5TH DECEMBER 2034

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Delish Restaurant

Lagos, Nigeria.

7.30 pm

Zachariah Orji

The soft melody of contemporary music, coupled with the coziness of a well-lit five-star restaurant makes my presence as comfortable as that befitting for the president of America.

"Hello sir, can I get your order please?" A waitress asks me corporately with a woman's smile plastered on her face.

I know it is fake.

"Not yet sweetheart, waiting for someone" I smile back and she bows slightly and begins to walk away from me towards the next table where another customer sits waiting, while my eyes trace the flappings of her large derriere.

Ah! I have a fetish for African women who have all the right things in the right places!

I tilt my head to get an alternate view of the measurement of her large-sized derriere. I lick my lips in lust.

She turns suddenly and her eyes catch me red-handed but I adjust myself quickly into a gentlemanly posture and clear my throat. I am trying my best to form a focus away from the embarrassing glare she throws at me.

I become uneasy because she is still staring at me that way, so I adjust my cheap tie and glance at my cheap brown leather wristwatch to observe that the time is thirty minutes past seven and my girlfriend Ann is thirty minutes late for our fifth-anniversary dinner date.

I tap my feet impatiently on the beautiful floor tiles waiting for the heavily endowed waitress to turn away from me so I can return to my thorough examination of her sexy derriere but she surprisingly doesn't, she keeps staring at me, but with her arms akimbo this time.

She begins to walk towards me with the heavy endowment on her chest dangling with reckless abandon;

Oh, Gawd!

I fight the urge that is pushing me to keep staring at those big oranges but I already lost the battle the day I was born male.

"Sorry, I'm late babe..." My beautiful girlfriend finally arrives adjusting her black straight-cut skirt as she stands beside me.

I heave a sigh of relief because the waitress strolls by when she sees Anna.

She is a good woman, she does not want to cause a scene.

I am very lucky because my girlfriend- oh lawd- She is just...

"... You know how the Lagos traffic is, I had to- " She stops when she observes the look on my face.

I do not even look angry for having to wait for thirty minutes, I only look relieved with a mischievous smirk on my face. But I am in trouble because Annalise knows me too well.

She slumps into the red sofa on which I sit comfortably and flashes an accusing glare at me with a question on her face. I know the question but I do not wish to answer it because she can be hot-tempered at times.

Annalise and I, we know each other too well. We have been dating since my final years in the University, that was five years ago, with a lot of quarrels and fights in between.

Sometimes I do not even know why I am still in a relationship with her because she is a big bag of drama, sometimes I think it is because of her beauty and curves, other times I think... Well... That is private.

"Who is she, Zach?" She blurts out the question I do not want to answer with a frown on her face.

I know that she would be mad at me no matter how excusable my explanation is so I do not even bother explaining.

I cannot help the smile that creeps up my cheeks when I stare at her pretty face. She is the definition of physical perfection, the way her face is contoured is almost unnatural, one would think she had cosmetic surgery. Her eyebrows are thin and her lips are full and well curved giving her a slightly babyish look.

Her skin is fair because she is a bloke, her mother is Caucasian and her father is African. Her body is exquisite, having the right sizes and curves at the right places.

However, the most physically appealing thing I find in her is her long, straight legs.

Does she know how to flaunt them!

Today she flaunts them, as usual, wearing a corporate skirt that exposes her sexy laps especially when she crosses them, with a slightly bogus white shirt which is branded 'Walgreens Pharmacy', her workplace. She came straight from her workplace. Yes, she is now a working-class woman while me... well, I still have my charming looks and chiseled abs with which I survive each day.

Hey, I am not saying I am a male prostitute or such, but... you know, I am Zach Orji, a lover of women.

I appreciate the work of nature, especially concerning women.

"You whore!" She fumes when I do not answer her questions because she knows me, so I grab her in an embrace landing uncountable kisses on her cheeks and behind her ears.

"Happy anniversary my booboo"

"Stop bribing me, I should be mad at you" She complains but I hug her tighter smelling the mild perfume on her neck.

