Pretty Fly for a White Guy: The Complete Series Collection (37 page)

“Okay,” he shrugged, “I’m going to respect your decision.”

I gave a sigh of relief and mild disappointment.

“But I am going to say again that Amanda might not be as perfect as she seems and there’s something not quite right with all of this. I can feel it.”

I stayed quiet and I didn’t take the bait. I didn’t want to know anymore, and I was far from perfect myself. We’re human and so we’re bound to be flawed. Kenneth spent way more time with her than I did, so he probably knew about her shortcomings and he didn’t care. That’s what relationships were all about.

Michael’s phone buzzed and he answered it. It was a very short call and he agreed to meet someone.

“I’ve got to run, I have to meet someone. I’ll see you at the wedding,” he said as he jumped to his feet and headed out of the door without a further explanation.

I was left sitting there, wondering what all of that was about. But I didn’t have much time to worry about it because the time for me to get dressed had arrived.

*

My friends showed up to my house an hour later and rushed me to get dressed.

“
Girl, put on your shoes, we don’t need to be late. We’re already going to be pretty much the only black people there, are you trying to make them judge us?” Patrice said.

I

laughed, “Shut up. White people are late too. Some of my latest clients are white, and they don’t provide explanations either, they just act like I’m lucky they showed up at all.”

“Well, we aren’t talking about them. Let’s get out of here.”

“Don’t worry Nikki, we’ve got your back,” Jasmine said in a low tone.

I smiled at her as I slipped on my shoes, I grabbed my clutch, and we headed out of the door. I felt like we were driving to take me to prison. One of my nightmares was about to play out in front of my eyes, and I felt powerless to stop it. Yet I knew I had to see this through in order to move on mentally. Jasmine stopped at a drive through to grab something to eat; I passed on it because fast food breakfast was disgusting and because my stomach was shaky. It wasn’t a good idea to eat because all of the contents would have ended up on the floor of her beautiful Lexus.

We got to the church and took a seat towards the middle. Things looked a lot like they did in my dreams. Kenneth looked great, and he had a very serious expression on his face throughout the entire ceremony. The only thing that was odd was that Michael was sitting in the audience and he was on his iPhone the entire time. He didn't seem to be hiding his feelings towards this whole thing.

I was trying to keep my immense jealously under wraps, but it was getting the better of me. The experience was surreal because it was actually happening. I wanted to wake up from my nightmare at any moment, but I wasn’t asleep. God, I wished that I was dreaming. How could he stand there and get married in front of me. How could he invite me to watch? Why in the hell was I putting myself through the torture? I scolded myself for being so damned stupid, I
didn’t have to prove anything to anybody and I should have stayed at home.  Any sane woman would have stayed at home and avoided this but I guess I am way past being sane these days.

I envisioned myself in Amanda’s place as I took a slight surveillance of the room, and then focused on Kenneth. He was supposed to be standing across from me, and a minister was supposed to be marrying us. In that moment, I didn’t like Amanda at all, I couldn’t bring myself to care about her circumstances. He was the man that I wanted to come home to every night. I hated that I was his “Maggie”. I then began to wonder if Maggie was even happy, maybe she missed Michael just as much as he missed her. Maybe her life was a shadow of what it could have been, and every day she thinks about him. I took a few deep breaths to keep myself from having a full on panic attack.

Then it was the time that everyone was waiting for, I hadn’t realized that I’d missed most of the ceremony by zoning out. The minister asked if there were any objections and I wanted to say something the same way that I did in my dream, but I just couldn’t do it. The likelihood of it playing out the same way was slim to none, and I wasn’t going to embarrass myself in front of everyone. Making a spectacle out of his and Amanda’s wedding was unacceptable. Even I was better then that.

Everyone remained quiet and then the minister opened his mouth to proceed.

“I object,” a voice said. My heart jumped out of my chest because I wasn’t sure if I said it or someone else did. The voice was really low, and people weren’t looking at me. They were looking at Michael.

“What are you doing?” Kenneth asked him.

“I’m sorry, but you’re marrying her under false pretenses,” he said as he rose to his feet and walked towards them.

“What are you talking about?” He asked again.

“Michael please don’t ruin this day for us,” Amanda pleaded.

“I am sorry but Kenneth deserves to know what he is getting into. Why isn’t your dad in attendance today Amanda? I mean that’s why we’re all here right?” He asked.

Amanda looked taken aback, “Because he’s in the hospital dying of cancer,” she said weakly.

