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Who Gives this Bride? Page 4
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Page 4
“I’m game. I want a delicious omelet with lots of cheese.” Alma sat up as Marissa pulled out her cell phone.
“I want pancakes with a ton of syrup. I’m so tired of dieting so I’ve earned a little fun this morning. Plus they say things go by so quickly at the wedding that you don’t really get a chance to eat at the reception. This could end up being my last meal of the day.”
The two had convinced themselves that a breakfast stop was an absolute necessity.
* * * * *
“How’s Marissa handling all of this,” Marc asked Justin as they enjoyed the brunch at the hotel. The wedding planner had insisted that the men all get together for an 11am brunch so she could corral them like a bunch of cattle. This wasn’t her first rodeo and she had told war stories of missing groomsmen and even a missing groom. Apparently seemed to think they were like wild animals that you had to keep penned up so they didn’t wander off. The food had been a good lure and most of the groomsmen were there. A couple were at the buffet stilling piling high their plates. Marc and Justin were the first to have a seat at the long table they would all sit at.
“She’s actually pretty excited about it. She called me last night and she seemed giddy about having her dad here.”
“Is he staying here at the hotel?” Marc popped a tater tot into his mouth.
“No, Marissa offered to get him a room, but he already had a hotel he was staying at. He’s supposed to be coming for brunch, but I haven’t seen him yet. How about Alma, she didn’t look too happy last night.” Justin grinned at Marc.
“That’s a gross understatement. She was mad about it all, but she wants what’s best for Marissa so she’ll play along, for now at least.”
Justin leaned in, still chewing his toast and asked, “Is it true she has a paternity test for him?”
“Yeah, it’s true,” Marc sighed. “I’ve been nominated to not only to break the news to him that they want a test, but I’m also supposed to get him to swab,” Marc pulled the small box out of his jacket pocket and placed it on the table.
“Are you kidding me? That’s not a good way to get in good with your new…what would he be, your step father in law?”
“Honestly I have no clue. Alma won’t claim him so maybe I won’t have to figure out what to call him.”
“By the way, congratulations on the engagement. It seemed like Josiah’s arrival stole a bit of your thunder last night.” Justin wolfed down the few fragments remaining on his plate.
“It’s fine. Last night was just the beginning of forever.”
“Look at you,” Justin punched his arm, “all romantic and stuff. I have to admit, proposing at the altar was smooth. That was real nice,” Justin pushed his plate aside and stood up. “Round two,” he held up two fingers as he made his way back to the buffet.
Marc saw Josiah enter the lobby and stood to go greet him. He grabbed the paternity test and placed it back into his jacket pocket. He had dreaded the task, but now was probably as good of a time as any.
“How’s everything this morning Josiah?” Marc greeted him with a smile.
“Everything’s good. I can’t wait to see my baby girl walk down the aisle.” Josiah returned his smile. He looked clean shaven and Marc could tell that he had taken special care to moisturize his hair and groom himself for the special day. Oddly enough he seemed younger, but he had the mannerisms of a much older man. It broke Marc’s heart to have to put a damper on the man’s chipper demeanor.
“Do you mind if I talk to you for a moment…outside?” Marc gestured toward the sliding glass doors.
Josiah’s face sunk as though he had anticipated this, but he made his way outside, with Marc following close behind.
Marc did his best to tactfully explain the request for Josiah to submit to a paternity test.
“I hope you understand, it’s nothing personal, but they want to be careful. Their emotions are a bit raw now that their mother has passed away and…” Josiah held up his hand to stop Marc.
“I haven’t earned the right to have my feelings hurt on this issue. Those girls are the ones who have been hurt and if there is anything I can do to help provide them some comfort, some assurance, then I have no problem with the request or agreeing to take a swab.”
Josiah held out his hand and waited while Marc fumbled to retrieve the box. He finally rescued it from his pocket and removed the cotton swab. Josiah inserted into his mouth and rubbed it across his gums, inside his cheeks and even across his tongue.
