Chapter Four
“So how’s it going?”
Sara and I were out for drinks after work. It was something that we would do every once in a while when the day had been extremely hard on us both.
Today however, we didn’t need an excuse…we just wanted a drink.
“So far so good, we only had to go over my song like three times because even though I wanted to do it just the one time over, he insisted we go over it again, the second and then the third dang time.”
“So it’s not going good, huh?”
“No, it’s not. I swear I’ve never met anyone so stubborn in my life. I just wanted this to go smoothly but with this guy here. I know when I go back today, I’m going to say a prayer and pray to the Almighty that this time it will go smooth.”
“But that was your first time going to see him. You’ll have to be bothered with him five more times you know.”
I gulped down the rest of my margarita and motioned to the bartender for another one.
She tsked at me. “Girl, you better chill on those drinks. You know you have to go and meet up with him in a few.” When the bartender came with my drink, Sara was the one who took it.
“Wait just a minute,” I told her.
“You got to save that voice. Besides the fact that he’s already annoyed the hell out of you, does he have a nice ass? I heard that he’s got a great ass along with everything else.”
I just stared at her, like she was crazy because deep down, Sara was bent. I could care less about what he wore honestly, just as long as I paid him to do his job which was to do my demo. “All I care is about doing my demo.”
“Well, sure you are but do me a favor, whenever you guys are together or he’s walking away into the other room, take a long good look at that ass of his.”
I just laughed it off and soon asked the bartender for some water.
The thought of what Sara had told me while I drove over to Anthony’s place made me laugh even more. When I got up to his loft and walked inside, I could hear him talking with someone and when I came around the corner, I saw that there was another guy and a girl who was hanging all over Anthony, smiling at the two of them.
When he looked over and saw me, he smiled and said, “Why hey there, come on in. I want you guys to meet Melanie Taylor. I’m doing a demo for her. Melanie, this is my good friend Chauncey, he plays drums in the band I’m in and this is Eve a good friend of mine.
When a man normally says that a girl was a ‘good friend of mine’ that meant that they had at one time been hooking up but now they were just casual acquaintances. I could tell by the look in her eyes as she’d been sizing me up and down. “Nice to meet you all,” I said.
Chauncey gave me a handshake while Eve only nodded with a fake smile.
“I’ll check you both at the club around eight all right?” Anthony told them as they got up to leave but not before Eve decided to let me know that she was with Anthony by giving him a kiss on the cheek.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the show she was putting on and of course, she had to open her mouth to ask me, “What’s so funny?”
“Your silly display, that’s what’s so funny.”
“Silly display?”
“Yes, the way you were all over Anthony just now when I came in. Trying to make sure that I knew he was yours. Like I was interested in him in some sort of way but I hate to burst your bubble, I’m not. I am only here to do a demo tape and be on my way. So you can just stop acting like a jealous housewife.”
I could see Chauncey stifling his laughter while Anthony looked very uncomfortable for her. Grabbing her by the hand, Chauncey told us both, “See you all later.”
I continued to watch them go to the elevator. Then all the time they stood and waited, I could hear her under her breath going off about my comments but I made sure that when the doors opened and they got in that I gave her a, I don’t care if you are hurt smile, along with a wave of my fingers. I knew that I had done my job satisfactory when I heard her tell Chauncey, “Do you believe that bitch!”
I went over to put my purse down on the chair and said, “Nice friends you have there.”
Anthony started laughing which of course made me laugh.
He let out an annoyed groan while shaking his head. “I’m sorry about Eve. She always acts that way when girls are around me, even though we stopped dating years ago.”
Didn’t I tell you I was psychic? “Well, I’ve seen some like her before and I know how to handle them as you can see.”
“Yeah, I saw you and you do know how to handle yourself pretty well. So what song would you want to sing today?”
“How about some Sade?”
“Good choice, which song?”
“Your Love is King.”
