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“Thank you,” I said nearly out of breath as our kiss broke.
“No thanks necessary, Kemara. I owe all the thanks to you for spending the evening with me and making me a happy man,” he said and his smile melted my heart.
I brushed another soft kiss against his lips, left his house and went to my car.
In my car, I dialed up my parents’ number. We had been planning on the evening get together for a few weeks now, but I wanted to make sure they were aware there would be a guest added. My mom answered right away.
“Hello?”
“Hey, momma, it’s Kemara. So, I just wanted to make you aware that I’m bringing someone tomorrow night. Sorry for the short notice, but-”
There was a loud squeal, causing me to pull my phone away from my ear. She started rambling on about how she couldn’t wait to meet the guy that was actually invited to meet the parents. She also said some other things I wasn’t quite sure of. The words were too high-pitched for me to hear.
I let her go on, knowing she was probably thinking about the man I was bringing to the house. Most likely, she was picturing him as tall, dark chocolate, and handsome. He would have a PHD after his name or perhaps be a lawyer. There wasn’t a chance she would have the mental image correct, but I didn’t care. I glanced up to his house and he peeked out the window, probably wondering why I was still there.
“Momma, I gotta go, but expect us there at six thirty. See you guys tomorrow.” I hung up the phone, moving past her squealing sounds. I also wanted to give Tameka the news, so she could process it and hopefully not make an ass out of herself or embarrass Channing. I looked at my phone, then remembered Channing was watching me the whole time.
I didn’t want to worry him, so I started the car and backed out of his parking lot. I would call Tameka when I got home and lay it out there. There was nothing she could say or do that would change my mind about Channing. This was the happiest I’d been in a long time. I had a keeper.
***
He picked me up right on time. The nerves seemed to have disappeared, so I was happy about that. On the way to my parents’ house, I held his hand and just pointed out which way he needed to go.
“Do you think they’ll like me?” he asked me, when we were just about five minutes to their address.
I had no doubt that my mom and dad would love Channing. He was a good man. However, I was still worried about Tameka. When we talked the night before, she said she was disgusted that I felt the need to bring his kind to a family dinner. I expressed how I was falling for him and she should simply be happy for me and it went down from there. After I told her she should be glad Channing wasn’t a loser like her ex-husband, Tameka hung up on me, but not until after she said she wouldn’t subject her kids to such a circus, so we shouldn’t expect her.
Knowing Tameka, I had every bit of confidence she would come. She wouldn’t want to disappoint our parents, and that made me worry even more. If she was there, then it was easy to say there would be tension. I hated to know that would be what Channing was walking into.
“My parents will love you,” I said. I had to continue. “But I will say that Tameka will most likely be here and she can be a hard person to impress. So, please don’t take your interactions with her that serious, or take anything she says or does to heart.”
He stopped at a red light and turned to face me. He squeezed my hand and a smile appeared on his lips. “As long as you’ll be in my corner, then I can do anything, right?” He swept in and claimed my lips.
I sighed. Damn, he had all the right words to say. I immediately forgot that Tameka would even be there. I snuggled closer to him in the truck, when the light turned green. He was right, though. As long as we were together, we could do anything. That made me put my worries behind me. We drove the rest of the way, with me cuddled up next to him, holding his hand, and keeping the silence between us. When we got to the house, he stopped the truck, shut it off, and turned to me. I tilted my head and stared at him. “What babe?” I asked.
“Tell me one more time that we can get through this,” he said.
I smiled. “We can get through anything, as long as we’re together.” I brushed another kiss on his lips and didn’t even care that, right about then, they were probably all standing and gawking at us through the living room window. “Trust me,” I said.
He nodded, then kissed my hand, before I reached for the door. “Wait for it,” he said.
I frowned, not getting his words, until he jumped out of the front seat and ran around to my side. When he opened the door, I stepped down from the truck and looked at him. “Always the gentleman,” I said.
He chuckled. “I’m thinking we have an audience and I’m not going to have your parents think I make their daughter get her own door.” He winked at me, and I laughed.
He grabbed my hand and we walked up to the front door. Sure enough, I spotted my parents looking out the window. They backed away from it, when we reached the front walk. I looked at him, giving him an encouraging smile as I knocked on the front door.
It was my mother that welcomed us in. She pulled me into a hug, acting like we hadn’t seen each other in years, when it’d been just a few weeks. “Hey, Momma,” I said.
“Hey baby girl,” she pulled back and then turned to Channing. “You must be Channing.” She held out her hand to him.
He smiled and shook it. “I am. Thank you for having me over. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
The corners of her lips quirked up, but she didn’t respond, before my father came out of the living room and made his presence known. “Hey, sweetheart,” he said, hugging me. He then turned his focus of attention on Channing.
“Hello, Sir,” Channing said, shaking his hand. I could hear the wavering in his voice and I wanted to tell him to calm down, that all would be well.
“Hello, Channing. It’s a pleasure meeting you, but you can call me Martin,” my dad said.
