Keyshia

Jason glared up me with glistening eyes, full of tears, and a shock-ridden face. He started to speak but he was too choked up to begin conveying his message. I gave him time to get it together because I wasn’t sure what I needed to say either.

“I…I…I’m at a lost for words” was all he could say.

My hand reached down and affectionately wiped the tears away from his eyes. “I think I’ve known for a while…and I’m so sorry…-”

“Did you think I was going to take back my proposal by admitting this?”

“I don’t know what I was thinking to be honest. I just thought you should know before this got out of hand.”

“Out of hand, huh? Keyshia, honey, I still want you to be my wife. You telling me you’re pregnant only magnifies my desire to have you with me for the long term. I got to see my mom for the first time, the love of my life is pregnant with my child…I mean, the only way this day will end up being the best day of my existence is if you accept my proposal.”

“This is all moving so fast…” I whispered.

“You’re right…but you know we’re good for each other. You complete me.”

In that moment, I felt so lost and unsure. My heart was pounding furiously within my chest, screaming at me to say yes; while my mind was full of negative thoughts and anxiety. I couldn’t help but to think about how everyone will react to this and that was the problem. I shouldn’t be caring about what the fuck people have to say about our relationship. Jason wasn’t proposing to his fans and the media, he was proposing to me.

On bended knee and with a humble mentality, the man wanted nothing more than for me to take his hand in marriage.

“Yes” I finally responded. My body tumbled down to his level and I fell into his arms. Jason pulled me closer to him and adjusted his body so that we were sitting in a more comfortable position. He rocked me back and forth while smoothing my hair down.

“I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you. I swear I will treat you and our baby like royalty.  And I know this is a huge change for you, but I will be with you every step of the way.”

All I could do was nod my head and hold him as tight as my body would allow me to. This seemed way to good to be true. It was as if my own fairytale was unfolding right in front of my eyes.

*************

Later on into the evening, towards the end of the very eventful day, I laid sprawled across our bed gazing at the huge ring Jason slid onto my finger. If it reflected off of the right amount of sunlight or something else shiny, I’d go blind for sure. The thing was massive. I tried my hardest not to think about how much he spent on it.

“You’ve been staring at that thing for the past hour. Do you not like it?” Jason asked. He was coming out of the bathroom with a towel hanging low on his waist. 

“It’s gorgeous and I love it…but…-“

“Uh oh.”

“Never mind. I’m not going to complain. I love my new ring and I love you.”

Jason smiled as I got out of the bed and stood directly in front of him. “I love you too. Thank you for making me the happiest man in the world.”

“Aw, stop that! You’re making me feel so…special.” I blushed while I reached out and started to toy with his white towel.

He looked down and gently bit down on his bottom lip. “I hope you plan on finishing what you’re about to start…”

“Yeah, I owe you a little something…you know, payback for this gigantic rock I have on my finger.”

“Mm…” Jason moaned as he pulled me into his arms and began placing soft, tender kisses on my skin. “I love you more than your mind can ever begin to fathom…”

“Yeah, I know that. Now stop being all mushy gooey and start making hot passionate love to me right this second, mister.”

********************

We spent the rest of that enchanting night tangled up in each other’s arms and taking turns to satisfy one another. Everything felt nice and perfect.  That’s the only way I can describe it. My morning sickness seemed to have temporarily disappeared after I told him the news about our future child.

Future child.

I was beginning to like the thought of it; the thought of Jason and I finally having a future together. A few months prior to this, I would have never thought I would be in this situation. I thought we were done. And I thought I would never be able to wake up to him in the morning anymore.

Now he’s here with me, forever. The person I love the most. The man that will father my child. The man that has been there for me since the first day we met. The love of my life, Jason Jameson.

Could life get any better than this? What the hell was I so afraid of?

“What are you doing up so early?” Jason groaned as he looked up at me through tired eyes. I took my reading glasses off and gave him a dimpled smile.

“Writing in my journal. At the beginning of this year, I had the feeling that a lot of memorable things were going to take place, so I decided to document everything that’s been happening.”

