by Dez Burke
“Wow, she’s something isn’t she?” Mrs. Cameron never ceased to amaze him.
“How about you?” He looked so good in his beige cardigan and tan slacks. His eyes glinted in the dull evening light.
“I am a visiting lecturer in religious studies,” he informed her.
“Can we at least go somewhere and talk? That is, if you don’t have a class,” she queried.
“Sure, how about the coffee shop on Broadway?”
“Lead the way,” Chevaine had no idea where the coffee shop was and followed John blindly. She had only ever gone to the nearby supermarket on Amsterdam. It was uncanny that this very weekend should have been her time to get to know New York better. The thought made her smile.
It was late November and the leaves on the trees had turned auburn. She had never experienced anything so beautiful. The campus lawns were beautifully kept and for the first time Chevaine actually noticed how pretty Columbia campus was. It was a huge place with many buildings with separate colleges. You could get lost there. The original architecture was still intact along with the modern facilities, creating a breathtaking view.
They strolled in silence out the main entrance and down the street to a cozy little café where most of the patrons were professors. They seated themselves near a window overlooking another breathtaking garden view.
“How long have you been here?” Chevaine was the first to break the silence. She wanted to tell him how sorry she was for hurting him but wasn’t sure how to start. The waiter showed up and they ordered coffee and croissants.
“Since mid-March. It was only supposed to be until the end of the semester but I was asked to stay another semester.”
“This is amazing. I think it’s a sign,” she supplied. John turned his head away briefly for he had not dared think the same thing. He dared not hope that maybe God had sent them here to meet again.
“I don’t know about that. It could be just a coincidence,” he said quietly.
“I believe we were meant to be together, John,” Chevaine returned.
“You could have fooled me, Chevaine. You told me you could not marry me. What makes you feel we were meant to be together? This coincidence?”
“I said I could not marry you because my mom forbade it, not because I didn’t love you, John. I have always thought we were meant to be together,” she replied a bit painfully.
John was taken aback by her response. He spent the better part of a year feeling that the woman he loved did not love him back. He wondered how he could have misread her completely. “Your mother?”
“Yes, Mommy said I couldn’t marry a complete stranger from a foreign land, she is set in her ways and was very persuasive about it.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” He reached over and covered her hand with his. His touch was like fire.
“My heart was breaking too, John, I just didn’t know what to do.” Her eyes welled with tears at the memory of their broken love. “I thought of you every day and often wished I had the courage to defy my mother, but I was depressed. It was so bad I had to be hospitalized for two weeks,” she cried.
John’s heart broke at Chevaine’s spoken words. He took both her hands in his and brought them to his lips. “I’m so sorry, my love. I was so hurt I could not see past my own selfishness to see how much you were hurting too. I am so sorry, Chev. Forgive me?”
“Can you ever forgive me?” she asked. John leaned across the table and brought his lips to meet hers. Their lips sealed in a tender yet very electrifying kiss. All the misunderstandings and heartbreaks coming to light, finally.
Onlookers’ interest grew as they saw the couple kissing. The chemistry between them was so strong it could be felt across the room. Reluctantly, they pulled apart and looked deeply into each other’s eyes.
“I am not losing you again, John. I want us to get married, that is, if you will have me.” Chevaine had not planned on saying that but she knew that if she ever saw John again she would not let him go.
“What about your mother?”
“I love Mommy, but it’s not up to her who I marry.” She was convicted in her own beliefs and was prepared to bear the consequences of being in love.
They talked for a while about what they were going to do about being together. Waiting for parental approval was on John’s mind, as he strongly believed that children should consider what their parents thought about the person they were about to marry.
Leaving the coffee shop, they were in a different mood than the one they entered with. Holding hands, they walked back to campus. John decided to do the semester then seek a position outside of Columbia University, for he believed there was some rule about professors dating students. He dropped Chevaine off at her apartment and headed towards his own shared facility across campus.
John could not remember the last time he felt so alive or the last time he took note that he had a heartbeat. He felt the pounding in his chest and stopped to enjoy the feeling which almost scared him at the intensity of its thudding. His senses were ignited and he remembered her tender lips on his. John was scared that maybe this was all a dream and or that he imagined the whole thing, so as soon as he reached his room he called the number she had given him. Her voice was real enough and what was even more real was the sudden jolt in his crotch at the sound of her voice. As he hung up the phone, he asked God to give him strength not to succumb to earthly desires.
Chevaine was in no less a predicament. Her body had responded to the kiss with the throbbing of her sex. There was a stickiness between her legs and she could feel her breasts tingle with electric shockwaves. She locked the bedroom, stripped bare, and headed for the shower. As she lathered her body with the foam from the sponge and shower gel, her hand lingered on her breasts. The nipples were taut and waves of current ran through her. She pictured John’s lips on her breasts as she had done so many times. Flashes of the night they almost made love moved like Polaroid in her mind.
