Timeless Conclusion

[Sweet Meat aka CC]

[glow=yellow,2,300]“Boy you make me realize/That you’re that special one in my life/You’re my soul mate sent to me”
—Mary J. Blige: When We[/glow]

“Well, man, you ‘bout ready to walk that last mile of freedom?”, Mark joked as he and Tamir stood outside on the church steps. Tamir and Peaches would be tying the knot in less than an hour.

“Always got jokes!”, Tamir chuckled. Then his facial expression became serious as he began to pour his heart out to Mark about her.

“Man, I’ono why, but I’m gettin’ the strangest feelin’ that Peaches isn’t ready to do this.”, Tamir stated with a worried look.

“What makes you say that?!”, Mark asked in shock.

“It’s juss this vibe I picked up…you know like the last time when I picked up that somethin’ was troublin’ her. I think I need to go talk with her.” Tamir headed back inside the church.

“Wait! You know it’s bad luck to see the bride before the weddin’, man!”, Mark stated as he stopped Tamir who was already half-way down the hall to head to where Peaches was getting ready.

“I’m willin’ to take that chance!”, Tamir replied as he continued down the hall with Mark following behind him.
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Peaches was sitting in front of the dresser mirror as Sarah put the finishing touches on her makeup and hair.

“You are absolutely beautiful!”, Sarah exclaimed as she placed Peaches’ veil on top of her head.

“Thanks.”, Peaches softly replied while staring at herself in the mirror. She was past the point of being nervous. She felt like she wanted to run away from everything because even though she thought she was ready for this day, she felt like she was absolutely wrong.

“Somethin’ wrong, sweetie?”, Kiara asked as she joined Peaches and Sarah at the dresser. It was something in Peaches’ voice that worried Kiara.

Peaches turned around and looked at the both of them with tears welling up in her eyes. “I’m scared!”, she whispered.

Sarah bent down and put her arm around Peaches’ shoulder and took one of her hands. “Oh honey! It’s normal to have cold feet on your wedding day. I was the same way when I married Nicole’s father. You’ll be juss fine!”

“Sarah’s right!”, Kiara smiled as she smoothed out Peaches’ veil.

“I don’t know, yall! I’m really scared and I don’t want to end up doin’ somethin’ that I may not be ready for!”, Peaches sighed.

Just then there was a knock at the door.

“Who is it?”, Sarah asked.

“It’s ‘Mir! I need to talk with Peaches for a few minutes.”, Tamir replied.

Kiara went to the door and stepped out in the hall to join him and Mark.

“Is somethin’ wrong, ‘Mir, because you know you’re not supposed to see the bride before the weddin’.”, she stated.

“That’s what I been tryna tell him!”, Mark huffed as he shrugged his shoulders.

“Look, don’tchu two have somethin’ you could be doin’?”, Tamir replied with a roll of his eyes.

“Shut up!”, Kiara snapped at Mark when she saw the sly grin spreading on his face. She was afraid that he was about to answer Tamir’s question with an answer that didn’t need to be said in the house of the Lord.

By this time, Sarah came outside. “Peaches said she’ll be right out, ‘Mir.”

“But I really need to talk with her now!”, he anxiously replied.

When Peaches cracked the door open, everyone turned around.

“It’s okay…I’ll talk with him.”, Peaches stated. She stuck her hand out of the door for Tamir to hold. “But he juss won’t see me yet.”, she smiled.

“Okay, well that’s our cue to leave.”, Kiara stated as they all went into the fellowship hall of the church to join the other members of the wedding party.
“You ready to jump the broom, boo?”, Tamir joked as he lightly stroked the back of Peaches’ hand with his thumb. When she hesitated before answering with a weak yes, Tamir immediately became worried.

“Peaches, talk to me, please!”, he begged. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothin’, ‘Mir!”, she replied.

“Yes there is. Remember? We went through this one time before when I had to beg you to open up to me. I need to know if you’re havin’ second thoughts.”, he stated.

“Well, from the sound of your voice, it seems to me like you’re havin’ ‘em too!”, she stated with a light chuckle.

