I was trying my very best not to panic. But it was hard not to. Why had they come that early and unannounced? The idea had my mother written all over it, as she seemed to have wanted to see what I was like with my woman in the morning. My mother, Kayla Martin had been a therapist at some point. One of her favorite quotes stated that the best time to see how happy a couple was, was the morning. I figured that she was about to use that on me. I felt bad that I hadn’t seen that coming.“What do we do, sir?” Taylor asked, being as shocked as we were. “Their car just pulled over inside here.”“Well, tell the maids to set up breakfast while we get ready,” I ordered, trying to give myself and Tamika some time alone. “Go on now.”He shut the door leaving us both to ourselves. I was faced with the bigger problem of having an unprepared Tamika to face my highly inquisitive parents. “So, what are we going to do?” Tamika finally broke the silence that was settling over the conversation. “I thou

“I don't think that's necessary,” I suddenly had to step in, as I could see the shock scribbled on Tamika's face. “We all came here for an amicable gathering of a family about to meet the fiancee of one of their best sons. This is not a goddamn interrogation.”From my past knowledge, I always knew that Dale would be a spoiler of the show. He just had a knack for ruining everything he could get his hands on. “Why are you so defensive all of a sudden?” Dale teased, as he had a mischievous smile on his face. “We are all family, and we deserve to know everything that we can know. It would be pretty bad if the Martin family gets involved with something or someone scandalous.”“Scandalous? You, the controversial Dale Martin, taking about scandalous?” I just got some self-restraint in place just at the right time before I would explode, and spill all of his dirty secrets right there and then. “Cut it out, you two,” Kayla ordered, putting out the fire of animosity between my brother and me.

“Well…” I muttered, still searching for the best explanations that wouldn’t spill the beans about the contract marriage. I had to admit that she had me in a tight corner all by myself. “The thing is…”“Were you dating them both at the same time?” Kayla’s probing question gave me an idea and a way out of my hole. “Don’t tell me that you were just playing around with…”“The thing is that…” I decided to step in just before her inference would go further than I wanted it to. “I was at a point in my life where I was in between two very promising options of who I was going to take it further with.”Kayla listened attentively, and that was a good sign. Her body language showed a willingness to listen, and not a judgemental look, ready to nab me at any given loophole in my words. That gave me the courage to get those words out. “Randy showed more passion at first, and that made Dolph resign to the position of patiently waiting to see if I would have a change of heart somehow,” I hoped Dolph

“All right... get yourself together, Tamika...” I said, psyching myself up for a few more moments, as I was about to turn on my phone. I was bracing myself for whatever it was that I would see there. But then, I was sure that it was bound to be nasty. There was probably a horde of messages from all sorts of people for me. Most of all, I was anxious to hear from my best friend and manager. Julia was probably worried sick about me, being unable to reach me after all those days, even after I had been trending all over the media.Just like I had predicted, I saw several missed calls and voicemails lined up waiting for me, of which Julia's was the most. I felt bad that I had made her that worried. She didn't deserve to go through all I had made her go through. It had all been because of my moment of carelessness. I carefully went through each voicemail from her, as I was bracing myself to read all the content that was flying around about me. That was going to be the last thing I would g

“Who’s the beauty that she brought over?” Michael asked ecstatically, as we watched Tamika and her friend have their chat in the living room. “I still can’t believe this is the real Tamika Fisher right here in your living room.”I let his words breeze past me as I tried to bottle up the rage that was boiling up within me from Tamika’s defiance. Why would she bring someone over without saying a word to me? It seemed like she was already getting too comfortable. Perhaps it was the phone I had returned to her. “Why don’t we head over there and join them in the drinks?”“No…” I was almost unaware of how loud my voice had been when I let that out. Instantly, all eyes were on me, choking me with hot embarrassment. “I meant… no way, Michael.” The cover-up was even more shameful.“Are you all right?” Michael asked as he took a sip of his glass of cocktail. “You seem a bit tensed.”“Tensed? No, I’m not…” I said in subtle denial, as I tried calming myself with some cocktail. It was hard gettin