A bit dazed Chevaine stepped out of the shower still a bit foamy and reached for the ringing cell phone which was on the bathroom counter top. “Hello?”
“Hey, I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t dreaming,” John said softly. The love in his voice was distinct over the phone.
She, too, had been meaning to call him for she was scared he was not really there, yet her heart told her he was. “Me too, I was scared it wasn’t real,” she replied dreamily.
As far as Chevaine was concerned there was one obstacle, and that was her mom. The plan was to marry John anyway if he would have her, but she would at least try to convince her mother that John was the right man for her. Hopefully, her mother would see reason, especially after her traumatic experience of the past year.
After talking to John, Chevaine called her mother. She wasn’t sure how she would tell her about seeing John nor was she certain if she should actually say anything at all about him. She decided to play it by ear. Her mother picked up the phone after only two rings.
“Mom, that was quick!”
“I have been expecting you,” Mrs. Cameron replied.
“Why, is something wrong?”
“No, nothing is wrong. I just was hoping you would call.”
“Mommy, we spoke a few days ago, you sure nothing is wrong?”
“No, just that…” she trailed off.
“What? Tell me, Mommy! Now you have me worried.” Chevaine could tell something wasn’t right. Her mom was being very edgy and that made her worry a bit, “Is it Daddy?”
“No girl, you don’t see anybody you know yet?”
“You’re worried about me meeting people?” Chevaine was now very concerned for her mother. She thought her mom was just being over protective as usual.
“I not talking about strange people, I mean, you don’t see anybody you know already?” she insisted.
“Well, I wasn’t sure I should say anything Mom, but there is someone,” Chevaine approached the subject tentatively.
“Who?” There was genuine intere
st in her mother’s voice so she replied.
“John.”
There was silence for a few seconds. Chevaine imagined her mother’s disappointed features and her heart sank. “That’s nice, very nice,” Mrs. Cameron replied.
“What?” She could not believe her ears. Her mom actually said that her seeing John was “nice.”
“I was wondering how long it would take for you to see him,” Mrs. Cameron added. She was grinning from ear to ear. When Chevaine told her that she had seen John she had offered up a praises to God, hence the few moments of silence.
Chevaine was puzzled. It took a while for her to register what her mother was saying. “What?” she asked in confusion.
“You don’t hear me child?” I said…” she started.
“…I heard you Mom, I just don’t understand what you are talking about!” she interrupted.
“Well…you see…I knew he was there.”
The phone almost fell from Chevaine’s grasp. Then she recalled how her mother had been secretive earlier in the year. Her mother had insisted Chevaine finish her education, cleaning out the family savings to foot half the bill. It was her mother who sent her to interview with The Jamaican Biscuit Company for the balance of the tuition.
She remembered her father telling her that her mother had vowed to make things right but she was too depressed to figure out what that meant. By the time she was feeling better, she was preparing to come to New York. She vaguely remembered Mrs. Cameron saying something like “I would rather lose my daughter to a white foreign man I know nothing about than see her like this,” or something to that effect.
So this was the plan all along: get her to come to Columbia so she and John could reunite. Chevaine knew she should be thankful but somehow she was still in shock at her mother’s revelation.
“I can’t believe this. You withdrew all your savings and retirement money just so I could see John?”
“No, I did it for you to get the education you deserve, but I knew he was there and thought it was the right thing to do. You’re not happy?’
“I am shocked! I don’t know what to think!”
Everything was happening too fast for Chevaine and somehow she was glad she was not in Jamaica for it would have been too much for her to take. Before she knew it, her mother was planning a wedding and telling her that she should get married the following June.
“Slow down Mom, John and I haven’t even talked about that yet. We just met again today…slow down and let me handle this…please.” It was a plea Mrs. Cameron could not ignore.
“Okay, you handle it. I love you, you know that?”
“I know, Mommy, I love you, too. I’ll call you on Sunday.”
“Okay, take care.”
Chevaine hung up the phone and sat on the bed trying to wrap her mind around all the things her mother did trying to make a bad situation right. She had been certain that she would have been placed on some waiting list since she had not sent in her confirmation letter the year before when she was accepted. Her mother told her she had prayed and asked God for a miracle and it seemed that way to her. Now she wondered if her mother had some secret contacts in the United States which enabled her to pull this off. When Columbia contacted her, she was told she could begin for the September semester.
If John agreed to marry her, she would have to make a decision whether to stay in America, return to Jamaica, or move to Canada. She wasn’t sure John wanted to return to Jamaican after the way he left, but she had an agreement she needed to honor. It was a sticky situation and she wasn’t sure of John’s plans. She hadn’t even asked him what he wanted. Now that her mother had changed her mind about them marrying, they had to decide if that was what they both wanted.
As far as Chevaine knew, John was a pastor and seeing him lecture meant that he had a change of heart. She needed to know why he was here and if he had any intentions of returning to church leadership. She needed to know what she was dealing with and how to approach the situation. Chevaine also bore some guilt about John’s change of career. Was she the reason he no longer was a practicing pastor?
