Epilogue
Nina
Six months later.
I received news about an attractive opening at one of the largest hotels in Singapore. It was similar to an opportunity I had turned down just before taking up the position at Skyford Cay. I had thought then that my future was in Nassau with my grandparents and my cousins.
Then life had intervened in the form of the handsome, charming and hard-to-resist Adrian Watkins-Williams the fourth. He captured my heart within a week without effort. So much happened within those seven days. By the end of that week, I was out of a job and I had let Adrian go.
These past months, though, things had been going so well between us. How would I tell Adrian I wanted to take up this position? He had been so happy setting up his foundations and getting more books written and sold. I now had the confidence to take on moving to Singapore. But at what cost. I don’t want to lose Adrian. It wasn’t like we were engaged. We hadn’t settled our plans to get married.
We’d had an epic lunch at Thomas’s estate. We made a lot of promises. I couldn’t cast aside those promises. But I needed to do this for myself. I needed to find out if I could make it working in a large hotel. It was the professional challenge I needed. It had ceased being challenging at DA Bakery, where I made the same things over and over. I needed to experiment. I needed to experience high-pressure days. I thrived under pressure.
Marina Bay Sands Hotel was the perfect fit. The resort had over four hundred and fifty chefs, forty-three kitchens, seven thousand employees. The opportunity was for me to work as the pastry chef with direct reporting to the executive pastry chef.
Those thoughts crowded out all else from my mind as I rode the private elevator to Adrian’s penthouse. I used my key card and swiped the door open.
“Surprise! Surprise!” greeted me. Blinded by camera lights, I could only pick out voices. Nicole and Nellie for sure.
The lights cleared and my entire family panned out before me in the room from my mother’s side and my father’s side.
“What’s going on?” I cried out. “Will someone answer me?” My tears were very close to falling. Tears of happiness.
Then the sea of bodies parted to reveal Adrian dressed in white again. Now I knew why he’d asked me to wear the same white dress I wore to our epic lunch six months ago.
Before I made two steps toward him, the door opened and Jacob wheeled in a gold cart with a cake shaped like a white mixing bowl, the edges painted with gold. It was filled with over two dozen white sugar roses, each a work of art, with the edges trimmed in the same gold. Nestled amid the white roses was a tiny black leather pouch.
“Nina, in celebration of you I present to you your favorite color and your favorite flower. I am glad that white is your favorite color as it symbolizes perfectly the purity of our love.”
Adrian, came to stand next to me, reached out, and took up the pouch. I watched as his shaky fingers opened it, and he pulled out a dazzling cushion-cut diamond ring. Mesmerized, I stared at him and the ring.
In slow motion, he went down on both knees and took my hands.
“Will you marry me, Nina?” he said, his smile bright and eager. “I promise to love you always and forever. I promise to stay hooked on you. I promise to be your companion, lover, friend, provider, and protector.”
I hesitated. I couldn’t say yes to Adrian when I wanted to go to Singapore. The room grew hushed. I looked around the room at my cousins, my grandmother, my grandfather, my aunts, my uncles, my other cousins from all sides, Adrian’s sister Christina, Jacob, and Thomas, his godfather. They waited with puzzled looks. More silence. More tension.
“Can I talk to you in the bedroom, Adrian?” I muttered.
The room went deathly silent.
“What’s going on, Nina?” he asked, his voice croaked with tension.
“In the bedroom,” I said, and walked to the bedroom.
In the bedroom, I took his hands, caressed them, and looked into his kind blue eyes.
“Adrian, I can only marry you if you hear me out. I have been wrestling with my lack of being challenged at work. Two days ago, I learned of an opportunity at the largest hotel in Singapore and I have been considering it. On my way here, I decided I would discuss it with you. We had only made vague promises months ago to each other. I came here with no expectations and you blindsided me with family and this engagement proposal.” I caressed his hand I was still holding onto, my eyes never wavering from the warmth in his eyes.
“How important is this Singapore assignment to you?” he said while he trailed a finger down my cheek. I leaned into his touch for comfort and courage to speak of my desire.
“It would determine whether I made any progress as a pastry chef. I’d be working under the direction of the executive pastry chef and would be responsible for innovation and research, and tasked with innovating new products for the hotel and staff dining as well,” I answered, slow and deliberate.
“When do you have to be there?”
“In a month.”
“Is there enough time to plan and have the wedding before we head out to Singapore?”
“Are you mad? Have you ever been to a Bahamian wedding?” I whispered fiercely.
“No, but how else can we go to Singapore together? We are going together. You will have to make a Bahamian wedding happen in less than a month,” my sweet, handsome Adrian uttered, letting me know this was not a debate or argument.
“You are mad,” I said, laughing loudly. “Nicole and Nellie will go bat crazy.”
“We will all get crazy together,” he said. “I love you, Nina. I want to spend the rest of my days with you, in whatever adventure we choose together. Together. Forever. I love you.”
I walked to him, laid my forehead against his, and smiled.
“How did I get so blessed?” I said. The moment was soft and warm, ripe with the love bubbling in my heart for this God-sent man.
He stepped back and tilted my chin with his finger. I watched his mouth descend slow and languorous to claim my expectant lips. As soon as his mouth parted mine, I curled my satin tongue against his silk tongue.
For a sweet moment in time, we communicated our love, our desire, our pleasure. I was certain every kiss would be as if it were our last. Full of love. Full of promises. Full of commitment. Full of passion.
He ended the kiss, took my hand, and led me out of the room.
“Let’s get this engagement done. Let’s put them out of their misery.”
Hoots. Whistling. Claps . . . erupted when we returned to the living area. I walked over to the unique cake on the cart and, when the room quieted, I spoke to my future husband in a steady voice.
“It’s okay, Adrian, assume your knee position.”
“Yes, your royal highness,” he said with his biggest, happiest smile.
“Will you marry me, Nina?” he said, enunciating each word loud and strong.
“Yes, yes, yes,” I answered with my own biggest, happiest smile. I had already given him my heart, now I would give my whole self to him. To my handsome, intelligent, philosophical Adrian. He had sacrificed a lifetime of ease to be with me, and I was sure that my heart would always be safe in Adrian’s capable hands.
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