He kissed the closest piece of my skin he could find and slowly closed his eyes. “That’s cute. Real cute. But…sleep”

I let out a short giggle as I watched him quickly go back into a deep slumber. Watching him sleep may have been creepy, but it was definitely number one on my never-ending list of “enjoyable things to do.”

The following morning, I was awaken by the scent of a strong fresh pot of coffee and what I could only describe as a bakery. Jason rushed over to my side, probably after noticing the confusion detailed on my face. He climbed into the bed and gently settled on top of me.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty.”

I placed my hands on both sides of his cheeks and struggled to withhold a yawn. “Hey.”

“Hungry?”

“For you? Any day” I replied with a cheesy smirk on my face.

Jason chuckled and placed a quick peck on my forehead. “That’s good to know. Make sure you fill up. You’re eating for two now.”

“Oh trust me. I plan on taking full advantage of this pregnancy. So what’s on the menu? Everything smells delicious.”

He rolled off of me and the bed then proceeded to push the room service cart over to where I laid. “A traditional Brazilian breakfast awaits for your consumption, my beautiful fiancée.”

The sound of those words coming from his lips brought a smile to my face. The platter in front of me consisted of a fresh loaf of French bread, a few slices of cold cuts, some type of exotic cheese, strawberry jam, and honey pecan butter. A rose rested on the side as a type of garnish I’m guessing.

“And this is traditional?”

“One-hundred percent” he nodded.

“Hm. Weird. Never would have thought…” I trailed off before completely devouring everything in sight.

Shortly after eating, Jason took me over to his mother’s house. Alessandra’s house looked different than I imagined. I was thinking she was living the high life. But of course Jack the Asshole was her baby’s father. He seemed to not give a fuck about where she lived because the “house” was essentially a shack in the middle of nowhere.

“Not saying there’s anything wrong with this place, but I sort of expected your mom to live in nothing less than a mansion” I stated as I followed behind Jason up the concrete steps and towards the front door.

He took ahold of my hand and knocked on the hard wooden door. “She didn’t want anything from Jack unless it included getting me back. She’s a humble woman with an incredible personality and I look up to her in more ways than one.”

So that’s where he gets it from…

Alessandra opened the door with a bright smile on her face. The woman looked to be no older than someone in their early thirties. Her beautiful olive colored skin glistened and her grey eyes sparkled with joy. Unexpectedly, she reached out and pulled me into a tight hug before hugging her own son.

Letting go of Jason’s hand, I walked past her and into the house while they embraced one another. I turned around and caught Alessandra whispering something in his ear. For a second, I was extremely curious. Jason looked at me with this huge grin on his face after receiving her message.

I looked between the two through squinted eyes. What? I wanted to say.

The short tanned woman made her way over to me and softly pressed her hands on my lower abdomen.  “I was asking him if you’ve came to terms with the knowledge of your pregnancy.”

I gasped. “You told her?!”

“Nope. She’s known all along. I guess she sensed it.”

“So you knew before I told you?!” I all but shouted.

He chuckled. “No, of course not. She’s just now saying it.”

“I’m happy for the both of you. I finally have a chance to have a family.” Before tears began welling up in her eyes, she moved her hand away from my stomach and motioned for us to follow her into the kitchen.

Although the house looked to be falling apart, I loved the homey vibe it gave off. A refreshing splash of sea colored green covered every wall in the small place and a deep chocolate brown was the color of choice for the floors. A small bedroom hid in the back towards the back exit. All of the windows were open with yellow curtains waving in the wind. The kitchen looked to be where Alessandra spent most of her time in. I was surprised by the condition of her appliances. They were all brand new and top notch. Nothing too fancy, but the perfect quality for a person who clearly loves to cook.

The counter was aligned with an assortment of delicious looking baked goods. I noticed something that looked tremendously similar to a Swiss roll but the pastry was really thin and it looked to be coated in brown sugar or something.

