Chapter 14
Toni McCall
MOMENTS BEFORE “I DO”
“Somebody get a towel or something for her to put on the front of the robe. I don’t want that food spilling, getting on her robe,” my grandma fussed, standing in the large, luxury bridal suite that I was in with the rest of the women.
“I got it. Ma, you need to go get in the chair, so that you can get your make-up done. Come on. It’s getting closer to the start time,” my mom fussed at my grandmother, as she walked towards me, holding a white towel in her hands.
She had me lift the plate from my lap, so that she could drape the towel over me. That way the food wouldn’t spill, dirtying up the robe.
My make-up was done. Face was beat to the gods!
I hired a professional make-up artist to do myself, and all the women’s faces.
Any other day, I would usually do my own make-up, and have it look as if a professional had done it, but today was my day, and I didn’t want to have to lift a finger.
Everything was on, except for my lipstick.
The artist didn’t do it yet because she wanted me to have a minute to sit and eat.
Once I was finished, that’s when she would finish with my look. There was a camera crew in here, that were capturing all these moments because these were the final moments leading up to our wedding, so once the reception was over tonight, we would officially be done filming.
We had been on a break from filming because I didn’t want my bachelorette or Steel’s bachelors party to be recorded.
Certain things I didn’t want to expose to the public.
I wanted this to be a family show, where everyone would be able to sit, and enjoy together, which is why certain parts of our life, the film crew were contracted to not come and record certain settings.
Call me strict, but I didn’t want my niece, or my kids to see me in Nola, leaned over on the side of the building, throwing up because I had too much to drink.
That wasn’t the look that I was going for.
I also knew that my students wouldn’t allow me to live that down, so that’s why certain areas of my life weren’t filmed.
“What the hell did ya’ll do last night? Let me check to see if she’s even breathing,” my mom voiced, standing over me, but her eyes were on Alecia. Everyone in the room heard what she said, so they started laughing, knowing that my mama could be dramatic as hell.
My mom picked her hand up, and she put her finger right up under Alecia’s nose, just to see if she was breathing, and she was.
My eyes were on Alecia, as she was in a silk robe, just like the rest of the ladies.
She was lying on top of the comforter, with a throw blanket wrapped around her.
Her face was already done, just like most of the women, so she had her head resting on her arm, so that she wouldn’t get make-up on the pillow.
She wasn’t snoring or anything, but you could tell from how peaceful that she was sleeping, that her ass was in a deep sleep.
Hell, if it wasn’t my wedding day, I knew that I would be up under a throw blanket, sleeping as well.
We didn’t get any sleep last night at all.
Me, and these women have been up for an entire 24 hours.
After getting off the phone with Steel, I went back downstairs with the ladies, and we had a time.
I’m talking karaoke for at least two hours straight, and then we played a couple of card games.
From there, we gathered around in a circle, and with all these beautiful women in my life, we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, talking about what marriage looked like to us.
In my friend group, Alecia, and Brandy were the only women that were married.
I received so much insight on marriage from Alecia, and Brandy.
They shared things with me that I planned to take along with me during my journey of marriage.
Although Shawntae, Karina, and Rianna weren’t married women, each of them dated, and ultimately, they each had a goal in mind to one day be a married woman, so they were listening just as closely as I was, mentally jotting down notes.
Because we partied so hard in Nola, and I’d gotten sloppy drunk, and we did enough things there that most people would do in a weekend trip, I was glad that the women knew me well enough to know that part 2 of the bachelorette party that they’d thrown for me yesterday was all that I needed.
“We haven’t been to sleep yet, auntie. We stayed up all night last night,” Karina said, coming over, and she sat down at the foot of the bed.
As if this was some young people shit, that my mom couldn’t wrap her mind around, she shook her head, and she walked away, allowing me to eat my food in peace.
“We have a couple of hours until the wedding starts. Let me know when you’re ready for me to start giving your man your pictures,” Karina let me know, and I smiled, thinking about the way that Steel was going to lose his shit once he got his eyes on the first picture.
