Color Blind

Chapter 21

Tia and Lafayette decided to wait until Tia was finished with school before they finally tied the knot. When she called her mother and told her about the proposal, I could hear Aunt Rachael screaming and thanking God because it was "about time" all the way from across the room. As much as she overreacted when she was notified of the engagement, though, it was nothing compared to the show that she put on when it finally came time for the wedding.

"Oh baby! You look so beautiful!" Aunt Rachael exclaimed tearfully, fluttering around Tia like a little bee. After fixing Tia's veil for the fiftieth time, Aunt Rachael pulled out a gaudy choker and held it up. "Honey, are you sure you don't want to wear grandma's broach with that? I think it would be perfect!"

Tia and I exchanged distasteful looks at the thought of her wearing such a clunky thing with such an elegant dress. "You're supposed to be my maid of honor," she leaned over and hissed when her mother wasn't looking. "Do something!"

"On it," I said quickly and took Aunt Rachael by the arm. "Hey, do you think the guests have started to arrive yet?"

She looked at her watch and bounced up and down excitedly. "They should be here any minute!"

Before she had a chance to begin fluttering busily around Tia again, I decided to tighten my grip on my aunt and put her to work.

"Why don't you and grandma go out and make sure everyone is comfortable and knows where to sit."

Grandma, who knew that the only thing Aunt Rachael liked more than fussing over her daughter was playing hostess to a room full of people gathered around to admire her daughter, gave me a knowing smile and nodded. "Good idea, baby." Then she took Aunt Rachael by the arm and escorted her out of the dressing room.

Tia and I both breathed a sigh of relief. "Sorry about that. I should have acted sooner."

Tia gave me an easy smile. "It's all good."

I couldn't believe how calm Tia had been throughout this whole ordeal. Planning a wedding was way more work than I had ever imagined, and through all of the disagreements with family and in-laws alike about how and where the wedding should be, Tia had taken every day in stride. The fact that the engagement lasted for another two years, just long enough for her to graduate, didn't seem to faze Lafayette or Tia in the least.

When it came time to start putting the wedding together and everyone else tried to take over, they just sat back and laughed at the fact that everything had already been planned from the beginning. It was a smart move on their part, really, because it kept them from arguing with each other about the input of everyone else. I admired them both for keeping their cool on many nights when I even lost my own head. By the time the wedding finally came around, no one was more ready for it to be over than me.

Scott, who had always been a lot like Lafayette in that regard, was constantly telling me "Be easy baby. It's not even your fight." But after a while, even he was tired of the families trying to butt in on Tia and Lafayette's day. As Lafayette's best man and one of Tia's best friends, he also had a lot riding on his shoulders when it came down to making sure things went smoothly with the groom's side of the wedding. Through it all, though, Tia and Lafayette seemed to be oblivious to the chaos around them, and focused only on one another.

"Come in!" Tia called when there was a light knock on the door.

"Whoa! Ta'day my son is the luckiest man in the world," Mr. Monroe drawled. "You holdin' up alright, Suga?" he asked Tia, holding both of her hands and giving her a kiss on the cheek.

Since Tia's father had passed away long before she even met Lafayette, Tia thought it only fair to ask the one other man whom she had always seen as a father figure to walk her down the aisle. When she asked Lafayette's father what he thought about doing her the honor, the very man who had always seemed impossible to shake actually shed a tear. All but Tia had looked away, stunned and afraid to speak.