“That right there is bolo de rolo and beside it is what we like to call bolo de fubá, sort of what you all call cornbread.” I nodded my head and attempted to copy her by sounding out the names of the desserts. She must have saw invisible drool rolling down the corner of my mouth. These damn things had my mind instantly craving for them. “Help yourself out if you’d like. I’ve prepared many things for you darlings to enjoy.”

I hesitatingly reached my hand out for a piece of one of the tasty looking treats and quickly stopped myself. Jason took notice of my hesitation and prepared a slice of the cornbread like stuff for me. His mother smiled and started to move around her kitchen, grabbing different ingredients from out of the cabinets.

“Thanks babe” I whispered before taking a seat on one of the wooden barstools. “So what are some of the traditional dishes served here in Brazil, Alessandra?”

While she dug through her spice cabinet, she spoke. “The most popular side dish, which is essential for nearly all meals is arroz com feijão, or rice and beans. We really enjoy eating fresh fruits and a variety of different meats. I could go on for days about what we eat here. There are so many options, yeah? My personal favorite, something I could eat for days and days, if it’s made right, is feijoada. It is closely related to your beef stew if I am not mistaken. “

“Sounds delicious.” I took a large bite into the warm cake. My taste buds were more than pleased at what I was feeding them. It tasted like something I’ve never tasted before. Sharing the appearance of cornbread and the taste of sweet moist pound cake, the bolo de fubá was absolutely magnificent. The wonderful powdered sugar coated on the top gave my mouth yet another sensation. “Mmm…this is amazing! Thank you so much!”

“No problem, beleza.”

Seeing her move around the kitchen like that reminded me a lot of Jason. He loved to cook for me whenever he had the chance. He seemed to be able to cook everything under the sun extremely well; from fried chicken and collard greens to beef wellington and crème brûlée. It made me think about what qualities he actually inherited from Jack besides his height and hair color. He obviously got his perfection from his sweetheart of a mother.

Jason had to leave us alone for a few hours in order to get some work knocked out at his temporary office. I didn’t mind staying behind because Alessandra and I were so engaged in this intriguing conversation that we barely even noticed that he left.

That’s when the deep topics sprouted above ground. We were talking to each other like we were long lost friends and it made me never wanted to leave this place.

“Tell me about you and my son’s relationship? It would be nice to hear your side of the story” she said, propping her elbows up on the table. Her cheeks rested in her palms.

“Oh gosh. What did he tell you?” .

“Something about a…a um…how do you say…uma boate…? A club?”

I let out a gasp and covered my face in embarrassment. “He told you about that?!”

“Yes, but no judgments here. If you weren’t there, you wouldn’t have met him and you would not be here drinking café with me. I have no right to judge you on your past especially since mines is no picture perfect.”

I nodded my head and took a sip of the crazy strong blend of coffee. “Do you mind me asking about you and Mr. Jameson? Or am I stepping way out of my boundaries?”

She paused for a few seconds and squirmed uncomfortably in her seat.

“You don’t have to tell me or anything, I just-“

“You’re fine. This is a little difficult for me to talk about because I have not talked to anyone about him in years. I was almost forced to erase him from my memory.”

“Mmhm.”

“Where shall I begin?”

“From the beginning. Tell me everything.”

“Okay. Well, it all started when I was eighteen going on nineteen years of age. At this age, I am practically a grown woman. I loved to go into the marketplace and search for fresh comestíveis-groceries. All of the time, I would take a break from life and enjoy the atmosphere, you know? So, one day…a bunch of businessmen visited Brasil and we were being told that they were considering building some type of large tourist attraction.”

“A hotel? It’s weird that they were thinking about it so long ago and it’s just now being built. Why is that?”

“I’ll get to that” she kindly smiled and continued on with her story. “A few days after hearing about this news, I ran into the most interesting looking person, an American man.”

“Jack?”

“Sim. I had only seen what they looked like on the television and at this time I only knew a few words from the English language. Luckily, he was fluent and immediately sparked up a conversation. I did not initially know what he wanted from me. I just knew that I wanted him to be a part of my life. I guess you could say it was love at first sight.”

Her eyes immediately transformed from bright and sparkly to dark and gloomy. Her whole mood changed just thinking about the man and the memories they shared together.

