Chapter 2

“I guess you can say that. Even though we’re not your typical couple, we do want our wedding to have some traditional touches. For instance, the night before the wedding, I’m staying at a hotel so we don’t see each other until the ceremony. Then the day of the wedding, we are holding the actual ceremony under a chuppah. We are also incorporating the practice of doing the Seven Blessings as well as our vows.”

“Okay, you lost me with some of your terms. Chuppah? Seven Blessings?”

“A chuppah is a canopy that a Jewish couple stands under during the wedding ceremony, like a small tent. The Seven Blessings is just that. We are going to print up some blessings as part of the program for our guests to read. Don’t worry, usually they are said in Hebrew, but we are going to stick to English. My Aunt Grace is coming down from Delaware with my mom, and her accent is just as thick now as when she left Kingston thirty years ago. I can imagine what her attempting Hebrew would sound like.”

“Are you going to do that thing with the glass I’ve heard about?”

Leah responded yes and shared other details about the ceremony which tied in with the brides’ backgrounds.

“No wonder you are so stressed. Getting all that together sounds like a headache and half,” Stephanie said, shaking her head. “Wait a minute, I just remembered something. Isn’t Lily the sister you didn’t get along with for the longest time because she wasn’t down with your liking girls?”

Leah nodded. “I don’t know who took it the hardest, my mother or Lily. She is the oldest, so she always felt like she was my mama. Keep in mind, when I came out, I was in my second year of graduate school and had been out on my own for three years, making my own money. But to Lily, I will always be that worrisome little sister. Added to that, Jamaicans as a whole aren’t known to be supportive of same-sex relationships, so I wasn’t too surprised by her difficulty accepting me. My younger sisters didn’t have a problem with it so much, but Lily and my mom refused to even acknowledge my sexuality. They just kept insisting I hadn’t found the right man. When my first girlfriend and I moved in together, they refused to call the house if they thought she may answer the phone. If they called and she answered, they would just ask to speak to me and refuse to acknowledge her. Because of that, Lily and I grew distant. Our relationship thawed a little bit when Lyra was born, but it wasn’t the same.”

“I’m sure you getting pregnant must have given them hope you weren’t into girls anymore,” Stephanie replied.

“I think you are probably right. I didn’t bother to explain to them the process of how Lyra actually came to be. I’d rather they think banks are only good for depositing money, not withdrawing sperm.”

Stephanie and Leah chuckled, then Leah grew serious as she returned back to discussing her relationship with her sister.

“When Patricia and I started dating, the comments really came. Lily had a hard time accepting the fact I was dating a woman twelve years my senior. Then when you factor in Patricia isn’t a Christian and white on top of that, it was like adding fuel to a fire. Lily and I did not speak for about six months and only started working toward burying the hatchet when my grandma died in 2010.”

“Dang, that’s deep. She certainly came a long way it seems if she is making your wedding dress.”

“Frankly, she is probably doing it because it gives her a chance to show off and maybe acquire more customers,” Leah said, matter of fact. “Despite the reason, I’m just glad she is going to be part of our big day.”

“That is so good to hear. I hate it when families fall apart over the simplest of issues. We cannot pick the people our family members decided to love. My view is, as long as they respect them and treat them right, it shouldn’t matter what bathroom they use,” Stephanie said.

Sipping on their coffee, the two sat in silence for a minute. The subtle hum of the air conditioning keeping the office a comfortable seventy-three degrees ebbed in the background. Outside, the meteorologist may be calling for another hot day, but inside, all was quiet and cool. Distantly, they heard a phone ring. Stephanie rose to get it, but Leah waved her to sit back down. The firm hired a service to take calls for them two hours before and two hours after their standard working hours. Leah felt that they might as well get the full use of them.