"I'm sorry about last night," he said quietly, like he thought that was the reason why I wouldn't eat his food. He carefully picked up the champagne glass that was filled to the brim with his own personal mimosa concoction, always relying on the fact that if nothing else I would never turn down a good drink, and gave me the puppy dog eyes. "Will you at least drink this?"

I agreed – anything to remove the taste of half-cooked egg yolks from my lips. It wasn't until I drained the glass that I realized the mimosa also tasted like eggs...and that there was a diamond ring in my mouth.

Taking it out slowly, I looked at Collin and tried to fight back a smile.

He grinned like he was five years old and had just bought his mama the greatest birthday gift of all time.

Taking the ring from my lips, he carefully slipped it onto my finger. It never dawned on me until much later that he didn't even ask if I would marry him.

He just assumed that I would.

"I love you, Natasha. I've been carrying this ring around with me for weeks. I...I just never could find the right time to give it to you. We've just..." he cleared his throat and continued to play with my fingers. "We've just been getting along so well lately. I mean, you know, before that whole Kenney thing." He looked at me, subliminally letting me know that if it wasn't for Kenney everything would be bliss. I was actually starting to wonder myself if that wasn't true. "So anyway, I got to see how perfect we could be together...and we are, Tash. We're perfect for each other."

"We are." I nodded in agreement and smiled at him.

"And I want us to be like that forever. No more fighting. I only want to make you happy...and proud to be my wife." I grinned when he said this. He grinned back. "I mean, you're my dawg. From way back..." We laughed, mostly because it was true and we both knew it. It always felt so good when we laughed together. His smile faded a little. "I want to take care of you forever."

I ran my hand across the satin pajamas that he'd surprised me with a few weeks before and nodded. He hugged me then and, for some reason, I suddenly couldn't remember our relationship being any other way but good.

You would have thought Collin and I were high school sweethearts the way we fell all over each other the first few months of our engagement.

Oh wait...we were high school sweethearts.

He loved me so much and didn't once hesitate to show it. He was so nice to me, I couldn't understand why we hadn't gotten along like this the whole time. It was around the time some broad started calling my house and hanging up that I remembered. I know it was a woman, too, because one time she actually had the nerve to ask for Collin and then gave me some little fakey fake Bonita Applebum-type name when I asked who the hell she was.

I was so pissed by the time Collin came over that night that I lit into him as soon as he walked through the door. I mean, I went off. I hadn't gotten pissed enough to stand up to him in a long time and, to tell you the truth, it actually felt pretty good to finally let it all out.

It felt good, that is, until Collin ran up behind me and pushed me hard enough for me to slam my eye into the corner of the kitchen counter. If there were angels – which was one of many church-type things that I was starting to seriously question by then, thanks to Collin - one must have rolled up on us right then and put her hand across the counter's edge right before I hit it, because I just knew my eyeball was coming out that night.

Luckily, though, all I got was this killer shiner. It was so black that it made the white part of my eye completely red. It felt like I had a baseball-sized puss bag inside my eye socket and behind my cheekbone for the next three weeks. Even worse, the actual ring around my eye stuck around for more than a month. It was ugly as hell. It went from purple, to blue, to black, to brown, to green to yellow...I felt like a box of unlucky charms. It was so nasty. Taste the rainbow, was all I could think to myself every time I looked in the mirror.

Of course, I couldn't have anyone walking past me turning up their nose at my – well, what I once thought of as my pretty brown eyes - so I walked around day and night with these humongous super dark Channel Hollywood glasses on like I thought people would mistake me for a retro Black Audrey Hepburn.

It was on one of these Hollywood days that I ran into Kenney Duvalle for the first time in months.

Hampton City Schools, the district where I ended up teaching, was in the middle of a very much needed Christmas break and I was wandering around the bookstore looking for a wedding present for Shayna and Drama - that's right - when all of a sudden I heard this "Hey, hey gul" all loud from across the room. Now this is exactly what I was not in the mood for that day, so I quickly cut left and hoped that whoever that ignant fool was didn't try to follow me.

I should have known it was Kenney.

Actually, I did know it was Kenney when I heard his laugh. Always more of a low chuckle, I could pick it out of any crowd anytime, anywhere. He chuckled again, this time much closer. I knew he was right up on me, and I turned around to face him.

"Hi Tashi."

"Hi Kenney." I flinched when he hugged me tightly. My ribs were still sore from Collin digging his fingers into my side at the grocery store a few days before.

Kenney pulled away, but not completely and looked down at me. He seemed even taller than I remembered. Not as skinny, though. He had finally grown into his arms and legs. Actually, he looked pretty good.

"You ok?"

I missed his voice so much. I just wanted to pull him back to me and tell him how much I loved him and how sorry I was for never being the friend to him that he had always been to me. But I didn't. What good would it have done by then anyway?

"Oh...yeah." I smiled at him and gave a half-hearted laugh.

"Why you got these glasses on inside, Hollywood?"