“During the few weeks we had to get to know each other, we fell madly in love. I had never met a person that treated me the way Jack had treated me. From his soft kisses to the way he laughed, I fell in love with every part of him. He made me feel wanted and desirable. It could have been that I was naïve and gullible. Whatever you want to call it, but I knew he was the one for me and I was the one for him. Everyday we would teach each other something new. I would get lessons in English and he would brush up on his Portuguese. An hour without him seemed like a whole day and you can only imagine how it felt to have all of those feelings taken away from me so abruptly.”

By the end of her sentence, she was on the verge of tears. I looked her deep into the eyes and placed her soft hands into mines. “Although this story is really interesting, I’m not going to pressure you into narrating the rest. You’re right. I can only imagine the pain…-“

“His father could not look past my skin color and heritage…” she whispered, finally bursting into a frenzy of tears. “He could not understand how much in love I was. He did not care about my baby or anything having to do with my family. All he could think about was money and his ego.”

Looking at her in this distressed state made me almost lose it right along with her. My damn hormones were acting up and the story was so heartbreaking. “Oh Alessandra…” was all I could say.

“I had to give the only piece of what I had left of me to the man who was going to leave me forever. I didn’t even get to name him…”

Damn. This was getting way intense for me. My hatred for Jack Jameson was at an all-time high, but it was Jack Senior who needed to burn in hell for the close-minded, disgusting, fucked up mentality he possessed.

“Jack told me that he would always be there for me and he still has not redeemed himself. And you know what the most horrible part about this whole thing is…?”

“You’re still in love with him” I gulped, taking a wild guess.

Once again, Alessandra was overcome with sorrow. Tears came flowing out of her eyes like a water fountain. I let go of her hand and searched the kitchen for napkins or anything to help clean her face up. I spotted a rack of towels and quickly grabbed one. She accepted it and began wiping her tears away while trying to get herself together.

“I shouldn’t be” she took a deep swallow. “Not after twenty-three years, Keyshia. I should have a family of my own and I should not be thinking about the first time we made love and the sweet kisses we shared. I’m so pathetic.”

“No you’re not. You’re amazing and strong. Jason looks up to you. He loves you. And Jack, although he should never be forgiven for what he’s done to you, is very impacted by you guys’ previous relationship.” 

She lifted her head up and her eyes slowly started to go back to their normal. appearance Her mood began to lighten almost immediately after I said that. “How so?”

“From what I’ve observed, he’s been dating all of these sleazy young women. Every year it seems like he gets married to someone new. It’s ridiculous because you can tell he’s never fallen in love with any of them. They’re all a complete waste of his time, but he needs someone there for him to temporarily relieve the pain he has resulting from your absence.”

“Do you think he misses me?” she sniffed.

My lips curved into a reassuring smile. “There’s no doubt about it. I’m in no way taking up for him, but he was brainwashed by his father into believing that he was doing the best for you.”

“I know.”

“You do?”

“Yes” she frowned. “He said it in the letters. The first few were what you call love letters. He would tell me about how much he missed me and what he would do to me when he saw me. Then, after the first eight years of my son’s life…the letters became short and frequent. I stopped getting pictures of my baby boy’s face. The letters turned cold, short, and vague.”

“Oh man…”

“That’s when I should have known that he would never come back to me. All of the talk about the hotel had stopped years before and I was left with my imagination.”

“What about your family?”

“I’m the only child and my mother died long before I got into my teenage years. My father was never around and my grandmother was too old to defend for me. I had no one. Jack wanted to marry me and bring me back to America. What an opportunity, right?”

Before she could start crying again, I reached over and brought her into a comforting hug. She gently sobbed into my shirt. “I miss him so much. So much.”

I pulled her small body closer to me and decided not to speak; mostly because I didn’t know what to say and also because silence cured a great deal of things.  

Jason

When I got back to my mother’s house, my nostrils were hit with the tantalizing scent of a full-blown Brazilian jantar-dinner. I found my two best ladies dancing around the kitchen and having a good ole time. They didn’t notice that I had walked in yet, so I took a few seconds to enjoy the amusing sight. It looked like Keyshia was getting a few lessons on how to cook something.

