Page 2 of Love Next Door
I climbed inside of my car, held onto the steering wheel tightly, and closed my eyes. I inhaled the scent of my perfume, listened to the sounds outside of my car, and slowly peeled my eyes open. I started the ignition and pulled away.
St. James was a beautiful, white stone edifice with high pitches, sweeping arches, a towering steeple, and gorgeous silver windows. I parked across the street and took in the long line of cars.
A man was placing something on the rear of a limo. I hopped out and made my way across the street, glancing sideways. He smiled at me and gave a gracious nod as he continued affixing the sign to the car. “Just Married.”
Was I too late? This couldn’t be Devon’s wedding. Nona was wrong. It had only been three months since we spoke, three months since we had sex, argued, and I asked him for a little space.
We did this all the time. Our on-again, off-again relationship had been the joy of my life and a thorn in my side for the last two years. Devon and I planned to get married in a year.
We were going to get married at this same church and honeymoon in St. Lucia. I pulled the doors open and rushed into the church. Taking a moment to gather my nerves, I stood in the lobby and dragged my sweaty palms down my gorgeous red sleeveless jumpsuit. I clutched the chain of my black purse tightly in my hands as I whispered a silent prayer that Nona had it all wrong, or I would soon wake up from a bad dream.
I pulled the sanctuary doors open, and my heart stopped. Devon was at the end of the aisle, holding the hands of a beautiful woman in a gorgeous white mermaid gown with tiny crystals sewed on it and a slit up her left thigh. She wore a large sweeping train, with a crystal beaded crown holding her long curls back, which cascaded down her back.
He wore a red suit and smiled brightly at her as he pledged his life to her, the life he was supposed to pledge to me. The decor was red and white, just as we discussed. I noticed every detail that I shared with him had been implemented into his wedding . . . with another woman.
He kissed her and then turned and saw me. His face froze briefly before his best man, his brother, nudged him. Tears pricked my eyes as I stood in despair and watched the love of my life walk down the aisle holding the hand of another woman.
His mother spotted me and turned away. His sister nudged a couple of other girls, who had been mutual acquaintances. They all looked away with discomfort etched on their faces.
I followed the wedding party and guests out of the church and into the street. They celebrated Devon and Sasha, and he looked happier than he ever had. The knife in my heart couldn’t go any deeper. I remained standing there even after he climbed into the limo and it whisked them away.
By the time I made my way down the sidewalk and back across the street to my car, all the other guests had left. Onlythen did the tears drop, and I let the pain have its way in me, breaking me.
“Aye,Juju. Where you want this at, man?” Evyn asked, carrying my box of albums.
Music was in my blood. Although I used all types of technology to mix and entertain at the parties and events that I was hired to deejay, I didn’t let that stop my love of the old school classics. My pops, Doug Maxwell, raised us with a love of music. Whenever we chilled with him on the weekends, he’d pull out that old vinyl and have us listen to how much better it sounded compared to the CDs and internet music.
My sisters, Journey and Jamaya, loved it until they found a more interesting crush to chase, boys. My little brother, Jordyn, who was now twelve, was like me. He’d rather spend time withthe old man chilling and listening to his music, in exchange for Pops playing video games with him in his spare time.
Unlike my little brother, I didn’t want my pops to do shit else but play that music. There was nothing like the lyrics of an old R&B or blues song that spoke to your situation. Nothing compared to the edgy raunchiness of the soul music of the greats like Clarence Carter and Candi Staton singing nasty ass hunching songs.
Shiiid, put on a good Clarence Carter song any day over today’s hip-hop, and I bet I would get a lot more panties tossed my way than today’s music could pull. Shiiid, women loved to hear Clarence singing “Strokin’.” It did something to their inner freak and made them want to do all the nasty shit that they claimed they didn’t do on a regular.
“Put it in the spare room across from my bedroom,” I instructed my friend, Evyn.
He was one of three friends who helped me move today. Thaddeus, my best friend, and Evyn and Nick had been my friends since elementary school. We were all from Huntsville, Alabama. We had relocated to Cherokee Springs, Georgia, six years earlier, to attend college, and never returned home.
Evyn moved toward the back of my apartment as I looked around. I rolled my shoulders to release the tension that had accompanied me for the last year. I inhaled a deep, cleansing breath as I took a moment to appreciate my new normal.
It wasn’t what I would have planned for myself, but the reality was that this was my new normal.
“You good, G?” Thad asked as he came and stood beside me. He gripped my shoulder, and I nodded. “On the real. You my homie, and if you need to talk about it, cry or some shit. . . I’m here.”
I narrowed my gaze at him and shoved him off. “Get outta here with all that.”
He chuckled. “I’m just saying. When niggas go through a breakup, they be hurting and shit just like women. Next thing you know, we be ready to kick somebody’s ass and tear some shit up.”
“Or on some rebound bullshit,” Nick interjected as he walked into the living room with us. He unscrewed the cap off his power drink and took a long gulp.
All four of us were coated in sweat from the move. My new apartment was on the third floor of our building. Thankfully, there was a service elevator, something I had taken into consideration when looking for a new place to live.
“Ain’t nobody on no rebound. It’s just me and the first lady in my life. My first love.”
“Music,” my boys all chimed in as Evyn rejoined us.
He shook his head. “I just knew your ass would be walking down the aisle in the next ten months. I had a plan about all the honeys I was gon’ snatch up.”
“You was on some ho shit,” Nick muttered and laughed at Evyn.
