Fortitude

10-Facts

"You know, I don't get you sometimes. Not so long ago, you were all up in my face about Jab. Now, you're doing the exact same thing about Taji,"

"This one has beautiful hair, and isn't like 10 feet taller than you, and am I forgetting something, oh yeah, HE DRIVES YOUR DREAM CAR," she went on with a hysterical tone, "It's a sign Raz, a siiigggnnnn." I chuckled and rolled my eyes at her before I narrated my dramatic morning.

"I'm sorry, my mind went blank at 'I woke up in his room' ,"

"LILY!"

"What, it's just... fascinating... intriguing... goosebumpling,"

"Come on, that's not even a word, "

"If you understood me, then it is,"

"Why do I even talk to you?"

"No no, I think you mean, Lily, you're the most precious gift God gave to me, you're my everything, the ying to my yang, the peanut butter to my jelly, the... the... okay I'm all out of Shakespeareness,"

"Shakespeareness!" I managed to say in between laughs, "You're quite something you know."

After we both finally gained the ability to breath, she spoke up, her tone a bit too serious for my liking, "I've had a lot of bad luck with love, but I've also learnt a lot from that. One thing I know for sure, is that Taji maybe possibly could be the one, " pulling out 'love' and 'the one'.

"Whatever, lemme get some stuff done around here, later Blue Bird."

"Bye Raz."

I hang up as I internally cringed at the sound of the word love. I never really wanted anyone that close to me. As far as I knew, the only people I could say I did love were my mum, dad and Riz. That's it. The thought of adding a man to my life always thrived in my fantasies, in real life though, not so much. Everyone always said that I was too preoccupied with getting Jabari to like me in that way that I kept sidelining potential partners. To be honest, I had my mind set on Jabari and everyone else was pretty much, just basic. This morning though, there was a slight feeling in my gut that that was about to change. That aside, my mind lingered on a statement she'd made.

I've had a lot of bad luck with love.

Lily never actually talked about her 'love life'. She actually barely talked about her life. All I knew about her was that she was partly Kenyan and partly Ethiopian. Her dad owned a chain of restaurants and her mum was a chef. That explained her beautiful hair and the fact that she had a subaru without any history of working anywhere consecutively. She said that graphic design was her passion so she turned down an offer to be a manager of one of the hotels to do her thing.

I told myself that I'll ask her about it later and went ahead to put some clothes on. My phone buzzed in the process. I picked it up and my eyes landed on the last name I'd ever see across my screen.

Amber: Hey you!
Raz: Hey you too!

What does she want now?

Amber: This is totally on short notice, but I'm kinda free today, was really hoping that you are too.

Don't do it.
Don't do it.
Don't do it.

Raz: Yeah I am, why?