Wedding Bells #2
“Okay, so what moves do we have to learn?” Yacouba looked like he was all in now that we’d brought up how Jasmine might be ready to pull his grass skirt off while he was dancing.
“I never would’ve thought that I’d see the day where you would be plotting new and exciting ways to entice the same woman into your bed repeatedly.
” Jahmir shook his head slightly awed at how Jasmine had calmed Yacouba down.
Even when he was locked up he could still run the family business with ease.
But Jasmine had him turning the crazy on and off and turned into a puddle of emotion around his wife.
“She’s not just a woman, she’s my wife. And I know you’re not talking, Mir. My ass didn’t think you were ever going to make a move on Ny and now look at y’all. I’m ready for you to tell me she’s pregnant again.”
Mir’s brows dipped confused at what Yacouba said. “She just gave birth.”
I barked a laugh looking at the two of them arguing back and forth. “You act like you care! You ain’t been able to get up off that girl and I swear to God Priest be taking over your body or some shit. Y’all keep saying that Jada ain’t wrapped too tight like this nigga ain’t standing right here.”
“Not too much on Sweets.”
I turned to look at Smoke’s ass because, of course he would speak up now. “Is that all you heard?”
Smoke shrugged from his spot halfway across the damn store and I could only shake my head at how obsessed this man was with Jada.
If this is what they were wishing on me I needed to call Auntie Babette or Jemma to work a root of protection over me.
Whatever love spell these niggas were under needed to miss me.
Too late for all that, isn’t it?
“You know his ass was tuning us out until we brought up his favorite subject. He don’t even realize his ass is in the wedding I bet.” Jahmir was now leaning back, watching Smoke who glanced around at all of us.
“In it? I’m working it.” Smoke looked confused at the thought of participating in our ceremony.
It was funny how he was still wondering what the hell he meant to us.
His posture was loose, but he was scanning the store and the street.
He was in a t-shirt and jeans with his locs braided off his face ready to handle whatever came.
“The hell is wrong with you, man? You just never going to accept the fact that you’re family.” Yacouba pulled off the jacket he’d been trying on before placing it back on the hanger.
“I accept it but I still don’t trust anybody else to do security for y’all’s shit but me and Omega.”
Yacouba rubbed his eyes like the distance between Smoke and Omega was stressing him out. “Can you please call that nigga your brother like you claim him?”
“Hell no. Cause then I gotta claim that other muthafucka and I’m trying to end his fucking life. I call him Omega out of respect. When he’s no longer a twin then I’ll call him my brother.”
“That makes a twisted bit of sense and now I’m worried I've been around you niggas too fucking long.” Yacouba shook his head as Mr. Leon came out from the back.
“The fabric for the custom ties and pocket squares will be in before the end of the week. I hadn’t worked with kapa before so I ordered more than enough.”
“Are they sending you the kāpala or do I need to have one of my relatives provide them for you?” I wanted everything to be right so I wasn’t going to leave anything to chance.
“No, the company that you directed me toward had more than enough for me to choose from. Since you didn’t have specific colors I’ve ordered one for each of you.
All with keeping with the colors of your land.
” He smiled excited to do something out of the norm and I knew he was going to execute it like he did everything else.
I knew that there were cultural elements that were going to be involved on Asha’s side and I wanted to have the same part of my grandfather’s culture represented as well.
Black American culture was going to be woven into everything but there were still family traditions from both sides that I wanted to be highlighted.
The kāpala were traditional bamboo sticks that acted like pattern stamps, imprinting designs on kapa fabric.
We would use it since I was paying homage to tradition.
“That’s perfect.” I shook his hand and he nodded at all of us, getting ready to give us space before he turned to leave.
“Make sure mine is money-green.”
Mr. Leon smiled and glanced at me for approval. I gave it because I didn’t care what color out of the rainbow they chose. “That can be arranged.”
“First Xerx had us with the Dru Hill jumps and now I gotta have Tina Snow knees. At least Li let me beat somebody’s ass since he had me in a skirt.” Yacouba was back to bitching but I was sure his ass loved this shit.
Liam’s eyes narrowed, and his lip turned up into a sneer. “A kilt, muthafucker.”
I stepped in hoping to defuse the situation before they started cutting up. “Mir the only one I didn’t have beef with about how his shit went. Just a tuxedo and some regular nuptials.”
