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Chapter Sixty Three.

Inside is a calm, warm and welcoming ambience that instantly makes me love this place even more. We're greeted by smiles and drinks. Mocktails.
"Good evening and welcome Your Royal Highness. I'm Lihle. We have everything ready and set out for you this evening. Please follow Chris. He will be your waiter for tonight."

Chris looks nervous bathong. "Hi Chris," I smile hoping that would make him relax a bit if he truly thinks we're stiff big figures. We follow him as he leads us to our reserved seats at a far almost secluded area. This man really booked the entire restaurant for us. I can't...

He pulls my chair out and I take a seat thanking him once more. When he sits down he takes the initiative again to order for the table. Excellent choices once again.

"Be nice." I whisper and take a sip of my drink.
"I am. What are you talking about?"
"The poor guy is shaking because of you."
"Let him shake a little." he chuckles while I just shake my head. "But now, gimme your hands..."

I give them to him. "... So soft... So warm." he kisses the back of them.
"Your hands are just as soft, what do you mean?" I laugh.
"Baby that doesn't sound manly."
"Soft hands can be manly Bangi."
"Ah," he chuckles and takes a sip of my drink instead of his which makes me glare at him. "Yini? Ufuna ngiminyaniswe yiMocktail manje?"
"Mocktail kabani Bangi?"
"Yethu baby."

I roll my eyes and retrieve my hands before hearing my stomach rumble and tumble in its empty hood. I decide on distracting myself with his phone and take plenty of pictures of myself, us and just him alone. I take a few of the actual place because why not and I smiled thinking of the last time I used his phone for my own pictures. Surely it was wondering too where this chubby goddess went to for a while and while on there I couldn't help but scroll through our hundreds of selfies which I take full credit on. Gosh I see the change and I definitely see the growth. Nzwano doesn't even look like this anymore.

Bathong when did he take these and why was I pulling my face like that while holding that big ass tummy?

I'll blame that on a contraction. Yep. Totally.

"Sir are you stalking me?" I ask and show him the pictures he took of me when I was stuffing my face with a pizza. How did I not notice his presence here?
"You looked so cute...I had to."

I shake my head and head back to scrolling. Sigh. Pictures of his father and sister before he got shot looking so strong and unknowing to the fact that he wouldn't be here with us today show up. The world is a crazy place because one would doubt that would happen but here it is and it hurts.

He comes to sit next to me - chair and all- before looking at the picture I was currently on. I lay my head on his shoulder and lock his phone, overwhelmed by how quickly this just wanted to make me burst out in tears.

"You okay?"
"Yeah," I breathe out. "I'm fine... Just can't believe it's been 8 months since everything. I don't even know how we got through it... Or even how your family made it through but we're here." I shake my head and look at him, his expression hard and focussed on whatever it was. This was before he took a deep breath and finally looked my way forcing a smile on his lips.

"I... I don't want us talking about this... But I'm glad we're here. Together. Breathing. Happy," he says before losing that smile and reaching for his drink. I reach out and hook his forearm with my hands.
"Maybe you should see someone."
"Someone? Like a therapist?" he asks and I nod before hearing him chuckle putting his hand over mine that was still on him. "Sthandwa sam, you're all the therapy I need and have."
"Bangizwe Shazi."
"Sthandwa sam?"
"I'm serious. Very serious about this and you should know this."
"I do know this but I don't need therapy. I'm fine." he says and I want to keep poking but when I glance up Chris is steadily making his way here with two plates in his hold.