Page 3 of Sweet Surrender
2
JUDAH ST. CHARLES
“Are you ready for this?” I asked my younger brother.
“If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have asked her to marry me.”
“That’s wassup,” Simeon, the second oldest of my brothers, remarked. I was number four in a line of eight boys.
“Until your ass realizes all the pussy you’re giving up,” Benjamin, the baby boy, stated.
“Just throwing free pussy out the window like it doesn’t mean shit.” Joseph, the second youngest, chimed in.
“All I’ll say is that whatever he doesn’t want, he can throw my way,” Zebulun, the sixth brother, remarked.
“Aye, watch your mouths. We’re in the Lord’s house.” I scolded my brothers.
“Just keep the stroke game even, man, and she won’t have a reason to wander astray,” Reuben, the oldest, declared. He glanced in my direction, and I narrowed my eyes at him.
There was no need for me to say a word, but with my eyes, I simply responded, “Fuck you.”
“I can’t wait to walk down the aisle with her youngest sister. I’ll be poking that before the night’s over,” Benjamin declared.
“Just keep you a honey or two on the side,” Joseph interjected.
“Niggas, get out of here. Y’all ain’t making this easy for him at all,” I thundered.
Everyone headed out of the dressing room except for me.
“Hey, you good?” I asked Issachar once the door closed on our last brother.
We were all close in different ways, but I was closer to Issachar than I was the others, maybe because I had been tasked with being his caretaker when we were younger. There was a twelve-year age gap between us, and our parents made sure that I watched over him when they were away.
He had come to rely on me for advice in several areas: fashion, career, friendships, and women. I was the first one who taught him about sexual protection and the one he came to when he was about to lose his virginity at fifteen. So, it was a no-brainer that he had chosen me to be his best man at his wedding today.
Although he came to me for wisdom, he hadn’t always listened to me. If he had, he wouldn’t be marrying Princess today, but another woman. It was all good, though, because I had long suspected that my brother didn’t know what to do with his ex. He was lost when it came to that woman, no matter how much advice I gave him. Our family had known her for a long time, and she was a great girl.
“I know that I told the brothers that I was ready, but I don’t know, Judah. I’m having doubts. What if I don’t meet her standards?”
“In the bedroom?”
“No. Despite Pastor and First Lady Simmons thinking their baby is a virgin, I can assure you that she’s not. I knocked that out of the park right away, and the way she screams my name and claws at our sheets lets me know that I’m handling business. Hell, I even got the scratch marks on my back to prove it.”
“You know, Pastor and First Lady will have to get this room cleansed and prayed over when the St. Charles’ boys finish with it. This room has heard more talk about pussy in the last few minutes than a hooker on the strip.”
We laughed.
“Seriously though, Judah, I don’t worry about being a good provider for her, because I know that I make a nice living. But what about the other areas? What if I’m not a good leader or a good father? What if I make mistakes along the way?”
“What if? You’re expected to. It’s bound to happen, so get ready for it, and don’t be too harsh on yourself. You’re getting ready for the rest of your life, and while it’s a major step, it’s one that you were created for.”
“I mean, I don’t want to fail at this.”
“You mean like Daddy and me?”
Our father had cheated on our mother, Lori, so many times that I didn’t think he had enough hands to count how many. She had finally divorced him when our youngest brother was two, and remarried a cat named Martin, but she had only remarried ten years ago. No sooner than she left my dad, he married his main side chick, Ryian, and together they had our two youngest brothers, Joseph and Benjamin.
There were rumors that we had four other brothers by two other women he had been creeping with. I knew the cats, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher, but I wasn’t sure how true the rumor was. They were younger than me, but older than Issachar. Knowing my father, though, I wasn’t too quick to disregard it either. His ass was as fertile as they came.
