Chapter 14 #2
“Nothing nigga,” I shot, not wanting to tell him because I didn’t have a clue what it was, and I wanted to follow the rules that Karina told me, and not look at this shit while the other men were around me.
“Yeah aight,” was all Khari said, and he went over to the side of the room, with the rest of the men, who were talking amongst each other.
My barber told me to give him a minute, so that he could search in his bag, and get another pair of clippers.
While he did that, I looked around me, just making sure that the coast was clear, and once it was, I finally looked at what Karina placed in my hands.
It was a small envelope. Nothing bigger than a wallet size.
I pulled the flap back, and I took out what was inside.
The second I saw this shit, I had to pick my hand up and cover myself because my dick immediately stood up.
I expected some kind of love note from my lady.
Instead, I saw ass, and titties. The prettiest ass and titties that I’ve ever saw before in my life.
This picture was so damn sexy, that I wanted to just keep it in my hands, and stare at it the entire time that I got my hair cut, but I would be ready to beat one of these niggas asses if they saw it.
I tucked the picture in my pants, sitting here with this goofy ass smile on my face.
I kept looking at my barber, seeing that he was still fishing around for the clippers, so I would pull the picture out of my pocket again, drool over it some more, only to put the picture back in my pocket.
Swear I did that at least five times. When I saw him head in my direction, I placed the picture back in my pocket and carried on like nothing happened.
An hour and a half managed to go by, and in that time, Karina would come by, and she placed three more pictures in my hands.
Ay, that last picture almost resulted in a phone call.
I had to pull my phone out, send Toni a message, and I told her ass verbatim, “If you send me another picture, you going to get fucked”. I didn’t see Karina anymore after that.
I don’t know if there weren’t any more pictures lined up in her queue, but I didn’t receive another one. You couldn’t tease me like that. I was the kind of nigga that would fuck anywhere. I’ll set this whole wedding back a whole hour for some pussy. I never cared.
Dressed in my white tux, with my son standing by my side, and my pops standing on the other side of me, the photographers took plenty pictures of us.
Each of us had the same mug going on. You were witnessing three generations of greatness.
My pops was the blueprint for all this shit.
He was the reason I was able to grow up, and be a great man, and when it was my sons turn, he would grow up, and whatever woman that he settles down with, she would be able to tell that Zayne came from greatness, just based off the way that he treated her.
I wasn’t raising no disrespectful kid. I was raising a man that would never raise his fist to a woman, and that would never call a woman out of her name. I was going to make sure of that.
“You ready?” my pops asked me, reaching his hand out for a pound.
“Man, I ain’t ever been so ready for anything in my life,” I let him know, and he smiled at that.
We had all the men gather around, so that my father could pray. I shed a couple of tears during his prayer because you could tell that me and Toni were being prayed over by someone that truly loved us and wanted our marriage to succeed.
When his prayer ended, I found myself jumping up and down in place, similar to what I used to do back in my boxing days, when I would be moments away from demolishing a nigga in the ring. I was ready for this moment. I couldn’t wait to see fine ass Toni walking down the aisle.
Back to Toni
“Oh my God. I said I wasn’t going to cry. I said I wasn’t going to cry,” my mom said out loud, repeating herself over and over, really trying to convince herself that she wouldn’t cry, as I walked out, where all the women were, standing around, seeing me in my wedding gown for the first time.
I wanted my dress to be a big reveal moment for the women, so that I could get their pure, genuine reactions.
Just know that my mom wasn’t the only one standing there, fighting back tears.
Literally, all the women were, having our MUA, and her two assistants putting in overtime, giving out q- tips, so that the women wouldn’t ruin the make-up that they worked so hard on doing.
“Ma, pleaseeee. I don’t want to mess up my make-up,” my voice cracked, and I picked my hands up, and started fanning my eyes, trying to keep tears from falling.
Mind you, I had just given myself a pep talk, saying that I wouldn’t cry when I got in front of the women, showing them my dress because I wanted to wait to shed my tears when I got down to the ceremony. That pep talk was going right out the window when I saw my mom getting emotional.