“Is that good enough?” Josiah dropped the swab into the bag and Marc placed it into the box and closed it.
He was glad to complete the extremely difficult task he had been dreading ever since Alma had asked him to help earlier that morning. He stood to leave, but felt Josiah tug at his jacket.
“Can I ask you to do something for me?” Josiah looked at Marc with his yellowed eyes and Marc returned to his seat on the bench next to him.
“Sure.”
“Well, you’re going to find out what you need to know with that test, but I can save you a lot of trouble and tell you now what you’re going to discover anyway. I need you to help me accomplish what I really came here to do. Can I get your word that you’ll help me with that and if not, can I get your promise to let me be the one to let them know?”
“Honestly sir, I can’t promise anything. You’ll have to let me know first and then I can decide if I’m able to help you.” Marc had a sinking feeling in his gut. He knew that there was one sure way to ensure that his short engagement ended in a ball of flames and that would be if he consorted with the man who was currently Alma’s enemy numero uno. How did he keep getting placed in these uncomfortable positions?
CHAPTER FIVE
“I love you Alma, but you need to promise me that you won’t tick Josiah off while I’m gone. Do you hear me, I better have a father when I get back from my honeymoon or you and I are going to have issues. Do you understand? Serious issues.” Marissa looked Alma straight in her eyes and dared her to look away.
“Look, I can’t guarantee that a rolling stone won’t up and roll away.” Alma shrugged her shoulders. How on earth was she going to guarantee that the deadbeat dad of the year was going to hang around? Alma still hadn’t figured out where he lived.
Marissa grabbed Alma’s shoulders and pulled her in for a hug and kiss on the cheek, “Well, it better roll away on its own without you pushing it from behind, capiche?”
Alma nodded and Justin pulled his beautiful bride toward the limo. The photographer scurried down the stairs to get the shots of their exit.
Marissa wore the biggest smile as she and Justin waved at the guests and entered the vehicle. The bubbles filled the air as young and old sent them on their way by blowing into the bubble wands they had provided.
“To the bride and groom,” Alma’s teenage cousin Quentin shouted as he pulled the string and a burst of confetti filled the air as the limo pulled away. The guests cheered, but the celebration was short lived.
“I know you better clean every drop of paper up from here. What do you think they gave us bubbles for, huh,” Aunt Faye started the chastening, but the boy’s mother stepped in quickly.
“We’ve got this Faye,” she gave Faye a fake smile and then mumbled something to her son under her breath. Alma could only imagine what she was saying.
“Alma,” Faye turned her attention toward her and she instantly wished she had filed away back into the venue with the rest of the guests. Faye walked over with her transparent shawl covering half of one shoulder and one shoulder exposed in what would have likely appeared alluring on anyone else. Faye’s meaty arms and dark elbows ruined the allusion.
“Yes ma’am.” Alma was careful to remain respectful. Faye was known as the family big mouth, but she was extremely sensitive and her feelings were easily hurt.
“I meant to tell you, I recognize that Josiah fellow,” Faye’s failed attempt at a whisper caused a couple of guests in their vicinity to turn their way. Alma g
rabbed Faye’s hand and led her back into the hotel and into the business conference room.
The room housed a couple of computers, fax machine, and scanner. Alma had discovered that it was also empty most of the time. She pulled Faye in and closed the door.
“How do you know Josiah? Is he Marissa’s father?” Alma fired the questions. This was the first lead that she had on the mystery man. The DNA tests had been collected, but she wouldn’t be able to get them to the post office until Monday morning and then it would still take a couple of weeks for the results to come back. She had looked online, but Josiah’s name didn’t pull up. He wasn’t on social media, but she wasn’t sure why he hadn’t shown up in one of the address searches at least. Those companies were always anxious to share whatever personal information they could. They would give you the first line of the address to try and entice you to pay money for the second line or the phone number or whatever other little nugget of information they could find. The fact that Josiah’s name hadn’t been on at least that search had concerned her. She would’ve dug further, but the wedding festivities had kept her busy all day. She was determined to pick the search back up when she had some free time.
