Richard agreed to give Fatima a job at his law firm, promising her a better position when he got the chance to open his own with Mr Ekuban. I knew the position would more than likely be executive assistant, it paid well from what I heard and she would be able to afford taking care of herself. I still needed to find a way to help her with her tuition and I think I had a plan for it. We were now on our way to my suit fitting and photo shoot.

"Fatima," I called her name to get her attention.

"Would you kill someone for money?" I asked.

"How much are we talking about?" Her eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"Like, 25 hundred dollars minimum and the maximum depends on the request." I explained.

"You sound like you know someone."

"Nope. I just heard about it and wondered, you know." I evaded her assumption.

"Well I'm not too sure if I could do that. I'm going to need the money, yes but I don't want to lose my soul." She sighed.

"I feel you." I nodded and kept my eyes on the road.

I parked in the parking lot and got out locking the Jeep after Fatima. She loved it and even though I knew she wondered where the darkly tinted Acura was, she never asked. I drew my cap down blocking the sun and briskly walked to the tailor shop, she loved the sun. Said it was a relief from the Alaska weather and my stupid response was, I thought sun shined everywhere.

Samantha, the new clerk, greeted me with a broad smile. I got Mary fired simply because I didn't like her presence after our encounter before the wedding. I would fit my suit first and then I'd move on to makeup and wardrobe for the shoot.

"This is Fatima, take care of her and get her whatever she wants." I told Samantha.

"Will do ma'am... I mean, Zim." She smiled shyly.

"What have you done to the poor girl?" Fatima whispered to me.

"Why do you assume I've done anything?" I looked at her wondering if she was crazy.

"Look at her, she's so nervous around you." She chuckled.

"Guess it's just me." I winked with a sly smile on my lips.

"You are so egotistical and ambitious." Fatima playfully pushed me.

"Same was said for Julius Caesar and he denied the crown thrice, an ambitious judgement is from someone who is intimidated." I lifted my cap from my head and rested it in her lap.

"For someone who isn't very poetic, as you say. You have a lot of knowledge on literature." She complimented.

"Thank you, thank you. I still think you should've taken literature and creative writing with me." I pouted.

"And where would my passion for photography fall in?" As she said that, another idea popped into my mind.

I could get her photoshoot gigs but how much would that pay? From our little intimate session two weeks ago, the gears in my mind have been spinning none stop trying to figure out how to help her since I couldn't just pull the money from my own pockets. I wasn't even working for my own self much less to put more stress on Richard and his newly born infant son. Zachary, was his name and she made sure to give him our McGlashan last name and un-coincidentally his middle name was Irving. We had to have the same initials, huh? Curse you Sophia!

She hasn't visited us and I wasn't sure if Richard went to the hospital to sign any papers or what but he said he didn't go and I wasn't sure if he was lying or not, I planned to give him the benefit of the doubt though. I didn't continue the conversation with Fatima, I left her side and went to Mr Saveti to try on my full white suit that now had the inside vest in the traditional African print that we chose to use for the wedding theme. Mr Saveti's talent was unmatched once again as we agreed on where needs to be altered and how beautifully the suit fitted.

"Thank you for coming today, Zim." He said.

"A deal is a deal." I rested both hands on his shoulders.

I took off the suit and went to dress in loose fitted cream trousers and a white shirt that was a size above me tucked in. I had brought my loafers as he suggested. He folded the legs of the pants and sent me off to get my hair fixed and light makeup which was done by Samantha. My hair was freshly faded and cut into the tapered style that I had come to love, I thought I would've grown it out but after awhile I realized that this was much better. I went to the back to see Fatima and the photographer talking and probably discussing his camera.

I moved over to the setup and stood up in the center. Mr Saveti preferred I used a masculine stance and posture while maintaining my soft features, hence the makeup. I took the matching jacket from Samantha and draped it over my shoulders then stuck my hands in my pockets and slightly leaned back. I didn't smile, my face expression was neutral as I heard the camera click and the image was captured. I moved a few more times and allowed the photographer to set me how he saw fit and followed the instructions. My eyes were set on Fatima as her face lit up as she talked about the camera and things like manual settings and aperture, things I knew nothing about. I tuned them out once they started on ISO settings and focused on the soft Italian music playing in the background. I changed outfit three times and took three different sets of pictures. My last outfit was my favorite in the set.

I sat on the bar stool in a dark purple suit and slim black tie with a white button down underneath. My face held a smug expression as I looked forward instead of into the camera that was to my left. My back was slumped against the back of the chair and my body rested on the edge with my feet perched on the foot rest of the stool. My arm was lazily slung over the backrest while my other hand sat on my thigh. Samantha spun the stool so that I was now facing the camera and I changed my pose to an erect posture and wide feet with my elbow perched on my thigh holding up my chin while my other hand in a kimbo on my hip.

