The moment Nek leaves my sister Tela comes closer to me, she smacks me right across my arm ensuring it was painful, “how could you get married without telling your family, most importantly without telling me”, her eyes flare up, but I can tell she’s more worried than angry.My mom faces us, “so she should have told you and not us; well if she had done that, that would have been better than her running off to get married” she looks at me squarely and faces her attention on my dad, she mouths to him, “play nice”; he doesn’t respond but looks ahead at Tela and I’s demonstration of love.Tela whispers softly to me so that my parents don’t hear, “I’m your sister, your elder sister, the easiest thing you could have done was to come to me for help. You know I’ll always come through for you”, she looks sad at the fact that I hid this from her“I really didn’t mean to…”, I’m cut off by Nek’s reappearance, he comes in carrying the load of gifts he bought for my family; my mouth drops open as he
Nek and I return to our seats, my family looks at us inquisitively as we return to our seats, but I just smile at them. My sister whispers to me as I return beside her, “what did you both talk about”, avoiding the question, I just smile at her and shake my head telling her not to worry.“We have decided”, Nek and I simultaneously say, we both look at each other in shock at the fact that we spoke at the same time. I let him continue to speak for us, “we have decided to give this marriage a chance”, I look at my parents at the revelation of the news; my mother is smiling from ear to ear, you’d almost think she won a billion dollars. “That’s wonderful” my father says smiling, he stands up to hug Nek, he beckons to me to come; he places Nek’s hand on mine, signifying that he blesses our union. I hug him in response; feeling a huge relief that my parents know about our marriage and blesses our marriage, “thank you dad” I whisper to him as I hug him.I move to hug my mom; “thank you mom” I
I nod my head in understanding, “so when did he propose”, “two months ago” she says, smiling happily from ear to ear. From the way she smiles when she talks about him, I can tell that she really loves him.“Do mom and dad know”, “of course they do, I told them about us dating three months before he proposed; we are supposed to get married two months from now”I’m so happy for her, “what about his parents, did they take the news well”, “they did” we both say in unison, we laugh at us answering in unison. Jamie’s parents have always been like a second family to us, so I know they would have been ecstatic at the fact that Jamie and Tela would be getting married.“You’re all grown up” I look at her In amazement; two months from now, she’d be married; she won’t be my Tela anymore but Jamie’s Tela. “I’ll miss you” I say hugging her tightly, “don’t be silly, I’m not going anywhere, I’m only getting married” she playfully taps my shoulder.“I know" I hug her once more and finally let her go;
Hema playfully smiles at me, and I make a face at him; I look over to Tela and Jamie, they are busy snickering and laughing, and I’m hundred percent sure that it’s at my expense. Trying my best not to ignore them I fix my attention on Hema, “so what’ve you been up to; haven’t seen you in a while, so there’s a lot I need to catch up on”Hema smiles, “I’m actually one of the directors of Xtre group, so I’ve been very busy”, I gasp in shock, “you, a director; I thought you weren’t interested in the business”. He laughs, “I wasn’t but the work load was too much for Jamie, so I had to help out”, I can affirm that, he’ll do anything to help out his brother; that’s how he has always been.“So what have you been up to”, he says, carefully eyeing me up and then shifting to Nek, as he looks deep in thought. I smile at his question; “nothing much really, I’ve been swamped with work, but it’s good”; Hema smiles at my response.Nek butts in, “my darling wife forgot to mention that she is married n
Jamie is grinning from ear to ear, as he watches the interaction between Tela and his parents; Hema throws a small plush pillow at Jamie, “go sit down, you’re blocking the view”. Hema and I both burst into laughter as Jamie scowling face is revealed. Jamie sits down and Tela joins him at his side, they intertwine their hands. I guess I was staring at the gesture cause Nek whispers to me, “do you need me to hold your hands”, I shake my head and focus my attention on my parents, they are in deep discussion with Jamie’s parents; wedding matters.Nek intertwines our hands, as he fiddles with my ring, I smile at this interaction and let myself enjoy this moment, I place a kiss on his cheek; he looks suprised by this but he smiles happily. I check the time, 5:30pm, it’s getting late; Thank God tomorrow is Saturday, and not a week day, it would have been very tiring.I rest on Nek’s shoulder as I watch everyone interact with one another; Nek is in deep conversation with my dad and Jamie’s da
I take a deep breath then speak, scared about how these conversation might end, scared about what I’ll realize from this conversation, it would change everything. Gathering enough courage I speak out, “when you said you were going to give our marriage a chance did you mean it”, I heave a sigh of relief at getting it off my chest.I wait for Nek to respond, but no response; feeling impatient, I turn to face him, he’s still awake. He looks lost in thought as he ponders on the question. “Nek” I softly say, I’m growing restless as the second passes, he still hasn’t responded, and my heart feels like it’s about to jump out of my chest; it almost feels like I’m confessing my love to someone.I wait a bit more for a response; but nothing, he hasn't said a word after my question.Feeling extremely anxious, I decide to withdraw the question, “don’t bother…” I say. I turn to face my side of the bed, as I try to force myself to sleep, different thoughts come to mind but I try and keep them down
I’m about to ask him why he thinks Nicole and him would not get married; when my mum calls me, “Taina”, I sit up to face her, “yes mum”; she hands me a wedding catalog. There's a wedding dress on the page she opened for me. “We have to go dress shopping”, she smiles at me, “where’s Tela, she needs to be here too”.“I’ll go look for her”, I get up to make an attempt to look for her, but mum pulls me down to my seat, “don’t worry, I’m sure she’d soon appear, let’s leave her be; when she comes we’d look at catalogs with her”I really don’t want to look at wedding dresses, it just makes me more aware of the fact that I’m married to Nek, makes me remember that Nek doesn’t want to be truly married to me, at least that’s what I got from yesterday’s conversation. But I can’t refuse my mom, she’d only question why, schooling my emotions, I smile at mom, and search through catalogs with her.After several catalogs, a dress catches my eyes; the dress has an intricate beading and embroidery on th
“I found it” Tela shrieks loudly, causing me to fall flat on the floor in my attempt to turn and see what happened; Nek makes an attempt to get up to help me out, I hold out my hand, indicating to him not to bother. He has an annoyed look on his face; first time I’m noticing the look since I’m just acknowledging his presence since he came.“Ouch Tela” I say as I lock eyes with her, “sorry” she says as she comes to help me up; I allow her to, I steal a glance at Nek and he looks more annoyed than before. I return my attention to Tela not wanting to think about him at the moment, “what made you so excited?”, she smiles at me, “I found the dress I want” she says jumping up and down as she also pulls ne into the action.She is jumping up and down in excitement while holding the catalog. I ask, “where’s the dress”, Tela brings the action to a halt, she hands me a catalog with a picture of a breathtaking white wedding dress; “it’s beautiful Tela, it’s like it was made just for you”. “Let m