by Hazel Mills
Chapter 20
Ahmad
“I do.”
When I heard Nikki say those two words, it was like music to my ears. We were now husband and wife. At first, I thought I had made a hasty decision by asking Nikki to marry me. After all, we hadn’t known each other for very long.
Look at her. She is so beautiful standing there in her white dress. You made the right decision.
“You may kiss the bride,” the chaplain announced.
I couldn’t wait to kiss my wife for the first time. Nikki’s eyes danced as I pulled her body closer to mine. I just wanted to hold her in my arms first, so she could feel safe from the hurt she’d known so much of her whole life.
“Would you just kiss already? Some of us do have to go to work,” Nikki’s best friend, Sabrina, said from the sideline. “It ain’t legal until you kiss her.”
The five other people in the office laughed at Sabrina’s quick wit. I leaned in and planted a passionate kiss on Nikki’s soft lips.
We kissed for what seemed like hours.
“I said kiss her. Not make another baby.”
“Sabrina, do you ever quit,” Nikki asked, giggling like a little schoolgirl. I loved her laugh. I promised myself that I was going to do everything in my power to make sure that Nikki laughed like that every day. I never wanted her to be sad another day in her life.
“Now you know better than that, baby. Sabrina is all mouth,” I said.
“Whatever, Ahmad,” Sabrina answered, rolling her eyes. “You just make sure that you take good care of my friend, Mr. Jacobs. I’d hate to have some of my homeboys to jack you up.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing.”
We all laughed. I assured Sabrina that she didn’t have a thing in the world to worry about. I fully intended to take extra good care of my new wife.
“I’ve never been happier than I am right now, Ahmad,” Nikki said, as she hugged me again.
Nikki kneeled down to Corrie’s level and looked her in her eyes. “Corrie, how do you feel about what just happened? Are you happy?”
“Yeah, I think it’s cool. Can I ask you something?”
“Yes, sweetheart, you can ask me anything you want.”
“Can I call you Mommy?”
I could see Nikki fighting back tears. As hard and as emotionless as Sabrina always tried to be, there were even tears in her eyes.
“I would love that but only if you’re comfortable with it, Corrie.”
“Okay then. Mommy.”
Corrie is right. This is so cool. My two best girls are loving on each other. What could be better than that? Life is going to be good for us.
“Well, I hate to break up this little love fest but like I said, I’ve got to get to work at the hospital,” Sabrina chimed.
“Thank you so much for being here, Sabrina. You know I love you, girl,” Nikki said, giving her best friend a hug.
“Yeah, Yeah. Where else would I be? ”
“I love you, too, Sabrina,” I said, kissing her cheek.
“Miss Jackson, if you’re nasty.”
After the wedding, Corrie went back to New York with my mother. Nikki and I planned to finish packing our things here and drive the moving truck to New York in two days. My grandmother’s apartment on Flatbush Avenue was all ready and waiting for us to move right in.
I had so many wonderful things planned for Nikki and me on our wedding night. After all, she had been through, I knew I would have to be patient with her and not push. Things had to happen in their own time.
“Is everything set up?” I whispered to Sabrina before she left for the hospital.
Sabrina had agreed to help me with the hotel arrangements. I wanted to surprise Nikki with a beautiful room overlooking the Potomac River at the Watergate Hotel for our wedding night. I knew that it would be something she would definitely not expect or even think we could afford.
“Yeah, it’s all set. I went by earlier and picked up the keys. I
even took some rose petals and spread them all over your king-sized bed,” Sabrina said as she discretely dropped the keys in the front pocket of my blazer.
“Thanks, girl. You know that if I wasn’t marrying Nikki…” “Niggah, please. As if I would even have your pretty ass. Nope. Give me an ugly dude any day.”
Sabrina and I both burst into what seemed like uncontrollable laughter. I could see why she and Nikki were so close.
“Okay, let’s break this little chat up,” Nikki interrupted.
“Look, I need to get to the hospital before they fire my ass. Congratulations, y’all. Nikki, girl, call me before you leave for New York.”
Nikki and Sabrina hugged. Both of them were trying desperately to fight the tears.
On the drive to the hotel, Nikki drilled me about where we were going and I refused to tell her anything.
“Ahmad, you’re not going to tell me?”
“Nope.”
“That’s just wrong. I’m your wife now and you’re obligated by law to disclose everything to me,” Nikki said, pouting and folding her arms, looking out of the car window.
“Yeah, okay,” I said laughing, “and where did you read that?”
“I don’t remember. It’s probably in the Bible,” Nikki said as she moved closer to me, laying her head on my shoulder.
When we pulled up to the Watergate Hotel, Nikki put her hand over her heart and gasped.
“Ahmad! This is the Watergate! How on earth…”
“Don’t worry about it. I did it for you. I wanted us to spend our first night together someplace special.”
