Fortitude

4-Friday

》《

"I saw yo boy by the way," Lily said with her eyes fixed on the road as we drove away from the school.

"And?" I spat.

"You don't have to bark at me, sheesh,"

"Sorry, just down in the mouth,"

"Anita?"

"What no! Maybe, I don't know, ah"

"Raz, I don't know you that well so forgive me if I'm wrong. But you're way too fine for the one sided love drama,"

I just sighed and turned my head to face the trees speeding past us as I clutched onto the seatbelt, deep in thought.

"I could be wrong about him, but I'm almost certain I'm not," she continued.

I opened my mouth to say something but no words came forth so I just shut it and returned to my former position.

》《

My schedule was way worse than I thought. I was up and down downtown finding wholesale home items. When I wasn't doing that, I was all over timber yards in my neighbourhood checking on furniture that was to be custom made. People could be very demanding when it came to their homes and it could get stressful real fast. It was my dream job anyway and that thought kept pushing me forward.

I'd received an email assigning me to an apartment on Thursday. It was the first project I'd be doing by myself and I was over the moon. I was getting tired of shadowing older designers. The main problem was that I always did things a certain way and if it didn't turn out perfect, I'd lose it. Some call it OCD. I call it being me.

The owner emailed that he'd be available to discuss everything on Friday. No words could explain the relief I got from that. I had a day off! I'd usually plan to meet up with someone. And by someone I mean Jab but as soon as I woke up, I was certain that I wasn't going to leave the house. The only other person I'd meet up with was Lily and she was at the office working on an advertisement.

I spent the whole day in my pyjamas binging on a series on Netflix, totally disregarding any need for personal hygiene. I, at least, had enough time to make my parents dinner, taking into consideration time wasted by being meticulous about everything. I'd always been a bad cook so I had to slow down everything to make sure I didn't miss a single ingredient.

》《

I alighted the matatu at the bus stop texted to me by the homeowner. We were always given access to our client's contacts to communicate with them as often as need be. I stood next to a wall taking out my phone to scroll through it. Finding the name I was looking for, I called.

"Hello?" a husky voice grumbled on the other side.

Oh my gosh is he asleep.

"Uhm, hi. This is Raziya, from Keja, we spoke earlier on and-"

"Oh crap!" He cut me short and I could hear the sound of shuffling.

"I can come by later if this is a bad time,"

"No, no, it's okay, I don't want to inconvenience you, where are you?"

"I'm at the bus stop you texted,"

More shuffling, "Uhm, take a nduthi (motorbike) and tell him to drop you off at Dhahabu apartments. I'll pay."

"Thank you but you really don't have to,"

"I'm not negotiating!" It came out a bit too sharp but he rescued it with,"Please."

This will be a long week.

"Okay,"

I got off the motorbike sending a quick text to him informing him of my arrival. About a minute later, I could make out the sound of footsteps getting closer accompanied by jingling keys. I quickly smoothed out my hair which had been blown by the rush of air speeding past us as we rode on the bike. The gate creaked open letting out the sound of a jovial conversation between the guard and the tenant.

A medium height, brown skinned(probably mixed race)man stepped out. He was slightly chubby and looked around mid twenties. He was dressed in a grey sweatshirt, khaki shorts and a beanie. I noticed a slight look of shock that was quickly replaced by a friendly smile as he said hi. He pulled out a hundred shilling note and handed it to the biker and thanked him for dropping me off.

"After you," he said as he turned back to me with a wide grin ushering me into the gate. I smiled back as I said, "Thank you," nearly choking on how alluring his smile was. I waved at the guard and kept walking towards the flats. I stopped dead in my tracks upon spotting a familiar automobile.

The green Audi.