Page 44 of Bending The Rules

“Well… not exactly. But she said she had your blessing to suggest that nonsense!”

“I mean,thatpart is true,” I responded, then frowned. “I know it’s a little untraditional Pops, but I thought you loved this woman. I’m trying to understand why you’re so upset she would want to get married enough thatsheproposed toyou.I thought you were into all her idiosyncrasies and all of that.”

He crossed his arms over his chest, and if I didn’t know better, I’d swear the man growled. “Well, I thought so too. But Imara doesn’t want to getmarried, son. I would think you’d be clear on that before you gave your blessing. You’re supposed to be the researcher, the organized one.”

“What do you mean, she doesn’t want to get married? Then what the hell did she propose?”

His frowned deepened, and the anger radiating off him made me take a step back. “I got up at four in the morning and hiked a goddamn mountain with this woman for her to propose a goddamn “ancient commitment ritual” to me.”

“Oh, shit,” Joseph and I said at the same time, and Jason put a hand over his mouth, smothering his laughter. I exchanged a look with my brothers, hoping one of them knew what the fuck an “ancient commitment ritual” was, but they both shook their head.

“I…” I reached up to scratch my head. “Pops… I mean… that sounds like a marriage to me, right? Commitment… Ritual…”

“She made itveryclear that it wasn’t that. Not a legal marriage at all, just some…nonsense where we exchange rings.” – he stopped to look at Jason, who’s eyes were watering from trying to hold in his laughter. “It’s not funny boy. I’ll knock that other leg into next week if you don’t cut the bullshit.”

The kitchen was dead silent for about five seconds before me, Joseph, and Jason all burst into laughter, unable to help it. My father huffed, and then turned to leave, but I caught his arm.

“Wait up,” I said, wiping my face. “Come on, man. You have to find the humor in it. I don’t even know the professor like you do, and I know this is very…her. Don’t sweat it so hard.”

His nostrils flared. “Don’t sweat it so hard is easy to say when a ridiculous proposal doesn’t lead to you finding out the woman you love doesn’twantto be married again. That she’s adamant about it, in fact. Now you boys know I’m not going to just be laying with a woman forever and not put a damned ring on her finger. But guess what?”

The humor of Imara’s proposal had worn out of the room, and I swallowed hard. “What?”

“Those two things don’t go together. A man who wants to be married, and a woman who doesn’t. And I’m not talking about some new-fangled “ritual”. Arealmarriage. It doesn’t match up. And neither of us have the time left to waste with someone who doesn’t want what we want.”

I shook my head. “I’m sure the two of you can come to some sort of compromise or something, right? There has to be a middle ground.”

“There isn’t one. It’s done. And… I guess I’ll be alright. But do me a favor, son?”

There was a lump building in my throat that I was sure couldn’t compare to the one probably in his. His eyes were glossy, and filled with the kind of hurt I didn’t think I would see again.

“Anything, Pops.”

He put a finger in my chest. “The next time my woman comes to talk to you about me and her – stay out of my business.”

I couldn’t even respond to that. He turned and went back upstairs, and I stood there like a damn fool until Jason came and clapped me on the shoulder.

“Man, I can’t believe Imara dragged me into this shit. How the hell is this my fault?” I asked him, as we stepped back into the kitchen.

“He’s just pissed about them breaking up,” Joseph offered, leaning against the countertop. “He’s venting it out.”

“Then damn, vent ather,” I said. “That’s who he should be pissed at. That’s who the hellI’mpissed at.”

Jason shook his head. “Imara has good intentions, man. Me and Reese were on the hike with them, that’s how I saw it all. Lowkey… it was romantic as fuck, at the top of one of the mountain peaks. She said some little sweet words and shit, and Pops was embarrassed but… he agreed to it. But she never phrased it like “marry me”, it was all “spend our life together” and stuff like that. He said something about planning a wedding, and getting a marriage license, andthat’swhen she pumped those brakes and corrected him. We drove up in separate cars, so Reese pulled me away to give them their privacy. We hiked back down. I didn’t even know they had broken up.”

“But why would she do that shit, still?” I asked, throwing my hands up. “Our father is a good man, crazy about her. Why wouldn’t she want to get married?”

Jason hiked his shoulders, then let them drop. “According to Reese, that’sherdad’s fault. You know Imara was divorced from Reese’s father cause he kind of dogged her out. Lying, sleeping around, all of that. It turned her off from marriage, so she doesn’t want to do it again.”

I rolled my eyes. “Okay, so shut up about it then. Why come up with this commitment ceremony bullshit that obviously just pissed Pops off?”

“Maybe she was trying to meet him in the middle, like you said,” Joseph offered. “Not legally married because she’s not down with it, but still committed.”

I scoffed. “Yeah… maybe so. This is fucked up though.”

“It is,” my brothers agreed.

“But,” Joseph said, “Maybe it’s not the end. I’m pretty sure this is their first… disagreement or whatever, so maybe they just need time.”

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