I sat looking at my phone, gaze homed in on the notifications screen at the one comment I’d had no clue would even appear nor was I sure how exactly to respond to it. Let me back up, first of all, I did not expect for my silly caption to be noticed by so many people nor did I expect for any of them to actually tag the object of my affection in the damn comments. Weren’t these people aware of social media etiquette? It totally dictated that unless I expressly tagged someone, I didn’t need anyone else tagging that person for me. Of course, I set myself up for this by being silly in the first place, but that was unimportant now. What was important was how I would respond since not only had everyone and their mama tagged this man, but he’d also essentially left it up to me to make the next move by leaving those damn emoji eyes. And what did those eyes even mean anyway? Was he interested? Annoyed? Taken aback? Ugh, this whole thing was just stupid.
I put my phone down and laid my head down on the counter next to it. I was at an advanced enough age to not be trippin’ over something as simple as initiating contact with a man. If I could sit in a room of thirty women and describe in painstaking detail the quickest way to get their man hard and ready, I certainly could slide into this man’s DMs with something witty or hell, not even necessarily witty considering that he’d left a damn emoji in response.
“Argh,” I growled, remaining frustrated.
“Morning, Junie B,” Jay said.
I popped up, heart racing, clutching my invisible pearls. I was certain that he and NoNo had stayed at his place last night, so his sudden appearance just scared the shit outta me. I honestly didn’t know why they kept playing themselves with this separate residence mess when it was clear that they were on the path to wedded bliss. It was only a matter of time before he popped the question, they said I do and I’d be solely responsible for the bills in this house. I was incredibly happy that Jay and No found their way back to each other, but sometimes witnessing their saccharine evolution left me feeling…a bit left out. Noelle and I were the last two single Holliday sisters and now that she and Jay were coupled up, that left just me. And I faced zero pressure to be couple up, but I’d be damned if being the 7th wheel wasn’t hella awkward.
“Hey, brudda, good morning. I thought y’all were next door.”
“We were, I actually came over to talk to you,” Jay replied, sliding onto the stool next to me at the breakfast bar.
“What’s up?” I asked, figuring he had details about my car that his homeboy was working on.
Jay said nothing, reaching into his pocket and retrieving a small item that he placed on the bar in front of me. I looked down to see what it was and gasped.
“So we are finally doing this?” I exclaimed, hopping up and down as best as I could while seated.
“You don’t think it’s too soon?”
“Boy quit playin! This has been like forty years in the making, man! Hell, I thought I would get married before y’all two fools finally saw the light. Hell, no this isn’t too early. It’s right on time.”
Jay grinned, rubbed the back of his head and let out a breath.
“I don’t know if she’s ready though. She’s going to say I’m moving too fast, you know your sister!”
I said nothing in return, just reached for the ring box to take a look at what he was working with. Opening the box, I immediately let out a low whistle as I looked at the ring. It was gorgeous and hella Noelle. A simple round cut pink diamond with a delicate, filigreed rose gold band. I lifted it out of the box to inspect a little more closely and noticed an inscription on the inside and felt myself tearing up after reading it. The inscription on the inside of the ring read “From 12.19.98 until forever”.
“I do, in fact, know her. Better than you, bruh, and trust me she isn’t going to say anything but hell yes. This ring is incredible. You did good, brudda. Real good.”
“Yeah?”
“Negro please. You know this ring is everything. How do you even remember the exact date of when y’all first moved in tho? I can barely remember what I had for lunch yesterday,” I laughed.
“How could I not remember the first day I met the woman I would love forever?” Jay replied, a hint of disbelief in his voice that I would question him about that.
“So when are you gonna do it? How are you gonna do it? Where are you gonna do it?”
“Do what?” Noelle asked, scaring the shit out of both Jay and me.
Jay recovered quickly, covertly scooping the ring box and placing it back in his pocket before making his way to wrap Noelle in an embrace.
“Mind your business, Yes,” he replied, dropping a kiss on her forehead.
“You are my business,” she countered.