"You are a prostitute" She accuses me- I agree- but I do not want her to begin to overreact or get angry so on our very special day so I begin to tickle her lightly;

"No, don't! Zach, we are in public" She warns me but that only makes it worse because I begin to ticker her all over and she begins to yelp and laugh uncontrollably until she succeeds in drawing people's attention to us.

I do not care. She is happy.

I only stop when her phone begins to ring repeatedly.

"Hush... It is my dad" She alerts me and I freeze, especially when she picks up the call and begins to speak French.

I fight a sad feeling that attempts to consume me; Her father hates me like rats hate cats. He despises me because to him I am nothing but a no-gooder who wishes to steal his only daughter from him, which I probably am.

She is the only child of a rich business tycoon who would not settle for less for her daughter. I am less. A man with no job and no cryptocurrency shares in 2034 is no man at all. I even borrowed the blue shirt I wore to this place from my roommate.

Yes, I still have a roommate at twenty-eight.

Who cares? Ann would not just leave me anyways, despite everything I do to her and her father's warnings as well. I perceive that her father is telling her off again over the phone because her mood changes suddenly but I try to take my mind off it by focusing my attention on the television that hangs on the wall before me.

It shows the international news of the hour with headlines that intrigue me.

"Five hundred thousand people already declared dead in less than three hours, from the sudden outbreak of a disease from a Lab in Russia..."

"Europe on standstill, flights grounded..."

I see videos of people who are affected by the strange disease coughing out blood with their skins turning green with some greenish growths like algae spreading on it. They scratch themselves like there is no tomorrow. It looks very bad.

"All countries in the world warned to return to 2020 COVID-19 shutdown measures for safety from the airborne disease..."

"He says I should get on a flight immediately..." Ann reports to me immediately she gets off the phone.

"To where?"

"Bahamas"

I stare into her eyes which are suddenly filled with terror and I wonder what her father told her.

"What?"

"He says a disease has killed millions of people in Paris in less than three hours. He is on his yacht already, on his way to the Island by sea. He says it is worse than COVID"

I know she is serious, but I wonder why the news reports say it is only five hundred thousand people who die from the disease in three hours while her father reports a death toll in millions, in Paris alone. I try my best not to get alarmed or afraid.

"It cannot be that serious Ann, we can stay here and weather the storm together. This part of the world is the best place to be in these times. Besides, I cannot be without you..."
I am trying to appeal to her sentimental myself but Ann- is just Ann- She always finds a way to boss me over and win every argument with me even when I am very close to winning and right.

She smiles; "That is why you are coming with me..."

She stands and drags me up with her, pulling me along as she walks towards the exit of the restaurant.

"Ann wait, I do not have an e-passport or e-citizenship and I do not have any cryptos on my card to pay for a ticket..." I complain.

"It is a private jet dummy, I will take care of the rest" She replies as she keeps walking without looking back.

Her mind is made up but mine is not because I have other secret entanglements which I have to sort out. I also have my sick father at home who I cannot just leave behind.

We get to the exit door and it slides open automatically leading us out of the restaurant to behold a black SUV waiting to pick Ann up.

Her father is that rich, he is a billionaire.

"Ann please wait-" I stop her and she turns towards me.

I grab her lips in a French kiss because I know it might be the last time we meet for I cannot leave everything behind like her. She has nothing much to lose here unlike me who hides a big secret from her for three years now.

I fondle and slap her curvy derriere as I kiss her, trying my best to make most of this last opportunity. She moans in my mouth as I unleash another slap on her derriere. She is pleased with the spontaneity of what I do to her but she suspects my action so she breaks free of the kiss with an unsure smile on her face.

"What was that for?" she asks me with her heavy french accent and a puzzle on her face.

I clear my throat...

"I have a three years old daughter here my love and I cannot leave her behind. I am very sorry Ann, I should have told you many years ago..."

I am interrupted by the stars I see when she lands a thunderous backhand slap on my face, followed by another simultaneously. I almost do not know where I am anymore.

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Lets talk:

Welcome to the end of the pilot chapter of this wonderful book with which I hope to thrill you.

What do you suspect this book to be like? A typical sci-fi? Or a bit different from the norm?

Well, leave your comments. I love them.

Thanks😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

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