Enough Love

2

An indifferent blue-eyed animal.

That was what Louisa thought about as her fingers spiraled a single braid. She stared at the short, chubby, dark-skinned woman in a light blue native boubou sitting opposite her. With every word Aminatu spilled, she took an extra french fry into her mouth. It was like a programmed act and it irritated Louisa's nerves.

They sat at the last table of the restaurant, beside the thick glass which made up the walls of the restaurant with a view of the poolside. The restaurant was a bit crowded and more for the exquisite cultural design it portrayed than its menu. Louisa chose the place because it was close to her apartment and it made her feel better about agreeing to a request that was made impossible to reject.

Each moment that aged by she wanted to return to her apartment, to curl under her sheet with Grumpy's fur on her fingers. If Aminatu had found her any other day, she would have denied every word and fled like a coward but there was a new voice birthed in her mind. She didn't know what it was or where it came from but it made her feel and act like a daredevil. The feeling of excitement mixed with heavily shadowed fear returned and it made her curse herself for entertaining a woman that reminded her of a world she scorned.

As she sipped her soda and partly listened to her intruder, she reminisced on a sinking feeling which made her feel like a hypocrite. Almost every day she would assure her patients that they had to stop running away from their fears and past. She always preached to them that the best way to grow was to dig up the strength and courage to be free from the chains of their insecurities. They had to be bold enough to live on their terms. Louisa glanced at the woman who represented a tiny piece of her fears and past then cringed back into her shell. Letting her insecurities and nightmares envelop her in molested comfort. They were emotions she was used to, they had no mystery or sudden twist, so she knew what to expect.

"You think so too?" Aminatu beamed at her lunch date, she was as merry as cricket to see her long, lost cousin. The glow in her eyes exposed how much she wanted to talk about every single thing that came to mind. Maybe it was her excited hormones or her need to assure her childhood best friend that she could see the threads of sorrow knitted around her feigned indifference.

"Hm. . . oh sorry, I was thinking about something."

"I was just talking about the fire explosion that happened yesterday in the news, it's sad but it feels like there's more to that story. You gave a slight nod, so I thought you agreed. What or should I say who were you thinking about?" Louisa had never seen a set of thirty-two shine so bright. Aminatu teased her with a grin and wink, which was more of a repeated blink than what it was meant to be.

"Oh yes, I watched the news. It was horrible." Louisa sobered up at the memory of it, "I hope the government does something about fuel tankers passing through main roads."

She was trying to avoid her cousin's question. She wanted to say her cat but she didn't want to be the cat lady, nobody did. Instead, she faked a smile and then blurted, "I was thinking of my boyfriend, he was supposed to call me."

"I wish I could meet him. Wait, does he know about the little one?" No star could outshine Aminatu's excitement.

Little one? Louisa shrunk her brows in confusion, "I don't understand."

"Well, I saw you with a pregnancy test kit. So I assume there's a little one around the corner," she dipped a fat fry into a smudge of ketchup, "I hope you guys get married."

Louisa's senses began to peel off every piece of information Aminatu shoved at her; little one, marriage. Her cousin thought she was pregnant. She almost laughed out loud at the idea of her having a baby without any man in her life. Even Mary, the mother of Jesus had a fiancé. She had a cat and she wanted to go home to him because she was exhausted. She gave life a chance to bring on whatever it had and it was nothing she wanted.