Epilogue Three Years Later
Adonis.
“There he is baby,” Jru pointed. “Come on.”
She took my hand and started to drag me through the thick ass crowd of people to the area she’d spotted him in. I was throwing out all kinds of apologies and shit because I was bumping into mothafucka’s while she dragged a nigga across the arena.
“Jru, damn, slow down.” I maneuvered my hand so that I could capture hers and slow her damn strides. “Relax. He’s not going anywhere.”
“I want to get pictures of him and his friends before they all disperse,” she pouted.
When she finally made it over to AP, she released my hand then embraced him.
“Oh my God, I’m so proud of you.” She smiled up at him, stepping back taking his diploma from him and examining it. “You did it! I’m so proud of you!”
“You say that like you thought I wouldn’t, sis.” He laughed.
“No, I knew you would. I’m just happy,” she beamed.
“I appreciate you, sis,” he said, pulling her into another hug.
When he released her, he stepped to me, dapping me up then pulling me into a brotherly hug.
“I’m proud of you, boy,” I confessed. “It was a long, hard road, but you did it and I’m proud of you.”
“I appreciate you, bro, for real.” He smiled, glancing down at his diploma. “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”
“Yeah, you would. Maybe not as fly as you are right now, but you’d still be here.” I smirked.
His school colors were red and black, so he was wearing an Armani dress shirt and fitted pants with some black Gucci sneakers. He cried and complained because he wanted to wear his Jordan 4s, but once the compliments started rolling in, his lil’ ass was eating it up.
“I was gon’ be fly regardless, my guy.”
“Yeah, aight.” I playfully pushed him back.
I was proud of the man that he’d grown into.
It was a journey, but he finally got his act together at school.
He joined the basketball team after he stopped bullshitting, got his grades up, and found some new friends to hang with.
He and Bre were still going strong too. I fucked with her because she actually reminded me a lot of Jru when we were their age.
She pushed him to do better and didn’t take the niggas shit when he tried to trip.
“Okay, let me get pictures of you three,” Jru requested of AP and his two homeboys. “I know you have to go find your families.”
She snapped an ass of pictures of them by themselves, with her and her family, Vado, Rhea, and me, then she made me take pictures with them too.
After that she freed them but made us keep going until we all had a million pictures with AP.
I thought we were in the clear until Bre came over and we had to do it all over again.
Bre’s parents came too, so that was even more pictures.
I finally drew the line and took her phone, letting her know we had reservations to eat.
She wanted to throw a party, but I declined.
We’d just bought our new house after we eloped six months ago, and I wasn’t feeling having a bunch of people over.
I’d rather just pay for everyone to have dinner together then let them all go to their own respective homes.
The decision to elope was Jru’s. I wanted to give her the wedding of her dreams because not only did she deserve it, but she’d also been in a low place after three failed attempts at getting pregnant.
We succeeded once, but we experienced a miscarriage.
The shit had us both fucked up, so I tried to give her free reign to do her thing with the wedding.
It wasn’t going to replace what we’d lost, but I was hoping it would be something to keep her busy so that she wasn’t thinking about it.
That wasn’t what she wanted though. She just wanted us to get married, without all the bells and whistles, in front of the people that meant the most to us, so I made that happen for her.
We finally made it outside of the arena where AP graduated and started for the car. I hit he automatic start on the remote in my hand, bringing the engine to life. I stopped at the trunk, but AP kept going toward my truck. He hadn’t even realized that everyone else had stopped.
“Ay, fool,” I called out to him. He paused and looked back at me holding up a set of keys.
It took a minute for it to register, but when realization set in, his eyes stretched, and he started in my direction.
“Say word,” he said in disbelief.
“Word.” I grinned.
“This mine?” he examined the silver Charger.
“Yep.” I tossed him the keys.
He caught them and immediately walked over to the car, opening the passenger door for his girl first—because he knew I would have been on his ass otherwise—then he went to the driver’s side and opened the door. He leaned in and took a look around before popping back out.
“This mine, bro?”
“Yeah, nigga.” I laughed.
He walked over and hugged me tight as shit. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jru recording the exchange with her little corny ass. She was crying while she did.
“Thank you, Donny,” he said into my shirt. “I appreciate you so much.”
“You cryin’?” I smirked, hugging him back.
“No, man.” He laughed but wiped some tears with his lying ass. “I can drive it now?”
“I don’t know how else it would get out of here,” I chuckled. He nodded and headed back to the car, but I stopped him. “We goin’ to eat as a family, so go straight to The Chophouse.”
“Aight.”
“And don’t be flyin’, AP,” I pointed.
“Aight, man.” He laughed.
“Buckle up.” I called out.
“Babe, leave him alone.” Jru giggled, looping her arm through mine and pulling me toward our car. “He’s going to be fine.”
“I know.”
When we made it to my truck, I opened the door for her and helped her inside. I got ready to close the door but she stopped me.
“I’ve been trying to find the right time to tell you this.”
My brows furrowed. “Tell me what?”
“I’ve been lying to you,” she said and I frowned.
“Fuck you mean lyin’ to me? About what?”
“About where I’ve been going,” she answered. “I mean I go to work every day, or brunch with the girls, but that’s not all I’ve been doing,” she said timidly. “Not all the time.”
There was a pregnant pause that was pissing me off more by the second. We’d just left my brother’s graduation and were about to go out with our fucking family, and she was telling me some shit like this.
“You gon’ explain what you talkin’ about, Jruelle?” I low-key snapped.
“Yes, I—just, here,” she went inside her big ass purse then produced a box.
I eyed it suspiciously before accepting it. I slowly pulled the ribbon from the box then opened it. There was a note on the top that said, I’ve got some big shoes to fill, but for now these will have to do.
My heart rate picked up as I moved the note and saw a small ass pair of Gucci sneakers that looked like the ones I’d gotten my brother for his graduation.
“J-Baby,” I looked up at her then down at her stomach. “Y-you’re pregnant?” I damn near whispered.
She nodded as she sniffled because she was crying.
“I’ve been going to my appointments alone for a little over three months because I wanted to be sure we’d succeeded and that what happened last time didn’t…
you know,” she shrugged. “But we’re out of the first trimester, and our little one is doing just fine. ”
I wanted to be upset that I’d missed some of her appointments, but I couldn’t even focus on that shit. She was really carrying my baby and that was all that I gave a fuck about at the moment.
I gently pulled her from the truck then dropped down, pushing her shirt up so that I could see her barely there belly.
Jru’s stomach had always been flat, but lately I’d been seeing it grow and mentioning it to her, but she blamed it on her bad eating.
Now I knew better. She was carrying our legacy.
I felt like a hoe when the tears sprang to my eyes, but I shook it off because these were happy tears. Jru was so convinced that we would never be able to have a child, but right in front of me was proof that God had the final say.
“I know you’re mad about missing the appointments, but I have a recording of the heartbeat, and I got ultrasounds done at every one of them for you.”
“I don’t even care about that right now,” I admitted. “I just care that you both are healthy, and that you’re happy.”
“Then you’re two for two,” she smiled down at me.
I kissed her stomach twice before raising up and doing the same to her lips. I pulled her ass into a tight ass hug afterwards.
“I love you, girl,” I confessed. “Not just because you’re carrying my seed, but for everything. You’re constantly making me a better man. I can’t even express my gratitude through words for real.”
“You don’t have to.” She wrapped her arms around my neck. “You show me daily in your actions. I love you more.”
I stepped back a bit to glance at her belly again before saying, “you don’t even know what this means to me.”
She smiled softly before kissing me again. “Yeah, I do.”
The End!!!