Anyway, in her absence we all speculated about him, is he tall? Is he fine? Is he African? Rich etc� that by the time Sunday rolled around, we all had our different ideas of what Kehinde�s man looked like. So the doorbell rings and Kehinde walks in with him. Silence. Even more silence. My parents get on my nerves a great deal but I could not blame them on this occasion because Kehinde could have given us a heads up. Her man, although not bad looking, did not look ANYTHING like we�d imagined. First of all he�s not African or American. Either would have been O.K because my Dad�s African and my Mom and us are American. Secondly, he�s Asian � Vietnamese to be more specific. And when I say Vietnamese I mean proper Vietnamese �with the accent and all. I wish I had a camera on hand that day because I would have loved to capture my parent�s facial expressions for eternity.
So Diary, do you think it was irresponsible for her to not even warn us about this? I mean there�s nothing wrong with interracial relationships but it is really a BIG DEAL in the African culture for a woman to marry outside her culture because this means her kids are not African and that she�ll probably move to his country. I mean if it was Taiwo it wouldn�t be as bad because his kids would be Nigerian and his wife would follow him around instead of the other way round.
Anyway, apart from the initial meeting, dinner went really well and we found out a lot about Duc Van otherwise known as Charles (don�t ask)� he�s in his 4th year of medical school, likes America, met Kehinde at a medical school party (what was she doing there? She�s an interior decorator) blah blah blah. I really have to give it up to my dad for keeping his composure cos I could tell he was itching to say something ignorant. On their way home my dad said, �Kehinde, call me as soon as possible, we have some things to discuss.� I guess there�s drama to come�
The rest of the week went on without event till Friday. So us girls decided to have a �girl�s nite in� at Trace�s apartment. So we all cooked, I, of course, made my famous chicken, and we rented a few movies ��The Wedding Planner�, �Memento �and �Two Can Play That Game.�
So there we were, me, Trace, Janelle and Amber, stuffing ourselves and watching �The Wedding Planner,� when as it usually happens at these things, the discussion turned to men. I thought that Matthew McConaughey�s (sp?) fianc�e was asking for it by leaving a woman as fine as J.Ho with her husband because �we cannot lose momentum,� when suddenly Janelle burst into tears. We were all shocked and tried to console her when she said,
�Sometimes we have no power over that.�
�Over what?� �What are you talking about?� Amber and Trace said at the same time.
�Over who your husband spends time with.� O.K I guess someone is having some relationship problems.
�Who does �Timmy the dog� spend time with?� I asked
�Donald spends his time with a Brazilian coworker �Iara.�
�And you think he�s interested in her?� I could barely stop myself from laughing out loud. What da hell was she smoking? Don would NEVER cheat on her. He�s got to be one of the most trustworthy guys out there.
�Well, he always invites her everywhere. She�s always at our house. They are always talking in private corners. He must think I�m a fool!� Her temperature was rising.
Trace rolled her eyes. �Jan, listen to yourself. What kind of guy would bring a girl he was sleeping with or even THINKING of sleeping with around his wife and family? That should be proof that she�s merely a co-worker.�
�I agree. It doesn�t make sense.� That was Amber. I nodded in agreement.
Janelle shook her head. �Exactly, it�s just a reverse psychology thing. He�s all out in the open trying to fool me, thinking that I would assume that there�s nothing going on. But I wasn�t born yesterday. She�s an absolute knock-out and I see the way he looks at her.� Amber, Trace and I gave one another knowing looks -she was going through one of her paranoid phases again.
It�s so sad, no matter how happy you are, you have to find something to bitch about. So so sad.
Femi, 6:23pm, Sunday May 26, 2002
