“I’m so happy you all are here to celebrate my baby girl,” Lauryn stated before instinctively rubbing her stomach.
Brielle jerked her chin in agreement. “Of course. You know there’s no place else we’d rather be.”
“Yeah, girl. We wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
“Exactly. That’s what your girls are for, right?” I spoke up again. “Now, let’s go enjoy this brunch!”
Since it was a co-ed baby shower, Lauryn and Donovan decided they didn’t want to play any of the traditional baby shower games. Instead, we all spent the sunny afternoon dancing to good music, eating, and radiating good vibes only throughout the pink atmosphere.
“Um, can I have everyone’s attention before y’all start heading out? Real quick, we just want to thank you all for coming to help us celebrate Bleu, who will be arriving soon,” Donovan announced before reaching down to rub Lauryn’s protruding belly.
“Some days my due date can’t come fast enough,” Lauryn interjected with a chuckle.
“Um, I think Lauryn and I have also decided to make a little announcement.”
“Damn, you pregnant too, D?” Brielle blurted out before everyone broke up in a roar of laughter.
“Nah, I’ma leave the baby carrying to mywife. I just focus on making them,” he replied with a chuckle.
We all fell silent for a few seconds before Lauryn spoke up to confirm that his mention of her being his wife wasn’t a slip of the tongue. “That’s right, y’all. Surprise, we got married!” she broadcasted before swiping happy tears out of her chestnut brown eyes.
My mouth dropped open, and I quickly sought out Brielle and Shauna’s faces to see if they knew something I didn’t. They looked just as dumbfounded as I did, so I turned my attention back to Lauryn, who refused to make eye contact with me for more than a couple seconds at a time.
“Surprise is right! Oh my God! Congratulations!” Brielle cheered.
Everyone else followed suit and soon the entire backyard was filled with cheering and clapping. “Thank you everyone for coming. Thank you all so much. We really do appreciate each one of you for taking some time out of your busy lives to be here with us. We hope you had an amazing time, and we will be sure to keep you posted on baby girl’s arrival,” Donovan said, wrapping up their speech.
Once people started to shuffle out, we each started taking gifts intothe living room, stacking them mountain-high in the corner to be opened later. Then, the four of us were finally able to kick off our heels and huddle under the cabana to catch up.
“Okay, so when were you gon’ tell any of us that you got married, bitch?” I asked, the first to speak up.
“I told all of you today.”
“What made y’all want to go off and elope like that?” Brielle asked.
“Yeah, I thought you were excited about planning a big wedding,” Shauna added.
Lauryn shook her head before swiping her long curls behind her ears. “I was until I got pregnant and realized how much work goes into planning a wedding. I didn’t have the mental bandwidth to deal with that shit. So, we talked about it and we decided that we wanted to be married, period. So, we flew out to Vegas when I was about five months pregnant and eloped.”
“You mean to tell me you’ve been secretly married to this man for months and didn’t slip up once?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest in shock.
“Oh my God it was so hard, y’all. Like, you don’t understand how bad I wanted to just blurt it out!”
“What did your parents say?” Shauna asked.
“You already know Mama and his mama were pissed when they found out, but, hey, we did what we felt was best for us.”
“And fuck the rest!” Brielle chimed in before turning her mini champagne bottle up to her lips.
“Exactly. I’ve always hated that whole outdated ideology that we have to do things in a certain order or a certain way, like that first comes love, then comes marriage shit. Real love isn’t a boardgame. I don’t think any one thing has to happen first or last. If two people form a dope connection and have a mutual understanding of what it is, then that’s all that matters. No matter how fast or slow that happens,” I agreed, letting my thoughts wander back to Hendrix.
Shauna let out a deep, heavy negro spiritual sigh before waving her hand to the sky. “Well! Preach on!”
“Shit, well I’m happy for you, girl,” Brielle chirped.
“Yeah, me too. If you both are happy and you feel like you madethe moves you needed to make for your relationship, then there’s nothing else to be said,” I assured Lauryn.
“Yassss! Congratulations, Mrs. Mackey!” Shauna shouted before displaying a wide-gapped grin.