“Really good choice, most don’t pick that song. It’s always No Ordinary Love or Sweetest Taboo. I mean all good songs by a very amazing artist. You can’t go wrong when it comes to Sade. Alright, let’s get to it then.”
Like most songs that would come over the radio, this song in particular was ‘THE’ song for me. I had practiced it so much to the point that my mom told me to stop singing it because it had gotten too much for her. One day when I had just got out from the shower, my phone rang as I immediately answered it thinking it was probably my mom. But when I looked at the caller ID, it was some other number I didn’t recognize. “Hello?”
“Hey there Mel, it’s me Samantha calling, sweetheart.”
Samantha was my cousin from Georgia who I had a ‘love/hate/love/hate/hate/double hate/love relationship’ that had lasted since we were kids. We were born a month apart in the same year but she was older than me by that one month.
One insignificant fucking month that I often would hear about when we would talk which as of at that moment, this was the first time we had talked in over two years. “Hey there Sam, how’s life been treating you?”
“I’m getting married, isn’t that exciting or what?”
I was surprised anyone would want to marry someone like Sam. Now don’t get me wrong, Samantha was a very beautiful girl with skin that was the same shade as mine which was what you would call hazelnut. She had these big brown eyes that reminded you of those paintings of those kids with those really big eyes that freaked you out when looking at them. Her shape was in between, she wasn’t chubby like me, but neither was she skinny like Twiggy was back in the 60’s. Nope, Samantha was just right with curves along her hips that would put any of us in the family to shame. I often wondered where she got her curves because I knew of no one from our side of the family had them like she did. It was as if she was built like an hourglass. “Well congrats to you and who’s the lucky fella?”
“You remember Allen don’t you? Well of course you don’t, you’ve never met him. He’s a doctor, a pediatrician can you believe that? We’ve been dating for a few years now, and he popped the question at long last. We are getting married in a few days.”
“Wow, that’s amazing and congrats but in a few days, that’s not too long until you jump the broom you know.”
I could hear her giggle, that God awful thing she called a giggle to try and make herself look cute. Lord please give me strength, I thought.
“I was calling you because I needed a favor and I know that the only person that could help me out in this predicament was you.”
I need strength God…where the hell is it? “Sure, what is it?”
“I was wondering if you could sing at my wedding because the girl that I had wanted to sing, she copped out. I’m glad I paid her half instead of the whole damn amount I was going to. I wanted someone to sing for me when I came down the aisle and also for when we did our first dance as husband and wife. Now I will pay you really good because Allen is the one who is paying for the singer this time and I told him that I knew my cousin could do the job. How does a thousand sound?”
Now I am not the one to pass up money, I don’t care who it was from but at that time, I had been trying to save up for a down payment on my car and that grand sounded good. “Sure, that sounds just fine with me. What are the colors for the wedding, so I can coordinate with the colors?”
“Oh, my colors are going to be Aquamarine and Peach Blossom. You know those are my favorite colors in the world.”
God, I guess you are going to leave me hanging over here because that strength I was supposed to have gotten from you is nowhere in sight? “Oh yeah, I so remember when we were kids how much you loved Aquamarine. So where will I be staying at then?”
“No worries on that, Allen is paying for the rooms and you already have a reservation for next Friday. I’ll talk with you more on Wednesday and thanks so much cousin.” And just as quickly as I picked up the phone, she had hung it up on me.
I couldn’t even imagine what this was going to look like, as all I could think about was Aquamarine and Peach Blossom coloring every damn thing.
When I made it to Atlanta and to the hotel, I was bombarded by relatives that I hadn’t seen or talked to in years as they took selfie after selfie of me and them together.
“Melanie!” A shrill scream came out of nowhere which made my heart jump almost out my chest as I saw Samantha running towards me wearing a pair of white jeans that she knew she had no business wearing because I knew they were more than likely cutting off all circulation to her legs. Along with a matching white shirt that said “BRIDE” in black cursive writing along her chest which by now was way too big and was about to bust out completely. She grabbed hold of me, putting me in a patented strangle hold.
