And now it’s Mykal and Desmond’s turn.
By now, I’m sure it’s clear that the Glimpses lately have been of characters from my Love is Cure, Vol. 1 – Vices & Virtues series, and for an excellent reason 😉. Hopefully, you’re following me in other places online to learn why soon?
This week, we’re checking in on Mykal and Desmond, characters from book four in the series, Envy.
We caught up with Mykal in book one in The Energy Series, When Luke Met Juliette. There we learned that she and Desmond are engaged. Let’s see how that engagement came to be, shall we?
If you are new to Mykal and Desmond, meet them here when you’re done.
For now, enjoy!
P.S. if bad dads are a trigger for you, please be aware that this Glimpse features one who is unapologetically a bad dad 😒.
Mykal & Desmond
…. The more he laughed, the tighter Mykal pursed her lips together.
Her father.
He was laughing.
And… smiling?
She did not know his face could do that. Mykal never knew her father had the muscles capable of holding a smile so naturally and as big as the smile he wore that evening.
His chuckles carried around the table, bouncing off the floors and ceiling, too.
“You are brilliant,” he complimented.
Not to Mykal.
He directed his compliment at Mykal’s boyfriend, Desmond, who was being fed more compliments than the food on his plate at the dinner table.
“I am absolutely impressed with what your newspaper is becoming,” Mykal’s father, Jedidiah, added. “Very impressed.”
Whose family was this, again?
Because based on how much love and attention Mykal’s father was giving Desmond, offering not even a fraction of it to Mykal, you would think she was the visitor.
“Thank you, Mr. Jones,” Desmond said with a smile. “I appreciate it.”
Jedidiah chuckled with glee.
Mykal and Desmond sat across from Mykal’s mother Talia and her father, Jedidiah, at a family dinner held in the dining room at Mykal’s childhood home.
A family dinner, Jedidiah was more than thrilled to attend.
Mykal could barely get the question out of her mouth regarding if it would be okay to bring Desmond with her to dinner… Desmond’s idea. Her father agreed the moment Desmond’s name left her mouth.
And ever since Mykal and Desmond sat at her parents’ dinner table, Desmond has been the center of attention.
“You know,” Jedidiah started, “I used to read your father’s op-ed pieces when he was a staff writer for the Holidae Press.”
Desmond smiled big. And that was the one thing that warmed Mykal’s heart that night. Although he’s dealt with his father’s passing better than she expected, she knows it hasn’t been a simple transition, going from caring for his father to grieving his absence.
“I loved his writing,” Jedidiah commented. “I would flip to his section every week whenever he penned the paper’s op-eds.” Jedidiah chuckled. “I wasn’t into the beat reporting. Too heavy most days, especially his beat reports.” He quickly swallowed to continue fangirling, Mykal rolling her eyes at it all. “But I’d read them anyway because he had such a gift with words.”
Mykal inhaled a deep breath and let it out slowly through her mouth.
The topic of discussion didn’t bother Mykal. For the final few months of Desmond Ellis II’s life, Mykal was around. Witnessing firsthand the love the Ellis men had for each other. Even during the instances when Desmond’s father didn’t seem cognizant, the love and pride he had in his eyes for his son was still clear. Clear during those brief moments of cognizance when Desmond’s father looked on at his offspring as he toured the printing press his son owned. Or when Desmond’s father watched on as a row of black writers typed away at their keyboards, creating stories for the black-owned newspaper that was once Desmond’s father’s dream when he was a news writer.
What had Mykal bugged sitting at the table with her father was, to her surprise, her father knowing how to dole out compliments not laced with sarcasm.
“You okay?” Desmond asked her low, clasping her knee beneath the table.
She glanced over at him, an easy smile appearing on her face.
“I’m sure she’s fantastic,” Jedidiah intruded, eyes focused down on his plate, oblivious, as he moved around his food with the prongs of his fork. “She’s landed one of the most esteemed men of her time. What else could she be except for fantastic?”
Wow.
Mykal turned an unpaid internship into the first paying one at the black independently owned For The Culture Magazine. She became assistant editor within only four years working at the magazine and, shortly thereafter, the editor-in-chief. Her triumphant rise at the publication has attracted the attention of mainstream media.
She’s a success story.
And yet…
It all didn’t compare to having a newspaper magnate-in-the-making boyfriend… according to daddy Jedidiah.
Mykal’s jaw slacked at her father’s nerve.
And although she wanted to call him everything but what his parents named him, she let it go. She let it all go.
Mykal determined a very long time ago that Jedidiah’s validation simply could not matter to her anymore. And in the same spirit, she couldn’t give his invalidation any care, either.
“Uh… these lamb chops,” Desmond began, chewing the last of his meal, “are excellent, Mrs. Jones.”
Mykal smiled at Desmond, recognizing his attempt to redirect the energy in the room.
Mykal’s mother couldn’t help but to blush at the compliment. As always, she was quiet most of dinner, chiming in here and there. Mykal was a fan of her mother’s cooking. Truthfully, it was one of the – if not the only reason – Mykal agreed to family dinners at her parents’ home.
“Thank you,” Talia gushed, straightening her back in her seat, visibly ecstatic to be the new center of attention at the table. “I marinated it in balsamic—”
“Enough about that. What’s next for you, Desmond?” Jedidiah interrupted, not even glancing over at his wife to nonverbally ask if it was okay to interrupt or, at the very least, apologize for doing so.
And Mykal had enough.
