Yeah babe,” he answered, distracted he looked up at her with glazed eyes.
“ Is this a good time to talk?”
“ Sure,” he responded, but refocused on his iPad.
“ Can you look at me please?”
He gave her a goofy grin. “I am…see.” To prove his point, he leveled her with a steady gaze.
“ I think we should postpone the wedding,” she blurted out and the grin fell off Bernard’s face.
“ What are you saying Bryce.”
“ I think we should wait to get married. You want to have kids right away, and I don’t. You want me to quit working and I don’t. I just think we’re getting married because our parents want it…not us.”
“ That’s not true Bry. I want to marry you because I love you, not because of what our parents want.”
“ But I think that’s how I—”
“ You can’t do this Bryce; people have already made travel arrangements. My sister is on the way with our grandparents.”
“ I’m sorry, so sorry. But I don’t think that I love you enough to marry you.”
“ Don’t do this Bryce. I’m begging you.” He got down on his knees and grabbed her legs. “Please don’t.” He started crying. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make you happy, just marry me.”
Bryce looked down at her fiancé then began crying, too. She got down on the floor with him and he whimpered while he rested his head on her stomach. “I’ll marry you,” Bryce whispered.
Chapter 5
“ I want you. I want to fuck you.” Bryce read the text and she grinned.
“ So did Bernard send you a love text before the wedding?” Vanessa teased.
“ Yeah,” Bryce lied. Although Vanessa and Cooper knew that she had spent the night with Sugah Cheeks, they assumed that it was just the one night, and she didn’t correct them. She and Donté had hooked up half a dozen times over the last three weeks, with last night being the most recent. They had rendezvous in a parking lot. She had planned to tell him that she no longer wanted to see him, but he started touching her, kissing her, then finally undressing her. And they went at it in the back seat of her car.
“ You’ll be seeing him in ten minutes, so ignore it,” Vanessa chided and pulled the phone out of her hand.
Bryce lowered her veil, shielding her eyes. She was surrounded by Vanessa, Cooper and Aisha each of them inspecting her appearance before her wedding. With each one of them periodically walking around her adjusting the material, making sure it fell correctly.
“ Do you think the guys are ready?” Aisha asked.
Bryce shrugged.
“ I’ll go check,” Vanessa volunteered and Bryce stared after her friend as she raced off.
“ Thank you,” Bernard whispered in Bryce’s ear while they were dancing the first time as husband and wife.
Bryce smiled up at him; she was in an alcohol induced haze. The day hadn’t gone as badly as she thought it would. The wedding was nice and the reception was even nicer, they had an open bar which she had taken full advantage of. “For what?”
“ For going through with this, you won’t regret it. I’m going to make you happy.” He kissed her tenderly on the top of her head.
Bryce squeezed his hand. “I know you will.”
They twirled around the dance floor. “I can’t wait until you see Paris, you’re going to love it, especially in June, and the weather is perfect this time of the year.” A few years ago he had spent two weeks in Paris.
“ I know that I will.” She wasn’t looking forward to their two-week long honeymoon in Paris. She envisioned him wanting to hold hands, kiss, and make love, the idea of it all made her ill.
Five hours later she was sitting at a table, with her head resting on her arms, watching the last remaining guests mingle and dance. The few guests who were still there were pretty wasted, including her. She drifted off; when she woke up she looked up, and saw her new husband and Vanessa slow dancing. Why is she smiling at Bernard like that? She wondered.