Chapter {23} Destiny

"You didn't correct me when I said we were going on a date,"

How would one reply to such a statement? I could've said that I had not heard him or opposed his statement subsequently dropping the subject but instead, I sat as still as stone and gave no reply, perhaps because in the depths of my heart I knew I wanted it to be a date and make my fantasies come true but how could I do that with someone who had hardly digested the death of his love, one whose wound hadn't been bandaged and was still bleeding?

I decided that I would leave it be, and switch my feelings off if that was what I needed to do, so I sat down, staring down at the world fading away and minutes slowly turning into an hour and that was when I started wondering where we were going.

"Where are we going," I asked disturbing the soft voice of whoever was talking on the radio.

"We will be there in an hour," he replied causing the tinniest of butterflies to fly around my stomach but I just ignored them and rather focused on the fact that he had not answered my question about where we were going, I contemplated repeating my question but decided against it.

"Did you know that the year in Ethiopia is 2016?" I broke the silence that could be cut through at this point, saying the one thing that had come to mind and now I realised that I might have sounded stupid.

But my train of thought was interrupted by an interested reply from Nio, "Really?"

And that opened up a chain of conversations, and a few laughs and debates here and there and in no time we were parked in front of a building standing on top of what looked like a hill. It was in the middle of a clearing, with no other building in sight but all that stood out was lush green grass and trees on top of the hill. It was a beautiful scenery. Perhaps, he wanted us to talk in the peace and sound of nature?

Nio turned off the ignition and walked over to my side to do what he regarded as a normal thing; opened the door for me and even lent me his hand, which never failed to give me tiny electric shocks. I stepped out of his warm car into the cold winter breeze which made me pull at the ends of my jersey sleeves though they were long enough. There were no other cars in sight, which worried me. Where were we?

"Let's go," Nio said leading me into what looked like an entrance to a cave.

Without hesitation, I walked with him, trusting that he would not lead me into a deadly trap.

To my amazement, there was a sliding door at the entrance, but it was dimmed so I could not see what was going on inside.

"Wait a minute," Nio said walking over to the right-hand side of the door where there seemed to be a scanner, he pressed his hand against the almost unnoticeable rectangular device, it quickly scanned it thoroughly before buzzing and in no time the doors slid open.

"Come on," he nudged into the mysterious and uniquely designed building which I now hesitantly walked into.

It was nothing like I had expected, it was no ordinary cave but one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. The ceiling was made of pure grey stone with lights adorning it, the floors were pristine, and shone under the soft lights. With each step I toke, I looked around taking in everything on all the walls of the cave building.

"Sir? W-welcome." A petite woman, dressed from head to toe in formal wear and hair clipped to the back stood in front of us, looking like a ball of nerves.

"How can you welcome me to my own establishment?" Nio did not spare her a second look as she looked like she was about to faint and my jaw was about to touch the ground. How could he own this huge building?

"Close your mouth or a bug might just enter it," Nio commented looking at my slack-jawed self and I quickly composed myself after the embarrassment of him seeing me looking like that.

"Okay."

He continued walking with me hot on his tracks but also admiring the craftsmanship of the whole building that gave me an exotic-world feel with a lot of sophistication, the mere light fixtures were made in a different way, the lights were warm but bright enough, a soft melody played from an unknown speaker, they had taken something the Lord had made and turned it into something that looked more like a fantasy.

"Is this a military base?" I blurted out, voicing my thoughts. Perhaps that's why he was so rich, he was a military commander. I heard that those people earned a lot of money. Oh! And combined with his inheritance he would make a lot of money.

Nio started laughing as though I had just said the world's most funniest thing ever while in actual fact I thought my hunch had to be close to the truth, I mean why else would we be in a building inside a literal cave?

"Amore, you need to access your surrounding because this is a..."

He left the sentence only to build suspense within me as I was highly curious as to where we were and he seemed to like irking me as he gave me a smirk before stepping into a world-class elevator, spacious enough to allow fifty people inside, and clean enough for a germaphobe like himself.