***
In the weeks to come, Chevaine learned much about John. He told her he had wanted to assess his life and took the opportunity when it presented itself to lecture. He was only filling in until they found someone full time. He hadn’t thought of what he would do afterwards. He tried to reassure her that she had nothing to do with his being at Columbia but she didn’t really buy it.
She did everything in her power to make him see how much she loved him and he courted her like he always wanted to. There was little talk of the future but they both knew that it would surface eventually. Chevaine had filled in John about her mother’s meddling and the reason behind it. They both thought it was romantic but a little creepy at the same time.
Christmas was approaching and this was the first one that Chevaine would be spending away from her parents. John was supposed to have gone back to Canada but opted to spend it with her. His temporary tenure was completed and he refused the offer of a full time position citing personal reasons.
They had no idea what was going to happen but they both fantasized about what they wanted. The Christmas holiday would give them both some time to talk and decide on their next plan of action while Mrs. Cameron waited anxiously for news of nuptials. Not only was she hoping for a wedding, but the return of Pastor McCrary as well.
After John had left, she made mention of her refusal to let him marry Chevaine to a few people. This caused a division in the church and the community at large. Some people clearly blamed her for his departure and some just outright refused to talk to her, even now. They had not requested a new pastor so the church was left unfinished and no leader to lead them. Though the church was important to her, Mrs. Cameron’s main concern was for her daughter’s happiness. She had hoped that Chevaine and John would have decided on marriage by Christmas.
Most of the students had gone home except for those from other religious backgrounds, a few defiant ones who wanted nothing to do with parents, and those from very far countries who could not afford the flight home. For Chevaine, it was the expenses she was trying to save her parent from. Though she had savings of her own, she was hoping to help pay back some of the money to her parents.
So the plan was to make Christmas dinner for John and offer to host two other students who may have wanted to go home but could not afford to. John knew the students a little better than Chevaine, so in less than no time he found two students who were more than happy to have Christmas dinner with them.
On Christmas, Chevaine and John went grocery shopping at her favorite supermarket. Cooking for only four people, she decided against ham and got some turkey cuts.
“I have never seen these before,” she told John. “I didn’t know they sold turkey like this.”
“I guess they realize that not everyone wants a whole turkey!” he laughed.
“Have you called your mother?”
“I will tomorrow, why?”
“She must be wondering about us,” he replied.
“Yes, but we haven’t really decided on anything yet,” Chevaine was afraid to broach the subject. Since they started dating, John hadn’t brought up marriage again. Their relationship was great but there had been not talk of the future and she was beginning to feel that John wasn’t ready. Deep down, they both knew that was what they wanted and that it would happen eventually but secretly they both wanted it now. They just weren’t sure what the other was thinking.
“Maybe it’s time we should,” he told her. They were picking out fresh vegetables in the green isle.
“What are you saying?”
“I have very bad timing, but I don’t want to spend another year without you. Marry me, and this time I’m not taking no for an answer!” Something about them shopping together had triggered something in John’s mind. He had planned a very romantic proposal but somehow he got sidetracked. Before Chevaine could answer he got down on one knee,
reached into his pocket, and pulled out a grey ring box.
The supermarket was not empty and crowds quickly gathered around the green isle to see the man down on his knees propose to the tall, beautiful woman. You could hear the hushed tones as patrons stopped shopping to whisper to each other but Chevaine was in another world. She could feel her heart racing and what felt like fluttering in the pit of her stomach. This was so much more than what she had expected, though she could not remember what that was exactly.
“Yes, John, I’ll definitely marry you!” she heard herself say. There was no thinking about it this time.
John, though he was hoping to hear those words, reacted to them as if they were the most beautiful words he’d ever heard. He swiftly got of his knees and pulled her into his arms where their lips met, melting any shred of doubt which may have lingered about the past or the future.
Shutting out the world for just a moment, their tongues met in a stroke which stoked the fires of dormant passion put to sleep by choice. They both knew that their love for each other was a burning flame which they had to suppress for religious reasons. Chevaine could feel John’s hot body pressing into her as their kiss grew more ardent. His heat penetrated her layered clothing and she flushed hotly. It seemed that the ember which lay buried in the pit of her belly surfaced and spread its sparks, igniting her every nerve.
Only the sound of clapping penetrated their emotional shield, making them realize they were the spectacle of the supermarket crowd. Reluctantly they pulled apart, just so John could caress her cheeks. Still embracing, they professed their love for each other yet another time.
“Any doubts about this?” John asked.
“I never had any doubts. I always knew you were the man for me,” she replied confidently.
Slowly they resumed their shopping, moving along each isle to retrieve whatever they had missed. “Do you think your people will have me back? Will they forgive me for leaving so suddenly?”
“I am sure they will, once they understand the situation.” Chevaine told him that the best thing was to be honest about it.