Noelle & Keith: A Romance in Progress

Let's Make it Official

"Keith, you really gotta stop leaving your underwear all over the house. Especially since you're not the one who cleans up this place!" Keith laughed heartily and smacked me on the butt, I pushed his hand away. "Babe I appreciate everything you do around here. You know if I wasn't so busy auditioning for roles and doing press for The New Edition Story I would pick my own funky ass drawers up. But since I can't do that, thank you."
I loved Keith, he was the perfect man. He was talented, charismatic, charming, handsome and most importantly he was the most positive person in my life. Ever since I was 16, my mother and I had a strained relationship. She thought her boyfriends were more important than me and I wasn't gonna continue to play second fiddle to niggas who only came to bust a nut in her and leave. I wasn't having that and once her "boyfriend" Richard tried to molest me one night, I knew that if I wanted the chance at having a better life, I had to leave. So I went to stay with my grandma Shirley but everyone in the family calls her MaMa Shey.
Keith knew about me and my mother's relationship so he always made sure to stay close to me whenever we would go to MaMa Shey's house for Christmas just in case a fight broke out between my mother and I. Keith and his mother are super close and since Keith loved me, his mom loved me too.
"Baby, what do you want for dinner tonight?" I asked Keith this every day and his answer is always the same. "You." He said with a sly grin. I loved it when he talked like that but I needed a serious answer. "Babe." Keith laughed and said "alfredo pasta with shrimp and chicken please." I loved making that dish because it was my favorite.

"Noelle?! Is dinner almost done yet? I'm starving." Keith had a huge appetite. "Almost, come in the kitchen and have a seat babe." I continued to mix until the sauce got thick and poured it on his plate.

"What would you think about us having a baby Noelle? I'm really ready to be a father."
"And I'm really ready to be a wife Keith. But you don't see me complaining." Keith rolled his eyes at me, and put a shrimp in his mouth. "Now you know I want to marry you. If you want we can just go off and get married right now, I say that all the time." I rolled my eyes right back at him because he knew what I meant. I wanted a wedding with friends and family and a big frilly white gown and Keith just wanted to go to the court house and sign some papers. "Baby I know you want a huge wedding but I just don't have the money for that right now." I smiled at him and went to sit on his lap. "Keith, you don't have to pay for this by yourself. You know I work right? Baby, I don't care about that. And I know you love me." I took a deep breath before continuing "then we can go to the court house and get married tomorrow, have our baby this year and in three years we can have a real wedding. When you play Will Smith in his biopic and I open my restaurant we'll have enough money to have a nice one. We don't even have to tell anyone we're married. We can just say we're engaged." Keith's eyes lit up. "Are you fucking serious babe? C'mon, tell me you serious." I laughed and kissed him, "yes I'm serious." He picked me up and took me upstairs to our room and started kissing me all over my face and neck and telling me how much he loved me. Then it happened. His phone rang and it was his best friend Algee.
"Yo Algee, what's good? I'm right in the middle of something."
I smiled at him.
"Keith man, Woody just got shot! We're at Gresto Hospital downtown. Please make it down here. We might lose him."
Keith got up and put his timbs on. "I'll go with you baby!" I started to put my clothes on but he stopped me and told me he didn't like that part of town and didn't want me to go with him. "Stay here, I'll be back later okay? I love you." " I love you too. I'll pray for Woody."

"God, please. Please keep Woody in your prayers tonight. He has a family to support and a woman in his life who loves him. They need him here Lord. His family needs him, his friends need him. Please allow him to gain the strength to carry on in this lifetime. We love him. Amen."