There were four pictures in total for him, and each picture would get spicier and spicier as they were handed over to him.
At home, I had an entire photo album, so that he would have the pleasure of seeing each photo that I’d taken that night, and I was going to threaten him to keep it locked away in his mancave, so that the kids wouldn’t see it.
“You honestly can start giving it to him right now. Go ahead. Whatever you do, don’t let Brooklyn see it. That girl just might die,” I let her know, and she laughed, while promising me that she would keep it out of Brooklyn’s view.
Brooklyn was somewhere in this large venue. She had been in here about ten minutes ago, showing me her make-up, telling me how nice it looked, and that she wanted to use this same artist when she went to prom in a few months.
Meanwhile….. Steel
“Please get a lot of pictures of my handsome son. My boy look so fresh. Model that tux, daddy boy,” I called out from the chair that I was sitting in, as my barber stood in front of me, lining me up, getting me right, as we were down to the last two hours before the wedding was set to start.
We were at the venue, and all the men in my life that meant a lot to me were in this room with me. The part that gave me chills was knowing I was thirsty as hell to see Toni, and she was somewhere tucked away with her girls at the same venue as me, but I had no clue where she was.
The venue that we were in mirrored a castle.
Months ago, when Toni and I sat down, and we discussed the kind of wedding that we wanted, I let her have the floor.
She told me all her ideas, and I wasn’t going to shortcut my baby when it came to anything.
Toni made it clear to me from day one that she wanted a big wedding.
She knew that she only wanted to get married once, so she wanted to go big, or go home.
I had no problem giving that to her. Whatever my baby wanted, she got.
She came to me with a theme that resembled royal.
To her, the royal them was supposed to symbolize fairytale love.
The kind of love that you would only see in movies, or read in books, but here we were living this shit out in real life.
She wanted us to get married in the closest thing that resembled a castle.
I fucked with the idea because somewhere in that theme, it was giving old money Miami, so the idea was dope to me.
We saw this venue months ago, and Toni was sold on the grand staircases, feeling like it would be a great place to take pictures.
She loved the waterfront ceremony option that we would have today.
It was a timeless look for sure, and it gave off that fairytale vibe that she was going for.
The venue was so big that we were on opposite wings.
My guys and I were in a suite on a side wing of the venue, and I’m not sure what Toni and her girls view was, but I personally felt like we had the best view in the house.
Our view was a waterfront view, and since we’ve come into this room hours ago, I have taken a few moments to myself to just stand there alone, take in the beautiful view that was in front of me, and really tap in with God, thanking Him for the life that I had.
I watched as the photographer took different photos of my son, and within seconds, there was a knock at the door. Khari, who was standing closest to the door, he went over to open it, and once he did, I saw him stick his hand out, as if he didn’t want whoever was at the door to come in.
“What you doing? You can’t bring your ass in here. Testosterone only beyond this point. Estrogen gotta get the fuck out,” he shot, and from where I was seated, I still couldn’t see who it was.
“Khari, move. I have something to give to Steel,” that was Karina’s voice.
She pushed past Khari, as if she took his ass for a damn joke, and she marched over to me. Like a typical nigga, I watched the way his eyes followed her ass in the dress that she was wearing.
My eyes lingered to her right hand, and I could see that she was holding something in it.
I knew that I’d left something for Toni to open before the wedding started, but I was curious to know what it was that she had for me.
Every time that I thought I had one up on her, this woman would always prove that she was up there with me as well.
“From the bride. Please, please don’t open this around anyone else. She will literally kill you,” Karina said, putting something in my hand, and before I could even ask her what it was, she walked away.
When she got to the door, Khari fucked with her some more, talking shit to her, and she talked it right back to his ass. Khari actually liked Karina, but she would never, I mean never fuck with that nigga. He had too many kids, and too many baby mama’s for her ass.
“What she gave you?” Khari asked me with his nosy ass.