Keyshia had a long salmon colored sundress on and my mother was dressed in a pair of jean shorts with a beautiful butterfly top. They both looked equally stunning. I loved seeing them enjoying one another’s company. Apparently, they became besties during the time I was gone? A song from a popular Brazilian singer loudly roared through the speakers from radio, which sat on the countertop.

I cleared my throat and flashed a half-grin. “Having fun ladies?”

The two of them simultaneously screamed and jolted around to face me. When they noticed that I wasn’t a stranger, they broke out in laugher. I laughed along with them and waited for Keyshia to turn the radio down in order to speak. 

“You scared the daylights out of us!” she exclaimed before coming over to me and laying a gentle peck on my lips. “Now that you’re back, you can help us make the last dish.”

I drew her closer to me and stared at her perfectly shaped lips. From the corner of my eye, I could see Alessandra playfully shaking her head and attempting to stay in her own little world. “Does this dish include my fiancée?” I whispered in my lowest voice.

“Not in front of your mom…” she blushed.

I continued to tease her. “But later?”

“Jason!”

“Fine” I loosened the grip I had on her. “What do you guys have left for me to do? Looks like everything’s done.”

Alessandra stepped beside Keyshia and looked up at me. “Keyshia mentioned to me that you make an excellent cheesecake?”

“Eh, it could be better” I replied with a shrug.

“I am going to teach you how to make Bolo de queijo.”

“…..the same thing?”

“Sim. With a Brazilian twist. Are you okay with this?”

“Oh yes. I’m perfectly fine. I’m interested in the final product.”

Without going into too much detail, the rest of the night was spent savoring the delicious homemade food from my home country and sharing a few stories about my childhood. I was a little envious of Keyshia because I had the feeling they had a deep “girl’s talk” conversation while I was gone earlier. The way they shared certain looks had me thinking that way.

Leaving my mother there in Brazil was harder than I thought it’d be even though I was soon to return. She hugged Keyshia and I for about five minutes each. We left with all types of goodies and memorabilia.

The sight of her waving to us as the plane lifted off caused a few tears to roll down my face. Keyshia detected them and wrapped her arms around my waist. She then placed her legs across my lap and snuggled closer to me. I palmed her butt and breathed in the scent of her hair. “I’m gonna miss her.”

“We’ll be back soon.”

“I know, but that doesn’t comfort me. I feel like I should be there with her right now.”

“In a few months, you’ll have all the time in the world to see her. We have to get things settled in New York first.”

“Yeah”

A long silence filled the plane after I placed a kiss on her forehead. Right as I was about to fall asleep, Keyshia adjusted herself and glanced up at me.

“What’s up?” I said with a hint of drowsiness in my voice.

“I’m going to talk to your father as soon as the plane lands.”

My eyes widened at the sound of that. “About what exactly?”

“Us. I’m going to tell him everything. About how madly in love I am with you, about how we’re having a baby…and about how we’re going to get married. He needs to know how serious we are.”

“Sweetheart, this is all on me. I plan on telling him all of this. He’s my father although I don’t have to tell him shit. I can’t let you do this…”

“But I want to. I have a lot to say and I can’t keep allowing you to shelter me from him and his entirety. He doesn’t scare me, Jason. Let me talk to him.”

I sighed and combed my fingers through my hair. It started to grow a bit longer than usual. “Are you sure about this?”

“Yes!”

“I’ll have to be somewhere close because I do not trust that man around you.”

“Fine with me.”

“Okay…let me think about this some more? It’s not sitting too well with me right now.”

Deep down inside, I knew she was strong enough to handle anything Jack had to say to her…but as her man, I had a hard time putting her in a such a hostile situation. I would do anything to protect her from the harsh reality we had to face as a couple.

“Hey?”

“Hm?”

“What did you and my mom talk about while I was gone?”

Keyshia took a few seconds to answer. “Just some girly stuff. Nothing you’d want to hear.”

“Nothing I’d want to hear, huh?”