Ten minutes later, the shoot was through and I was getting dressed in my dark blue jeans and short sleeved button down that I came in. Fatima loved my Clark's, I did have a good amount of them on my shoe rack. I loved shoes and I loved button downs, it was an addiction that Carter Jones fed, the exotic button downs I had were from her. She would buy them for me whenever she and her father went on vacation, which was a lot seeing that her dad was a hot shot and it was his way of bonding with her and making up for the times he wasn't home.

I was walking out of the back room with Fatima on my tail when I saw Kwashie leaning against the glass counter with a flirty smile on her face as she spoke to Samantha, I actually liked Samantha and I didn't want her to lose her job just because Kwashie seems to can't keep her charms to herself. My nose flared with anger as I marched up to her and folded my arms across my chest looking up at her.

"This is my fiancée, Zim." Kwashie introduced me after she realized that she was caught slipping.

"Oh, I know Zim." Samantha blushed.

"You do?" Kwashie looked confused.

"Of course she does. I come here more than you do and the one time we cross paths I catch you flirting with the clerk. You ever wondered why you haven't seen Mary around?" I asked sternly.

"Not really." She shrugged her shoulder.

"Because I got her fired. Leave Samantha alone because I like her here and I don't want to have to be forced into getting her fired as well." I narrowed my eyes at her.

"Wow.." Kwashie said.

"Wow what, my guy? You think I don't know what you out here doing? You better be keeping that fucking dick in your pants or I might be FORCED to do something else I don't want to do." I threatened.

"Got me all the way fucked up. Leave Samantha alone and go do your fitting and leave."

"When you see this hoe ass right here, avoid the lil shit, aite?" I said to Samantha.

"Yes ma'am." She had an amused expression on her face.

Kwashie walked off without another word and disappeared into the fitting room with Mr Saveti. I looked over at Fatima and she was holding back her laughter.

"Damn, what y'all find so funny? Share the joke." I rolled my eyes.

"I'm gay." Samantha said.

"You are..." I tilted my head at her and watched her nod.

"It wasn't hard to see." Fatima had finally let her laughter out.

"That's good, I guess. Still run him away though, he a hoe." I made up my face.

"He's your hoe since you're his fiancée." She sighed.

"And I'm about to buy a leash for his wild ass." Fatima laughed out and I lifted my middle finger to her.

"I honestly thought you were gay." Samantha said.

"I'm queer." I nodded my head.

I saw Fatima behind her mocking me and I rolled my eyes and told Samantha goodbye. We walked out of the shop seeing that Kwashie parked in front instead of the parking lot so she couldn't have possibly seen my Jeep. I bumped into Fatima as I unlocked the Jeep and ran off to get inside for the AC.

"I swear, you behave like you were born in AC." Fatima laughed as she got in.

"You aren't wrong. I was born in a hospital and the room had AC so leave me be." I stuck my tongue out at her and started up the Jeep.

"What do you want to eat?" I asked her.

"Subway."

"Bro, you know how I feel about subway and their lack of sides. Can't we go to a restaurant or something." I fussed.

"You choose then."

"Yay." I clapped my hands together.

"I don't even know why you asked in the first place." She chuckled.

"Because, I wanted you to feel as if you had a choice." I gave my best evil laugh and turned down the road.

We listened to Fatima's playlist which consisted mainly of bands, soft voices and then rap. We were listening to a band called Bring Me the Horizon and I fucked with this song that was playing. When I listened to the other songs by them I sat still with wide eyes as they shouted and wondered if they were sponsored by maybe Halls or a throat lozenges company. Another song I really liked was Can you feel my heart. If you looked passed the screaming it actually held a lot of meaning and weight and then if you looked at Fatima, you wondered what could possibly be going on in her mind for her to relate to such intense and heavy music.

I pulled into Big Banana pizza place and parked in an empty parking spot. I listened for the beep as I walked away locking the Jeep. Fatima was in slides, navy blue shorts and an orange polo shirt that she stole from me. She and Richard are now extremely close and she calls him Rich, she stays over majority of the time and it's not like she can take back the money she has already paid for the dorm room so she stays there sometimes as well, especially when her class starts earlier than mines or are far apart from each other.

We sat down in front of the tv and waited for the waitress to come with menus. I already had the WiFi password for this location because I frequented here, the waitress that knew me wasn't working today so I had to settle with one that didn't know my regular order. She left to get us water and allowed us to choose what we wanted but I already knew what I wanted.

"You getting a pizza or burger?" I asked Fatima.

"Burger..." she didn't look up from the menu.

