Thy Will, Not Mine

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 by a butter knife 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?