I dodged his hand when he tried to take them off and joked, "Because when you're cool like me...the sun shines on you twenty-four hours a day."

Kenney threw back his head and laughed out loud. "Ok, 'My Science Project.'"

Busted! I forgot that Kenney was even more old school than me. I laughed then, too. "You saw that movie? I thought I was the only one." I gave him a sly grin. "You were supposed to think I made that up." Really, I was just trying to talk him back out of where his questions were leading.

Kenney chuckled again, then was suddenly serious. "But for real, girl. What's up wit' these crazy things anyway? You look like Eazy-E."

Not exactly the look I was going for, but the comparison was funny just the same. My laughter immediately turned to heartbreak when Kenney slowly pulled the sunglasses from my face and recoiled in horror. He was nice enough to try to play it off, but I knew I was ugly as hell by then. We both did. You can only "fall" on your eye so many times before one socket starts to sink back further than the other one.

I quickly looked away, but not before catching a glimpse of his clenched jaw and flashing eyes. Mercifully, he didn't say anything about it and gave the glasses back.

"So..." I could tell he was having a hard time looking at me. "How have you been?"

I snapped the shades back on and gave him a fake smile. "Great! How are things with you and Deidra?"

"Oh. Good. Real good, actually." He smiled, genuinely happy. I missed his dimples. "We're getting married."

I immediately wanted to cry. There was no feasible reason for that kind of reaction, though, so I just sucked it up and smiled again.

"Oh...good...good for you!" I looked around the store and suddenly realized how incredibly stupid I must have looked with those huge, pitch black sunglasses on and how stupid Kenney must have felt talking into his amplified reflection.

He took my left hand and looked down at my ring, then expectantly back up at me. I saw his face fall and felt a slight twinge of anger. What the hell did he care what I did when he, himself, was on his own damn way to happily ever after?

"Well, I have to go." I broke his gaze. It was a good thing I had those gigantor glasses on. The hot tears that were streaming out of my good eye and practically burning a hole into my black and red eye would have to make it halfway down my cheeks before he even saw them.

"Hey," he said, lightly brushing my cheek and holding onto my hand a little tighter. "We need to catch up. Let's get up some time. We can go out to lunch or something." He looked at his watch. "Are you busy right now?"

"Um, yeah. I have to...get back...to make dinner." I was stumbling like an idiot over my own words.

"Aw, boooo!" I almost laughed at the way he was heckling me, like I had just told a good joke gone bad. "Come on Tashi, please?" He flashed the dimples again.

Saying no to him right then was one of the hardest things that I've ever done, but I knew I had to do it.

"Kenney, I have to get back soon."

He sighed dramatically. "Fine, fine. Well, what about..."

"I can't," I quickly cut him off.

He looked surprised, dumbfounded even. "Why not?" As much crap as Kenney used to talk about Collin, he never did quite get the fact that I just wasn't allowed to talk to him anymore after Collin and I officially hooked up.

"I just," I looked down at his shiny new Stacy Adams loafers, and then back into his uncomprehending face. The sunglasses were feeling bigger and more conspicuous by the minute. "I just...can't, Kenney. That's all. I...have to go."

"Ok, ok, but how 'bout just one cup of coffee? Real quick." He pointed to the store's café only a few feet away. "Look, it's right there. I just want to talk to you. We haven't seen each other in almost..." his voice trailed off when I started looking around nervously.

"No, that's not a good idea." I took a step away from him. "I have to go. Right now." I looked at Kenney for a long time and I think, finally, he understood what I meant.

"Natasha," he wiped away a stubborn tear that had made it all the way down to the rim of my 1961 movie star glasses. "You know my offer still stands. If you need help...with anything... please ask me." He made me look at him. "Ask me, Tashi. Please..."

"No," I whispered and looked back down. "I don't need your help, but thank you."

"Do you still have my number?"

I shook my head and felt my head hang lower and lower the longer he looked at me. It was killing my eye to look down for so long, but it would have killed me even more to look up at him. I didn't want him to see that I had never forgotten his number in the first place. I just wasn't allowed to call it.

"Here." Kenney walked over to the coffee counter and came back with a napkin and a pen. "Take this." He tried to give me his number again, but I wouldn't take it.

I couldn't take it. Not after last time.

"No. That's ok." I shook my head and pushed his hand away. "I can't take that."

"Sure you can." He put the napkin into my palm and held onto my hand for a second too long. "Please."

I didn't break his gaze this time and I didn't let go of his hand. "Kenney," I said firmly and pushed the napkin back into his own hand. "I can't take that." Quickly I looked away and put more force into my voice. "And I don't want it, so please don't try to give this to me again."

I didn't look up from his shoes after that and eventually he got the message.

Carefully, he pulled me to him and kissed my temple. "Take care of yourself darlin'," he whispered into my ear. Then he walked off.

In a million years, Kenney will never know how badly I wanted to follow him right out that door and never look back.