“Well, I can’t say if he’s her father or not, but I remember seeing him with your mom before. It took a minute to recognize him since he’s all wrinkled and such, but I recognized that little peanut head of his. He courted your mom for a while and then disappeared. It was so long ago that I can’t remember him being there once Marissa was born. He probably ducked out as soon as he realized that Gayle was pregnant. She had a penchant for bad boys who didn’t want to handle their responsibilities.” Sweat had beaded up on Faye’s upper lip as she recounted her story.
“Are ya’ll getting a blood test from him?” she pulled a blank sheet of paper from the fax machine and began fanning herself.
“Yes ma’am, well, not a blood test, but a DNA test. We’re going to send off for a paternity test. Both Marissa and Josiah have already taken the sample.”
“Well, you should know that your mama went through a rebellious phase. She never knew her daddy and my mama, your dear sainted grandmother, had a string of men that would chase after her. We’ll just say that your mama had a lot of uncles in her life,” Faye placed “uncles” in air quotes. I’ll just say that not all of them were interested in mama. Some of them liked the beautiful young women your mama, Joyce and I were turning into. Dorothy was too young to catch their eye at the time, but we had to fight off quite a few scoundrels. I think Gayle kept all of the boyfriends she did as a way to protect herself. The stronger her men were the better. That Josiah wasn’t the frail thing he is now. He was barrel chested and confident. Anyway, your mama did what she had to do to keep herself safe. I’m not trying to talk about my sister, but your grandmother just did what everyone else did back then. She turned a blind eye to some things that she should have seen. Your mama was a good woman, she just found out how to use men before they could use her. Some paid her rent, some protected her, some cut her grass,” Aunt Faye laughed, “I always wondered how she would ever settle down and find one man that could do for her what all of her other men did for her. She was beautiful and men would fall over themselves to help her. Josiah, however, wasn’t one of those men though. I think she was really sweet on him. He just wasn’t the sticking around type. She didn’t say much about him, but it seemed like he always had her in tears for one reason or another.”
The door pulled open and a young man with long curly blonde hair entered the room. He gave them a quick glance and then sat down at the open computer. He looked like a teenager and Alma had to assume he was a hotel guest.
“Can you remember anything else about Josiah?” Alma knew she would have to digest everything that Faye had shared with her. She had never heard Faye humanize her mother like she had. As a matter of fact Alma and Marissa had resorted to calling Faye Aunt Esther for all of her bible thumping and condemnation of their mother’s fast ways, as she liked to phrase it.
“No baby girl, that’s it. I just think you should get the test, you don’t want to hang your coat on the wrong hook, if you know what I mean.” She nodded her head in the direction of the young man, whose back was towards them, to make sure Alma knew she was speaking in code.
“I gotcha Aunt Faye. Are you staying for the rest of the festivities?” Marissa and Justin had gone through all of the formalities with the cake cutting, the bouquet toss, the first dance, and everything else. They had stayed and danced a few songs after that and then made their exit. They had also made the wise decision to stay at a different hotel so the Aunt Fayes of the world didn’t come knocking on their door to try to congratulate them and sit and talk awhile in their honeymoon suite. Marissa had heard of that happening with a friend of hers and had managed to negotiate a great rate by staying at a sister hotel closer to the airport. Marissa and Justin had an early flight the next morning and were anxious to start their life together. Even though they had left, they had graciously booked the venue for an extra couple of hours so the guests could stay and talk and party.
“No, my bursitis is flaring up something terrible. All this walking around ain’t helping it any. I need to go lay down in my bed and see what I can find on the television. It would be nice if I could find me some of that chocolaty brown Lester Holt on Dateline tonight, but I may have just missed him,” Aunt Faye looked down at her watch.
“You know I love you baby girl,” Aunt Faye stood with Alma and kissed her cheek with one of those juicy kisses that left Alma’s cheek wet. She would wipe it away as soon as she was sure that Aunt Faye wouldn’t see.