I thought of giving him an attitude and not entering the elevator but the doors were not giving me enough time to think as they slowly closed mocking me in the face so I walked in with a scowl and slunched shoulders, ignoring him by all means. If he did not want to tell where we were then two could play at that game.

"Mi Amore, are you upset?" I could hear the I don't care tone in this voice so I ignored it.

He sighed, "This is not a military base but a..." And the elevator doors swiftly opened causing him to stop mid-sentence and for me not to hear what the place was. I was about to throw a tantrum when I took heed of my surroundings.

The elevator opened to a lively floor filled with families, women and men walking around in swimming costumes, some even wearing sunhats, and some holding wet towels. How could they swim in such cold weather?

"Amore, welcome to the world's first cave resort," Nio was now standing beside me, indicating to the first floor and to the upper floor which was more silent with a few people walking through it.

It was beyond beautiful, grand and expensive; very expensive. The floors seemed to be made of pure tile which must've cost a pretty penny, and a chandelier hang from above the moulded ceiling with intricate designs. The floor-to-ceiling walls were made of pure granite tiles. Do you even want to ask about the furniture?

While I was still admiring the floor, Nio left me walking into a nearby hallway, gaining thousands of eyes from the staff which seemed to fear him from their lack of eye contact and rigid posture, men looked at him in envy and young women looked at him with lust, oh, even old women pause in their tracks just to take a glance at him from afar but the weird thing was that Nio did not seem to mind this, as he continued with his long strides. I'm glad he did not lust after them as the Word said in

Matthew 5: 28;

But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

"Come on," Nio called out to me causing the eyes to change from his direction to mine and how I so wished to shrink into the ground but instead of doing that I avoided everyone's gaze and looked into steel-grey eyes which looked at me intently and at that moment our gazes locked and the world's eyes and sound faded away as I walked closer and closer to him. The more I walked the more I noticed something worth remembering like how his fingers twitched with my every step, how a strand of his dark hair kept falling onto his face and he fought to keep it on his head.

Finally, I stood in front of him and I noticed how warm his grey pools were behind the tough composure he kept he was actually someone who needed love, who needed a person who was love in itself; God. And that's when I promised myself that even if we could not be together, I would do my level best to bring him closer to the Almighty God.

****

We were now seated in a five-star restaurant rooftop that was part of the resort. It offered the cool breeze from the ocean below us, which I always looked at and now I needed peace to open up to him.

The moment had come, so I gathered some courage from the Lord to speak up about something that had almost destroyed me, something that had torn me apart.

"I was back at home, writing my homework. My mom was in the kitchen, humming a wonderful melody," I chuckled remembering how I never thought that the day would end up in the most horrific manner. "My mom's phone then started ringing, and we knew that ringtone; it only rang when my father called." I paused to gather strength as my eyes started moistening over and I tried blinking them but nothing helped. Nio did not look at me with pity but rather for the first time with understanding.

"At first we could not hear anything and then we heard a chest heaving up and down before broken sobs filled the phone," I could not continue, I just wanted to run away and hide away from the world as I relieved the horrific call but suddenly a warm, electrifying hand engulfed my own making me raise my eyes towards the person and to my astonishment, it was none other than Nio. He gave me a gentle squeeze encouraging me to continue.

I sighed, "H-he then slowly told my mom how he loved my mom and I with his entire heart and how she should take care of me." By now, tears were streaming down my cheeks. "He said he b-believed t-that my mom would raise me to be the b-best version of m-myself. My mom t-tried asking him what was going on but would get no reply and then a s-sound I will never forget filled the speaker, the sound of meta c-crushing into something a-and h-his last words were N-ndi ani f-funa and then everything went silent."

I could not control myself as I sobbed into my palms and suddenly I was pulled into a rough chest as warm arms circled me, I knew it could only be Nio, as his homey scent filled me with a feeling of safety and home. He softly ran his hand through my back, sending shocks through it. No words were shared but I knew that it was true when they said that silence wasn't empty but full of answers.

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N-ndi ani f-funa- I love you