As Long as There is Love- Chapter Six
"Here's a list of exquisite places that you might want to serve the food at the wedding." The wedding planner pointed out as she flipped through the pages of her book. "What do you all think?" She asked afterwards, tapping her pen against the lined pages.
Justin let out a long sigh, which drew her attention to him first. Justin and Michelle, well mainly Michelle had invited her to the restaurant so they could began planning their wedding. However, by his obviously bored expression, she could tell he was more interested in the people going in and out of the restaurant than planning his own wedding. Therefore, she figured he was dragged here against his own will.
However, when her attention drifted to Michelle, her reaction surprised her. She had enough wide smiles and bright eyes to last a lifetime.
Like most women, Michelle was truly excited by the idea of planning for her wedding. One could in fact say that she was obsessed with it since being that they've only been engaged for a mere two weeks.
"I want that one!" Michelle pointed to the brochure like a child in a candy store.
"Great choice Michelle." The wedding planner agreed. "If you all will excuse me, I have to use the ladies room."
Justin's glare followed her. Then he turned to Michelle. "I can't believe I let you drag me here and forced me to listen to this lady's expensive bullshit. You know, she's telling us stuff we already know. Shit I know good food when I see it." He groaned under his breath as soon as the wedding planner retreated to the back of the restaurant. He folded his arms across his chest and slouched against the leather seat.
"And I know you promised me you would wait a week and granted you did exactly what you promised. But as soon as that week was over you went right back to what you were doing before, without my input or consent."
Michelle sighed, pushing a strand of her wavy blonde hair behind her ear, "Jay, sweetie," She pouted, "I'm sorry I didn't talk to you about some of these things, but lately it hasn't seemed like you wanted to be involved."
Justin rolled his eyes. She was trying to flip the script. "There is no lately Shelly." He mentioned, as if her comment was absurd. "We've only been engaged for two weeks. And like I said before, we have plenty of time." She frowned, but Justin could tell she was considering it.
"Do you think we could move the wedding?" She grinned, hoping to convince him to push their wedding up to next month, instead of the dreadful day of February 7 next year, more than three months away.
"Michelle." He warned. He didn't want to get into this right now. She had already rushed most of their plans.
"Okay Justin." She couldn't stand it, the long wait or his funky attitude now. Who cared that he didn't want a winter wedding? Honestly, she would march through mountains of snow if that's what it took to meet him at the altar. She didn't care if she'd be cold. He would definitely warm her that night.
Justin sighed, scratching the surface beneath his unruly curls. His gaze scanned around the room, before settling on a young African-American couple across the room. They were sitting beside one another, the man's arm wrapped low around her waist. Although he couldn't exactly identify the couple from where he sat, something about the female seemed familiar. Maybe it was her smooth light complexion and silky long hair. He had known someone with those features.
Justin examined their expressions. The female was stunned, speechless, but attempting to talk. The male on the other hand, was nervous with anticipation as he leaned over in his chair, holding something out to her.
Justin suddenly understood what was going on and realized he wasn't the only one.
"Oh he's proposing!" Michelle gushed almost too loud.
"Baby be quiet." Justin shushed. "I hate when people do that! Bring attention when someone trying to have a private moment. I mean what if she said no, then what?" He asked, expecting her to answer him.
"He'd have to face that shit in front of all these nosy ass people."
Michelle rolled her eyes, "Is that why you propose to me at home?"
"Damn straight!" His eyes widened. What else did she expect him to do? "I don't need that kind of publicity. Hell, people don't even know we're together." And he wanted it to remain that way.
Michelle frowned. No one knew that they were together aside from their family and friends. Justin believed the media ruined people's relationships and wanted to keep theirs a secret. She on the other hand, wanted people to know she was with Justin, that she was going to marry Justin.
Realizing she had zoned out, Michelle's gaze followed back to the now engaged couple. "That is so sweet!" She was a sucker for these sorts of things.
"Yeah, but I bet she won't be calling the caterer tomorrow."
Michelle stuck her tongue out at him before focusing on the couple again. "She's pregnant too."
"Wait. Shelly I know who that is." Justin turned to her with wide eyes.
"Who is it Justin?" Michelle sighed although she didn't care.
"That's Ronnie, you know Nin-"
"I know who Ronnie is." Michelle cut in.
"Damn, we just keep running into each other."
"How do you know it's her?"
"Because I just saw her last week. I remember what she looks like."
"What'd she look like?"
"She was big I guess." He laughed referring to her belly. He would never mention that to her though. He knew she was a fighter just like Nina.
"Why don't we go say hi?" Justin later suggested.
"And ruin their moment?" Michelle shook her head. "The man just proposed."
"Ronnie said yes already." Justin waved his hand, nonchalantly, "It doesn't look like Nina's with them." He frowned for a brief moment.
"No it doesn't." Michelle replied.
"I'm gonna say what's up." Justin stood up, "You coming?" He asked.
Michelle looked up at him, but said nothing. He knew what that meant.
Justin strolled to the other side of the room. He didn't want Ronnie to notice him before he got to her table so he walked slowly. When he reached the table, Travis looked at him with an inquisitive smirk.
"Hey nice to see you again Ronnie?"
