F.A.M.E (book 1 & 2)

42

HAZEL

It was already the last week of January and I had just about come down from the high that I had experienced over my birthday weekend. The girls truly made it special for me; gifts upon gifts and an incredible apartment to celebrate the occasion. I had never felt more blessed to have my girls around me. I truly loved them all from the bottom of my heart.

Through out the weekend it was painfully obvious that Chioma was in a great place with Marvin as she used every opportunity to talk about him. I had absolutely no energy to address my opinions on her mortifying relationship, especially because I knew a break up was around the corner. I guess the other girls felt the exact same way, because nobody even attempted to advice her or steer her thoughts to all the awful things he had done to her. We just decided to let her be.

I had been texting with Marcus back and forth since the day we met and I had even tapped into my creativity a bit on our first date. He asked what I wanted to do, and I just really wanted to bake cupcakes. I was sure he would laugh off the desire, and plus it's not the typical date idea. However, he really made it happen for me; he came over with all the ingredients then we had a bake-off which I obviously won.

We had been getting on so well that I had suddenly started considering the fact that maybe it was just really easy to please me, but I also wasn't oblivious to the fact that Marcus had lit a flame in me that I wasn't prepared to extinguish just yet.

We were having another date tonight and I was equally as nervous as I was excited. Again, it would be at my place because we had both established that we enjoyed the chill vibe of being indoors, rather than sitting in fancy restaurants. I was going to be cooking a salmon dish with mashed potatoes and asparagus. I had also bought some mussels that I would be preparing and of course I also had to buy a bottle of wine. This time I went for white wine and I genuinely hoped it was nice because it was more expensive than what I would usually go for. I had to admit, cooking wasn't something I had done for any day other guy apart from Adonis; even then he only got that luxury once we were officially a couple.

Tonight I really wanted to scoop up as much information from him, as I could. The last time we were together, I learnt a lot about his family, and I told him about how it had always been just me and my mum. I enjoyed his company and I liked to think the feeling was mutual because he was actually the one who asked when our next date would be. I appreciated the effort he put into understanding my personality. Although he knew of me from social media, he never acted like he knew me already. That was important to me because the harsh reality was that social media got to see a completely different side of me.

Just as I finished seasoning the fish I noticed a FaceTime call coming in from Charlotte. I was quick to answer the call and position the phone in a way that she'd see what I was doing.

"Girl..." she started just before she stuffed a Dorito in her mouth. "Are you already prepping for the date?"

"I am." I smiled brightly. I was genuinely excited; it couldn't be more obvious.

"Aww. Look at that smile." Charlotte laughed lightly. "You might have to keep him around if he makes you smile like that. What time is he coming?" She stuffed another Dorito in her mouth.

"I told him to come at six. So I have about an hour and a half. I'm excited but I'm nervous." I admitted as I rubbed my face with my hands.

"Why? You said the first date was good, right? And he asked for another. So why are you stressing?"

"I don't know." I sighed. "What if he doesn't like my cooking? Or what if he has an allergy he doesn't know about?"

"Did you ask him if he's allergic to anything?"