“
We’ve already explained this to you Mike, please stop causing a scene. Enough is enough,” Ken said.

Michael shook his head, “That is funny you say he is dying. I just got finished speaking with some people back in New York, and they connected me with her dad. He’s actually playing golf right now.”

Mike attached a small square speaker to his phone and played a recording, it was a voice saying,

“Cancer? I beat that years ago. I’ve actually never felt better, takes a lot to bring a man like me down.”

It must have been her father’s voice because Kenneth turned to Amanda, “Is this true?”

Tears pooled in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks as she nodded her head yes.

“Why would you do something like that?” He asked.

“Because you wouldn’t have married me otherwise, I know you wouldn't” she said sobbing.

I watched in horror as the scene played out before me. I’d never thought that she was a liar, and I didn’t think that she was a capable of doing something so incredibly shady. What kind of person lies and says that they’re father is dying? He was going to find out eventually, and the fallout from that would have been horrible for her. You don’t betray the person that you love in that way, and you definitely don’t start a marriage with a lie. Michael was right, Amanda was not as perfect as she seemed but I do not think any of us would have seen this coming.

#Chapter7

“
Things are never boring when Kenneth is involved”

Nicole

I watched Kenneth’s jaw clench in anger, “Why would you think something like that?” He asked her. She sobbed loudly, and Kenneth realized that the entire spectacle was taking place in front of everyone.

“
We need to talk privately,” he said as he walked towards a door. He didn’t look back because he fully expected her to follow him, and she did. She walked behind him and didn’t glance at any of us. Michael and the women that I assumed to be her sisters followed. She was embarrassed, and she deserved every ounce that she felt. She’d stolen Kenneth from me by lying to him. Michael was right about her, and I was wrong for giving her the benefit of the doubt.

“Are you okay?” Patrice whispered to me.

I stared at her because I could hardly make out her words, everything seemed jumbled. I felt like I was living in a fog.

“Nikki,” Jasmine said firmly, “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know how I feel,” I said honestly.

I looked up and saw that everyone was staring at me; at least that’s what it felt like. People were whispering to each other and stealing glances at me. I felt incredibly awkward, and I fought the urge to tell them to stop staring at me. That probably would have made me look like a certified psycho, but the scrutiny was beginning to be too much. Everywhere I went lately I was being stared at. Whenever Kenneth and I were in the same room, craziness was bound to happen. We needed our own fucking reality TV show because it had all gotten quite ridiculous.

If we were on TV people probably would have been yelling at me and telling me to make my exit when I had the chance, but I was glued to my seat. I wanted to see Kenneth, and I wanted to know what was going on in the back. I mean, didn’t I deserve to know?

“Leave it to the both of you,” Patrice chuckled.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“I swear that the both of you just need to finish this shit. Ooops, sorry Jesus,” Patrice said quickly as she looked at the cross, “The both of you just need to finish this relationship. The minister is here, his brother is here, and we’re here. Get married today and stop torturing all of us.”

“Patrice? What? Don't be silly,” I said.

Then I caught myself because what I wanted wasn’t going to happen. I couldn’t allow myself to dream of getting married at another woman’s wedding. I know that parts of my life have been a stretch on reality but this would take it a bit too far. It all just seemed so fucked up, and her sisters looked like they knew how to fight. They probably would have clawed my eyes, and snatched my tracks out.

I giggled at the thought of it, and my friend’s looked at me like I was crazy. I couldn’t blame them because I was acting weird. The uncertainty of everything that was happening was killing me and the only way that I was going to get through my day, was by laughing. From the outside looking in, the shit was pretty comical. Neither of us could seem to get it together, and there was always something hindering either of our progress romantically. So I shouldn’t have been surprised that something like that had occurred because it was in line with everything else.

“Do you all think that I should go back there,” I said in half seriousness.

“Girl are you trying to get your ass whipped? I’m not trying to fight any white girls today,” Patrice said.

“Patrice! Watch your mouth, this is a church. You need to respect the house of God,” Jasmine scolded her.

“Sorry, my mouth has gotten out of control lately, I’m gonna work on that. Sorry again Jesus,” she said.

“But no, you shouldn’t go back there,” Jasmine said, “It’s for the two of them to sort out. Honestly, their family shouldn’t even be back there.”

“Right, if that was me, you know the two of you would have followed me too,” I said.