"Ready to make your orders?" The waitress asked after putting the full glasses of water in front of us.

"Yeah, I'll take the bacon burger with blue cheese please." Fatima handed her back the menu.

"And I'll have the personal meat lovers pizza with cole slaw, fries and fried ripe plantains. Make that two servings of fries." I looked at Fatima and knew she would eat out my fries.

"Any drinks?"

"Heineken for me and a light beer for the lady." I winked at Fatima as she rolled her eyes and the waitress giggled.

"I'll be back with your drinks." She smiled and walked away.

Fatima and I started talking about random things. The first thing was that she loved it here and was glad that her mother had picked this country to ship her off to. The more she spoke about it, the more I feel like her mother's plan was to have her meet Big Cee and have her realize that he was her father and he would take care of her after learning the predicament that she was in but how could her mother be so sure though? If CJ was still alive and Kwashie and I weren't signed away to be married to each other then I wouldn't be at that school and we wouldn't have met in her first week and my second week.

"Carter was very poetic." I answered her question.

"She was? That's cool." She nodded.

"Yeah, Yeah. She always swept me off my feet with sweet words." I chuckled.

"Do you love Kwashie?" She asked.

"I do." I didn't even have to think about it.

"The love I feel for Kwashie is different from what I felt for Carter. Kwashie was set on winning my heart and I hopelessly tripped over my own senses and fell into her arms." I smiled.

"I like that. I am a hopeless romantic and I can't wait to find someone to give all this love to." She stretched her arms wide.

"Give some to me." I patted the table.

"I give enough to you." She laughed.

"But for real though, I love being in relationships. I love the comfort and the ups and downs." She sighed.

"You'll find someone soon enough, bud. Cheer up." I blew a kiss at her and turned the beer bottle to my head.

"I realize that you drink a lot."

"I do?" I gasped.

"I realize that you also use humor as a coping mechanism."

"Are you sure you want to be a journalist slash photographer and not a psychologist or psychiatrist? Because you stay trying to psychoanalyze me, bro. I already have Richard seeing right through me. Leave a brother alone." I threw the napkin at her.

"My bad." She laughed out.

"My bad." I mocked her.

I didn't have a problem with her pointing out certain flaws because with her, they didn't feel judgmental. Even so, it didn't stop them from hitting a spot each time. She opened up to me since my secrets and hers were out of the way, it's funny how closer you can feel to someone once certain barriers have been lifted.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She gave me a reassuring smile.

I looked around the restaurant seeing that it didn't hold a lot of people at midday. I ordered other drinks for us and we sat drinking waiting on our food, Richard loved pizza from Big Banana so I'd order his favorite to go once the waitress came back. Fatima and I played rock, paper, scissors without any particular reason why and then thumb war. My childishness was half and half compared to her whole milk. I laughed as she flicked my nose and I pushed her head away.

"Here you go, ladies." The waitress came back with our order and set them down.

"Oh. Can I get some mayo, please and also ranch dressing." She nodded and went back to the kitchen.

"Where's the salad?" Fatima asked.

I pointed to the fries and she looked at me weirdly. I smiled and decided to show her instead of explaining. The waitress came back and handed me the condiments I requested. I shook out hot sauce onto the fries after I pushed one of the baskets to Fatima. I took up a French fry and dipped it into the ranch dressing before sticking it into my mouth and then I took another and dipped it into the mayo this time and ate it.

"You are weird as fuck but look at the waitress' ass bruh. Was it that fat when she first came?" She stared after the waitress and I whipped my head around to look too.

My lips formed a satisfied smirk as I nodded my agreement to Fatima's revelation. I continued watching her until she disappeared and was turning my head around when I caught sight of a familiar face laughing with the female sitting before them. My heart rate picked up and I tried to prevent hyperventilating knowing what would happen. I faced Fatima and she saw my face and instantly got worried.

"What's wrong??" She asked panicked.

"Look where the waitress was walking to." I said.

"Is that... is that Kwashie????" She almost shouted.

"Damn, can't take you nowhere." I hissed my teeth.

"Who is he sitting with?"

"I don't know. Describe the person." I kept my eyes fixed on Fatima.

"She's dark skinned, a little thick, her lips are plump, well I think so.." she trailed off.

I rolled my eyes and took a quick glance back to where I saw my fiancée. I studied the woman sitting in front of her and my world stopped instantly as I recognized the features. I forced myself to breathe and think clearly and rationally. They couldn't see us so we were good but what should I do? I looked back just to make sure my eyes were not deceiving me and indeed they weren't.

There was Kwashie, my trusted fiancée, sitting in Big Banana laughing and smiling with none other than Kacely Chidike.