“And what makes you think that I’m not scared, girl! Shoo’! If you were to see me right now, you would see my heart beatin’ through this tux!”, he joked.

For a few seconds, there was silence between them as Tamir thought about the three years they had shared together. He began to speak.

“You know what? If we could get through the times we’ve had in the past…”, he started before he and Peaches both, coincidentally, finished his statement together, “…then we can get through this!” They both started laughing.

“I love you, Mrs. Ruffin.”, he whispered as he kissed the back of her hand.

“’Mir! Stop before you make me ruin my makeup!”, Peaches’ joked. She began to shed a few tears of happiness.

The mood was suddenly killed when Mark came back to where they were.

“Are yall gonna do this or what?!”, he asked as he came and stood next to Tamir.

“Will you shut up and mind yo’ business!”, Peaches laughed from the other side of the door.

Mark started laughing. “Well, look…if yall are, then you need to come on because we’re gettin’ ready to line up.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The wedding ceremony was beautiful. During the beginning of the ceremony, Dru performed “April Showers.” And when the wedding party marched in, they sang “Millions”. When Kiara came down the aisle as the Matron of Honor, she noticed Mr. Thompson and his family sitting down near the front. She immediately smiled when she and Mr. Thompson made eye contact, and so did he. And when she arrived at the altar to stand with the rest of the wedding party, she looked over at Mark as he sang part of his verse and the chorus. She couldn’t stop the tears that began to fall from her eyes because she knew she would never stop loving him. The look that he gave her as he sang his heart out, let her know that the feeling was mutual. Leticia, who was standing next to Kiara, turned around and gave her a smile. Of course, Kiara smiled back at her.

When everyone stood up to watch Peaches make her entrance, she marched in to Eric Benet and Tamia’s “Spend My Life With You”. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. After she and Tamir exchanged vows, they lit their candles of unity as the rest of Dru sang “Never Make a Promise”. And after she and Tamir kissed and were pronounced man and wife, the wedding party marched out while Dru sang “These are the Times”.
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[Sweet Meat aka CC]

The reception was even more emotional. It all began when Tamir and Chinky of Lovher were going to perform and dedicate “Always” by Atlantic Starr to Peaches. But Peaches switched things up when Chinky gave her the mic so she could sing her verse, instead. This shocked Tamir because Peaches had never sang in front of an audience and the only time she had sang in front of him was if she was doing so in a joking manner. It was now Tamir’s turn to cry as he watched Peaches’ singing to him although she shed a few happy tears too. The rest of the guys and their girls all held each other as they watched their two friends perform.

Later on, during the reception, family and friends offered their words of happiness, encouragement and success for Peaches and Tamir’s marriage. But the real tearjerker came when Mr. Thompson stood up with the help of his crutches and daughter to give his words of inspiration to the newlyweds.

“You know, when I look at you two, I see myself and my late wife, Lizzy. She and I shared 47 wonderful years together before she was called home to be with the Lord. I wish you two double the number of years that I was blessed to have with my wife.”, he warmly smiled as he looked at them. Peaches jumped up crying and ran over to hug Mr. Thompson. The reception hall was filled with thunderous applause.

Then the fellas gave their friend, Tamir, a toast. Larry said a few words on the group’s behalf.

“’Mir…although we had been jokin’ around with ya for the last few weeks or so about gettin’ ready to be on lock-down with our girl, Peaches’, we want’chu to know that it was all in innocent fun. Juss don’t eva’ make her mad because if everybody knows Peaches, then they also know ‘Mama Peaches’!”, he laughed.

Laughter filled the room in response to his joke and Peaches rolled her eyes at him as she laughed.

“But with all kiddin’ aside, we wish yall nothin’ but happiness. And we know that the love that you two have for each other will truly stand the test of time! To Tamir and Peaches!”, Larry smiled as he and the guys raised their drinks up to toast the newlyweds. Tamir and Peaches got up and gave all of them hugs.

Afterwards, everyone ate and mingled with one another. And of course there were truly some standout moments.

