An unexpected affair is engendered as a devoted Christian, is forced to keep her affinity with a Dancehall artiste a secret because of the fear of it being scandalous. This is a story of the collision of two worlds, a detailed account of how two sou...
I met up with Scarlett for lunch in the town she worked. We were walking amidst the crowd and as we were about to cross the street, I heard someone shout, "Mar-King's wife!" My heart immediately started racing. I stopped and Scarlett stared at me confusingly. The voice called out again. Who had recognised my face? Who knew that the artiste and I were once close? I turned around after the voice called out a third time and standing before me was a tall guy. He was nicely dressed in black with a cigarette in hand. Startled by what I had heard, there were just no words leaving my mouth. So he said, "Good evening Miss". "Hello", I said, still in shock. "I am sorry if I frightened you earlier but I just wanted to be sure if it was really you", he said. Really me? What was that supposed to mean? Who was I supposed to be? I still could not speak because of how shocked I was. I felt so silly because I wanted to ask him how knew me and why did he call me that, but there were no words leaving my mouth. I was just too busy being worried about who else knew that I, Analeah Vall, well-known church girl in Sea Town, had been secretly getting close to the artiste. I was ruined! Noting that I was not saying anything but just smiling, the guy held out his hand for a handshake. Then he said, "I am Nicholas but everyone calls me Nico". "I am Analeah, but you can call me Leah", I said, shaking his hand. We then talked for a few minutes. Nico told he was a brother of Marquise. He then told me that he had never seen his brother greatly interested in a woman as he was about me. Apparently, Marquise had spoken about me with a few persons. He had told Nico that he was captivated by me. The more Nico told me about what Marquise had said, was the more I missed him. By the end of the conversation with Nico, I had forgotten how pissed I was at the begining for him exposing me to others but I was rather focused on how much I had longed to hear his voice. I said goodbye to Nico and met Scarlett who was waiting patiently across the street. She just found it funny that Nico recognised me in the busy crowd and loudly called me the wife of Mar-King. When I got home, I nervously called Marquise. It had been two months since the last horrible phone call. "Hello", I heard him say. His deep voice sent chills up my spine. "Hi Marquise...ho-how ha-have you been?", I stuttered. I was so nervous. "I am just at the studio, you?". "Well, I guess I am ok," I lied. I was not ok because I missed him. "How yuh soun suh?",he asked. "I don't believe you are ok so tell me what's wrong". I could not believe what I was hearing. After two months of our last conversation, he was still concerned about me. After hurting him, he was still willing to let me talk to him about whatever was happening in my life. He had always been a good listener. I sighed and then I said, "I met someone called Nico today". He then laughed and said, "I know because as soon as you left him, he sent me a text telling me that he met my Christian girl a few minutes ago". It felt so good to hear him laugh again. I had missed that. "Mar-King we are ready for you", I heard someone say to him. Then he said, "I am at the studio and I stepped out to answer your call so I am heading back in". "Ok bye", I said. "Nice to hear from you", he responded before he ended the call. I felt the same. I threw myself in the couch and smiled. I had missed him so much. A week had gone by and I had a wedding on Saturday. One of my longest friends, Kiana, was getting married to her boyfriend. She had sent me an invitation a few months before. Kiana and I used to be close in primary school before we separated for different high schools, but we were still friends. I was excited for the wedding but saddened because of the venue. The wedding and reception were both in the hometown of Marquise. Driving into the town, I remembered the last time I was there. I remembered leaning against Marquise in the town centre, his scent and him looking into my eyes. However, I was not going to let my feelings for Marquise hinder my happiness for Kiana. The wedding had me in tears, especially the exchange of vows. I sat thinking about how beautiful it must have been to not be afraid to let the entire world know you were in love. How magnificent it must have been to be able to say, "I do", without the fear of what anyone else thought. Just beautiful! Maybe my emotions clouded my judgement for what I did next. While seated in the ceremony, I texted Marquise. I informed him that I was in his hometown. However, he did not respond. The reception was a little further from the church so I had to drive to another side of the town. After making my toast to the newlyweds, I stepped out to the parking lot to return a missed call. The area was not actually designated to be a parking lot, because the cars just parked alongside the roads and into an open lot across from the venue. Truth is, Jamaicans are known to park anywhere! In heels, I walked down the road and while heading to my car, I passed a few houses and a big building. The building was divided into a bar and a restaurant. "Pssst!", I heard someone called out from the bar. I kept walking because I despised when men called out to women like that. "Pssst!" I heard again. "How shameless", I thought to myself. I kept heading towards my car and then my phone rang. It was the same number from the missed call. "Look behind you", said a familiar voice on the phone. I slowly turned around and there he was! Marquise! He was a bit overdressed for a bar. He wore a bright yellow shirt with long sleeves. I often hear that shocking colours like