The next morning I opened my eyes and smiled thinking about the wedding. I was still in the bed but Kev wasn’t there and I wondered where he went. I turned my head toward the balcony that was just off the bedroom and saw him sitting out there. He was looking at me, I smiled as soon as we locked eyes.
“Good morning sweetheart,” he said. “Good morning,” I replied. His shirt was off and he had on his pajama bottoms, smoking a stogy and reading the paper.
I was still sleepy so I closed my eyes and tried to sleep a little longer, but within a few minutes I heard Kev say aloud,
“Look at my beautiful wife, she’s flawless, God. You gave me her.” I peeked over at him. He was still sitting in his chair looking over at me. He couldn’t tell I was awake because my eyes were peeking through at him.
He got out of the chair and looked over the balcony at the Vegas strip. He put the cigar out and looked down at his cell vibrating then at the number but never answered it, pushing the call to voice mail. “Twenty missed calls.” He glanced again seeming to be contemplating calling the number back then he said, “ I don’t care I’m on my honeymoon and nothing is more important than that.” He walked over to the bed and sat down beside me.
“I want you to get some rest, we been up all night long.” He whispered in my ear. Then I felt him get up and he walked back out to the balcony. ”I keep havin’ flashbacks of our wedding night.” He laughed then sat back down in the chair on the balcony. He continued to stare over at me, all while I pretended to be asleep. He smiled and flicked his ashes in the ashtray.
I realized I wasn’t gonna get anymore sleep so I sat up in the bed.
“Baby?” I yawned. “What you thinkin’ ’bout?” I got out the bed and walked toward Kev on the balcony.
“You surprised me, I didn’t know you were awake.” He got up and started toward me and met me with a kiss. “How did you sleep? You okay?” He was so concerned. . .
I was so happy that my cheeks were hurting from smiling so much. “I slept great. Never felt better,” I proclaimed and kissed him again. “The best part of the whole ceremony was seeing my boys. Oh, Kev!” I placed my hand over my mouth and stood there, looking at him. “That was priceless; thank you, babe, really.”
I appreciated him so much and the love and care he gave me. I knew it was a priceless kind of love. Kev had done so much for me. He had shown me nothing but love and respect from the time we met, but now I was thinking how I hadn’t given him the same thing.
I lied to him and had that money and on top of that he didn’t know about Shy. I wasn’t feeling very good about myself.
“Kev, I have to tell you something. Please, I need to tell you something, babe,” I confessed. Kev started shaking his head no as if to say not now.
“Babe, let’s enjoy today. We can talk when we get back, okay?” Kev pleaded.
I smiled, gave him a big hug, and agreed. I wanted to get it off my chest, but realized it wasn’t the right time so I changed the subject with a question.
“So, what we gonna do today, Kev? What you wanna do? I want to go everywhere!” I smiled and looked over the balcony on to the strip.
Kev couldn’t get a word in edgewise because of my excitement. He walked up behind me and rubbed my back, looking over the balcony with me. “We can go wherever you want,” he said.
“I wanna go shopping! Let’s go get the boys some things, then we can go get us a little somethin’ somethin’.” I laughed.
“All right, that sounds good to me,” Kev said, looking at his cell. He looked at me, and then answered the phone. “What’s up, Jay?” He pulled me close to him. I could hear their conversation. “Kev, where you at? You leave yet?” Jason said, sounding concerned.
“No, not yet, man. I needed to take care of somethin’. I’ll be back there in a couple of days.” By Kev’s actions he seemed relaxed and confident that Jason didn’t have an idea of what was really going on.
“Handle yo’ business then. I called Reese but she isn’t answerin’ me. I figure she isn’t ready to talk, you know. I went a little too far this time. I shouldn’t have hit her with that gun; that was messed up. I don’t know if she will forgive me, man. It’s messin’ wit’ my head, Kev.” Jason sighed. I couldn’t believe he was saying all that! He was lying through his teeth! I couldn’t hear anymore, I walked away from Kev and went into the living area of our room and sat on the couch. I was disgusted.
Kev walked over to me, bent down, and kissed my lips and held my hand trying to make me feel secure. Then he continued talking to Jason.
“Jay, I don’t know what to tell you. It was pretty bad between y’all. Reese may have moved on, so if I were you, I wouldn’t expect her to understand. I told you to stop treatin’ her like that, man. You wouldn’t listen, Jay.”
Kev was getting upset. “Look, Jay, I still have flashbacks of you beating on Reese and me having to get in the middle and stop you. Just leave her alone.” Kev was angry. His voice had gotten louder while he continued to explained to Jason.
“Jay, man, I gotta go. I’ll call you when I get to the CO,” Kev said, ready to end the call before his anger got the best of him.
“All right, man,” Jason responded dryly. Kev was about to hang up when Jason said, “Kev, I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. I can’t get that woman off my mind.”
Kev looked at me as if he was going to say something, but he didn’t. I sat there watching him and it was apparent he didn’t know Jason, his best friend from the time they were eight, would break down like this; Kev was showing mixed emotions. One minute he was feeling guilty, the other he was mad, because all in all he loved Jason. They were friends.
“Kev? You hear me?” Jason sighed. “I did this, I went too far, man.” His voice was low.
Silence fell between them on the phone, then Kev said, “Man, I don’t know what to tell you. You may have to chalk this one up.”
“All right, man, I got to go. If you hear from Reese tell her to pick up the phone. Okay, Kev?” Jason asked.
“Yeah, man. I’ll tell her,” Kev agreed, then ended the call.
Kev continued to walk around the room, not expecting the call to have been like this.. He rubbed the top of his head and sat on the couch, looking serious.
I knew something wasn’t right. I could see it in his eyes.
He gazed into space for a few more minutes without even hearing me ask, “What’s wrong?” I was getting nervous now because he wasn’t responding. I had never seen Kev like this. “Baby, what’s the matter? Do he know about us?” I jumped up off the couch and walked around the front room of the suite franticly.
Kev watched me panic, holding my hands together and pacing the floor. He watched the roses be trampled as I walked back and forth across them with my bare feet, not even remembering how beautiful I thought they were the night before.
Kev watched his wife lose control of her happy new life.
“Stop!” Kev said. “Reese, calm down, everything’s okay. I was just thinkin’ ’bout Jay. He sounds so sad because of what he did to you. That’s all, baby. No big deal.”
He watched me sit in the middle of the floor where the roses were. He came over and sat on the ground with me in the middle of the roses and held me. He bent his head down and kissed me softly on the forehead.
