Essence of Us

Chapter 1: Wedding Blues

(Spoiler Alert if you haven't read Essence of You or Essence of Me)

On the flight back home, I remained awake while Montana slept. I guess the planning and the actual proposal in front of thousands of people via social media, exhausted him. The minute the flight took off I wanted us to talk and he promptly went to sleep. I kissed his forehead and settled in my seat, beaming with so much joy. I was on such a freaking high, I swear I floated and looked down on myself and Montana. I used to hate when newly engaged women would flash their left hands hoping someone would ask about their engagement. I don't know if I was jealous or such a cynic on love that I never believed there was as happy as they professed to be. Until it happened to me. All I wanted to do was shout to the world that I was getting married and I would be Mrs. Montana Keyes.

This time, I had no doubt or hesitation when he asked me to be his wife. It felt right because we were both in the emotional place to become one. We trusted each other, and we had created a life that grew within me. I knew he toyed with me about getting married when we had that conversation the night I returned from Martha's Vineyard, but I still thought he would wait until after the baby was born to propose. Montana truly surprised me, especially after that romantic night in the hotel last night in which he made it seem like he wasn't quite ready for marriage. I couldn't ask for a more perfect proposal. It was so us.

On the way to the airport, I'd checked my cell and I had over one hundred texts, probably from every contact in my phonebook. I planned to respond to each and everyone but first I wanted to speak to my family first. When I'd spoken with Deja and my mother, who told me they'd watched the whole proposal and found themselves yelling and screaming as if they had watched the wedding between Dwayne and Whitley on A Different World. My mother said he had asked her for my hand in marriage a week after they lost the Finals. He was honest with her and told her that we weren't communicating because he needed to work out things within himself because he wanted to make sure he was truly ready to be my husband. She told me how she couldn't stop crying when Summer Breeze played, realizing I had told him how much that song meant to me. Montana had held my hand while on the phone with his own mother having a similar conversation. He would look at me and squeeze my hand reassuringly periodically. How did we get so lucky to find one another?

I looked at him again, lying as flat as the seat would allow, in a deep sleep. I pressed the button, so my seat could lie flat as his and I picked up his hand and fell asleep holding my life partner's hand.

*****

"I am so happy for you and I can't wait for the wedding." Cali said as soon as she called to congratulate me on our engagement. I sat cross-legged on our sofa day dreaming about our wedding though I needed to complete paperwork for graduation. "Do you know how hard it was to keep it a secret?"

"When did he tell you?"

"He told me a few days before you left for New Orleans and he only did because he wanted to know if his proposal idea was a good one. And I was the one who told Mama, your mother and sister about Facebook Live so they could watch."

"Facebook was your idea wasn't it?" Montana had someone on his team update his social media and rarely posted himself.

"Of course, I thought our families should be a part of the proposal since that was his original idea. I also wanted to get the PR out that my brother is finally off the market at the same time." She paused. "Are you okay with me doing that? I know how these women have been about you and him and now that you're engaged and having his baby, it's going to get stupid crazy."

"So far there's been nothing, but love based on the comments from Facebook and we were approached by TMZ as we arrived at the airport. And the guy congratulated us and asked about the wedding date. I am a little nervous about all the attention I'm about to get but I thought it was a nice touch to go Live and it made me feel even more special that Montana had no problem telling the world how he really loves me." I got up off the sofa and headed to the kitchen to get a bottle of water.