Jet black strands of hair whip across my face as I try in vain to pin them behind my ear.

The tears flow and I clutch the large bouquet of flowers tighter. 
I can't help but remember his caramel coloured hair and how they always fell across his eyes.
I got my black hair from my mom.

"I can't believe it. It's been twenty years since you died and I can still remember exactly how you looked."

I sniff and wipe my tears with the back of my palm giggling a little bit at the thought.

"Funny, right"?

No answer.

Of course he can't hear you dummy. He's dead.

I know, but somehow I just expect him to, you know. It always just used to be me and him all the time.

But it can't be like that anymore.

Even though the voice in my head is definitely correct, I still go ahead because talking to him somehow brings me some sort of comfort. If you know what I mean.

"I've finished from college dad. Can you believe it? Mom said you'd be so proud. Guess what too? I pursued my dream and went into medicine. More specifically , surgery. I'm a surgeon dad. Mom said you also wanted to practice medicine but you couldn't. Well, your little girl did it."

Silence.

More silence.

Even more silence, and a dejected sigh escapes my lips. 
In a slightly sad smile, I say,

"I love you."

Gently placing the bouquet of his favourite flowers, daisies, a hundred of them or maybe less wrapped neatly into that bouquet on his grave, I lean foward and place my lips in a kiss on the cold stone marking his grave and get up to leave.

Almost immediaty, I feel a gentle vibration in my pocket and I fish out my phone to check the identity of the caller.

It's Tomi.

I wipe my eyes, swipe the answering button and press the phone to my ear.
"Hey, how did the exhibition go?" I ask, immediately concealing my emotions that were just running wild a few minutes ago.

"Guess what, Guess what, Guess what!!!"

I roll my eyes.

"What?"

"Just guess, silly."

"You won the lottery?" I say dryly.

"No."

"Sorry, I'm out of guesses". I rake a hand through my hair.

"You're a headache."

"You too. So spill. What's the news?"

"I'll tell you at lunch."

"Where?"

"Burger king?"

"Okay." I hear the click at the other end which shows that Tomi has ended the call. Trust Tomi to end a call so quickly.

Tomi, after college, went into sculpture and after a series of works, she decided to open a studio.
Today is the launch and unfortunately I couldn't attend.
But we agreed on her displaying her previous works at the launch.
So, now I'm waiting for the news.
By the way she sounded over the phone, it seems good.

Right now I'm not at work. I was given a day off because my boss thought I overwork my self so I chose to spend my off day with my dad.

I push open the heavy doors to the restaurant that read THE BURGER KING and I can't help but salivate at the thought of food.
It's been so long since I've been this free even to have lunch with my best friend. Tomi really knows how to plan a treat.

Once I step in the restaurant, I'm almost knocked down by some... person.

"Oh, my God. I'm soo sorry. Did I hurt you?" Two sturdy arms that definitely do not belong to Tomi, or more specifically, a lady, take hold of my shoulder and slip round my back lifting me up.
I do not make an effort to stand because the sturdy arms do all the work.

I raise my head to meet a pair of light green eyes and in between them rest a lock of fine brown hair.

I blink and he apologizes again.

"It's okay" I say with a tight smile. He returns my smile and our eyes linger for a slight moment before I drop my gaze first, my eyes flickering to where his hand still lies on my shouder.

He must have noticed my discomfort because he immediately drops his hand and shoves it shyly in the pocket of his jeans.
Flashing me another smile, he exits the restaurant leaving me there to handle the stares that I'm now getting from those who were previously minding their own businesses but now aren't.

I spot Tomi at a table looking at me with an annoying smile playing at her lips.

I pinch the bridge of my nose and let out a groan, throwing my head back as I walk toward the table she is sitting at.
I'm not going to hear the end of this.

"Who was that?" She asks. I wish I can wipe that stupid grin off her face. What does she mean?

"How am I supposed to know, I just met him." I slip into the chair opposite her and avoid her gaze in order to try and stop her from prying any further.

She shrugs and beckons for a waiter to take our orders.

"This is not over. However, I'll let it pass because I have more important things to say." She eyes me suspiciously.
"Soooo, while auctioning my works, there was this lady that walked in and made her way to the back of the room. The bidders were lined up in front of my masterpiece topping each others bids.
Finally, the highest bidder put down a thousand dollars. Suddenly, the lady that walked in earlier, spoke up. She walked over to one of my works that I didn't even find so skillful and said that she would pay twenty-five thousand dollars for it...... "

"Sorry ma'ams, your orders are ready". The waiter arrives with our orders and I collect the tray placing it on the table, while Tomi hands the waiter the bill, obviously irked by the interruption.

While savouring the heavenly taste of my burger, I listen to hear the end of her story.

"So, before I was rudely interrupted... " She continues.

"She was carrying out your order." I point ourt raising my eyebrows.

Tomi, from where she was previously eyeing the waiter sighed and pinches the bridge of her nose.

"I know, I'm sorry. I need to get rid of this temper. Max says there's a great improvement though." She chuckles and I just roll my eyes and flash a slight smile.

Max is Tomi's fiancee and he's a Christian.

Weeks after they met at college, Tomi became a Christian too.

When I found out, I went livid and refused to see her for weeks, but after some time, I found out that life without my best friend was unbearable.
I then apologized and we came back together.
But I continued to hate Max and refused to have anything to do with him.
Shortly after, they began dating and since I couldn't do anything to stop it, I had to accept it.

Since then, Tomi had made several futile attempts to make me a Christian too but I just wasn't buying it.

I had experienced Christianity and I felt that if there really was a God up there, he didn't care.

"Okay so where was I.... yeah, the lady said she would pay me twenty-five thousand dollars for it and.... "

"Did you agree?" I butt in excitedly

"Of course I did, one doesn't pluck twenty-five thousand dollars from a tree."

"Wow. That's almost a month's salary, Tomi!" I take another huge bite from my extra large burger.

"I know, right. In fact, she even asked, after the launch if I could be her personal artist and of course I agreed to that too." She laughs heartily.

"That's wonderful. I'm so happy for you, you know." My lips turn up in a grin.

"Yeah. Thanks though, for suggesting that I put some of my works for sale during the launch. I still wished you were there." A sad smile tugs on her lips.

"I just needed some rest." Her face suddenly lights up and she leans foward smirking mischievously.

"Speaking of which. That guy that you met at the entrance.... "

"Shut up, Tomi." Since I've finished my burger, I stand up to leave. She gets up too and begins to follow me annoyingly, refusing to drop the matter.

"I'm just saying." She trows up her hands in surrender and I face palm.

"Look, I don't have time to mess around. I'm a busy person." I remind her, picking up my pace so she doesn't keep pestering me.

"Getting married is not messing around Maya." She catches up and steps in front of me, blocking my way.

"I'm too busy." I step aside and cut her out of my way.

"You need a life."

"I have one."
That seems to shut her up because she doesn't say anything else till we reach the exit.

Once we're out of the restaurant, I wave nonchalantly and walk towards my car, fishing out my keys and inserting it in the key hole.  "I'll see you later, got some work to do at home."

"Don't tell me you work even on your day off?" She has this incredulous look on her face and her hands are on her waist.
She's looking at me like I'm crazy and I smirk.

"Pretty much." I smile and turn the ignition, zooming off while waving at her from my window.

The smile gradually fades from my face and I grip the steering wheel in concentration.

I let out a huge sigh.

I can't afford to relax. I just can't.

      
     
Above is a picture of Maya's king sized burger 😋. Just thought I should put it up.

Chinwe_epistle ❤