Once we were inside of our hotel room, I realized that Sabrina had done a lot more than she’d told me about. Not only were there red rose petals all over the white linen draped king-sized bed, but there were several bouquets of flowers placed in the room. A bottle of Moët sat chilling in a silver ice bucket next to the bed along with a basket of white grapes and chocolate covered strawberries.
“Oh baby, this is so beautiful,” Nikki said as she tearfully surveyed the room.
It sure is. I’ll have to remember to slip Sabrina a few more dollars because I know there was no way in hell she could have done all of this with just the money I gave her.
“All for you.”
I took Nikki’s hand and pulled her close. In her eyes, I saw expectation and fear. Her body had begun to tremble a bit. I held her tighter hoping she could feel the security in the strength of my arms. I lifted her chin with my hand and planted the first kiss of the evening on her perfectly shaped lips. She hesitated at first but soon let her lips melt into mine. I slowly began to unzip her dress and stepped back to watch it drop to the floor.
Her skin glistened flawlessly beneath the white lace of her bra and panties.
“You are so beautiful,” I said, removing my shirt.
Nikki didn’t say a word. She just stood there and smiled. I took her in my arms again and was amazed at how turned on I was by the touch of her soft skin against mine.
I want you so bad. I’ve wanted you from the first moment I
saw you. Finally.
“I love you, Nicolette Jacobs,” I whispered in her ear, gently nibbling the lobe.
“I love you, too,” she responded, breathlessly.
“Can I make love to you?” I asked, staring into her eyes. Although we were married, I didn’t want to take advantage of this delicate moment.
She nodded.
“You can trust me. We can take this as slow as you need to.”
She nodded again. This time she wiped away a lonely tear as it slowly rolled down her cheek.
Just as I’d promised, I took my time touching and kissing her warm body all over, trying hard to contain the fire that raged out of control inside of me. I reached between her legs, hoping to feel her sweet wetness saturating my fingers, indicating that she was ready but instead, she was as dry as a desert. Even though her body was there with me, I could tell t
hat her mind was somewhere else.
“Nikki, are you okay, baby?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
“Are you sure because you’re not…” “I told you that I’m fine. Just do it. I’m fine.” Just do it? Oh hell no.
“Nikki, talk to me. What’s going on? I don’t want to just do it. I want us to take this trip together.”
She pulled the covers over her naked body and turned her back to me.
What the fuck? Okay, man, remember to be patient. Your wife has been molested. Did you think this was going to be easy? You’ve got to show some patience here or you’ll fuck up everything.
“Nikki,” I said, touching her shoulder.
“Ahmad, this is very hard for me. Okay? There is nothing I want more than to make love to you right now but I can’t get the image of what my father did to me out of my mind.”
“Baby, I’m not your father. I’m your husband. There is a huge difference. We’re supposed to do this.”
“I know that, Ahmad. I can’t help it. I thought, I hoped, that going to counseling would help me deal with this better but it hasn’t. I don’t know what to do. What if I can never…”
“Shh…” I said as I spooned my body against hers. My dick was as hard as a rock and aching for some pussy. I started thinking about how much I wanted to kill that motherfucker who was the blame for all of this bullshit. “We have all time in the world.
Don’t worry about it.” Goddamnit!
I held her until we both fell into a deep sleep. The startling ring of the telephone awakened us.
Who in the hell could that be? No one knows where we are.
“Hello. What? Hold on.”
Sabrina was on the other end of the phone. Her voice sounded frantic when she asked to speak to Nikki.
“Oh my, God,” Nikki screamed as she jump out of bed.
Goddamn, she’s fine.
The sight of my wife’s body made my shit harden again.
“Okay, we’ll be right there, Sabrina. Thanks for calling.”
We’ll be right where? It’s three o’clock in the fucking morning.
“Baby, what did Sabrina want? What’s going on?”
“Ahmad, we have to get to Doctor’s Hospital as soon as possible. Shannon is in the emergency room,” Nikki said, searching through her suitcase before disappearing into the bathroom.
Oh fuck no! Shannon! What in the hell am I going to do now? I can’t go to that hospital with Nikki. What do I tell her? I can’t tell her the truth. Not right now. She’s going to question me if I don’t drive her to the hospital. Fuck! I have to know what’s going on first.
“She said that Shannon came in the emergency room in labor. I didn’t even know she was pregnant,” Nikki called from the bathroom.
Fuck!
“Ahmad, get dressed,” Nikki instructed when she opened the door and saw me sitting motionless on the side of the bed.
“Oh, okay.”
Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. I didn’t know what to expect anymore. One part of me wanted to crash the car just so I wouldn’t have to come clean with Nikki about the whole Shannon situation and my role in it. The other part was screaming for me to tell her the truth.
But what is the truth? That I’m the father of Shannon’s baby? We don’t know that for sure. It could be anybody’s. There is no need to say a word until you know for sure.
Should I at least tell her that I used to fuck her sister? Naw. Let’s just see what happens at the hospital. No need to go admitting to something no one has accused you of, yet. That’s a player’s number one rule. Come on, man. Pull yourself together.
Fuck!