Chapter 11
Sunshine
Iwoke up before the sun, still wrapped in Love’s arms. He sighed as I looked up at him, pulling me in tighter.
The night from a few days ago still played in my head. The way Love beat Gio down, the look on his face when he was mad at me. But what made the hair stand up on my arms was the way Gio looked at me from the floor in the hallway.
I knew he was mad at me, but he needed to know I didn’t care.
I rested my arm on Love’s chest, and he moved a lil’, looking down at me.
“You okay?” he asked with a sleepy voice.
“Yeah, I just couldn’t sleep.”
Love started to massage my side with his hand.
“Can I put something on your mind that you could dream about?”
I smiled softly. “Of course.”
Love cleared his throat. “Think about…us in a big house, you sitting on your porch watching our kids—”
“Kids? Big house?” I repeated, cutting him off.
“Girl, you heard me,” he said with a laugh before he continued. “Our kids playin’, while I cook on the grill.”
“Hmmm…I like that.”
“Good, cause I already dreamed the first half.”
I looked up at him again. “What is the first half?”
Love smiled. “It’s you…walking down the aisle to me with a huge smile on your face and tears in both of our eyes.”
“I like the sound of our future.”
“Our near future,” Love said. “With that nigga out the way, we can make real moves now, and you don’t have to worry.”
I exhaled. “But how do we know they actually left? We didn’t follow them to the airport.”
I felt Love let out a laugh. “If they didn’t leave, that nigga has a death wish.”
Love changed the subject back to us, and we lay there until the sun came up, talking about wedding plans and our future home.
After a while, Love finally rolled outta bed, with his phone in his hand, and stretched while I stayed wrapped up in the blankets watching him.
That man looked so damn good doing nothing.
He still had sleep in his eyes. His tattoos were on full display, his voice deeper than normal from just waking up.
He walked over to my side of the bed and kissed my forehead before heading toward the bathroom.
“You should take today off and relax,” he said, turning the bathroom light on.
Before I could even respond, my phone dinged, and he had sent me money for the day and labeled it "my pay."
I felt so put up and taken care of while I texted my girls and my boss and called off for the day. Just as I was about to press send to my boss, a message from Bully came across the top of my screen. I was reluctant to open it, but I am so glad that I did.
Bully: We are back in Cali.
I jumped outta bed and ran to the bathroom.
“Look at this,” I said, holding the phone in Love’s face.
He looked at it and smirked.
“You didn’t believe it would happen?”
I shook my head. “I knew Bully was over him, but I don’t know. I guess it’s just good to know that it is over.”
Love nodded. “And that we can move on and put that crazy ass nigga behind us.”
I nodded back, wrapping my arms around him.
“And focus on you, me, our family, and our wedding.”
Love leaned down and kissed me.
“I love the sound of that, mamas. That should be your only concern.”
I smiled against his lips before letting him shower in peace.
While he got ready, I made my way back into the bedroom and opened the curtains. The city was just waking up, sunlight slowly pouring in through the oversized windows, making everything feel softer.
Lighter.
I didn’t realize how tense my body had been these past few weeks until that moment that Gio was gone—like actually gone.
I sat on the edge of the bed, crossed my legs under me, and opened the wedding binder again. My mind started moving differently this time. Not nervous, not distracted.
It was the first time I had real excitement for my future.
I started flipping through venues that I needed to call. I looked at my color palettes while smiling to myself.
Green and gold.
I still couldn’t believe I let Amir pick our wedding colors. That thought alone made me laugh under my breath.
A lil’ later, Love walked back out of the bathroom and over to his closet for a bit and walked outta there in some black shorts and a plain white tee and stared at me.
“You locked in this morning?” he asked.
“Very.”
Love grinned and walked over to the bed. “I been so worried about everything else, lemme see what you have been working on.”
I moved over, and he sat beside me, looking through different things me, the girls, and Amir had picked out. Love laid his head on my shoulder while we sat there and looked through ideas together.
Flowers, table setups, cake designs, and just like his son, he had an opinion on everything.
“Nah,” he said, pointing at one picture. “That shit looks cheap.”
I laughed. “You are so rude.”
He stood up, checking the time on his watch. “I’m serious, mamas. If we gonna do this shit, we gonna do it right.”
I nodded as he kissed me. “I’ma get Amir to school, but I’ll check in on you later.”
Love was about to walk out of the door, and he stopped himself.
