Fortitude

42-Future

Raziya

In the span of three months after Tanya's passing, a bunch of milestones were made. Terry got married to Bobby in a beautiful garden wedding in Mr Fumo's backyard. Tessa moved in with their dad. Lily had been up and about with a couple of endless mysterious errands. Alex started coming to church with us after working out his differences with Taji.

Jabari and Anita broke up. He apparently caught her red handed cheating with one of his friends. He too started coming to church with the aim of making the most of his single hood. Taji and his dad visited the kids in the mental health centre, that was actually named after the mum. In all that, the most remarkable thing that happened was Taji's resignation.

He sold his car, bought one of Lily's parents' restaurants and named it Tanya's. He used his spare time to find people to work with him. He reached out to a bunch of people he left therapy with as we chipped in with more people for him. In addition to all that, Taji, being Taji, bought another Audi in the name of 'it's cheaper than the A8'.

After Terry's honeymoon, she joined us as we worked on remodeling the restaurant. I'd ordered something to give to him as a gift for taking such a huge step in his life. I planned to give it to him on the last day of the renovations.

"You know this doesn't work when you're this much shorter than me," he protested as he leaned back to get to my height as I covered his eyes.

"Shut up and walk," I said in between laughs. "Okay, are you ready?"

"You better not be playing a prank on me,"

"Jeez! You're so annoying. I'm taking my hands off in three... two... one..."

Upon seeing his jaw drop, I couldn't help but grin as my heart swelled. When his eyes teared up, I knew that I definitely did something right. Lily stood in front of us holding the painting he was drawn to back when we went to the art gallery. I was looking through art pieces online when I stumbled upon it. I took a look at it and it dawned on me that BPD stood for borderline personality disorder. Pretty much related to him in a way. The whole aspect of the hand reaching out to the light was a clear depiction of what Taji found the past couple of months. Fortitude.

"You're the best Strawberry. Thank you so much!" he said when he turned to hug me and spin me in the air as I giggled.

"Yeah yeah, this is cute and all but my hands are cramping here. Take your painting already!" Lily complained comically as always. Taji chuckled then took it from her and went to put it in his car. We later gathered to share some pastries and tea prepared earlier on by yours truly chef Taji, with a little help from Mark, Lily and I.

"Hey, I have to leave," Lily whispered as she crouched behind Taji and I. I couldn't help but notice how shaky she looked though. Her grip on my shoulder seemed to pass a message that I was having a hard time deciphering.

"So soon?" Taji asked.

"Yeah, just something I have to do," she said as she stood up straight, rubbing the back of her head nervously.

"Are you okay blue bird?" I asked as I got up, searching her face for clues.

"Yeah," she answered as she smiled through the tears dancing on her eyelids. Her face had began getting red as she tired to blink back the tears. I was going to ask her to tell us what was going on before she pulled the two of us out to the terrace.

She wrapped her hands around me then eventually broke down. I asked her what was wrong but she just continued crying. She spread out one arm to welcome Taji to a group hug. She then let us go, wiped away her tears and whispered something to Taji.