Jesse Duran is back.
After five years of being separated from the rest of the world due to his own mistakes, Jesse has his eyes set on one thing only.
The Love of his life and high school sweetheart, Karma Onuoha.
Five years definitely was a long t...
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2 weeks later
"So I was thinking about, like, a destination wedding? You know?" Paola says shoveling some fried rice that I made into her mouth as she scrolls on her laptop looking at wedding dresses. Justine, Paola, and I were sitting at our kitchen counter eating as it was my turn to make dinner tonight.
"Where would we go?" Justine asks, scrolling on her phone
Paola grins, "Mexico!" I raise an eyebrow
"Yes! I know it's a stretch but I have so many family members there that wouldn't be able to make it here in time, and it'd be nice to get out of America for a while it's a win-win. Plus, I can take y'all and Ryan to visit them it would be so great!"
I shrug my shoulders not really thinking much of it, "Yeah that's a great idea. I'd love to meet your family down there."
She claps her hands excitedly and eats out of the bag of plantain chips that she literally went to my parents' house to go get from my mother. My mom always manages to lure Paola to the house with food.
"By the way, your mom told you to call her," she says scrolling through her phone
I sigh, "She always wants me to call her."
She huffs out a laugh and then gasps immediately!, "Karma do you think Gio would wanna be the ring bearer? I mean I have some little cousins at home but I don't wanna have somebody escorting them down the aisle giving them directions. Gio's perfect because he's old enough and he's so frickin cute!" she rolls her eyes, "Can you ask his mom if she'll let him fly with us? I'll pay for his ticket."
"You wanna take the boy out of the country so he can give you your rings at your wedding?" I ask raising an eyebrow
"It'd be nice for him to get out and see the world a bit and besides, Chinelo is going, she and Gio go to school together." she looks at me with a grin before I realized what she meant
"Are you trying to set up two nine-year-olds together?"
Chinelo is my nine-year-old cousin that came to live with my family shortly after her parents moved back to Nigeria. Even though she's my cousin, I always refer to her as my little sister simply because that's what she's always been to me.
We enrolled her in the same elementary school that Gio is in. After what happened with the arrest and all, I decided that I wanted to keep looking out for Gio even though he would no longer be in daycare. Whenever I could, I'd pick him up from school, drive him home, take him out to eat.
Sometimes he'd hang out here with us since he and his mom were alone a lot at home.
His half-siblings are all kind of dispersed around the globe...and in jail. So I took on the role of a big sister. Around the same time Chinelo came around, Gio's mom decided that he would be baptized. She had asked me to be his Godmother and I accepted the role after a lot of thought. It's weird to have such a vital role in your ex-boyfriend's little brother's life but with Jesse not getting out for a while and not being around, I forget that they're related honestly.
"Chinelo is not interested in Gio, I would've totally known by now. He's my whole Godson and he's always around." I point out not wanting to hear anything going on when Gio is practically family.
"Yes, she is! She said the boy she likes had brown hair that always falls into his eyes so he has to flip it out the way, likes to play video games, and has a beauty mark on the left side of his lip! That's our boy!" Paola smiles widely, as Justine and I look at her in bewilderment that she was always going to take two kids out of the country to set them up instead of letting them just hang out at school like regular people allow children to do.
"She could be talking about any boy. All boys like video games." I say and she waves me off silently dismissing me believing her theory more than mine.
"We'll take them out to Mexico for spring break so that way you can't get on me for making them miss school because the wedding will be around then." Paola and Ryan decided they didn't want a long engagement, so they gave themselves, Justine, and I two to three months to plan and have this wedding.
I was surprised because Ryan would be missing one of his best men and he asked Carter to stand by him with Cyrus as they get married. I thought he'd at least wait another year because I imagine he'd want his other best friend there.
Paola had made Justine and me co-maids of honor and our friend and my coworker, Leslie, as a bridesmaid. Chinelo would be the flower girl and if I get permission from Gianna, Gio's mom, he'd be the ring bearer. Brian, Paola's brother, would most likely be the one to give Paola away.
"I'm still a bit surprised that this is all happening and Ryan isn't even going to have one of his best friends at his bachelor party or anything. You don't think you guys want to wait a little longer to fully plan this wedding out or something?"
"How hard can it be to plan a beach wedding in Mexico, Kar? I love Ryan and I don't want to waste another second. I would get eloped if my mom wouldn't murder me for doing it." she laughs, "I'm not going to let that menace to society dictate anything about my wedding from his jail cell besides, his release date isn't even that fa--" Paola stops before widening her eyes at me and then whispering to herself quietly, "Breathe in, breathe out." she repeats as she inhales and exhales to keep herself from continuing
I look to Justine as she shrugs and says, "What are you doing right now?"
"What about his release date?" I ask leaning closer to her
Paola coughs into her elbow and sighs, "Oh nothing. I know nothing about that man. You know what, I'm starting to think Spain would be cuter. Just so we could reenact The Cheetah Girls movie." Paola says again, chewing on another plantain chip as she changes the subject and I brush it off dismissing it as just another instance where Paola is being Paola.