“Aye, what do you want our wedding to feel like?”
I looked up from my binder, not ever thinking about that. I knew what I wanted before with Gio. But that was different now.
“I want it to feel like peace.”
Love smiled at me. “Then I’ma make sure that’s what it will be.”
He walked back over to me, grabbed my face softly, and kissed me one more time before heading out.
A few minutes later, I heard him and Amir talking loud in the hallway while music played off somebody’s phone. It made me smile to myself while I looked back down at my binder.
I heard them walk down the hall, the door close behind them, and then the house was quiet again.
I sat in bed, looked over the binder some more, and sent some more messages to my girls. While I waited for them to respond, I went and hopped in the shower, getting myself together. After that, I cleaned up around the room then moved downstairs to the living room.
After laying out my wedding shit on the plush carpet in front of the TV, I went into the kitchen and poured me some coffee. As I was enjoying my morning peace, there was a knock at the door, something that normally didn’t happen.
I placed the coffeepot back, walked to the door with my cup in my hand, looked through the peephole, then opened the door happily.
“What the hell are y’all doing here?” I asked Deja, Renee, and Kenya.
They laughed as I hugged each of them, and they walked inside.
“Did you think you was gonna take another off day, and we not be included?” Deja said.
I closed the door behind them, and we walked to the living room.
“Okay ladies, the colors are green and gold,” Kenya added.
“Yes, and the theme is peace…I have been through a lot, and on that day, I want all the peace I can get.”
They all agreed. We stood around the island talking about all I have to do when Kenya pulled some champagne and orange juice out of her bag.
I laughed and grabbed some glasses so she could get us right.
We then walked to the living room. They looked at my spread, and we all got comfy to get this planning together.
We took sips, talked about what we could do to add that peaceful element, then Renee asked a question that made my mouth drop.
“What is the date?”
“Huh?” I responded.
Renee laughed. “Girl, what is the date of the wedding? I’m trying to make a wedding invitation mockup.”
My eyes shot around at all of them. “Umm…I didn’t think about that.”
They all busted out laughing.
“Girl,” Deja said. “You don’t know the day you getting married? How are we supposed to book anything?”
I laughed along with them.
“Girllll…it’s been so much going on, I forgot to think about that. I’ll talk to Love about it when he gets home.”
Renee shook her head dramatically. “Thank you, for right now I’ll just put ‘Coming Soon’ on them.”
We laughed, then got focused, enjoying the rest of the morning as it flowed.
Music played low through the speakers while we sat around the floor tossing ideas back and forth.
Every now and then one of them would show me something on their phone.
Flowers.
Centerpieces.
Wedding cake decorations.
Bridesmaid dresses.
Some of it was beautiful. I had them print it and put it in my binder.
Some of it was ugly as hell, and they were told that.
Deja got cussed out at least three times for showing me shit that looked like it belonged at some damn celebrity wedding with a celebrity budget.
“I don’t know why you are trippin’, Islah. Love got the money,” she kept arguing.
“And I got sense,” I shot back.
A few hours later, notebooks were open everywhere, and my binder looked worse than before. And somehow we still managed to keep adding more things.
By lunchtime, we had ordered food and were taking a lil’ planning break.
As we all sat around the room, I looked around at my girls and all the shit we had laid out, and I couldn’t help but smile. Everything was coming together, not just the wedding, but life after it.
Our home.
Amir.
Love.
Everything I wanted…
Kenya must have seen the wheels spinning in my head and came over, taking a seat beside me.
“You good over here?” she asked softly. “The last few days at work you’ve been in your head.”
I nodded. “I have been, but today I got some good news.”
They all looked at me and waited for me to tell them.
“Love’s people told him about the meeting that I had with Gio.” Their eyes got big, and I nodded at them, feeling how they felt in that moment, then continued. “We pulled up on Gio and Bully and….”
I paused. I started having flashbacks of what happened.
“Spit it out, girl!” Deja said.
I smirked. “Love went in and beat Gio’s ass! And told him to leave the city.”
“And did he?” Kenya asked.
I nodded with a smile, showing them the text from Bully, and they all started cheering.
“I see why you’re so happy,” Kenya added. “You should be.”
I nodded. “And I am. I finally feel free, like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.”
They all nodded, understanding where I was coming from.
“I am so glad that nigga is outta our city. I am so glad that you can focus on yourself and your marriage. Fuck that nigga Gio,” Deja added.