Page 15 of Sweet Surrender
“Unfortunately, no. I’m never good enough in their eyes; well, Mama’s anyway.”
“This is the second time they’ve been by our table. I think if there’s something that they’re worried about, we should bring it out in the open, don’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s dance, beautiful.”
She was hesitant, but I took her hand in mine and pulled her away from the table. I stopped at the deejay’s table and asked something low enough for no one to hear but him. As we headed to the dance floor, Alex asked, “What was that all about? What did you ask him?”
Just as the music switched from Beyonce’s version of “Before I Let Go,” I pointed up in the air.
“This,” I stated.
Bonnie Raitt’s “Something to Talk About” was playing. Alex’s eyes widened as the proverbial record scratched when the deejay changed the music.
She looked around and whispered, “People are still dancing, but they’re staring at us.”
“Wasn’t that the plan, beautiful?” I asked, wrapping one arm around her waist and pulling her hard up against my body.
I smoothed my hand over her bare shoulder, loving how satiny her skin felt. I imagined what it would be like to remove the olive-green dress from her body after the reception. She was clear that nothing would happen between us, but I wasn’t so sure. Not that something had to happen, but it was in the energy that I had been picking up from Alex all day.
The subtle glances during the vow exchange, the way that she bumped her knee against mine, how she leaned into me when we conversed with other people, as if we were a couple, and how I caught her staring at me on several occasions. All the little things that told me that she might be open to exploring another night like the weekend we shared at Issachar and Princess’s wedding.
As the music stirred up, so did Alex. She wound her hips as she grinded against me. When she looped her arms around my neck and stared into my eyes, I couldn’t help but lean down and press my forehead against hers.
Before I could gently sweep my lips against hers, she pulled back slightly. Not enough that anyone would have noticed but me, but I did notice it. While she wanted to tease her parents and family for giving her hell, she wasn’t ready to take it all the way yet. She didn’t want to fully confirm to them that something was going on between us. She simply wanted to piss her parents off, and she was using me to do it.
I didn’t give a damn about what my brother, who served as the best man, thought. Neither did I give a damn about my ex-wife, Jessica, who I managed to avoid all day. But I was concerned about Alex’s parents and how they might treat her because of our behaviors.
I calmed down just a little. “Are your folks going to be okay with what just happened here?”
“No.”
“Then maybe we should head back to the table.”
“No. They seldom approve of anything that I do anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
“They wanted me to go to school for law, and I refused to. They wanted me to use my hospitality degree working for a hotel, and I didn’t. They thought I should work on myself to make me better for your brother, and I didn’t.”
“I appreciate the fact that you’ve lived life on your own terms, Alex, and not based on what others think that you should do. Keep giving ’em hell, beautiful.”
She rewarded me with a big, beautiful smile. When the song ended, I walked her back to our table. Jessica stopped by only seconds later.
“I see you’re still up to making trouble,” Jessica declared, glancing between Alex and me.
“I see you’re still nothing but trouble. What do you want, Jessica?”
“I simply stopped by to say hello and see how you are doing.”
“I’m doing perfectly fine.”
“Mm, . . . robbing the cradle and keeping it in the family. I would say that it’s good to see that you’ve finally moved on, Judah, but with your brother’s woman, . . . that’s not a good look.”
“It’s better than being passed around the entire state. Oh yeah, in case you hadn’t realized it, Jessica, Alex isn’t his woman. He’s married to a woman, and she’s here with him today. Please don’t make the same mistake of disrespecting her to her face. Now if you don’t have anything else to say, I think you should be on your way.”
“It was nice seeing you again, Alex,” Jessica stated to Alex, whom she hadn’t spoken to before that moment.
