear makeup today to cover the bags under my eyes. I already had small natural bags, but now they were even bigger.

When I walked into the office, one of the hygienists looked at me like I’d just rolled out of bed. I frowned slightly, and she cleared her throat and looked away.

“What, Missy?”

“You still have on your hair wrap.”

I rolled my eyes and nearly fell asleep. “Shit. I’m tired as hell.”

“You had a late night?”

“Yes. Excitement kept me awake. I interviewed with Arranged Hearts a little over a week ago, and they found me a match.”

Her eyes widened, and she began jumping up and down and clapping in excitement. I laughed. Had I not been so tired, I would have been jumping up and down with her. “Congratulations, Doctor Mott! I’m so happy for you! This is exciting, especially the mystery of it all. Is it the same company Giselle went through?”

“Thanks. It is,” I said with a smile.

I headed to my office to put my things down. The first patient would be here at eight fifteen, so I had thirty minutes to get myself together. When I got to my office, the phone was already ringing. I straight up ignored that shit. I couldn’t talk to anybody right now. If they left a message, I would call them back.

I heard them talking up front, and I wasn’t sure who they were being all friendly with. We weren’t even open for business yet. “Doctor Mott! You have a delivery!”

I frowned. I never got deliveries. What kind of delivery? I peeled myself from my chair and went up front to see a beautiful floral arrangement. My eyes widened. I didn’t think it could be from the groom to be. He didn’t know who I was. I frowned slightly as I grabbed the arrangement and went back to my office as the nosies looked on.

The minute I set it on my desk, I pulled the card from the stem. When I pulled it from the envelope, my breath got caught in my throat.

Friday was nice, and I wish it could have been more. Thank you for giving me pieces of you, although that shit has me craving the whole masterpiece. Take care, Yunique.

I swiped a tear from my cheek, and I didn’t have a clue as to why that note produced tears. While I wanted to reach out and thank him for the flowers, I felt like this was his way of getting closure from what happened between us Friday night. I closed my eyes and swallowed the lump in my throat. Friday was indeed nice. I could have danced and fucked all night with him. Friday had me once again wondering if I’d made the right decision.

Had I given him a chance the first time we met, maybe we would have had something special, and I wouldn’t have gone to Arranged Hearts until I saw where a relationship with him could lead. Jesus Christ. He had my feelings and emotions going topsy turvy, and I didn’t know what to do about it. I took a picture of the note and flowers and sent it to Keke.

She sent back the wide-eyed emojis, then called. “Hello?”

“Damn, sis. He was really feeling you.”

“Yeah. I hope I didn’t make a mistake by letting him get away. What if he was the man I was supposed to be with?”

“Or what if he was the devil? Don’t do that to yourself, Nique. You did what was best for you.”

“You’re right. I just feel like I hurt him.”

“Don’t feel that way. He knew you had been matched. Vegas told him before all that shit took place Friday night. He didn’t know that match had been rescinded. He knew what he was getting into wasn’t anything permanent.”

“You’re right,” I said, not revealing to her that I’d told him about my match rescinding.

Either way, he still knew that I would be rematched. Simply because my match backed out, didn’t mean everything was over. I had to be rematched, and I thought I made that clear.

“Sidenote… did you get any sleep?”

I rolled my eyes as I flopped in my chair. “Girl, less than four hours. I feel like shit.”

She giggled. “I bet you carry your happy ass to sleep tonight!”

“You damn right. I’ll talk to you later. My first patient will be here in a few minutes.”

“Okay. Quit tripping and focus on the man that’s about to be your forever. You about to be a married woman!”

“Thanks, Keke. I appreciate you.”

I ended the call, glancing at the flowers and the note once more, then left my office to make a day out of it.