The two walked out of the room and ran smack dab into Josiah. It seemed an unlikely coincidence. Had he been eavesdropping or waiting?
Aunt Faye nodded in his direction and wobbled away without a word to the man.
“Alma,” he called her name as she attempted to follow Aunt Faye’s lead and escape with just a nod.
She turned and faced the man. For some reason his standing in front of her without the backdrop and distractions of the wedding revealed just how pitiful he looked. The suit he wore was poorly sized and swallowed him whole. She tried to imagine him as the muscular man that Aunt Faye seemed to remember. Old age had done a number on him.
“Can I talk to you for a moment?” Alma noticed for the first time that his mouth was wide and full of teeth. She was certain that those weren’t his original teeth. They looked like dentures that were just a little too big for his mouth. Since she had never seen him before she had no reference point, but his tongue seemed to wrestle to get his words out. He talked slow and deliberate like someone that had all the time in the world. Well she had a party to get to and she wasn’t going to spend the rest of her evening entertaining this man. Her sister had done an amazing job of that already.
She bristled at the idea that Marissa had not agreed to take any family pictures without him inserted. She had wanted him to be front and center and her gesture had informed all of the bystanders that she had accepted him, without any reservation. Well Alma had no interest in carrying on with that ruse. She hadn’t accepted him and while she would be cordial she wasn’t going to sit around and pretend he had been the doting father that Marissa had begged for all those years.
“Josiah, I really would rather not. It’s my sister’s wedding day and I would honestly prefer if all of my memories didn’t have you inserted in them. I’d like to just go and dance with the rest of the bridal party and finish up the night on a high note.”
She turned and began to walk away.
“I only need a few minutes.” Josiah begged.
“Well, I’m sorry. I don’t have that. Not tonight. I have your information, I will give you a call during the week. You and I need to sit down and have a real conversation.” She stepped back towards him and leaned in close, “I know Marissa wanted to handle you with kit gloves and I let her because nothing should ruin such an important day, but be clear, you have some hard questions to answe
r and there is no conversation that I want to have with you that doesn’t include the whole truth. Now,” she straightened her dress and pulled away, “if you’ll excuse me, my real family is down the hall.”
She stepped away from him and walked briskly towards the reception hall where she could hear the music thumping. She took a deep breath and gathered herself during the walk. She had been surprised at the venomous tone she had taken with the man. It was like all of her frustrations with every little stressor she had endured, including her mom’s gaping absence, had been encapsulated in her words. She had wanted to hurt him. To let him know that in real life you don’t show back up and get to receive the accolades reserved for a real man. One that took his job as a father seriously. There were a lot more men in the church at the wedding today that had been more of a father to Alma and Marissa than Josiah. It should have been one of them that had walked Marissa down the aisle or danced the first dance with her or sat in the seat of honor.
She felt a tear leave a burning trail as she struggled to contain herself. Now that she was engaged to Marc she struggled to imagine having to relive the awkwardness of not having her father and mother at her own wedding. Plenty of people had dealt with it in a variety of creative ways. She would find a way to deal with it. She wasn’t sure what that would be, but she was certain that it wouldn’t be so desperate as to involve some fake daddy.
She had been intentional when she stated that she would call him next week. She needed some time to do some real research on this joker and she knew just who she could find to help.
CHAPTER SIX
“Thank you for agreeing to a late breakfast.” Marc sat across from Alma at the restaurant. Alma had risen at four in the morning to make sure Marissa got off safely and Marc had volunteered to drive them all to the airport. It had been an early morning and she was still a bit tired. Justin had managed to get through the wedding without Marissa knowing the honeymoon location. Alma had delivered her passports, which only had one stamp in it from a girl’s trip they had taken with their mom years before, and a few other items. Marissa had been so happy that Alma had to fight back the tears. It seemed like they hadn’t had an opportunity to be that happy, especially without their mom. It was so good to see Marissa so radiant and full of joy, like an excited little school girl. Alma had given Justin an extra big hug. He was the right man for her baby sister.