Saved Folk in the House by Sonnie Beverly Read Free Book Online

she said in an unsure, I-do-want-to-but-I’m-afraid-to tone.
    “You need to eat, right?” he asked.
    “Yes.”
    “Well, that is all I am proposing, Zakia, that you eat.”
    What harm can one lunch do?
she thought. “Okay, Jay.”
    “So I’ll see you at noon?” he said.
    “Okay.”
    Jay and Zakia had an immediate connection that was confirmed during their lunch conversation. Their backgrounds were different, but they had a lot in common.
    “I’m looking forward to meeting Zeke,” Jay said.
    “He’s great,” Zakia said with all the pride and love a mother could unleash in those two words.
    “I’m sure he is. Look at his mother,” Jay said.
    For the next two weeks, they met every day for lunch.
    “I would love for you and Zeke to come with me to my parents’ for a cookout this weekend,” Jay said during one of their lunch dates.
    “Sounds great,” Zakia agreed.
    Jay’s relatives were the warmest, nicest, most loving people Zakia had ever met. They made her and her son feel like a part of the family. When she brought Jay home to meet her own family, Alexis took Zakia into the kitchen to speak to her in private.
    “Now, that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout,” her mother said.
    Jay and Zakia spent a lot of time together. The communication was stimulating. They talked about back in the day, their careers, and the future. They grew and learned from and with each other. Soon they were spending all of their time together. They flew to New York for a weekend to shop and take in dinner and a play. This felt comfortable to Zakia, and finally, the wall she had built around her heart began to break down.
    Jay and Zakia had been dating for seven months. Within the last two, Jay had begun to drop marriage crumbs to see if Zakia would bite. She noticed the hints and completely disregarded them. Even though she was very much in love with him, the wall around her heart wasn’t completely down yet. She had borrowed Eli’s “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” motto. But as she and Jay grew closer, and with everything going so well in her life, the time eventually came when Zakia found herself entertaining thoughts of marriage. She decided to bite the next time Jay threw out a crumb.
    One day while Jay was helping her to prepare dinner, he said, “We’re not getting any younger. Do you have anything you want to accomplish before you hit thirty?”
    There’s that crumb I’ve been waiting for,
she thought. “Sure. I just recently realized that in spite of my upbringing and all I’ve been through with Zeke’s dad and making my way in the world, that success is sweeter when you have someone to share it with,” she said, borrowing from Billy Dee Williams in
Mahogany
.
    “That is so true, baby. And when you can find someone you are compatible with, someone who understands and appreciates you, whose goals coincide with yours, someone you love and trust, you would be crazy not to do whatever it took to hold on to that person,” Jay said, echoing her sentiments.
    “I agree.”
    Jay was a man who was always prepared. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a three-carat diamond solitaire ring. He got down on one knee and took her hand. As he slid the ring on her finger, he said, “Zakia, will you marry me?”
    Zakia was not breathing as all this took place. Jay had managed to surprise her. She didn’t expect to get an actual proposal that day, just to start talking about marriage. It was the beginning of a new decade, the nineties, and time to move on, time for a new life. She looked at the ring, then at Jay, and said yes.
    Their wedding was elegant and exquisitely quaint in Jay’s parents’ sprawling backyard. Since Zakia had a child, she didn’t want to have too many bells and whistles. Eboni and Raquie stood up for Zakia, and Eboni gave Eli the eye during the ceremony. Jay’s brother was the best man, and Zach escorted Raquie. Rahlo gave his daughter away. At the reception, each Exec took Jay to the side