First of all, when Peaches’ threw her bouquet into the large crowd of ladies for one lucky female to catch, Mark noticed the bouquet heading straight for Leticia. He ran over and caught it before she did.

“Nah, boo! There’s no reason to make Ru’s life miserable!”, he joked. He and Leticia argued with one another for about a minute or so before he finally decided to give her the bouquet. She immediately began chasing and beating him with it until Rufus caught her to calm her down.

Secondly, when Tamir slipped Peaches’ garter belt off of her leg to throw into the large crowd of men, James’ jumped up and caught it. He slipped it on his head and wore it as a headband for the rest of the evening.

Another highlight of the reception was during the soul train line that everybody formed when the DJ threw on Lil’ Mo and Fabolous’ “4ever”. Larry got the ball rolling when he came down the line popping and locking and getting on the floor to breakdance. But the real kicker was when little Nicole and a few of her young cousins came down the line doing a cute little dance…at first. All of a sudden, she and her little cousin, Shay Shay, started dropping it like it was hot. Sarah all but had a fit when she saw what her baby was doing. She came through the crowd like a madwoman and snatched Nicole up.

“Where in the world did you get that from, Nicky?!!”, Sarah shrieked.

“Aunty Kee. You didn’t say nothin’ when she did it.”, Nicole replied as she hung her head in shame. Sarah glanced over at Kiara who was cracking up as everyone continued to go down the line.

“Kiara, you see what you made my baby do?!”, Sarah yelled as she came and stood next to her and Mark in the line.

“I didn’t tell her to do it!”, Kiara laughed. Everybody was cracking up by this time.

“Yes, you did! I told you not to corrupt my baby!”, Sarah snapped as she put her hands on her hip.

“Aight, enough is enough of this!”, Tamir laughed as he walked over to Sarah and made her dance with him down the line. She was all happy again and quickly forgave Kiara.

When the reception was over, everyone saw Peaches and Tamir off as they headed to the Caribbean for their honeymoon.
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A few months later...
“…And the Grammy winner for “Best Song from a Motion Picture Soundtrack” is Dru Hill for ‘Timeless’!”, Usher announced as he, Mary J. Blige, and Madonna stood at the podium to present the award in Radio City Music Hall.

At first, the guys sat in shock and amazement after hearing their name being announced as the winner. They looked at one another before jumping up and hugging each other. Then they quickly made their way to the stage and took turns to thank their fans, their wives and girls, radio DJ’s, music video shows, and everyone else that was involved in the “Timeless” project.

Mark purposely waited to go last. When his turn came, he asked for just a minute or two of everyone’s time because he had a very special friend to thank and he wanted to introduce that friend to those that were watching.

“You know, if it wasn’t for a true friend of mine, I wouldn’t have been able to write and compose this song.” He then looked up at the balcony seats to his right on the side of the stage where all of the guys’ significant others were seated. “Kiara, you’re the reason why I wrote this because from the first day we met, I knew that somewhere down the line, you and I would share somethin’ that would be timeless. And I have a special way of wantin’ to thank you for bein’ my friend.”

Kiara clasped her hands over her mouth as Peaches threw her arm around her shoulder. She and Kiara both began to cry.

After asking to hold a microphone, Mark knelt down on one knee, and pulled a ring from the pocket of his suit jacket. The entire place began to scream and cheer.

“Will you be my wife as well as my friend?”, he grinned while looking up at her.

Kiara could hardly stand up because she was crying so hard. But once she did, she managed to smile and nod her head yes.

Michael was sitting among other prisoners in the recreational area of the correctional center watching the Grammies. When he witnessed what had just taken place, he jumped up while shouting obscenities, and stormed out of the room to go back to his cell.
--The End

[glow=yellow,2,300]“Happy days are here again/’Cause I know that I’ve been blessed/I’ve been blessed with my best friend/To have and to hold you/For the rest of my life/So I gotta give in/I’ll give in to what feels right”
—Mary J. Blige: Star for Life[/glow]