"Alright ladies and gentlemen, here's the plan." Kasie spoke, looking at the eleven people that were sitting in front of her, all of them being a part of either the groomsmen or bridesmaids parties. They were going to go through their first wedding rehearsal later on in the afternoon before they went their separate ways to their respective bachelor & bachelorette parties for Sasha and Dante.
"We'll run through the wedding with the planner for a couple hours today, tomorrow, and again for a final run-through on Tuesday, the morning of the wedding. What that means for everyone else is that we should control how intoxicated we get on this trip, so there are no fuck ups when it comes to rehearsals because no one wants to be cussed out I presume. Right?" She looked around at all of them, watching them nod quickly.
"Yes ma'am!" Emilio, Dante's eldest brother and also his Best Man, shouted out, followed by a salute.
"You get on my nerves." Kasie laughed at his outburst. "Anyways, rehearsals for today start at 1pm and they'll go until- well, I don't know, but they start at 1, so be on time. Anything else?" She looked at Sasha who shook her head.
"Great. Meet back here no later than 12:45." Kasie nodded, watching everyone disperse back into the house that they were all staying inside while the other guests were staying at the resort only five minutes away.
"I'm going to see if my baby is up. I'll be back." Kasie dismissed herself, heading inside the house and upstairs to the room she shared with Jayson.
"Boo? Where are you at?" Kasie asked loudly once she saw their vacant bed. Usually, around this time Jayson would be up, sitting on the patio talking to Deuce for their morning conversation and then again at night- even with the off timezones.
Taking a look at the patio to make sure he wasn't over there, Kasie looked over towards the bathroom and realized that's where he was.
Walking to their closet, she stripped from her bodysuit and grabbed her speaker from the closet island, before heading inside the bathroom with him.
She made sure to tie up her hair as she cut on her smooth & slow R&B playlist before getting into the shower.
Turning at the cool breeze, a natural smile graced Jayson's face as he looked down at Kasie in all her glory. She was definitely a sight he wouldn't be able to get used to.
"Hey boo." She smiled up at him, setting the speaker down on the side farthest from the water so its low volume would be amplified by the close corners.
"Wassup mama?" He bent down to kiss her face and lips, wrapping his arms around her body to keep her close, changing the water settings so the ceiling shower head could wet them both.
"You be all up on me all day, everyday." Kasie laughed as he wrapped his arms around her, holding her close to his body.
"You must love me or something." She joked, watching a shy smile grace his face.
"I do. I love your entire existence. And you know you love this shit." He mumbled into her neck. Within their relationship, Jayson had developed a lot of "favorites" and holding her was definitely one of his five. It was almost like a natural reaction whenever she was in his presence- touching her in general, sexual or not, was something he couldn't help. Whether his hand rested on her thigh, held her hand, or had his leg over hers it didn't matter since he found ultimate comfort in her touch and presence. It was honestly adorable.
"Mm, I can't deny it. Did you enjoy your presents?" She smiled.
"I did. You made me feel like a kid. Getting me flowers and shit." He blushed.
"It's the least I could do. I feel like you show me your affection through your words and actions, and sometimes I don't know how to do that, you know? So, I try to do things that I hope you'll like so I can show you that it's the same on my end. I don't want you ever to question how much love I have for you. I'm still learning." She sighed.
Love was a hard and new concept for Kasie, one in which she was still learning about with Jayson's help. She noticed that he would always say it, or show her subtly through his physical actions, ie. touching. But, that also made Kasie question what she was doing to display her love. Was she reciprocating? Did he feel as happy as she did?
All types of negative thoughts were constantly running around in her head, worried about how she was reciprocating her love for Jayson. Little did she know, as his love language came naturally from him, hers did the same. Whether it was little things like making his plate, cooking, buying things, cleaning, putting his bathing towel on the cooling rack, or pinning him down to put a face mask on him; they all showed him the love she has for him.
There was never a question in Jayson's mind about the love that Kasie had for him. He knew that as much as she was getting used to the new feeling, it was still a big adjustment for her.
"I never have. You never leave room for me to question anything. Everything from you is so natural that you don't even notice the little things that you do, that helps to make my life easier." He held her chin as he spoke, looking deeply into her eyes as the water cascaded down their bodies while the slow-tuned music played lowly through the bathroom.
"Like what?" Kasie furrowed her brows, ultimately oblivious to what he was referring to.
"Simple shit that means the world to me like letting me touch you. I know how much you don't like touching but you allow me to be on that level with you, and I love that. Or, being my sounding board without judgment, unpacking my clothes, helping me with a damn skincare routine, all of those things baby. They show me that you care, and love me just as I love you." He explained in a soft tone, grabbing her METHOD body wash and exfoliating net to wash her body.
"I'm not crying, you are." Kasie pouted, while Jayson scrubbed her arms with the net.
"You're so dramatic." He chuckled, kissing her nose before moving to the other arm.
"I'm not dramatic. That was just really sweet." She defended, turning around so he could wash her back.
"I'm always sweet, so you should be used to it by now." He shrugged cockily.
"No, not really." She joked.
