She unlocked the tray and diamonds flashed beneath the light, each one more ridiculous than the last.
“Damn,” he muttered.
His eyes moved across the tray slowly. He noticed all kinds of shapes of rings that were on display awaiting his approval. Oval, emerald, pear, and everything in between. Each one came with a hefty price tag, which wasn’t a problem for Jio. The issue was that none of them screamed “I’m The One!”
Nina wasn’t a woman you could impress by size alone. She was born into luxury, and her family being in the damn jewelry industry didn’t make it any better. Nina knew the difference between expensive and exquisite and was currently learning all she could about craftsmanship.
He had to cop a ring that was timeless. A ring that was classic yet powerful. She wouldn’t care if the ring demanded attention either, as long as it was pretty to her.
He pointed to an emerald-cut diamond near the center of the tray.
“Can you pull that one out?”
The associate carefully removed it and placed it on black velvet.
Jio picked it up before she could touch it.
The ring was platinum with a large emerald-cut center stone flanked by four tapered baguettes on either side. The lines were clean and there wasn’t a halo either. It was giving old money but elegant.
It looked like Nina could wear it in a boardroom, at a gala, in The Bluff, or barefoot in their kitchen with one of his T-shirts on.
“Come check it out,” he asked his aunt. Kadeer followed because he was nosey.
Jio placed the ring carefully in her palm.
Auntie Vee studied it silently, making him more nervous than Nina’s daddy did the other day.
She took off her glasses and squinted as she observed it closely.
They all awaited her feedback.
Finally, she nodded once. “This is it, baby,” Auntie Vee beamed.
His chest tightened at the confirmation. He’d found a winner. Hours later, he’d finally found the ring he’d been looking for.
“This says wife.”
Something moved behind his ribs.
Wife.Not girlfriend or the mother of his future children.
Not the woman he loved in secret, in chaos, in stolen moments, and in every life he’d imagined after they said I Do.
Wife.
Kadeer watched his best friend experience something internally. It happened pretty quickly… so fast that most people would’ve missed it.
But Kadeer wasn’t most people.
He’d known Jio when married was the last word anybody would’ve used to describe him…until Nina Marcelle came along.
People acted like love turned men soft overnight but it didn’t. Not the real kind at least. Real love had a way of getting under your skin and reaching places nobody else had permission to touch. It made a man question what he used to be proud of, and it caused him to want a life that he never desired prior to meeting the right person. Nina brought Jio peace and even a blind man could see that.
Kadeer leaned against the counter. “You really doing this?”
Jio didn’t answer at first. His eyes stayed on the ring in Auntie’s hand.
“Yeah, it’s time.”
