At First Kiss

by Gwyneth Bolton

  “Go away, Troy. Please.”

  “What happened? We were having a great show and you got all weird at the end. What did I do?”

  She got up and unlocked and opened the door. No need to give them even more stuff to talk about. “Tell me about Carmen.”

  She realized that her eyes were glossed with unshed tears but she didn’t care at that point. The hurt needed someplace to go, and if it took crying, no matter what her mother had drilled into her about never showing weakness in public, she was going to let them flow.

  Troy walked into her dressing room. She closed the door and followed him.

  “Carmen says Gina is just your type. Way more your type than I am… And apparently way more your type than Carmen was. How could you have me up in here not knowing that you had had a relationship with Carmen? You left me wide open for that foul chick to throw it in my face. You were supposed to do me better than that…”

  She sat down on the sofa and he sat down next to her.

  “It was nothing to tell. I dated her three years ago when she first came to the show as assistant producer. The chemistry was lacking and I moved on. She didn’t stand a chance because I had already lost my heart to you years ago, Jasmine. No other woman had ever stood a chance after I picked you up from that airport and kissed you in that restaurant. It wasn’t fair to Carmen and it wasn’t fair to the other women, either. I should have been man enough to just risk my heart with you.

  “I am man enough now. I’m ready to put it all on the line. I love you and if you ever left me it would kill me. I don’t want this marriage to end, ever. I want us to be together until we are old and gray. And I want to share children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren with you and only you. You are the only type I have, Jasmine. You. Only you. I love you.”

  Jazz felt the tears running down her face. He was saying everything she wanted to hear. Finally. Could she trust it? She wanted to.

  She looked at him. He was so solemn and serious. She rolled her eyes as she wiped away her tears. “You really need to get over yourself, Hubby. It’s not that deep. We love each other and we’ll stay married until the end, until one of us takes their last breath. So what? Big deal…there’s no need to be so-oo melodramatic.”

  He sighed. “Be serious, Jasmine. I love it that you joke and you’re playful and you’re always pushing my buttons. But I need to know that you are for real. That finally this, us, this marriage can be for real.”

  She nodded and let go of the knot in her chest and throat. “It’s real, Troy. It’s as real as it gets. I love you. I probably always have.” She smirked. “I love yuh mad. I love yuh bad. I love yuh so much dat if yuh ever let another woman feed yuh roti or any such ting again you and she gwan havta deal with me, nuh? And you ain’ gwan like what I do to yuh!”

  He laughed and kissed her. “I’m counting on that, Jasmine. I’m betting my entire life on it.”

  Chapter 12

  “Don’t wanna be a player no more…”

  —Big Pun and Joe

  After some time…

  After Jordan’s six-month contest was over, Troy and Jasmine walked into the recently renovated studio of Living with Troy and Jazz and were shocked when all of their family, friends and coworkers jumped out and screamed, “Surprise!”

  They hadn’t been expecting a surprise party, much less a surprise party that doubled as a celebration of their new syndicated show and the wedding reception they’d never had. Carmen had left Detroit Live soon after the Caribbean show debacle, and Jordan made them play the contest out until the bitter end to announce a winner. They had actually tied in the end, and it was clear that everyone loved the two of them together.

  The happiness and joy of everyone around them couldn’t hold a candle to the happiness and joy in their hearts.

  “So, Dad, are you going to be able to hold off a few more years for me to join you in the office?” Troy joked with Jordan as he, Jasmine, Darren and Alicia all stood around talking.

  “I think I can manage awhile longer, especially now that you and Jazz are going to be giving me another grandchild. Between your sister’s kids and the grands you’ll be giving me, I’m sure one of them will want to take over Singleton Communication one day. I suppose I’ll have to hang around long enough to watch them all grow up so I can train them.”

  Alicia laughed. “Well, I can tell you now that Kendrick and my father have dibs on Sonya and Kendrick’s brood for Taylor Publishing. So you better get these two to give you lots of grandchildren, Jordan.”