Yacouba smirked his eyes trained on Mir. “His ass got blown up at his shit though.”
We all looked over at Mir who was staring at Yacouba like he was gonna beat his ass. But damn if he hadn’t made a good point. Mir had the most normal wedding and somebody tried to kill his ass immediately after.
“Why the fuck would you bring that up right now?” He looked pissed at the reminder that he’d spent the rest of his wedding night and the first few days of his marriage out of it.
He was unconscious for almost a full day and I knew he’d tossed around the idea of giving Nyima a second wedding to make up for how their first ended.
“I’m saying if we're looking at track records, the normal wedding ending in the most fucked up way. So maybe y’all should be thankful that I’m having you as a part of this and stop complaining.” I shrugged and removed the temporary tuxedo jacket and placed it on the hanger for Mr. Leon to collect.
“Damn, this is actually making sense.”
Xerxes shook his head laughing at Yacouba. “No, zhe fuck it’s not.”
“The two outsiders are in this, right?” I laughed at how Yacouba characterized Hakeem and Alec.
“Yeah, they’re in it. Got fitted earlier this week.” I knew the backlash was coming and it was swift, with a pair of socks landing on the side of my face.
“Yoo playing favorites and shyte?” Liam’s arms were folded across his chest and I found it comical.
“Y’all had to come from out of town, get over yourself.”
Yacouba waved his hand not trying to hear what I had to say. “Nah, I’m feeling some kind of way about this shit. You changing up, O. First you're getting married—”
I pointed at Xerxes to get the attention off me. “I did it so that this man could marry the woman of his dreams!”
“That’s some bullshit and you know it. We know that this shit ain’t have shit to do with obligation because you would’ve found a way to get out of it if necessary.
Xerx would’ve cooked some shit up just to make sure neither of you had to marry her.
Instead, you’re over here volunteering as tribute and shit. Oh Katniss Everdeen muthafucka.”
We cracked up laughing ‘cause he was gone talk shit no matter what.
“Yacouba—”
“E’s right and yoo keen it. We could’ve found a way if yoo truly dinna want to be with ‘er. Money or a bullet to the head—”
My gun was out and aimed at my brother before he could finish his sentence. The smirk on his face and the look in his green eyes had me realizing I’d played right into his hands.
“And yoo think we believe yoo dinna feel something for ‘er? Us who ‘ave kenned yoo yoor entire life?”
I tucked my gun back into the small of my back and cracked my neck to ease the tension. I didn’t feel like talking about this shit for the second time this week. Especially not with them. I didn’t have the capacity to take on figuring myself out while I had everything else going on.
“Shut up.”
There wasn’t any other comeback I could have because I’d already shown my hand.
“Cheer up, Ori. You’ve found yourself in good company and everyone seems to like her. Nyima thinks she’s sweet and I trust her discernment.” Mir patted me on the shoulder attempting to comfort me. Which only made me madder.
Smoke spoke up damn near scaring my ass. “Jada likes her too so you can take that endorsement.”
“Francesca as well.”
“Fitting in with your wives is not fitting into my life.”
They started laughing again further getting on my damn nerves.
“Oh, that’s funny that you think you’re going to find someone that you can actually tolerate who would just fit into your life easily.
It’s almost as though you don’t know yourself.
You think that some spineless innocent miss is going to do it for you?
Be for real, Ori. We’ve been lucky enough that the karma of our last generation is allowing us to get what we need in this one.
Mir lost the only decent parent he couldn’t ever had so the universe blessed him with Nyima and his son.
Babette lost her ability to have more kids so Xerxes ends up in love with a woman who was stolen from her parents and provides her with a home.
You can run down the list of all of us. Hell, the nigga that Jem gets with has a tall order to fill because I know her parents putting together something extra special for their prensès.
” Couba was ticking off tragedies that had happened to each of us.
It showed that no matter how much money and power we amassed, shit was still going to happen.
I waved him off because I didn’t want to think of being worthy of this. It stirred up too much for me to contend with. “And you think me losing my father and my mama abandoning me means that I’m going to end up with the woman of my dreams? Be serious, Couba.”
“You can think what you want but the proof is you would’ve dropped your brother for even thinking about putting a bullet in her.”