Page 45 of The Dating Prohibition

Kendra cleared her throat and Logan tapped his wineglass to get everyone’s attention as they milled about. Heads turned toward

her and she smiled wide. “Hi, everyone. I just want to thank you all so much for coming. I am Kendra Porter, owner and founder

of Porter Prohibition, and I’m so grateful to you all for joining us tonight. This business has been something that I have

been thinking about over and over and over again. I’ve had the opportunity to apprentice under chefs in different countries,

but most importantly, I have apprenticed under my brother, my mom, my aunts, and my granny for my whole life.

“Cooking and sharing food with people is truly a part of my love language and one of the best ways that I communicate. And

so Porter Prohibition was born. I have always had a fascination with the Harlem Renaissance, with speakeasies, with rumrunners,

and with learning about how different parts of history impact one another.

“The Prohibition Era wasn’t started because of the Harlem Renaissance, but it did feed right into it.

And I think of people like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston and Louis Armstrong, to name a few.

” She gestured toward the wall, where paintings hung featuring some of the greats.

“Giants whose shoulders we now stand upon. We are always looking to move forward and progress, but it is still necessary sometimes to look back and remember how far we’ve come and how we got here.

“Having the bar as the main portion of the business and creating a speakeasy supper club has been a dream of mine that I wasn’t

sure I was going to see come to fruition,” she continued, a flurry of nerves in her stomach. “But with the support of my family

and friends, most of whom are here...” She paused as BJ’s face flashed in her mind before suddenly it appeared in front of her in the flesh.

He stood in the crowd, people moving aside as he stepped closer.

“Uh,” she stammered, her mouth open as she blinked in confusion.

He nodded at her, dressed in a charcoal-gray suit and a black button-up, one of his hands in his pocket. His eyes shone behind

the rims of his glasses. His locs were pulled back away from his face into a half bun.

Kendra shook her head, trying to find where she lost her place and laughed nervously. “I’m sorry. As I was saying, it took

a whole community to help me create this place—to envision it, to plan for it, to account for every little thing. And I’ve

been blessed because every piece of this—including getting the liquor license—everything has gone smoothly and far more quickly

than I could have anticipated.

“To be having the grand opening this Saturday is a dream come true. I’m still pinching myself that living my dream has now become my reality.

And so I raise my glass.” She peered around the room, her champagne flute in the air.

“To family. To community. To remembering where we come from and still exuberantly chasing every single dream until it becomes real.”

“To dreams!” Everyone raised their glass.

Logan squeezed her shoulder and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Proud of you, sis.”

They turned as BJ approached. “I didn’t think you were coming,” she said cautiously. Her family continued to stand around

them as the other guests milled about, taking tours and sampling food.

“I had to handle a few things first before I could confirm that I was coming, and when I was done, it seemed better to just

show up.”

“What do you mean? I don’t understand.” Her eyes darted to her cousin, her sister-in-law, to BJ.

“I received confirmation today that I am the newest addition to the architectural history department at the University of

South Carolina.”

“You’re what?” She blinked, stunned, frozen in her space. Her heart pounded as she stared at him.

BJ came closer. “I wasn’t sure that I was ready for something serious. It’s taken me a long time to get over my past. And

I’m not proud of how I handled everything, but something hit me when you announced that you were leaving and I realized that

I wasn’t going to get to see you almost every day.

“I went years without seeing you while you were working in Silicon Valley and then traveling all over the world. I can’t do

that again, Kenny,” he said gently. He reached for her hand. “When you left, obviously I didn’t handle that well. I didn’t

know what to say, and I couldn’t reconcile my feelings. Your brother practically acted as my therapist.”

Logan chuckled, but Kendra couldn’t tear her eyes away from the deep brown depths of the orbs fixed on her.

“I just knew that I had to get you back, and even though the work that I do is currently based in DC, it doesn’t mean that I can’t make changes to be where you are. I want to be where you are, Kendra.”

“You do?” she whispered.

He nodded. “You know, as you packed for your move, I started reaching out to contacts who had been after me for a while, wanting

me to come and teach in their departments. A bunch of places had offered me visiting professorships because of the work that

I’ve been doing in my research. And one of them happened to be University of South Carolina—they had been looking to expand

their architectural history department and didn’t have someone specifically focused on historic preservation the way that

I am.”