  Jordan laughed as well. “We’ll see, Alicia. We’ll see. I like a good contest, and going up against Taylor Publishing for a heir might just be the kind of excitement I need to keep me going.”

  Jasmine held their goddaughter, Ashley, who had grown a lot and was getting to be very active. She amused herself by grabbing Jasmine’s earrings, pulling on Jasmine’s hair and balling her little hand into a fist and sucking on her knuckles.

  “I can’t believe the two of you are going to have a nationally syndicated talk and variety show. I always knew you were nosy enough and ran your mouth enough to give Oprah a run for her money.” Darren playfully teased Jasmine and Jasmine just ignored him and continued focusing on little Ashley.

  Alicia shook her head. “No, I always knew that Troy’s inquisitive twenty-questions-asking behind would make a great talk show host. When I first started dating you, that boy used to get all up in my business.”

  Troy rolled his eyes at Alicia’s memory of when she and Darren had first started dating. “You know I had to make sure you were going to do right by my boy. I had to get all in your business, just in case.”

  “Yeah, whatever,” Alicia said.

  “And I’m sure Troy’s harmless questions had nothing on the third degree Jazz put me through. She got everything but my social security number.” Darren feigned indignation.

  Jasmine shook her head and laughingly blew raspberries on Ashley’s little cheeks. Troy watched her and knew he couldn’t wait until she gave birth to their child. He looked at her small baby bump and glee threatened to overwhelm him, so much so that he felt it in the middle of his throat.

  Words could never express how happy Jasmine Stewart-Singleton had made him.

  “Well, it’s my turn to ask the questions now,” Alicia said, moving into her role as editor-in-chief of Taylor Publishing’s Black Life Today. “Did you know that the two of you would be able to make magic once you stopped fighting, or rather fighting your attraction and giving love a try? Not to mention you started out as a married couple battling for the same job and now you’re about to have your own nationally syndicated show. Did you ever dream it could happen? That it was even possible?”

  Jasmine looked at him and she got that playful, devilish gleam in her eyes that he was starting to really love.

  “You know, Alicia, I’ll tell you like I told him. I knew I could do for him what Martin did for the people. You know everyone talks all that stuff about it being a man’s world. But us women? We keep the tempo. Basically, it just reached a point where I had to say, baby, let me upgrade you. You need me. You need a real woman in your life. People go their entire lives trying to find their equal. With my hustle and his hustle, I could totally upgrade him.” She winked at him and then continued playing with Ashley.

  No, this woman is not remixing Beyoncé lyrics up in here!

  He shook his head and rolled his eyes, because apparently he was the only one who’d picked up on Jazz’s inside joke. It was their own little couple thing and he liked it. He liked having a couple thing!

  “What about you, Troy? Did you ever imagine all this could happen?”

  He nodded. “Right…you know…at first I didn’t know. But it didn’t take me long to see that even though I’m a movement by myself, together we could be a force. Me plus Jasmine just equals better math. I’m a good look, but she is definitely my better half. And even though I’m hot, together we burn it up. So yeah, I kind of knew she’d make
me better.”

  Jasmine rolled her eyes as she giggled and shook her head. The look in her eyes said he’d got her with his remix on the Fabolous and Ne-Yo lyrics. She gave Ashley one last kiss on the cheek and handed her to Alicia.

  “Okay, folks, the hubby and I have to make our rounds and thank everyone for this surprise party.” Jasmine placed her hand in his, and it felt like home. “We’ll connect with you guys later, girlfriend. Because you know I haven’t gotten my fill of my goddaughter, not to mention the boys.”

  “Yes, make your rounds and remember you guys owe your first interview to me and Black Life Today. And don’t think that little song lyrics thing y’all do is going to work. I want a serious, hard-cutting, in-depth—”

  “Baby, let them go and greet their guests.” Darren took their daughter from Alicia’s arms, placed his arms around his wife and walked her away.

  Alicia was still mumbling questions as her husband pulled her away.