yellow looked amazing on dark skinned women but nobody ever mentioned men! He was handsomely dressed. Of course he wore his shirt out of his pants and the pants hugged his legs, but he looked amazing. Before I said anything, he walked slowly towards me and we stared at each other for a few seconds. "Aren't you going to hug me?",I asked. Then we both smiled. He placed his arms around my waist and I threw mine around his shoulders. His scent was glorious! I don't know if it was the emotions from the ceremony earlier still affecting me but my eyes were burning with tears. I hadn't seen him since the summer job and there we were a few months later in the arms of each other. I thought that would never happen again. Suddenly, a small group of people, dressed like they were coming from the wedding walked down the road. I stepped away from Marquise quickly. I feared anyone recognising either of us. One of the guys in the group kept looking at us. I held my head down fearfully, and Marquise placed his hand on my chin. What was he doing? Wasn't he aware that people were staring at us? He lifted my head up to his and smiled down at me. I smiled too. For a few seconds, he made forget that I was afraid of people seeing us. Then he looked at the guy who kept looking at us with a facial expression that I read as, "Mind your business". The guy instantly looked away. Marquise could give any woman that feeling of security. We watched in silence as the group of people walked to a car, got in and left. "I saw when you arrived at the church", he said. I looked up at him confusingly. He laughed at my reaction. Then it hit me! Kiana, Marquise and I were in the same sixth grade class before we all left for high school. How did I forget that? She must have had invited him, but were they even close? "I am a friend of the groom", he continued. "We grew up in the same community". "So why didn't you say anything?", I asked, slapping his chest. He laughed again. "I was waiting on you to say something or I would have just waited until you saw me at the reception and by the way, beautiful toast to the couple". "Thanks", I responded with a smile. "What brought you out here?" I asked. "I could ask you the same", he said smiling. . "You did", I said, "with a strange number". He laughed again and then he said, "My phone died and I wanted to respond to your text so I used a friend's to call". "So, why were you at a bar Marquise?", I asked while pointing at the building further up the road. "I know the guy who owns the place and I came out here to use his phone to call you", he responded. I had no intention of returning to the wedding reception because I just wanted to relish the moment with Marquise. We both walked to the car and we held hands.
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I told him I was going to leave soon as night was slowly approaching and I had to return my mom's car because she had a meeting at seven. I stepped away from him to open the door and as I was about to get in, he gently grabbed my arm. I turned around, hugged him and kissed him on his neck. Although, I did that, he still avoided kissing me in return. He had always feared I would think he was being disrespectful. However, he had no idea that I often thought about kissing him! Soon enough, more persons started leaving the reception. We could hear a love song being played at the reception, so we knew the reception was over. We had to pull away from each other because of the approaching crowd. Persons were heading to their vehicles. We could not risk people seeing us, and thinking we were a couple. One photo could stir a scandal! However, I really wanted to hug him longer. I hoped nobody saw us. Maybe we could be friends, but we had feelings for each other that seemed to not be disappearing anytime soon. It was complicated. However, even a simple friendship could be a problem. What would people say? We could not be seen hanging out because he was too popular and I hated that. I was also well known and I hated that too. Being seen in public would ruin our personal lives. Privacy was serenity, but people were turmoil. If the word, 'people', was an acronym, the letter, 'P', would represent problem. People brought the problem of rumours and lies. If the word, 'rumour', was an acronym, the letter, 'R', would represent ruin. A guy from the crowd recognised me and walked over to us. Marquise walked away so that the guy could speak with me. He was a friend of mine, but the entire time he was speaking, I was not listening. I just wanted Marquise to return to me. I wanted him to hold me just one more time but that would not happen. There was too much risk. I told the guy that I had to leave and when he walked away, I waved to Marquise. He waved too and smiled. Then I got in the car and drove away. I lived about half hour away from Marquise but the journey that evening felt longer. The entire time I was thinking about how frustrated I was with the fact that we had to keep our friendship a secret. I had already been tired of the secrets but we had to protect each other. He would get bashed by others for trying to ruin me and would be seen as a distraction from my religious beliefs. I would get bashed for having feelings for a bad boy and the religious would consider me a hypocrite for having an affinity with a man whose music contradicted the teachings of the Bible. I would be ruined! Probably, my career would also be on the line, as my students and colleagues would be aware of my personal life. I would be ruined! If we were going to continue our friendship, it would be governed by many limitations. Unwanted publicity would only stir conflicts between us. Neither of us wanted that. We had to protect each other from people, publicity and problems. It was not going to be easy. Having feelings for Marquise was a challenge. He was my biggest, yet sweetest secret.
