But I’d lived the struggle and the story with my mother. She was one of those women who sat strong at her place in the pews, who stood by her husband, and fulfilled all of her duties as the First Lady of the church — all with a smile on her face, while there was an ache in her heart. The pain didn’t come from my father; he was one of the good ones, at least as far as I knew. But it was still tough because of the women. Even though my father lived his love and admiration for his wife in public so everyone could see, women still came at him, right in front of my mother’s face. We’d be out at a restaurant and some woman would stop at our table and pass my father her number or ask if he could stop past her house for prayer...and other things. I didn’t understand when I was younger, but when I was a teen, there were times when I wanted to jump in these women’s faces myself. My sisters, Jada, Lauren and I talked about it all the time — we had no idea how our mom had held back and not beat down or pimped slapped someone through their twenty-six years of marriage.

The little bit of tolerance I had came to an end when we went out for dinner to celebrate my sixteenth birthday and some lady kept rubbing my dad’s shoulder while my mom, my sisters and I all sat around the table and watched. While I was giving all kinds of hate-filled glares to the woman, I vowed then that I would never marry any man who had anything to do with any church.

“You know what?” Dru said, interrupting the memory of my vow.

“What?”

“You may be right. I don’t think either one of us is built to be a First Lady.” She stopped walking. “But um...your chances of becoming one are greater than mine.” Then, with her chin, she motioned across the street.

When I followed her glance, there was only one thing I could do — I smiled. There was Jeremy posted up against his old jalopy of a car. Even though we were feet away, I saw his smile that brightened his face and sent tickles to the tips of my toes.

At that point, I could have dropped my bag and ran across the street. But this wasn’t a scene out of Love and Basketball. This was me and Jeremy. So, I just strolled toward him, casually, the way I’d always had...before our kiss.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as he hugged me. When he leaned back, I could tell that he was 180 degrees from where he’d been yesterday. He was relaxed, happy, not a bit of anxiety oozed from him. And that made me wonder what Reverend Lewis had said to him last night.

He said, "I came to see the most beautiful woman in the world.”