  “You two go on and make your rounds. Remember, tomorrow it’s back to work. I expect you two to be syndicated all over the world by next year.” Jordan winked at them as he walked away.

  Jasmine wrapped her arms around Troy and tilted her head. He bent down and gave her a peck on the lips.

  She grinned. “Fabolous? Seriously? That’s what gave it away. You know Alicia is a hip-hop head from way back. Now she’s on to us.”

  Troy laughed. “Umm…Beyoncé and Jay-Z? I think you’re the one who gave it away. Who wouldn’t recognize ‘Upgrade U’ when they hear it?”

  “I was very clever with mine. She wouldn’t have caught it.”

  “I think the only reason why she didn’t catch it that day in the hospital when Ashley was born was because she had just gone through labor. But I don’t think my dad or Darren picked up at all. It can still be our thing, Jazz Mine.” He kissed her deeply.

  “Mmm…. It could totally be our thing.” She smiled. “I like having a thing with you.”

  “And I love having a thing with you.”

  “We’re going to make it, huh?”

  “Shit, yeah, we are. I always knew we would, once you stopped playing.”

  “Once I stopped playing. Please, this coming from the man who said they’d have to pry his player card out of his cold dead fingers.” She smirked. “Did you really know? How did you know? You didn’t know…”

  “I knew. I knew it at first kiss.”

  “At first kiss? Which first kiss? Our wedding? Ten years ago? When? When did you know?”

  He kissed her. “All of the above. I knew it every time I kissed you. I know it every time I kiss you. And every kiss is like the first kiss.”

  “You’re slick. I like that. I guess I’ll keep you.”

  “Oh, you’ll keep me, huh.” He chuckled. He’d like to see her try to get rid of him.

  “Yeah. Because I knew from the first time you kissed me that you were the one. I just had to give you time to mature and catch up to my swagger.” She laughed and pulled away.

  He pulled her back and wrapped his arm around her shoulder as they walked off to greet the rest of their guests. He had to smile, because he knew life with Jasmine would probably never be dull and they would always keep one another on their toes. Marriage didn’t mean playtime was over. It meant the fun was just starting. And he couldn’t wait to play with the woman he was born to play with for the rest of his life.

  Epilogue

  “I’m the original playa from the Himalayas!”

  —Martin Lawrence’s Jerome

  Jordan Singleton stood at the Barbados cemetery and placed a huge bouquet of colorful roses on Carlyne Stewart’s grave.

  “Well, sweetheart, our plan worked. Maybe not exactly the way we thought it would work… But it worked. We thought me hiring Jazz, having her and Troy work together, and you putting that marriage clause in your will would have made them come to fall in love and get married.”

  He chuckled as he thought about how crazy he’d thought Carlyne’s plan was. He hadn’t thought it would work at all. He knew his son and he didn’t think the man would ever settle down.

  But Jordan absolutely adored Carlyne and he couldn’t deny her anything, especially not when she got the news that her cancer had come back and it was terminal. He and Carlyne had developed a close friendship through the years after he met her at one of the Whitmans’ functions. He would have done anything for her, including put up the money to orchestrate the trickiest matchmaking plot ever.

  And it actually worked… Two old players got the best of the youngsters without anyone being the wiser.

  “They did things a little backward, Carlyne. They got married and then they fell in love. But they ended up right where we wanted them. And they are going to give us a grandbaby soon. I wish you could be here to see your first grandchild. But something tells me you’re looking down from heaven.”

  He wiped away a tear and his voice choked. “Detroit Live has been picked up for syndication and is now Living with Troy and Jazz. Our kids are about to be parents and they are about to be stars. Jazz decided to put the inheritance in a trust fund for the baby and any other children she and Troy might have. So I guess I have to say it because I know you’re waiting for it. You were right. Jasmine and Troy are perfect for one another.”

  He turned and walked away.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-8939-4

  AT FIRST KISS

  Copyright © 2011 by Gwendolyn D. Pough

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