Page 34 of Someone Like You

Casimir

“ I f anyone has any issues with the salmon and tuna steaks, it’s Elle’s fault. She refused to go to the Farmer’s Market with me this morning,” I called out.

Everyone laughed, and it only grew louder when Giselle rebutted, “No fair! He kept me up all night and forced me to watch the Jason Bourne series.”

“That’s one of my favorite movie series,” David Champagne, Giselle’s father, called out. “This man is all right by me,” he stated with a wink as he held up his mimosa.

We were gathered in the amenities area on the tenth floor.

We rented it out this morning for brunch with our family and friends.

Her parents, my parents, her sister and brother-in-law, Alex; her friends, Eriss and Ayden, and Raegan and Gavin were here.

My friends, Jude, Rome and the brothers, Nathaniel and Travis Cunningham, and their respective girlfriends were also in attendance.

Today was the first time we brought our family and friends together to meet each other respectively.

It was a special day for all of us as our families rejoiced in seeing both Giselle and me happy.

Our mothers sat aside chit-chatting, probably planning for grandchildren that they both hoped were in the near future.

If the way I’d released inside of Giselle this morning, again when I returned from the Farmer’s Market, and the way I planned to after everyone left this afternoon were any indicator, we would have a family soon.

I turned my attention away from the overall group and back to the men. Our fathers were discussing the best grilling techniques while Giselle’s friends’ husbands and my friends were all gathered with me.

“Man, I’m just glad that she finally moved on with her life. Giselle’s always been a good girl with a happy spirit, but she was in a dark place for a while,” Ayden, Eriss’s husband, stated.

“Yeah, and she’s like a little sister to us. No matter what we or our women did, it wasn’t enough to pull her out of that space. We couldn’t convince her to stop blaming herself for what he did,” Gavin explained.

“Yeah, and it was a touchy subject,” Ayden added.

“Man, that’s a heavy load for anyone to carry,” Travis remarked as his brother, Nathaniel, bobbed his head.

“I’m just glad our boy is no longer with the Ice Princess.” Nathaniel chimed in and made the others laugh.

“Giselle’s a good look on you. And she’s smart and strong. Just what your ass needs to be put in check,” Jude interjected.

“Shut up.” I chuckled and mushed the side of his head.

“Hey, I’m just calling it like it is. To Giselle and Casimir,” he stated, holding his mimosa up for a toast.

The rest of the men held their glasses up and chimed in with “Giselle and Casimir.” Jude’s toast was the signal to the three hired servers for today’s brunch.

They immediately removed the serving trays and cleared the dishes out of the way.

One of the servers walked to the table where the music was set up and changed the song that had previously been playing.

The servers stepped back as I stood and walked to the seating group where Giselle, her sister, and the other ladies were gathered.

They stopped mid-chatter and stared at me as I smiled down at her. Two of the three servers behind me started harmonizing as the third one sang Jagged Edge’s “Let’s Get Married.”

Giselle’s eyes widened as her girls giggled, clapped, and gasped. Our mothers, who weren’t sitting too far apart, held each other’s hands as they beamed. My girl was shocked as she threw her hands over her mouth.

I had already told my parents and my boys what I planned to do, and then I had gotten her father and mother’s permission. I was sweating bullets as I kneeled in front of her and whispered a silent prayer that she wouldn’t say no or tell me to get up.

“Our love affair has been a whirlwind and a roller coaster of emotions. You spent years wandering in circles, never thinking that you would love again. Your heart was broken and bruised, and you were too afraid to trust your judgment. On the other hand, I had treated marriage so cavalierly, as if it didn’t matter or deserve the respect and honor it should be given.

I had settled into the belief that no woman would ever love me the way I wanted to be loved.

You proved me wrong, even when I was undeserving.

We both wanted someone to love us unconditionally, Elle.

You were afraid to seek it, and I was too afraid to extend it.

Marriage and love aren’t business contracts set up to mutually financially benefit various parties.

“They are an equal exchange of trust, respect, honor, and sacrifice. I love you, Elle, more than I could have ever believed possible. While I was busy accepting a rendition of someone else’s vision of love, you were out here all along, waiting for me.

I wondered why I couldn’t have met you in a different lifetime because I knew that you were my soulmate.

You wanted a king to lift up, and I desired a queen to protect, love, and cherish.

“If your heart feels anything like mine does, you won’t worry about what people are saying about our prior roles in each other’s lives or what someone else deems acceptable for marriage.

If you love me the way that I know you do here .

. .” I thumped my chest, “then please tell me, Giselle Angel Champagne, that you will be my wife. Tell me that you’ll agree to walk this journey with me and discover how deep love truly goes. Will you marry me?” I proposed.

She glanced at her girls as tears poured down her face and then to where her father had moved to stand behind her mother. She wiped the tears from her face and sniffled as she looked back down at me.

“My heart always knew that you belonged to me. I never thought it would be possible in a million years for us to be together. But you went the distance, Casimir, to prove that I was wrong. Yes, baby. Yes, I’ll marry you.”

The servers, who had quieted down when I started to speak, rose in pitch again as I slid the ring on her finger. A fresh round of tears fell from Giselle’s eyes, and her girlfriends handed her stack after stack of tissue.

I pulled her into my arms and held her chin as I looked into her eyes. “From this day forward, baby, I only want to see you crying happy tears. You understand that?”

She nodded and cried even harder. My fingers wiped at the tears as I covered her mouth with mine and kissed my woman sweetly. Her arms wrapped around me, and her body shook as she continued to cry.

The servers launched into Kelly Price’s “He Proposed.”

“Why are you still crying, baby?”

“Because you make me so happy, Cas. And I almost missed out on this because I didn’t trust you.”

“No, baby. You just needed time because you had already been hurt once before. I knew that you would come around in time.”

“I should have always listened to my heart rather than my logic. My heart always knew that I belonged to you,” Giselle whispered.

She pushed up on her toes and kissed me again.

My heart was full and felt like it had come home. All these years, I wanted a woman who would love me for who I was, not who she wanted me to be or believed me to be, but the real man waiting inside.

This woman had taken what was broken, mended it, and gave me life.