“You have a point. I couldn’t let you go through anything like that alone. Then again, I wouldn’t let you lie to your groom that way either. She really should be ashamed of herself, men kill women over stuff like that,” Jasmine said.

“No, they just kill over lying about babies,” I giggled.

“You’re so silly,” Patrice said, “But that is true, I saw it on the news the other day. This woman lied to this man for 8 years about the paternity of a child. When he found out that the boy wasn’t his, he snapped.”

“What did he do?” I asked.

“Strangled her ass..I mean her butt to death. It was really sad because now that poor baby doesn’t have a mother, or a father.”

Before we could continue our conversation, Kenneth emerged. His eyes and his face were red; he looked as if he’d been crying. I resisted the temptation to run up to him and comfort him. This was his wedding day, and it wasn’t my place to step across the line. He didn’t need any more confusion or drama than he was already experiencing. I wished I could comfort him somehow.

“I’m sorry everyone, thank you for coming, but unfortunately there will be no wedding today, we are going to have to postpone.” he said before he turned back around and went back into the door that he came from. I could see all of them standing in the room when he opened the door, and everyone looked frustrated. You could see the tension in the air in that room.

“Well that’s all folks,” Patrice said, “There’s nothing left to see here. Let’s go home.”

I didn’t want to leave Kenneth, but I knew that I had to. We along with everyone else in the church headed home.

Everyone was pretty humbled by the experience, I don't think anyone expected things to develop that way.

*

My friends stayed with me for a few hours before they left to get on with their own things. It had been quite an eventful day and I think everyone just needed a bit of space to absorb it all. I was left alone with my thoughts, and I kept wondering how Kenneth was doing. I felt so bad for him because he was humiliated in front of everyone. He’d done what he considered to be the right thing, and he’d been stabbed in the back. However, it was best that he found out before he said ‘I do’. It would be been better if he had found out before he arrived to the church but better late than never, right?

Soon my door bell buzzed again, and I saw that it was Michael. I ran to the intercom to buzz him in so that I could be updated about what was going on with Ken.

“So that was interesting,” I said as I closed the door behind Michael. He walked to my couch and took a seat.

“I know that I said that I would respect you decision, but it was no longer about you and him.” he said.

“I understand, you don’t have anything to apologize for. You were just protecting your brother. So what happened and how is he?”

“Well, I am sure you worked out that Amanda lied in order to get Kenneth to move the wedding forward. She wanted to trap him into it, and she could feel him pulling away from her. Apparently he spent the night out, and he was less interested in her since they’d arrived to Atlanta. You wouldn’t know anything about that would you?” He asked.

I dipped my head in embarrassment, “Him and I had gotten a little closer since he was back. Nothing actually happened though but I think that he was going to want to get back together but then everything with Amanda happened.”

“I think you’re spot on with your assessment. Because she thought that he was about to leave her for you and so she did something pretty drastic. She was desperate to get married like her sisters, and she was willing to do anything to make it happen,” he said.

“

Yeah, now I see that. What kind of person would lie about something like that? That is just crazy. I also don't get how she would want to get married without her father being there.” I said.

“She lied to her sisters, and told them that they’re dad didn’t approve of the wedding. So she told them to come to Atlanta for her ceremony and to keep it a secret from their father.”

“That is so conniving and he probably loves her ass to pieces too. What a little bitch. Honestly, I am shocked.”

“I was doing some digging the past few days and that’s more in line with the Amanda that New York knows. That’s why she couldn’t wait to move to Atlanta with Kenneth. She’s actually the one that suggested it, because she didn’t want the truth about the kind of person that she was to come out. She wanted to start over in a new place.”

“Wow, all of that is pretty elaborate,” I said.

“The depths that people will go to get what they want isn’t anything new. Kenneth never wanted to marry her but after hearing that her father was dying, the last thing that he would do was leave her on her own. He figured that he’d made his bed, and that it was time for him to lie in it. He wanted to do his own version of the right thing.”

“Well things are never boring when Kenneth is involved,” I laughed slightly

He sighed, “It has been one hell of a roller coaster. It’s time for me to go and help Kenneth pack. There is no way he can stay there with her after this. He’s probably going to have a new place soon.”

“Alright, let him know that he’s in my thoughts,” I said.

“I sure will,” he responded as he left.

I tried not to give myself a sense of false hope. Just because he wasn’t with Amanda, didn’t mean that he was ready to hop back into a relationship. A relationship with me was probably the last thing on his mind, and that hurt because it was the only thing that I could think about.