ANGEL

Fourteen.

He chuckled, "Great. Now it matches your other cheeks."

"I hate you so much."

"So how you feel about the wedding planning so far?"

I'm so thankful that he shifted the conversation. I didn't need to become hot and horny in this place.

"I like the flow of things," I said, taking a sip of the wine, "I do believe we should talk more about this guest list though."

"What about it exactly?"

"The fact that you're looking to invite over a 100 people? I don't know how to feel about that. You know I'm a private person and I want our wedding to be that way."

Josh shrugged, "I feel like 100 is perfect baby. I have friends from the Navy, you have friends from the Navy. My family, your family. All our friends. That's 100 people."

"Josh, that's too many. Let's be honest, you only talk to maybe 2 or 3 of the guys you were in the military with. Some of your family doesn't even respect me so no, all of them won't be attending my wedding. And I don't have family, so 50 is enough."

He sighed but didn't speak. He knew I was being truthful. It was my wedding, so I would get the last say so. He would unfortunately have to deal with it.

"You should talk to your family, Beyoncé. I want to see them at the wedding."

I laughed, "Why do I always have to be the bigger person and rebuild a relationship with people that hurt me?"

"Maybe because you've gotten the chance to spend time with your son. Just hear them out at least."

Josh has always been an advocate for me becoming close with my family again. Before he knew about Angel, he didn't have a clue why I didn't talk to my parents. The truth has come out and he still wants me to make an effort to talk to them. He's always had such a big, forgiving heart. I'm not surprised by how he felt about it. My heart simply wasn't that forgiving though.

"My mom has been calling," I announced, "But I've been okay without them. Why should they be in my life now?"

He shrugged, "You may be doing okay without them, but what if you begin to do better with them in your life? To be honest, I just want you to have others to lean on besides me and your girls. At least take slow steps to get to that."

I would keep his words in the back of my mind, but I had no desires to reconnect with my parents at this point in my life.

"How's Madison?" I asked just to change the conversation. He had gotten too deep and I wasn't in the mood for it.

The smile on his face brightened at the mention of his daughter, "She's doing better. Sabrina haven't called about her getting in any trouble at school lately."

"That's great. Have you talked to Madison yourself to see how she's feeling though?"

He nodded, "Yeah. We talked earlier this morning. She asked about you."

"I hope her mother didn't hear her asking about me."

Josh and I both laughed. Sabrina hated my guts even though I've been nothing but nice to her and Madison. It took us awhile to become cordial though. I can't lie, I was definitely the bitter girlfriend at first. I always felt that Sabrina had the ups on me simply because she had Josh's first and only child. She used my insecurity to her advantage until Josh and I talked about the seriousness of our relationship. Sabrina was old news to him; I just had to realize that he only had eyes for me. Once I learned that I was the woman Josh was in love with, she became irrelevant.

"Chill," He said while grabbing my hand across the table, "I'm gonna buy Madison a phone when I see what her report card looks like so she'll be able to call me whenever she needs to."