"Ronnie, you know Justin Timberlake?" He sounded shocked and excited at the same time.
"Yeah, he lived around the way." Cameron replied flashing a smirk at Justin as she wiggled the engagement ring now placed on her finger.
"Shit, y'all grew up together?"
"Yup we were friends back in the day." Justin glanced across the restaurant at Michelle, who was conversing with the wedding planner. "Michelle's here too."
"Really?" Cameron followed his gaze. "Nina would like to know she's in town." She wondered why she did come over too. "She here with you?"
Justin nodded, "Did you tell Nina you saw me?"
"Yes I did."
"Okay." Justin sucked his bottom lip in between his teeth, "So what's up with Nina?" He asked her the first time they had ran into each other, but she hadn't said much of anything.
"Nothing much." Cameron shrugged. "She's a gym teacher at a school around our way-" She suddenly stopped realizing she had said too much. Nina would be bitching if she knew she was telling him this.
A gym teacher? Justin still wondered why she wasn't playing professional basketball with the skills she had. "Well I gotta be going. Maybe I'll run into you again." He walked away afterwards.
Travis watched Cameron sigh. "What was that about?"
"Don't wanna talk about it?"
"Has something to do with Nina?" When Cameron didn't reply, he knew he got the answer he wanted.
"Ya know how we never talk about Neece and Nikki's father?"
"Yeah I figure there's some emotional women shit involved with that."
Cameron smirked and nodded her head towards the other end of the room.
"What? You telling me that Little Bit and Short Stuff-"He couldn't even finish for he was too shocked. "Nino and...oh shit." Entertained by the whole situation, he began to laugh.
"He doesn't know, does he?" Travis asked, still amused.
Cameron reached over and punched him in the chest. "Shut up and let's go." With her hand supporting her belly, she slowly stood to her feet. "And you will not tell Nina about any of this!" She demanded.
"Okay." Travis laughed, wondering what happened to the romantic dinner they were having. "Ya didn't tell me anything. I found out by myself."
"Right." Cameron agreed and wrapped her arm inside the curve of his. She glanced across the room at Justin, who was looking back at her. His eyes were soft, curious, as they silently questioned her. She knew what he was asking. He wanted to know about Nina and her more than anyone else was the one to ask.
Cameron looked away. It was not her place, nor her responsibility to answer his question. This was something he and Nina needed to handle alone, if they could.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Oh thank God you're back." Nina ran to the front door. She wanted to inquire about the proposal and get another look at that ring, especially on Cameron's finger, but that didn't matter to Tony. He wanted to go to that sleepover and he wanted to go now.
"Nino it's only 10 o'clock. Chill." Travis snickered casually.
"You chill!" She snapped back. "Tony has been bugging me every hour on the damn hour if y'all were gonna come back tonight."
"Aunt Nina is that them!" Tony shouted anxiously from the top floor.
"See!" Nina tossed her arms up in the air then dropped them down against her thighs.
"Why did we come back? We should've stayed at a hotel or something." Travis returned from the kitchen and stood next to Cameron, holding a beer in his hand.
"Where'd you get that beer from?" Nina eyed him.
"What?" Travis shrugged, "I put it in the fridge before I took y'all to school this morning."
Nina shook her head. He might've of matured in the relationship area, but he was still as simple-minded as before, "Just keep that away from the kids."
Travis nodded. "Oh Ronnie tell Nino who we saw tonight." He said loud enough for Nina to hear while she walked to the kitchen.
"Shut up, shut up, and shut up!" Cameron whispered, through tight-lips, wishing Travis would wipe that smirk off his face.
The only thing she wanted to tell Nina about was her engagement, which had definitely surprised her. She couldn't believe that prior to Travis' proposal, she had actually thought about ending their three-year relationship. Besides, she had promised Nina earlier that she wouldn't bring Justin up again, so telling her about tonight's meeting was out of the question.
"Who did you see-" Nina started to ask but cut herself off. "Wait, tell me when I get back. I need to drop off Tony. Can I borrow your car?" She turned towards the steps and yelled for Tony.
"No. I'll take y'all."
Nina rolled her eyes. He didn't want anybody to drive his car now that he'd saved up enough money to get it remodeled. "If ya driving then what's the point of me going?"
"So you can ride back with me Nino." He grabbed her wrist and dragged her over to his side, "We got some things to talk about." He grinned while ignoring Cameron's warning gaze.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Okay I'll check you out tomorrow man." Justin said to his friend Ray, as he exited the house. "And make sure Jon has fun."
"You lucky bastard." Ray joked. "You get to leave why I'm stuck here with 10 and 11 year olds and the wife's away."
"I know," Justin laughed along with him, "your life sucks."
"Whatever man. I'll see you." Ray gave him a five and was about to shut the door when Justin stopped him.
"Oh hold up man, It looks like somebody is bringing another kid." Justin laughed.
"Aww hell! I think that's the last one Richard was talking about."
"Good luck." Justin snickered as he walked the trail back to his car where Michelle was waiting for him. However, something made him stop dead in his tracks. Something was pulling at him to turn around. That something was telling him that if he turned around, his whole world would change.
Damn. That something was definitely right.