Tears rolled down April’s cheeks again.
“Marriage is not a guarantee that nothin’ bad will ever happen,” Nana went on. “It’s a promise that when life do what life do, you not facin’ it alone. If you go into it expectin’ perfection, you already set yourself up to lose. If you go into it expectin’ honesty and effort, you can build somethin’ real.”
She turned back to me. “Royce, do you want to be April’s husband?”
“Yes,” I said, no hesitation this time.
“April, do you want to be his wife?”
“Yes,” she answered, voice steady.
“Then here what we gon’ do,” Nana said. “Y’all keep your date. But from now till then, Sundays is not just dinner. It’s check-ins. Y’all come here, you sit at this table, and you tell the truth. The good, the bad, the ugly. You bring your fear here, not hide it in your bedroom.”
She smiled slightly. “Consider it my wedding gift to you. Free life coachin’.”
Me and April both laughed through our tears.
“You don’t fix fear by pretendin’ you not scared,” Nana said. “You fix it by walkin’ through it together. One honest step at a time.”
I reached for April’s hand under the table.
She squeezed back.
In that moment, with Nana watchin’ us like she’d already seen this movie end well, I felt somethin’ in me settle.
I was still scared.
But I wasn’t runnin’ no more.
And that felt like the first real step toward bein’ a husband instead of just a boyfriend with a ring.
Ishould’ve known better than to stay.
After Roman told me everything about Mo, the beach, the baby, the bloodshed, my heart ached for him.
We ain’t even have sex that night.
We just laid in each other’s arms.
Me on his chest, him breathin’ all uneven, fingers drawin’ lazy circles on my back like he was usin’ my skin to anchor himself, and I let him.
For once I ain’t feel like runnin’.
I fell asleep in his arms under his dead wife’s pictures and woke up feelin’ like I’d just stepped off a cliff.
So, I did what I always do when shit start feelin’ too real.
I got the fuck on.
The next mornin’, I slipped out his bed as quiet as I could. He was knocked out, face softer than I ever seen it, all that tension gone for a second.
I stood there a minute, lookin’ at him.
He looked… human.
Not the boss, not the protector, not the crazy nigga who’d break a jaw behind me.
Just a man who lost everything once and was somehow tryna love again.
