Love Like That | j. green

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Erin, to her credit, ignored the exchange and continued speaking, "I remember when these two first met, what was it? High school?"

"Yeah," Jalen snickered, "Senior year of high school."

Erin continued her speech, "And little Noel here, did not want to admit she liked this boy for the longest time. It was so annoying to watch."

At her words, everyone except Anela started to chuckle.

"In my defense," Noelani spoke up and turned to look down at Jalen, "You was on some really foul shit back then and my intuition was trying to tell me so. Also, you were cocky as hell."

"Yeah, I was," Jalen agreed then took a sip of his beer.

"But she wised up," Erin smiled at Noelani, "And now you're getting married! Ah! I'm so excited for you both! Do you have any ideas for the wedding? A Pinterest board? I could help, if you want."

"Uh... Not really. I wasn't expecting this... At all." Jalen gave his fiancé a perturbed expression at the noncommittal answer but before he could question it...

"Hey, hey, hey!" Leilani's voice echoed through the screen door and Jalen groaned a little at her appearance causing the woman in his lap to pat his knee.

Leilani opened the screen door, closed it and then took in the scene before her, "What's going on here?"

"This is our engagement party." Jalen replied in a dry tone, "Which you weren't invited to for a reason so maybe leave."

"Jalen," Noelani warned, her light brown eyes flashing.

"You're marrying this..." Leilani gestured vaguely towards him, "This boring ass bean pole?"

"Leilani," Anela cut in with a stern tone, "That's enough!"

"I'd rather be a bean pole than homeless." Jalen held a sarcastic smile on his face.

"Jalen!" Noelani repeated in an outraged tone.

Leilani shook her head then turned around to escape back into the house.

Noelani stood and then dusted off her pants before glaring down at him, "You just don't know when to be the bigger person, do you?"

Then she followed her cousin into the home, effectively disappearing.

Erin was still standing up from the table, "It might be smart to cut this short."

Anela rose as well, "I'm gonna go check on them." Then the older Hawaiian woman joined her daughter and niece inside the two story home.

Alejandro passed Erin his car keys, "Here. Give me a second and wait in the car?"

The blonde woman leaned down to peck Alejandro's lips and then she was gone as well until it was the two men left alone at the table.

"God, I always fuck up," Jalen muttered to himself before finishing the rest of his cup.

"Join the club. Hawaiian women are crazy." Alejandro contributed.

Jalen leaned back in his chair before passing his future father in law an exhausted look, "But you married one?"

"And have a daughter who's half. That's how I know," Alejandro paused and then turned his head to look at Jalen, "Can I ask you something?"

Jalen nodded slowly and cautiously, unsure of where the conversation was about to go.

"Why marriage?"

Jalen chuckled a bit at how simple the question was, "Why not marriage? She loves me, I love her, we have a kid together already... The way I see it, this is just making it official. We're basically married already."

Alejandro's smile was patronizing, "You're not married until you're married. So for real this time, why marriage?"

Jalen stared at him blankly, "Do you... Did you not hear me? Marriage because we're in love and no one is going anywhere. Why you repeating conversations?"

"'Cause I'm worried about my daughter, and you. Marriage isn't Noel's style."

"Clearly, it is. She said yes." Jalen argued, "I know everyone thinks that she's this... This flight risk but she's not. She's my girlfriend who is going to be my wife and either you support that or not but stop trying to make me paranoid that she's leaving. Okay?"

Alejandro pursed his lips a little, finished off the rest of his beer, placed the cup on the table then rose to his feet, "I hope for your sake that you're right."

Then Jalen was left alone in the backyard.

After a few more moments, he released an aggravated sigh before taking Alejandro's cup, stacking it under his own and strolling into the kitchen on the first floor.

Jalen placed both plastic cups on the counter, "Lani? Lani?"

As he paced up the staircase, Jalen continued to call out for her, "Lani? Baby?"

He finally located her sitting on the edge of their made up bed with her mother on one side and Leilani on the other side, "Lani?"

At the sound of his voice, the three women both picked their heads up to gaze at him.

"Can you give us a moment?" Noelani's voice was vacant and her stare was emotionless.

Jalen tucked his bottom lip in before slowly closing the door behind him, a little stung at the fact that he had been effectively pushed out of his own bedroom.

Maybe his life wasn't as perfect as he thought.

NOTE FROM KY
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