If he wanted YaYa to be strong, then he had to be strong. He wanted her loyalty, so he had to be loyal. He wanted her unconditional love, so he had to give her his first. He had stayed up all night praying for an answer, but he realized that he didn’t need guidance. He already knew what he wanted to do. His heart and mind were in conflict, but emotion overweighed logic whenever it came to YaYa.
He had wanted to call the entire thing off, but he loved her too much to leave her. Marriage was about more than the ups. It had its share of downs as well, and Indie wanted to withstand the trials and tribulations. Everyone in life was going to disappoint him; they just had to be worth it, and YaYa definitely was.
He hadn’t spoken to her since he had stormed out, and they had a lot of things to iron out, but today wasn’t the day for that. He would address the negativity later. On this day he was just anxious to see his bride.
He waited for the driver to open his door, and then he stepped out of the car. He headed toward the front door, but stopped as he saw Chase sitting on the front stoop.
“You’re late to your own wedding,” Chase stated.
“It’s good to see you, fam,” Indie said. “Can’t say that I expected you to be here. How did you know?”
“Your mother gave me a call. Couldn’t be a wedding without a best man,” he said. Chase was so loyal that he had swallowed his pride to let bygones be bygones.
Indie embraced Chase. “I owe you an apology.” He was man enough to own up to his mistakes.
“Remember I told you to keep that,” Chase said. “It don’t need to be said. I didn’t want to be right about that one, fam. As long as YaYa gets the help that she needs, everything’s love.”
“Where’s Trina?” Indie asked.
“She went to Houston to get our mama. She’s determined to get her clean,” Chase replied. “She says she’s sorry she couldn’t be here.”
Indie clasped Chase’s shoulder and they walked inside. His mother and father waited with Skylar. Buchanan Slim sat in one of the church’s pews.
Indie wasn’t a nervous man, but butterflies fluttered in his stomach. This was the biggest leap of faith that a man could make, and he had to admit that he was shook.
Elaine handed Skylar off to her husband Bill and walked over to her son. “YaYa isn’t here yet,” she said softly.
“I’m forty-five minutes late. What do you mean she isn’t here?” he asked with concern.
“She isn’t here and we can’t reach her,” Elaine said. “Did you tell her that you were still coming in? I know after last night—”
“Yeah, of course I did,” he said. “I sent her a text. Told her I . . .”
Indie went inside his pocket to retrieve his phone, but realized that he had left it at his mother’s home. He checked the Presidential on his wrist.
“She’s not that late. We’ll just wait. She’s coming. She will be here,” he said calmly.
Indie took a seat at the front of the church, and as the minutes ticked by, an elephant entered the room. His heart grew so heavy that it weighed down his chest as he realized that there wouldn’t be a wedding on that day. If it were up to him, he would have waited all day just to avoid facing the reality of the situation, but when the pastor grew impatient, Indie knew that it was time to go.
He stood to his feet and tried his best not to wear his heart on his sleeve. Loving YaYa had been one of the greatest joys he had ever experienced, but now as he stood without a bride at the altar, he would have preferred to never have encountered love at all.
“I want to thank you all for coming, but there won’t be a wedding here today. It’s over,” Indie said. He placed one hand over his chest and the other in his pocket as he walked out of the church, heart broken by YaYa’s absence and defeated in spirit, gripping YaYa’s wedding band in his hand.
The End . . . for now.
The Prada Plan 4 Coming January, 2014
Urban Books, LLC
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The Prada Plan 3: Green-Eyed Monster Copyright © 2013 Ashley Antoinette
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, except brief quotes used in reviews.
ISBN: 978-1-6228-6070-8
This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.
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