Excerpt of At Last

I was so nervous riding down the elevator. My hands were shaking and my palms were sweaty. When I exited the elevator there was so much commotion and people around I wasn’t sure I would be able to find him. I glanced at the clock on the wall behind the reservation desk and it was about five minutes to seven, so I decided to sit in the lobby. Before sitting down I smelled a familiar fragrance, BVLGARI. I knew he was standing behind me.

“Excuse me, have you seen Keisha Morgan?” He whispered in my ear.

My heart fluttered and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I turned around and he was looking so damn fine. At that very moment I knew I was gone. He was in a cream double breasted suit and a peach silk tie which matched my dress perfectly, like it was made from the same cloth. He was wearing a pair of cream ostrich shoes and his Rolex watch was blinding the hell out of me.

Last time I saw him, he was letting his hair grow out, but now it was cut close. He wore it in a Caesar cut that was tapered close on the sides. His waves were so perfect and in place. His mustache and goatee were precise like he’d just gotten a close shave only moments ago. His smooth chocolate skin was an amazing contrast to the cream suit. He smiled at me, making me want to forget the Awards altogether and head back up to my room.

He then gave me a tight hug and kissed me on my cheek. I didn’t want to let him go. He felt so good next to me. “Thank you for coming. You look incredible.” He said letting me out of his embrace.

“So do you.” I said trying to compose myself.

“Come on; let’s go before Kendra’s ass be calling rushing us.”

"What? She’s not here?” I said looking around for her.

“Naw, she’s already at the ceremony.” He said grabbing my hand as we left the hotel. All eyes were on us as he ushered me toward a white Hummer limo.

“Who else is getting in here with us?” I asked in shock.

“Just us.” He replied smiling.

“Oh,” I said still awestruck.

The driver got out to let us in the limo. It was amazing. I thought about pinching myself to make sure I was awake. Sitting in the limo, we were quiet. Durran held my hand tightly and I did the same. There was this awkward lingering silence. “I’ve missed you,” He said finally breaking the silence.

Turning away from him, I was trying not to make eye contact, because I wasn’t sure what I might do, “Me too. I’ve been missing you, too.”

He moved closer to me, “I know I don’t always say it, but I’m really thankful for you always being there for me. No matter how fucked up I was or how selfish I acted, you never cut me off. You’re the reason I’m in this position.”

“No Durran, you’re the reason. You did it. You were never scared to pursue your dreams. You were gonna make everyone listen even if they didn’t want to. You did it. Not me.”

“Naw, Mama. You never let me give up. Even when I was fucking homeless, you would sneak me into the crib when ya Moms was at work. You let me stay the night and fed me when I didn’t have shit. You were the only one telling me that I was gonna make it. You believed in me when nobody else did-not even my family. It was you.” He was damn near in tears spilling his heart out to me. My eyes began to well up with him. “I just want to let you know that I do appreciate everything. Thank you, Keisha.” Looking into my eyes he took my hand into his and kissed it softly.

"You’re welcome. “We were still in a trance when the driver informed us that we had arrived at the location.

“Mr. Johnson we’re here.”

“Alright cool, Thomas. Come on, let’s get out.”
Thomas came and let us out of the limo. After getting out, I just stood there for a moment and took it all in.

“You ready?” Durran asked pulling me towards the Red carpet.

“Yeah.” I said smiling.

Once we got up to the entry way Kendra was running up to us. She stopped dead in her tracks and stared me up and down. “Wow, Keisha you look amazing,” She said in obvious disbelief.

“Thank you Kendra.” I responded drly. She picked up on my gruffness and went directly to Durran.

“D, you gotta get going. The ceremony starts in 20 minutes and you have to get to your seat and walk the Red carpet in that amount of time, so we gotta move it.”

“Alright Kendra, chill. We got it.” He said shutting her down as we began to walk down the red carpet.

I couldn’t lie, I felt like a movie star. Everywhere we walked or moved someone was taking a picture of us or screaming out his name. He just held my hand tightly and kept me close to him. It felt so comforting. Kendra stayed closely behind us. He gave some celebrities pounds and small talked with a few others. Many of them complimented him on how beautiful I was. All it did was further stroke his ego and help him poke out his chest even more.

Finally we reached the end of the Red carpet, but not before coming in contact with the self-proclaimed Queen of Scandal, Ms. Cynthia Clemons. Her mission in life was to get all the dirt and gossip on all celebrities and socialites.

She was known for her brash and blunt delivery- giving it straight, no chaser. She’s the kind of person that people loved to hate.
I knew she was coming for Durran. As we approached her, I could see her narrowing in on him. With a mic in hand, she drew near him. “Get this,” She said to her camera man.

“Well hello there, Mr. Johnson.” She said extending her hand to shake Durran’s.

“What up doe, Cindy baby.” He said turning on the charm. He moved in and kissed her on the cheek.

She damn near fainted.“Ohhh, what’s going on?” She asked smiling.

“Nothing much. Just enjoying the beautiful Vegas weather, baby. I’m excited about the nominations and I appreciate the support everyone has given me.” He said as he squeezed my hand.

“You deserve it. Nine nominations is amazing. I’m sure we’ll see you on stage at least once for your work.” Cindy said with a smile before checking out what he was wearing, “And I see you’re looking fly as usual.”

“You know I do what I can. A lil’ Armani never hurts, feel me?” He said flashing his killer smile.

As Cindy began to laugh, she turned to face me, ready to sink her claws in. “And who is this lovely creature standing next to you? I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you bring someone to the Red carpet! Is she a new artist?” She said looking back and forth between the two of us.