To know my mom is to know that she wasn’t an emotional person at all.
My mom was tough. Life made her that way.
She had to raise two girls on her own, so her skin was so thick that she would hardly show her emotions.
The months leading up to my wedding is the most that I’ve ever seen her cry in my entire life.
As little kids, she would always tell Temperance and I to hold out on having kids until we found a good partner.
She didn’t want us to go through what she went through with us.
I didn’t fully understand it when I was a little girl, but when I became an adult, it hit me all the sacrifices that my mom made for Temperance and I, which is why I loved this woman the way that I did, and why she could forever get anything out of me that she wanted.
“I know. I know. I’m just so happy. My beautiful daughter,” her voice cracked again, and in this moment, I could sense that my mom needed a hug from me, so in this long, heavy dress that I was wearing, I walked over to her, lifting the dress.
Once I was in front of her, I wrapped my arms around her, and she did the same. You could hear sniffles in the distance, so I knew that the women were getting choked up over this moment that we were having.
“Okay. Okay. I’m going to get it together,” she said, two minutes later, and pulling away from me.
I tilted my head back, and I was using my hands, fanning my eyes, still trying to keep my tears at bay. Patrice, who was my make-up artist, she was quick to come over to me, and she was fixing my make-up, while one of her assistants went over to my mom, so that they could fix her up as well.
“God, you look so beautiful Toni,” Brandy said, coming over, standing right in front of me, looking just as beautiful in her bridesmaid dress.
My dress was custom. I wasn’t a designer by far, but from the very beginning, I had an idea of what I wanted my dress to look like.
I knew that we were going to be having a wedding that was over the top, but with that, I wanted a dress that didn’t really do too much, but at the same time, you could be able to look at it, gloat, and know that it was something that I didn’t just walk into a store and purchase.
I wanted my dress to be a subtle statement, letting people know that it was custom, and even though it wasn’t too dramatic, you would still look at it, and know that I paid a pretty penny for it.
I loved a fully beaded gown, so that’s what I went for.
It was an off-the-shoulder, kind of mermaid silhouette dress.
These days, everywhere I go, people have been obsessing over my body, especially since I gave birth to a child that wasn’t even one years old yet, so with that, I wanted this dress to hug me as tight as it possible could, showing every curve that I was working with.
The neckline of the dress was a deep V cut, that I loved because it gave grown woman with elegance, and that’s the look that I was going for.
Christian Louboutin just happened to have a fully beaded white heel that matched the gown perfectly that I was wearing, and even though my heels couldn’t be seen because of the long flow of my dress, it was still a perfect pair.
Now, the hair? The hair was the star of the show.
I decided to do something a little different.
My hair was still in it’s short, blonde stage, but instead of the pixie, I decided to do finger waves, and it was to die for.
Literally, since my stylist finished my hair, I had been getting compliment after compliment in the room.
The bling from my wedding band was damn near blinding.
There were diamond earrings in my ear that hung low, dangling, matching perfectly with my dress.
My ring, and the earrings in my ear were the only jewelry that I wore.
I didn’t need to wear anything else. The face, the hair, the dress, and the make-up was a statement in itself, so I didn’t have to be overly dramatic with my jewelry.
All the women surrounded me, letting me know how beautiful I looked.
Even my niece, who had been talking trash all week, saying that she wasn’t going to cry, was over here, fighting back tears as well, standing here, letting me know how beautiful I looked.
I have no idea why Brooklyn convinced herself that she wouldn’t cry when she was the type to cry if it was too cold outside, and she left her jacket in the house.
She threw fits about the smallest things, so I knew that she would be the first one in tears.
“I want to wake her little butt up. She missing out on everything,” Karina said to me, pointing her finger to Lani, who was laying on her back on a couch, with pillows surrounding her.
She was already dressed in her pretty white dress, and she sat still earlier, allowing my mom to put two puffs in her hair. My baby looked adorable, even with her sleeping, missing out on everything.