She pushed her chair back, prepared to leave the table but Desmond tightened his grip on her knee. He took her hand and threaded his fingers with hers next. Mykal glanced at Desmond as he lifted his hand with hers to his lips, leaving a kiss on the back of her hand.
She blushed, turning their hands so she could leave a kiss behind his.
Mykal warned him about her father, so Desmond knew what to expect. Mykal hoped her father would be in rare form, but alas, he was still an ass.
“I just know you’ve got something phenomenal planned up your sleeve,” Jedidiah added. “Let’s hear about that. I’m sure it’s far more interesting than discussing recipes.”
Mykal’s eyes bounced between her mother and father. She watched as her mother lifted her fork off the rim of her plate to resume eating, giving not another thought to what had just occurred.
Because that, Jedidiah’s disrespect, was nothing new. Jedidiah interrupting the ladies’ train of thought in the house was as frequent as day turning to night. They could barely complete a sentence without him interrupting, cutting in, in the middle of them speaking.
Mykal tucked her lips into her mouth, rubbing her lips together. Inhaling and exhaling, practicing the breath work technique her therapist Liz Peters taught her to use whenever she felt the urge to explode.
Desmond inhaled a breath and offered Jedidiah a polite smile. He then paid a glance at Mykal to find her inhaling and exhaling for dear life in search of any calm she could capture in her breaths.
“What I have planned is definitely phenomenal.” He looked at Mykal and smiled. “It’ll be one of my biggest and greatest plans yet.”
Mykal’s brows furrowed under her pixie cut bangs.
She did not know what he was talking about, and she prided herself on knowing most things about Desmond.
“Well.” Jedidiah beamed. “Please,” he said, gesturing for Desmond to continue, “tell us all about it. I want to know everything.”
“Okay, if you insist.” Desmond’s beautiful grin grew so wide Mykal couldn’t help but to smile back.
“I’d rather show than tell, though,” Desmond revealed. “If that is okay with you, Mr. Jones?”
Jedidiah gestured with hands impatiently, granting Desmond permission.
Desmond pushed his chair back to stand on his feet.
“What’s…?” Mykal followed Desmond with her eyes as he stood from his seat and moved the chair out of his way.
“Oh, my God,” Talia whispered on the other side of the table, briefly drawing Mykal’s attention in that direction.
Her mother’s smile could light up a stadium as bright as her expression of delight beamed across from Mykal.
When Mykal returned her gaze to Desmond, she found him lowering onto one knee.
Mykal gasped softly.
“My love,” Desmond started. “I have known I wanted to do this for a while now, and my patience to ask has only made me fall even more madly in love with you while waiting for the right moment to do it.”
Mykal inhaled a breath to calm her heart. At that moment, she forgot where they were. It seemed everything faded around them because all she could see or hear was Desmond.
“What we have, what we’ve cultivated between us, is a testament to the unpredictable nature of life and I have never wanted to expect the unexpected the way I desire to do so with you.” He smiled. “Our love blossomed amid a lot of chaos. A real rose growing out of the concrete journey. And I can’t wait to nurture that rose in our love.”
It was Mykal’s turn to smile widely.
“You are incredible,” Desmond continued, staring into her eyes, “one of a kind and you are all these things and more, independently,” he stressed. “…of me.”
She wanted so badly to shoot a “take that” glare in her father’s direction but refused to pull herself from the light Desmond was shining on her.
Because the most amazing man was down on one knee in the home she grew up in, in front of the people who gave her life, seconds away from asking her to spend the rest of her life with him.
Mykal’s eyes grew wider when Desmond pulled out the ring box, flipping opened the lid to reveal a pink diamond tucked in the box’s slit.
“Oh, wow,” Mykal whispered, pressing her fingertips to her mouth.
“Mykal Jones,” Desmond said, plucking the ring from the box’s slit. “With the blessing of your father and your mother…” Desmond glanced over at her parents and Mykal looked up and in their direction to see her mother nodding profusely and her father offering a single nod with the biggest smile. “I would love the honor of being your husband.” He looked into Mykal’s eyes. “Will you marry me?”
Mykal was nodding before he could fully ask, and she was shouting yes as soon as all the words left his mouth.
Mykal’s pulse was racing, her heart skipping beats. She pulled Desmond into a kiss and eventually a tight hug. He was more than eager to reciprocate. She was so ecstatic she hadn’t fully examined the ring until her mother pulled Mykal into her arms, quickly lifting Mykal’s hand to gush over and appraise the ring. Talia was soon extending her arms for Desmond next, leaving Mykal and her father standing opposite each other, feet a part.
Awkward.
But to her surprise, not for long.
He didn’t give her a moment to think about it. He took her by the hands and drew her into the warmest hug she didn’t know he could give.
“You did good, Mykal,” he said in her ear, leaving a kiss on the cheek.
And even though she’d kicked the obsession of working for his approval and even though she was receiving it because of someone outside of her, it was enough… for what it was worth.
So she hugged him back and smiled from her heart.
“Thanks, Dad,” she said, truly thankful for the moment but grateful her happiness no longer hinged on hearing him voice a favorable opinion about her. Because Mykal realized along the way she could never change her father, and she would spend no time trying to anymore. If he changed, it would be because he wanted to change. So she instead, she used her energy to change herself for the better.
“Let’s make a toast,” Jedidiah announced next, smiling with so much pride. “I have a vintage Cabernet Sauvignon I’ve been saving for a moment like this.”….