“No, she’s not an artist. This is my close friend who granted me the pleasure of accompanying me this evening.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Close Friend! What’s going on honey? You look wonderful.”

“Thank you.” I replied blushing.

“Oh Durran, she’s gorgeous. Not only does she have a pretty face, but she’s stacked and has great boobs. Have you had any work done?”

“Aw hell naw!” Durran said laughing while shaking his head.

To say I was shocked by that question would be an understatement. I don’t know why though, I’d heard her say shit like that on the radio all the time.

“No I haven’t. This is all me.” I said smiling.

“D, we gotta get going,” Kendra said sternly. Maybe Cindy went too far for her liking.

“Alright Cindy, it was good rapping with you. We gotta get ready to go in.”

“Durran, it’s always a pleasure.” She said shaking his hand.

“Same here Cindy.”

“She is a mess.” I whispered to him as we walked off.

“Yeah, she comes with the territory.”

I had a great time at the awards ceremony. It was so exciting to see all the acts perform. I had an absolute ball! The highlight of the evening was Durran winning for Record of the Year with Denso “Give Me a Sign”. He was invited by Denso to accept the award which he obliged.

“Thank God. Never in a million years did I expect to be on this stage accepting this award. This means the world to me. I want to thank my family, my management, and the people at Universal, my fans, and this man right here.” Denso said pulling Durran towards him, “Durran Johnson is why this record happened. He’s a genius and it has been reflected tonight. Seven awards for this man. I thank him for giving me vision and executive producing my album. This is for Philly.”

Durran leaned in and smiled, “And the D."

Denso began to laugh, “And the D!”

I stood up and clapped for him as tears ran down my cheeks.

“Did you enjoy yourself?” He asked as we sat in the back of the Hummer. This time Kendra rode with us. I didn’t care much though. I was too proud of him to trip on her presence.

“Yeah I did.” I grabbed his hand and he blushed. It was the first time in a long time that I’d actually seen him blush. It was refreshing. Right after the ceremony, we headed to The Palms where Durran was hosting a big Grammys after party. It was around midnight when we arrived and the club was off the hook. I’d never seen anything like it in Detroit.

The crowd was thick with celebrities, entourages, groupies, and socialites. Regular folks were few and far between. Durran’s entourage met us at the club. There were four of them. One’s name was Ken. He was tall and dark chocolate. He seemed cool. The other was a guy named Dre, who was the color of peanut butter and on the short side. I couldn’t really get a vibe off him. He was really quiet despite the madness going on around us. The third guy was Steve. He was tall, thin, and had a nice smile. He was a light caramel brown. The forth guy’s name was Bryan. He was chubby and his skin was the color of rusty copper. He clowned Durran from the moment we entered VIP on the second level of the club.

“What’s good playboy?” He said giving Durran dap

“Nothing, you got it.” Durran said sitting down in the area. I followed suit. The VIP area was covered with a sheer canopy which draped a queen-sized bed surrounded by a booth on each side. The fellas and Kendra sat at the booths while Durran and I sat on the bed. He wrapped his arm around my waist, holding me close, and I didn’t mind not one damn bit.

“How you feeling? You all grinning and shit.” Bryan asked taking a drag of his cigarette and laughing.

“I’m good. Got my boys here, my girl. Everything is everything. Life is good” He said as he kissed me on the cheek.

“I heard that.” Bryan said before dropping his cigarette and stomping it out. He grabbed a glass of champagne at our booth, “I wanna give a toast to my man. Everybody raise your glasses.”
Two champagne buckets filled with ice and bottles of Dom Pérignon were on the table. We all grabbed our glasses, stood up, and waited for Bryan’s toast.

“To life, love and all that other shit.” He proclaimed. We all began laughing.

“To life and love!” We all shouted as we drank up.

Slowly everyone migrated out of VIP to the real party on the floor. Eventually, it was just me and Durran alone finishing off a bottle of Dom while everyone else did their own thing.

Sitting at the foot of the bed, I sipped on champagne as he stared at me. I couldn’t take it anymore plus I had a little liquid courage in me.

“What’s up? Why you staring at me? ”

He cracked a smile. “You never change. You got that same attitude you gave me when I seen you in them red shorts. You still got them?” He laughed.

“Whatever, you like it. And for the record, I do have those shorts. I can’t fit them, but I do have them.” I said still sipping.

I love it.” He replied moving closer to me.

“Spare me. You think you doing something, with your charming ass.”

He ran his hand down his mouth and smiled, “You think I’m charming, Keish?”

I sucked my teeth, “Don’t play. But I guess I’m a sucka, cause I’m crazy about your charming ass.” Oops!! I didn’t mean to say it out loud. I guess he could tell that by my expression because he had a big joker ass smile across his face.

“It’s cool, few can resist.”

“Get over yourself.”

“Why? You not.”

I stood up and stormed over to the edge of the booth. I began to watch everyone on the dance floor below while contemplating what had just happened. His comment pissed me off. Not because it wasn’t true, but because his cocky ass had the nerve to say it out loud. He made it sound different. He made it sound like I was wasting my time and that I would never get over him. I felt him come up behind me and wrap his arms around my waist.

“It’s cool, cause I never got over you. Why you think I went through all this trouble to bring you out here? I could’ve had anybody be my date, but I chose you.”

I turned to him and broke his grasp with my face scrunched up, “Is that supposed to be a selling point? ‘I’ve got all these bitches to choose from but I chose you’? That’s not enough anymore, Durran!! I’m not some little girl who’s just happy to say that you’re my man. That’s not enough. I need and want more!”

“Keisha…” He said staring into my eyes.