Her grip had me jostling around to where I yelled, “Sam!”
“Oh, my goodness I am so glad that you are here at last. How was the trip? Oh, this is my husband to be Allen Sherwood, Allen this is my favorite cousin in the whole wide world, Melanie.”
Favorite cousin huh…well, there’s always a first time for something.
He was a handsome guy that kind of put you in the mind of a young Sidney Poitier, very handsome with a smile that lit up his face. I kind of felt sorry for him when he went to give me a hug because I knew that this would be the last time he would have the chance to run away.
What…I can only hope for the guy give me a break here.
“It’s really nice meeting you at last. Sam talks about you constantly to me and I’m so happy that you were able to come and sing for our wedding.”
“Well, anything to help out my cousin here and it’s an honor to meet you.” I smiled.
“Why don’t we show you where we are going to have the reception at?” Samantha said pulling my arm as we moved down the hall towards a door where I had seen a few people going in and out of.
When we did go inside, I could see some of the people still putting things up flower arrangements of brightly colored peach on some of the backs of the chairs that were sitting around tables with Aquamarine table cloths. It was like it was coming at you from everywhere with a one-two punch, it was insane. But just like Thumper’s Mom told Thumper to say, ‘If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all’ I said, “This is really beautiful Samantha, I can’t believe what a wonderful job they did to this place.”
Girl, stop lying!
“I’ve always had this image in my mind. Remember when we were kids and we would write down what we had wanted for our wedding and all, well I got mine.” She told me with a smile.
I played off a smile right back in her direction.
“So this is where you will be singing for us,” Her fiancés said. “Samantha and I will be dancing right here in the middle of the dance floor and we want you right here along the side singing for us. We will have a smoke machine to give off a bit of ambiance you know.”
“The smoke was my idea, makes everyone feel like we are dancing in the clouds or something,” Samantha added.
“My friend Charlie is doing the music and everything as far as our DJ for the night of the reception.” He motioned for someone to come.
I saw an older man who looked to be in his seventies with a grin filled with one lone gold tooth shining at me. “Hey there I’m Charlie. You must be Melanie the singer. Does she need to practice or something?”
Thumper….just think Thumper now!
“Actually yes I do, if it won’t take time out of your busy schedule?” I asked him.
“Oh no baby, you fine, come on.”
“We will leave you to do what you need to do Melanie. I’ve got to check on some other stuff,” Samantha said with Allen in tow while Charlie and I were left alone.
“So you are family to the bride?”
“Yup, she’s my cousin.”
“I have to say that this is probably going to be the finest wedding I’ve done up in a long time.”
I looked at him as if he were crazy because he must be to say something like that. But I played it off, “Oh I bet.”
“Do you sing at weddings?”
“Not often. I think this is my fourth time, there were two for friends, and the other was for a friend of a friend. This is my first for family.”
“Maybe when you sing here, you’ll get some more jobs huh?” He gave me that one toothed smile of his.
I gave him one back because I was ready for this whole nightmare in Aquamarine to end.
The song that Samantha had wanted me to sing at church for her was ‘At Your Best You Are Love’ by Aaliyah. Which I have to say is probably THE most inappropriate song to be singing in a church or during your wedding march down the aisle. I felt so embarrassed for Samantha who wore a very tight mermaid wedding dress to show off those famous curves of hers. Then there was the veil that looked nothing like a veil but more like something you would see from some futuristic show like Flash Gordon or something. It had pearls showering down in front of her face and along the sides with flowers in Peach on top of her head. I really don’t know where the hell she was going with this but this was her special day.
Reminder…Keep it simple when I get married.
But it was the reception that killed me most of all and totally put me off doing weddings ever again. I had never ever seen so many greedy people in my entire life. After I had done my song and gotten so much praise for it, I headed over to the buffet table to get myself something to eat because I had been starving. When I looked upon the table, there wasn’t much left to be eaten. Everything was gone…literally everything except for the paper doily’s which I was surprised that they were still around. “Excuse me,” I looked over at one of the waiters who had been standing around looking while everyone was dancing, I tried getting his attention which he finally got. “Yeah, is there any more food?” I pointed to the table.