“Touché.”
“So are y’all gonna tell me what you were talking about?”
Jay and I looked at each other and answered in unison, “Nope.”
“Both of y’all suck. Just for that I’m not making breakfast.”
“Yes you are,” Jay replied, easily, “You promised after I did that thing with my…”
“HEY! OK! Child in the room here,” I yelled, popping up from my stool.
They both just laughed and paid me no attention as they moved into the kitchen, so Noelle could cook. Seeing them together just reminded me of the damn set of emoji eyes sitting in my notifications that I had no idea what to do with. An emoji reply…really my guy? He totally could have given me something to work with here instead of a pair of googly eyes.
“You know you’re overthinking this right?” Joey laughed at me after my ten-minute rant about leaving emoji as response instead of using your words, “You could just send him a hey whassup hello and call it a day instead of doing whatever this is.”
“Wow, I thought you were on my side,” I replied.
I was being dramatic. I knew it. Joey knew it. But neither of us was supposed to acknowledge the facts of it all. It was an unspoken rule of our friendship. Or so I thought.
“I’m on the side of whatever makes the best story. Besides, you know you could have just asked him what he meant by the damn emoji when you slide into his DM, sis. You’ve been sending yourself into a tailspin unnecessarily this whole time. What is this? I mean I know you have your hang ups, but this…this feels…different.”
I could tell by the tenderness that crept into her tone that Joey was genuinely trying to figure out what my deal was and to be perfectly frank, I didn’t even know where to begin with an explanation.
“Jo, I don’t even know, sis. I just don’t even know,” I replied, sinking my head down into my upturned palms and sighing.
“So, are you gonna ask him what it meant or are we going to table this discussion until after we retrieve your car from Holt’s?”
I made a non-committal sound, shrugging, “Isn’t that too lame though? Why is this so hard?”
“Girl…” Jonique sighed.
“I know…I know. Let’s just…lemme grab my jacket so we can go get my car.”
Luckily, there was nothing seriously wrong with my car. It ended up being a short in some wiring or something, but easily, and more importantly, economically reasonable to fix. Joey came over to drive me to get the car since we had another workshop to facilitate later in the evening and we needed to go over a few new details we’d added to the presentation. Instead of doing that, however, I’d pulled her into my web of ridiculousness in which I analyzed a damn emoji from every possible angle. When I came back downstairs, Joey rushed me out of the door, refusing to make eye contact.
“What’s going on, Jo?”
“Nothing,” she replied a little too quickly, which let me know that something was definitely up.
“So, we’re choosing to serve the Lord with lies on today, sis?”
“I just wanna make sure we get your car and don’t end up being late is all. C’mon.”
I looked at my watch, noting that we had a smooth two and a half hours before we actually had to be to our workspace which was right around the corner from the shop where my car was being serviced.
“Girl…just let me grab my phone then we can roll.”
“I got it, here…” Joey replied, holding it aloft from her position near the door, “Can we go now?”
“Why do you have my phone?”
“Because I was being efficient?”
“You don’t sound too sure about that. What did you do, Jo?”
“What makes you think I did anything?” Joey asked, her normally smoky voice sounding decidedly squeaky, which was the first clue that she wasn’t telling the truth. Joey was the worst liar and her voice went from late night soul to Brittany the Chippette whenever she wasn’t telling the truth.
“Because you sound like you have sisters named Eleanor and Jeanette right now. So, I’m going to ask you again, what did you do?”
“I mighta kinda sorta slid in lil buddy’s DMs for you?”
“Jo.”
“Ju.”
“You know I hate you, right?” I said, walking over to snatch my phone to see what she sent.
“I love you, too, boo,” she replied, blowing a kiss in my direction.
I rolled my eyes before locking up and following her to her car, so we could get over to Holt’s. As soon as I settled into the car, I opened up Instagram to see what the hell Joey sent this man whose name I still didn’t know.
Message sent to @qdagr81: so do those eyes mean you’re interested in going half on a baby with me or nah?