A Melancholic Black Series (Book 1): The Red Door by R.J. Scriber

 
     
     
     
     
     
    I
     
     
     
     
     
    May 10th, 2003.
    Before… when it made more sense.
     
    If you ask any woman about the one day they have always dreamed about, as far back as they can remember, they will give you the same two answers: Disney World and their wedding day. Preferably, back to back. It’s no different for Nell Gray. She wanted a man that looked like Jonathan Taylor Thomas, sang like Brian McKnight, and wooed her how Cameron James wooed Bianca Stratford.
    As for the wedding itself, it was simple. Outside ceremony, near a waterfall, although not necessary. As long as it was outside. She had visions of the warm spring air gently blowing her hair, almost in slow-motion. Flowing back and forth, gently caressing against her soft, but toned shoulders. Enough to drive the man who awaited her hand absolutely wild with anticipation.
    It would be sunny. Not that it needed to be. Overcast was fine. There would be hundreds of people. Most of them she wouldn’t even know. She didn’t care. Passerbys would see her beauty and need to crash it just to get a glance of this stunning maiden. Men would ask themselves; How can I get someone like her? I need her!
    For just once in her life, she wanted to be the center of attention. She needed to be the prettiest girl in the room, even though she always had been. It was a modest life she’d lived. She never saw her worth, but Rodney did. Of course he did, he’s a man. He saw her physical beauty as all men have and still do, yet it was her inner beauty that drove him wild.
    If there’s one thing he knows, everything Nell does, is done out of love. No matter how morally wrong it may be. How else can he explain the ring on his finger?
    She gave Rodney a chance to win her heart, which he did. Although it was the pain he had been going through that broke her heart just enough for him to sneak in. He was JTT; he was Brian McKnight; he was Cameron James.
    To her.
    In reality, he was none of them, not even close. He was a nerd. Not by “nerd standards” of being savvy. Just a title by people who never understood him because he was weird and peculiar. Nell never cared.
    In fact, Rodney thought it was a joke the first time Nell asked him out. He figured she was just being cruel. There had been so many before him who had tried and failed to win Nell’s hand, why wouldn’t he think she was lying?
    “ Some of my friends jest, saying I’m as weird as Rodney Gray. ‘You’d make a good couple,’ they say. They were kidding, but they aren’t wrong. Wanna go out some time, maybe? ”
    Word for word, that’s how Nell asked him for their first date. Imagine the look on his face when he realized she was being serious. The dumbest smile, but she thought it was cute. She never understood how anyone could be so stupidly happy from her asking them out.
    Poor Nell never knew her worth.
    Without a doubt, he wanted to shout, “ Fuck yeah! ” Instead, a simple, “ Sure ” sufficed. Best decision of his life; easiest, too. He always just thought she made a mistake, and he was grateful for it. Nell has been nothing but unwavering and loyal. Something he, along the way, had forgotten himself.
    Perhaps it was cockiness, now that he had Nell on his arm. She was a catch, a woman other women were jealous of, just from looking at her. Which was a very serious problem and the one main reason she has no friends. Some people— most people—are just plain intimidated.
    No secret.
    She was naive some times, but not stupid. She saw the jealousy ooze from their iris’ most times. At heart, she’s just an exotic girl-next-door type, who would rather just stay home in pajamas or blue jeans with a messy white shirt than to go out and dress up to play Barbie. In retrospect, that’s what most likely made her appealing to a lot of men. Even women, since a lot of them put in the effort to look beautiful, and here is Nell—a living, breathing deity of godly good looks.
     
    “ I now pronounce you