He motioned for me to come near him because the music had been booming.
“Is there any more food,” I shouted.
“No ma’am, this is all of it.”
“What! You can’t be serious, what happened to it all?” I asked in shock while my stomach continued to angrily talk back.
“We had about ten platters of food here and even before the couple came, people were grabbing food left and right. Someone even asked for some foil and folks were using that to make plates. So there is nothing left.”
I couldn’t even believe this, I looked over the table two more times, thinking maybe my eyes had missed something but no, my eyes weren’t fucking with me. “Thanks,” I told him, walking away in defeat. I thought that maybe if I went to the restaurant in the hotel then maybe I could grab something to eat there. I made my way through the crowd of people who had been dancing the night away on the dance floor.
“Hey there girl come and dance with me!” Charlie shouted as he sashayed himself towards me wearing a fire engine red suit and neon looking blue shoes.
Everyone around him laughed and clapped while he danced but all I could do was gawk at his prowess while he moved his hips. Bless his heart I thought that if he kept it up, he’d break a damn hip.
“Save a dance for me when I get back alright?” I smiled as I made a hasty retreat from the reception room and out into the hall. Heading on down the way, I could hear something strange coming from one of the doors. Even though, I could hear the music from the reception room, the sounds that were coming from behind a door, probably a room or closet maybe. Moving towards it, I looked around before I pressed my ear to it and that’s when I heard someone say, “Fuck yeah!” Then someone moaning, groaning hard as something then fell and someone said, “Be quiet now!” It was another man I thought as which shocked me because I realized that two men were fucking in the closet but who they were I didn’t know but I had planned on finding out as curiosity had flooded my mind. Looking over, I saw a door that was right across the way from this one and I went to see if it was opened or not. Thankfully, it was and I ducked into it, cracking it open a bit so that way I could see who would come out.
Patiently I waited, hearing my stomach growling more and more by the minute. Whoever was in there must have been doing some serious fucking for him to tell the other guy to keep at it. But after about ten minutes in the room, I could see the door open just a bit and then just enough for a head to come out to see if anyone was watching. It looked like one of the groomsmen as he came out with his tie undone but he quickly made his way back towards the reception room. But it was who came out next that completely blew me away as I saw Allen and one of the bridesmaids that had way too much breasts to be wearing a dress that basically tied behind her neck. She was trying to adjust herself while Allen smacked her on the ass as she giggled when she walked away. Allen looked around, adjusted his dick in his pants, and then zipped them before he too, walked away.
Now there are two things that you could do when you come across a wild situation such as this. You could either one….Be a good cousin and tell your cousin that her now hubby was having a threesome in a closet or two….just keep the shit to yourself because you know that she would never ever do the same for you.
Guess which one I picked…yeah, I went number two on this one, especially when I was only paid half of it and when I asked about the rest, I never got a call back. So yeah…I kept that secret forever…
“What are you laughing about?” Anthony asked me after a few minutes.
His voice snapped me out of the memory and I looked over to see him staring at me with a goofy look on his face. I didn’t realize I’d been laughing but I must have been doing a doozy of a job of it because my chest was hurting me so bad. “Did I mess up the song?”
“Yeah, you did. You got all into it and then you started laughing so hard. I stopped the recording but you just kept right on laughing it up. I was trying my best not to laugh myself but whatever you were thinking about, it must have been good.”
“I was thinking about the time I had to sing this song at my cousin’s wedding when she and her husband danced. The entire thing was nothing more than a big fiasco and I only got paid half of what I was owed.”
“That bad huh?”
“Let’s just say that I never ever want to see Aquamarine and Peach again in my life. Those were her wedding colors.” The look of horror on his face made me laugh even more than I already was. “Let’s redo the song again, okay?”