Chapter 23 #2
It didn’t make the situation any better for me when I looked at my man, and I saw his fine self standing there, legs slightly spread apart, with his hands folded down in front of him, and he was biting his trembling lip, trying not to cry.
When that tear dropped from his eyes, I caved in, and one fell from mine too.
Seeing Tank up there in that white tux, with those fresh twist in his hair, full beard, sharp line up…
God, I wanted to jump on him. He looked so good!
We made it to the front of the church, and Pastor Dukes cleared his throat, and spoke into the mic.
“Who presents this woman, Dionne to be married to Tavion today?” Pastor Dukes asked.
“I do,” my dad confidently responded.
He kissed me on top of my head, and then he reached for my hand, so that he could lead me to the steps, and Tank came over, took my hand, as I walked up the two steps.
Once I was up, he placed me in front of him, looking at me in that quiet way that always told me everything.
At times, Tank didn’t even have to say anything, but that’s when his love was always the loudest.
His eyes were red from the tears that had fallen. I could tell that he wanted to kiss me so bad, and Lord knows that I wanted to do the same thing, but we waited until that part of the service led us there.
“You look so beautiful, baby,” he let me know, smiling at me in appreciation.
His eyes stayed on my face for a few seconds, and then they dropped down, going for my waist, and that’s the part of my body that damn near had his jaw on the floor. I snapped back beautifully, and it felt good to see my man standing here, enjoying it.
“And you look so handsome,” I had to let him know.
It was quiet for a few seconds, and the sound of a baby letting out a brief whine filled the entire church.
I knew that whine. I knew that it belonged to our son, so both Tank and I looked on the front row, where we knew lil Tank was.
My mom had him. She was cradling him in her arms. He was in a white tux just like his daddy.
He was still sleeping, but he just felt the need to let out that outburst to let us know that he was here too.
My mama gave Tank and I a head nod, basically letting us know that she had him, and we didn’t have to worry about him. Her ass swore that was her son.
“Family, friends, and loved ones, we’re gathered here today to witness and honor the union of Dionne, and Tavion,” Pastor Dukes continued.
“They stand before us today, choosing one another, with the goal, that this will be a lifetime commitment, and not just for the moment,” he went on, and when he said that, it received a lot of ‘Amens’.
I even nodded my head and said ‘Amen’ because I wholeheartedly agreed with everything that he said.
Pastor Dukes then went on to give everyone a brief acknowledgement of our journey.
During therapy, we shard everything about our journey to him.
He knew about me running from Tank in the beginning, not wanting anything to do with him.
He knew about some of the tests, and the challenges that we faced during our time being together as well.
Just hearing him tell the story from the beginning, and leading us to this moment right here, I allowed tears to freely fall from my eyes.
Tank and I had been holding hands, but he let mine go for a second, just so that he could use his hand to wipe away my tears.
From there, we went on to exchange our rings.
The same way that my man had broken the bank for my ring, I made sure that I did the same thing for him.
I took Tank with me to get his ring because it wasn’t like he told me the kind of ring that he wanted.
We saw so many options that day, and he fell in love with the black gold band.
The entire ring was made of black gold. The black diamonds that were dancing on the ring was right up his alley.
Now that his ring was on, and mine was too, we could move along.
Next there was vows, but we decided not to go the traditional way.
My vows were so sacred, and so intimate when it came to my man.
I had things that I wanted to tell him, that I didn’t want to have to say in front of everyone.
Some of the promises that I wanted to make to him were too personal for the room.
I came with old trauma, so some things were too fragile for me to say in front of an audience.
Tank and I had already had our moment where we stood face to face with each other, and we read out our vows, and promises that we had.
So, as we stood here, those promises had already been made, and we didn’t have to perform our love right now. That was sealed in private.
Pastor Dukes put on a prayer over our union that was so deep, that it brought us both to tears.
The prayer was so intentional. It held so much weight.
He knew the challenges that married couples often faced, so he went to God, asking Him to grant our marriage grace, and for us to know how to navigate our way out of any challenges that did arise.
You could tell that a man was praying over us that loved us and wanted our marriage to work.
These lashes of mine were soaked from the tears that had fallen.
I felt seen. I felt like Tank and I were covered, and that’s what ultimately had me crying the way I was.
When he finished, we proceeded with the moment that Tank and I had been waiting for.
“By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Tavion, you may now kiss your bride,” Pastor Dukes went on, and our smiles towards each other came so naturally.
His large hands cuffed the sides of my face, and I leaned in to meet him.
We did a couple of quick pecks, and I went in, slowly tongue kissing him, but I put my hand up, so that I could block the crowd from seeing it.
I loved my man too much, and he looked too good for me to not have kissed him the way I just did.
Before it could get too crazy, we pulled away from each other, and right in front of everyone, he lifted me in his arms, carrying onto me bridal style, going completely off the program. I smiled, and giggled while he was holding me, just as in love with him as he was with me.
“I love you, girl,” he let me know, making my heart flutter like it always did whenever he admitted those words to me.
“I love you more, baby. I don’t know why I ever told you that I Wasn’t supposed to be yours. We were meant for each other,” I sealed it by placing another kiss on his lips.
My man carried me out of the church just like this, as Etta James played again, crooning about the love that we finally had... at last!