Page 38 of Saint
“Saint! My hair isn’t done, my teeth aren’t whitened, and oh my gosh, what should I wear? Are they conservative? Are they liberal? You haven’t told me much about them. I don’t even have a ring!”
One by one, I’d lay her concerns to rest, even if it meant making arrangements to have her hair done and her teeth whitened. Lifting my arm, I scrutinized the timepiece on my wrist, noting the time.
“Someone should be pulling up to fix that right about… now,” I announced.
Against the synchrony of the beach, I heard an engine churning in the driveway before its cessation was summoned. Freeing my phone from my pockets, I opened the texting application and sent a message to our welcomed visitor.
A few minutes later, we were joined by a suited man. He trekked toward us with a briefcase in tow and two bulky men flanking behind him. The unrest stemming from my request to meet me on the beach painted the trio’s faces in a uniform fashion.
“Saint,” he nodded upon his approach. “I wasn’t dressed for the beach. You should have told me.”
“Ain’t shit wrong with digging your toes in the sand Jasper. Anyways, this is Victoria, my wife. Tori, this is Jasper, the jeweler.”
“Nice to meet you, pretty lady,” Jasper lusted in her direction but swiftly schooled that shit under my glare.
Once the formalities were out of the way, one of Jasper’s men unlocked the briefcase with a concealed key. He stood between us both, opening the case to reveal an array of diamond rings ranging from platinum to yellow gold and white gold.
“Take your pick, Beauty,” I encouraged, watching as Victoria’s eyes bloomed at the request.
“Are these – are these all real?”
Jasper scoffed. “Don’t insult me, pretty lady.”
“Don’t insult us, I amended.”
Victoria’s head whipped from Jasper to me in astonishment. “Saint, I can’t accept something so big. All of these are so huge.”
“Per your husband’s request, pretty lady.”
Victoria wasn’t the only one who required evidence of our union. There were at least five male wedding bands Jasper brought along for my selection. After briefly discussing the modest specifications for myself, he’d chosen from his extensive collection. My selection was simple as I slid the unpretentious silver band onto my ring finger.
Victoria was still sitting upright in an incorruptible daze with her eyes glued to the selection of at least thirty or forty diamond rings.
“You can get more than one, Beauty.”
As if thawing from the perpetual frozen state she’d fallen victim to, Victoria blinked. Once. Twice. Thrice, she swatted her lengthy lashes but didn’t move. Grabbing a random rock from the assortment, I reached for her long and slender hand and slid the ring onto her ring finger. I didn’t miss the way she cut her eyes at me, logging that in my Tori manual as irritation.
“We have to start somewhere. Make a few selections, Victoria.”
Unthawed from the clutches of whatever rocks froze her attention, she removed the ring I’d chosen and handed it to Jasper. Once her finger was free of the jewelry, she picked a halo diamond and slid it onto her finger. She turned her hand this way and that, tilting her head as if it would alter the look of the ring. Then, she slid it off her finger and gave it to Jasper.
“That one is a maybe,” she announced.
Victoria made several more selections, repeating the same process as the first until her gaze went rigid on the fourth pick. She swallowed hard, and I witnessed her eyes grow misty as she fell in love with the ring.
“This one,” she whispered, nearly inaudibly.
“Do you want a second one?” I asked her while nodding to Jasper.
“No. No, this is the one I’d…” She trailed off.
Jasper lingered with his briefcase for several minutes, questioning us both with his eyes before he finally asked, “Are we sure about our selections? Nothing else?”
Never mind that the motherfucker had made five figures on Victoria’s selection alone. I pivoted my attention toward her, directing her to provide the final answer. Confirming her content, she nodded her head.
Once Jasper and his team left, Victoria and I remained planted in the chaises positioned toward the beach. I knew she was mulling through her thoughts. Everything had occurred so swiftly that she’d barely had time to process it all. It was how I often felt when my surroundings overstimulated me.
“It’s a beautiful ring, Saint,” finally, she revealed the station of her thoughts.