“It’s important work,” she agreed.

“Yeah, they thought so too, because they gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse, and my university couldn’t refuse either,” he

laughed, the sound like music to her ears, stirring something deep within her. “If this visitorship goes well, I could potentially

negotiate a tenured role here.”

“But I thought you really liked the university in DC. You’re not going to resent giving that up for me?” Kendra blurted.

He rested a hand on her cheek and she couldn’t help but lean into it. “I want to be near you. If it means that I have to commute

for work because I don’t get tenure here, then I will. But I will do everything in my power to be here and with you. It’s

where I want to be.”

Kendra exhaled the breath that she’d been holding.

“You may not know this, but I followed every single update that you posted on social media just to see how things were going

and to feel close to you.”

“Why didn’t you just call me?”

“I—” he started. “You stopped responding to my calls and texts. Honestly, I was afraid.”

“Of what?”

“That what happened made things irreparable. And speaking with you would have just confirmed that fear. I couldn’t handle

that possibility, so I froze. And everything happened so fast and then you were gone.”

“I see,” she said.

“I’ll wait if I have to, if you need time.”

“I don’t need any more time, Ben,” she whispered, and he leaned down and placed a soft kiss against her lips, warmth flooding

her chest and crawling up to color her cheeks.

Gasps and quiet applause surrounded her, and she pulled back.

“What?” She searched the faces of her relatives, all of whom were smiling at them. Her cousin, her aunt, her sister-in-law,

all stood close to tears, but none of them looked surprised. “Did all of you know about this?”

Several nodded before Lani spoke up. “Of course we knew. Do you know how hard it is to keep things from you?”

“Well, you’re a terrible liar. So I’m amazed that you kept it from me at all.” Her aunt and parents burst out laughing.

“You really are,” Auntie Mack said, squeezing her daughter.

“I can’t believe that you all just did this for me. And the gifts and the money, and Auntie Mack—all of the connections and

help, just the generosity of your hearts.” She started to tear up. “The way you all showed up for me—” Her voice broke. “I’ll

never forget this.”

“Well, since you don’t seem to want to be so surprised—” Logan came forward and rested his hands on Kendra’s shoulders “—you

should know that on your grand opening night, we reserved the Speakeasy Supper Club.”

“Of course you did.” She laughed, dabbing at her eyes with the pads of her fingers. She sniffled, shaking her head at how oblivious she had been to her family creating this moment for her. “Just make sure you don’t lose the password or the hostess won’t let you in.”

Kendra wrapped her arms around her brother. “I know you had a big hand in this. Thank you, big brother. I love you.”

“I’m only ever a call away, so you call me if you need me.”

“Always,” she replied. She reached for BJ’s hand and looked up into those deep brown eyes. “Always.”

Everyone in attendance raved at the small bites, several of the local business owners made a beeline to compliment her directly,

expressing their excitement over her new cocktails and her fusion twists on Southern classics. People were begging for the

braised oxtails and coconut rice recipe. And the Thai-spiced mint julep and Pinay 75––a French 75 with calamansi juice––were

huge hits. “We will be very excited to send people your way!” Alice was ready to shout to all of her clients.

Kendra was floating on a cloud. She gushed the entire ride back to her place, her family having headed over to Auntie Mack’s

for the night. BJ in the passenger seat laughed as she told story after story of the different challenges she’d faced along

the way. He watched her, tucking one of her curls behind her ear. “You decided to let go of the straight look.”

“It was never gonna last in the South. The humidity practically made my curls crawl up my face.” They both burst out laughing

at the thought.

“I’d like to see that sometime.”

“I am not spending hours getting my hair straight and silky just to go outside and ruin it in humidity.”

He twirled a curl around his finger. “I have my ways of convincing people to do things.”

Kendra parked and bit her lip. “Is that right? I definitely want to hear more about that, Dr. Stephens, but first, let’s go inside.”

As they stepped into her place, he admired what she’d done so far.

“You know, it’s actually a good thing that I haven’t gotten all of my furniture yet. Especially if you’re going to be here...