Above All

-Thirty-Eight-

Weddings in peace time

Empty all inside my mind

Dog barks swift and just

Layton:

"You honestly don't know how much convincing I had to do for your mother to agree to breakfast with Lesedi." Amani shook her head with frustration as we walked towards the Lotus dining room; I didn't often have many meals there, I could only count on my hands the amount of times I had been in there; today would add another to the list.

Initially, Amani wasn't supposed to be there with my immediate family but my mother had insisted she remain present to keep things in order; I don't think it would've been too far-fetched to say that Amani's presence did bring my mother a sense of comfort and security. I mean her aura just had something about it that made you feel like she had everything under control, even when she herself did not feel like she did.

I admired that about her.

I could only wish to have the confidence and wit that it took to be a public relations person, but I knew if I had a situation such as this, I would probably fold under pressure.

"Random question." I blurted out to her.

Amani turned slightly over to me, her hair naturally swaying in my direction in the process. She had gotten rid of her faux-locs and returned back to her beautiful curly coils again, setting the entire look with a huge ponytail that rested at the back of her head, two designer clips placed on each side of her head to hold down the strays of hair that dared to move out of place; they sparkled whenever she moved her head. Her hair was full and voluminous and had grown tremendously since the last time I had seen it out. Amani did mention that her hair grew rather quickly and she tended to cut it short for easier maintenance purposes, but I couldn't help but admire how beautiful it was when she just let it be.

"Uh... okay, go for it!" She encouraged me.

"What university did you go to again?" I inquired.

She gave me an odd look, "Oak Ford University... it's an Ivy-league located in the states." She said to me. Her eyes darted across my face in a fast motion, "Why do you ask?" She questioned me.

I shrugged, "I just wondered... if that's where you learned how to maintain... all of this." I said as I moved my hands around myself. "Being calm when faced with adversity." I added.

Amani continued walking, the sounds of her heels clicking against the marble floors, echoed throughout the empty hallways. I wondered where everyone was at the moment, perhaps in another wing but I was thankful for the lack of staff walking around because I could be a lot more relaxed with Amani.

She had been incredibly busy these past couple of weeks now that my brother's situation was out in the open, you would imagine the news cycles that were circulating over and over about the entire scandal and the conspiracy of who the woman was so on and so forth; it also limited the amount of time Amani and I spent with each other. The most I could look forward to in my days before getting pulled left and right for engagements that allowed the heat to be taken off of my brother, was sleeping beside and waking up next to her in the mornings.

I always found myself pulling her body from the end of the bed where she always found herself mere inches from falling off; I never knew how she ended up over there and I was just waiting for the day where she actually did just fall from teetering at the edge.