"Huh? When am I not sweet?"
"When you lay your entire big ass body weight on me like I'm some kind of decorative pillow." She mugged him once she turned back around.
"In my defense, you are tiny, cute, and comfortable." He bent down to lather her legs with the soap.
"Just because you're big, ugly, and built like a Yeti doesn't mean you can make me your first murder victim. I swear I be ready to die."
"Pause. Big, okay, but ugly?" He frowned.
"Don't forget built like a Yeti." She added smartly, laughing once his jaw dropped.
"Wash your own feet." He rolled his eyes, standing from his once bent position after washing the lower parts of her body.
"You already did that, but thanks anyway." She smirked, grabbing his items so she could wash his back since he had already showered.
"I've never been so violated in my life." He shook his head as Kasie washed over his back.
"I mean, there was that game against Milwaukee, but sure, never been so violated, got it." She spoke sarcastically, referring to some of his highlights that they watched together, per Kasie's request. She was interested in seeing how her man played and of course, Jayson was more than willing to gloat on his abilities.
"Yeah, I wanna divorce. You are a bully." Jayson smacked his lips, turning to rinse off his back after she finished.
"Nope, you said it yourself, my love. We ain't going anywhere." Kasie laughed.
"Mm, mean ass." He mumbled, looking over her facial features.
"You love me though." She smirked as he pulled her closer to his embrace.
"I do love you. What you doing?" He frowned once she stepped back from his embrace, moving over to the speaker to turn it up a notch.
"I'm less than five feet away. Why you acting like I migrated to China?" Kasie laughed, walking back over to him.
"Because you're always so far away, you want me to die?" He pouted.
"And I'm the dramatic one? Rightttt." She rolled her eyes, letting him playfully snatch her back into his embrace.
It was now going on eleven at night and while everyone was asleep back in their respective rooms, Kasie and Jayson decided to roam the town, eventually ending up on the beach just walking and talking about everything and nothing.
"Where's somewhere you've always wanted to go?" Kasie asked as they walked along the shoreline, the water rising just under their ankles.
"I don't know, maybe the Maldives? I heard they have sand that glows or something like that. I think that'll be pretty cool." Jayson shrugged, wrapping his arm around her shoulder.
"We should go next summer- ou no, what if we made a jar with vacation destinations and pick a couple out each summer so we can go there." She smiled brightly.
"Just us?"
"It can be. But I wanna bring the fam with us too, especially my mini bestie." She spoke, referring to Deuce.
"I like that idea." He nodded before they fell back into a comfortable silence, just listening to the crashing waves.
"Can I ask you something?" Jayson spoke randomly, looking down at Kasie.
"Yeah, anything. Wassup?" She looked up at him, waiting for him to speak.
"Who were those people yesterday?" He asked. He hadn't had a chance to ask her about them before, since everything was so hectic and busy, but he for sure didn't like any of them, and it was clear as day that no one else did, so he wanted to know why they were there in the first place.
"Where do you wanna start?" Kasie chuckled as they walked over to a vacant table, sitting across from each other.
"Anywhere. Balls in your court." He shrugged.
"Well, the two older people are Royce & Ayanna, Sasha's parents. To make a long, personal story short, they were never good parents to Sasha and when we were in high school they kicked her out and she came to live with me and my parents."
"Now, the girl, that's her older sister, Sanna. I've never liked her- probably because she's just like her parents but that's neither here nor there. Sanna and Sasha never got along since Sanaa was like the golden child, and Sasha was deemed the wild child since apparently I was a bad influence on her, even though we were bad influences on each other."
"And the guy, Sinclair, that's my ex that I was telling you about. He's no one special nor is he threat, just a little coo-coo for cocoa puffs."
"I'm guessing you're the cocoa puffs?" Jayson smiled, clearly amused.
"Yep. But it's nothing new for me, ever since I broke up with him three years ago, he's been trying to weasel his way back but he's never succeeded. I promise you Brent has beat his ass more times than I can count." She laughed.
"But other than that, he's no one that you should be concerned about- none of them are really. They're more like flies; virtually harmless, but very annoying, oh, and have victim complexes the size of my bank account." She rolled her eyes.
Jayson nodded, taking all of the information in, and also making his mental notes.
"What you over there thinking about handsome?" Kasie tilted her head, trying to read his expression.
"Just taking everything in. I'm still not fucking with them, especially them niggas. I don't like how they came at you, specifically that Monclair nigga." He frowned. Kasie laughed at his newfound name for Sinclair, not even bothering to correct him.
"If it makes you feel any better, Sasha and I made a bet to see who would fight first."
"Between who and who?" He chuckled.
"My dad and Royce or me and Sanaa."
"You be fighting shordy?"
"No, not necessarily, but I do enjoy beating her ass whenever I get the chance. We're currently 14-0, it's kinda sad on her part." Kasie shook her head.
"Fourteen?"
"Yep, been beating that hoe since I was 13 and she was 17." Kasie smiled. Although she didn't think fighting was the answer to everything, Sanaa was her only exception. Kasie would thrash her shit everytime she got the chance and did every single time.
14-0 is crazy