Fortitude

30-Food

Raziya

I was more eager than usual for Bible study that Friday at Lily's. She'd somehow convinced her brother to stick around and hang with us. It'd been an entire week since I saw Taji and I just couldn't wait to see his beautiful face again. We texted on a daily basis but nothing beats face to face interaction. There was also the fact that he said that he wanted to ask me something in person so that got me a bit anxious.

"Maybe he's proposing," Lily said as I helped her set the table.

"You never know." Mark joined in.

"The two of you are out of your minds."

Taji said that he'd be running a bit late. He had gone to visit Tanya. He arrived at around 8 and you could tell that something was wrong. He seemed stressed out by something.

"Hi guys," he said as he got in then sat on the couch giving us a forced smile. I went and sat next to him, put my hand on his knee then asked," What's wrong?"

"There's something wrong with Tanya but everyone is saying that she's okay and I should stop worrying. She wasn't home when I went to visit her."

"Where'd she go?" He shrugged his shoulders then sighed. He then smiled at us and said," I didn't come to be a buzz kill."

Lily, Mark and Shaba, Lily's brother, gave him a sympathetic smile before Lily got up to pray for the food. Everything else went smoothly; no fights and definitely no tough questions. We went through God's promises to Abraham then started discussing the coast trip.

"There's no humble way to say this, but we have a beach house. It's not as big as you're probably picturing in your minds right now." Lily said as she chuckled.

"That's what they always say. Then you get there and it has an infinity pool on the third floor. " Mark joked and we all laughed.

"How many people are coming with us?" Taji asked looking a but nervous.

"Just us guys and this idiot," Lily responded and shook her brother. "Oh and I'm sure Riziki would want to come since she's finishing school like next week, right?"

"I'll let her know when she comes back home." I said

"So how many cars?" Taji asked.

"We could rent a van," Lily suggested.

"There are three cars between us, why spend money on another one?" Mark asked.

"Ha! If ya'll are counting mine, itabidi mmelipia mafuta. (You're the ones who'll pay for fuel)" Taji joked.

"It can't be that bad,"

"You have no idea. I'm okay driving, just as long as you're all chipping in for gas."

"You know for a rich kid, you're really stingy," Lily joked. "We could use mine, it's spacious enough,"

"For six people, keeping in mind that I take up two seats," Taji joked.

"You do know you've lost weight right?" I said to him.

"I just like making fun of it," he answered with a grin.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we're taking Elizabeth's and Taji's. Period." Shaba spoke up and she swatted his shoulder for using her full name.