Above All

-Twenty-Two-

Patience in the rain

Winter snow guarantees bliss

Food's shared at dawn

Layton:

After that exhausting day I've had with my mother announcing who we would be publicly dating, I retired to my bedroom for some time opting to have dinner by myself as I processed all that has happened today. I already took Oleo Inyene for another walk to "get to know her well" and ultimately had to formally as her out to court then and there; might as well beat Amani to the punch and get it over with.

She was more than ecstatic when I asked her, my past of ghosting her after our one-night romp already forgotten. I'm sure word has already gotten around by now to the other noble women; usually when something this significant happened, Tinashe was the first to explode my phone with constant text message and calls demanding answers.

But I had her blocked, so I was safe for now.

I pushed away my finished dinner and sighed deeply, closing my eyes momentarily before I felt my phone buzz in my pocket; I absently-mindedly grabbed it and opened my eyes slightly to see who had contacted me.

It was Kenzo.

Dude where have you been? You going ghost now? The message read.

I attempted to type a reply, but I noticed the bubbles in the text continued going and I waited for what else he had to say.

Also, I heard you're going out with Inyene Temitope? Didn't think I would see you settle down so soon. The other message read.

I sighed deeply, not even wanting to engage in this conversation right now.

Yeah. My message simply read.

Kenzo didn't seem to like that answer, he questioned which part of the question I was referring to and I basically replied back, both. I knew he was typing more, but I really wasn't in the mood to engage with him, nine times out of ten, he would usually just invite me over to his place for some sort of "laid-back" get together and it would do nothing for my spirit; this was something even I couldn't fight back.

When my mother said something, especially as serious as this...

It was set in stone.

I found myself thinking about the night out I had recently, I really enjoyed myself and just like that my happiness had turned sour. Then I thought about the outburst Amory had in Amani's office earlier and realized he did indeed have it harder than me at the moment; he had someone to cling on and I couldn't necessarily be bothered by the whole ordeal other than having to now pretend to care about the woman on my arm.

My thoughts instantly ran to Amani after that, I felt bad about how we came at her as well; she didn't deserve that, it wasn't her fault that she took orders from our mother, she would lose her job if she didn't. But still...

I had to go see her.

My legs made up their mind before I did and I got up, grabbing my jacket tossing it over my shoulder as I made my way out of my apartment and over to Amani's suite. I made it there in considerable time, memorizing the path with ease, it wasn't hard for me to get there at this point. I knocked a few times on the door and received no response in return.

Was she not in there?

Did she go out again with Éliane?

I walked over to knock her door to see if she could let me know of Amani's whereabouts and there was no response on her end as well after a few attempts. My brow furrowed in frustration as I turned on my heel and began walking down the empty hallways of the palace.