The Restaurant was quiet, too quiet especially since no one was really coming to eat food at that time but that wasn't just it, if not anything, she was okay it was just the both of them sitting down in that little room, with plates of different dishes in front of them. She rose her head to his, wondering how he could be so comfortable eating the way he did after the event that had just taken place minutes ago at his house.

Olivia watched Rafael eat the food in front of him so hungrily and concentratively like he was trying to avoid a conversation with her. He had barely said a word to her all through the journey away from the house. He had barely said a word to her at all before he pulled her into the empty restaurant and requested for all that food. All her favorite dishes.

Olivia exhaled.

"You're not eating." She heard him remind her that he hadn't completely forgotten she had been sitting there all along staring at him. If only she had an appetite to eat now especially after what had happened....especially what she had witnessed. He was really bad at hiding it. He was really bad at hiding the fact that he wasn't entirely happy the way things went down at his fathers house. Not that she knew much but she knew just how much Sommadinah was so obsessed with her son. According to Benita, she adored him and never let anyone raise a finger on him talk more of hitting him herself. Compared to other African homes, it was the first she had ever heard of it. Even as a child, she could remember how Adaora was on time to spank her bum when ever she misbehaved. She could tell how annoyed and heartbroken they both must have been and it had to just be because of her again, giving Sommadinah yet another reason to hate her.

Why did she have to go ahead and act so dramatic in the first place?

Olivia exhaled again.
Now she regretted it.

"How is your lip?" She asked slowly reaching for her fork just as Rafael dabbed his lips with his napkin, now raising his eyes to hers as he watched her slice her plantain into tiny bits.

"It's fine. It's nothing you should worry about."

"Why did you do it Rafael?" Olivia dropped her fork hurriedly. She tried so hard, she tried so hard to let it go, to not talk about it but she just couldn't. She was just so worried about everything else to.

"Do what?" Now he was trying to act so ignorant.

"You know what I'm talking about."

"You're the one that kept it from me in the first place. I probably would have acted differently if you had just told me about it when I asked.  Now look at my lip. I got slapped by my mum for the first time because of you." He pouted his lips and then clicked his tongue, feigning disappointment. Olivia exhaled. She didn't take her eyes off him. She needed him to see she wasn't joking. She needed him to see how important she needed him to take their conversation.

"Can you take this seriously?" She asked him. "Please?"

Rafael exhaled and then frowned. He dropped his knife again and then shrugged his shoulders.

"This won't do." Olivia got up from her seat and then hurried to him. "At this point, your family might actually throw you away, your father." She grabbed his hand. "We have to go back and apologize." She pulled him, Rafael let her. He didn't try to stop her till he was standing on his feet.

"Apologize for what?"

"For everything. For what we did. I won't let you loose your father's trust and respect because of me."

Rafael scoffed.

"What are you talking about Olivia?" Olivia slowly turned to him. "My father threw me away a long time ago. He lost my respect when he disrespected my mum, and then you. I can barely care what he feels about me right now ." Rafael turned back to the table before she pulled him back.

He slowly turned back to her.

"Lets just go back and apologize to him." Olivia turned again trying to pull him behind her but this time, Rafael didn't let her. He stood completely still, making it really hard for her to keep up. He didn't even move an inch. Olivia pulled harder and harder but all her efforts were in vain. Rafael sighed.

She stopped the moment she realized just how much of her time she was wasting. He was holding back on purpose. She quickly turned to him.

"Why are you being like this?" She glared at him. "Why are you trying to make everything so difficult?"

"Look," Rafael stared at her. "My relationship with my Dad is not as simple as you think it is. It's complicated. I've had no reason to be sorry to him in the past and I have no reason to be sorry to him now."  He looked at her. "I wish I could say the words you want me to say. I wish I could say I was sorry and I regret it, that I wished I hadn't done it. But I'd only be lying to you, to him, to my mum and most especially to myself because I'm not. And I'd do it again and again if I ever need to."

Olivia exhaled as he took a step closer to him, Olivia could still see the bruise on side of his lower lip.

"What he did to you Olivia, the things he said to you, you didn't deserve to hear any of those things. Because you're none of those things. You're not what he thinks you are, you're not what they both think you are. You," He slowly reached for her shaky hands. "You are a great woman with a good heart. You're selfless and you're kind. You're brave and I love you." Olivia let out a tiny sigh. "You're the only one I want to spend the rest of my life with and if they don't respect that, If they don't respect that you're the only one for me, the only one I need, if they don't see what I see when I look at you, if they can't see just how much of an amazing woman you are, how happy I am when I'm with you, then they don't deserve you and they don't deserve me too. I promised to love you and always choose you for as long as I live." He rose her hand to his chest. "And in a couple of months, we'd get to let everyone else witness me make that  promise again. I love you Olivia and there's nothing that would make me ever stop. Not even if you ask me to, not even if you glare at me like that."

Olivia let out a tiny chuckle. She was beginning to let his words soften her up. Her heart was melting from all those things he said.

"What about your mum?" Olivia whispered. "She must feel really terrified right now, sad for what she did to you, angry and disappointed."

"I'd take care of my mum," he let out a tiny smile. "She can't stay mad at me for too long. She loves me too much."

Olivia sniffed.

"So please." He rubbed her hands. "Can we just forget about everything else and get past this? Can you stop shutting me out and worrying about everything else and just let me take care of it?"

Olivia looked into his eyes. She could see how honest they were, how sincere and at that moment, all the anger she felt, all the hurt, it was like they were all gone.

She nodded her head. She believed him. She trusted him. She knew she could not exactly be angry with him for so long either. She exhaled the moment something crossed her mind, a tiny frown covering her face.

She slowly wrapped her hands around his and then brought it away from his chest, squeezing them for the next thing she was about to say.

"I think we should hold off the wedding Rafael," she told him finally raising her eyes to his.

Rafael narrowed his gaze. A tiny frown suddenly appearing on his face as he tried to perfectly understand what she was trying to say.

"I uh," She stammered, lowering her gaze to their joined hands again. "I've been here before Rafael, and trust me, it never really ends well. In as much as I really want to be your wife, to build a life with you, I can't be happy if I watch you throw the only important people in your life away for me. In the end, you're going to have to choose between your mother and me and that could destroy you because no matter how you try to hide it, I know just how important your mother is to you. I'd never put you in a position where you'd have to choose, where you'd have to make a choice to turn your back on her. She'd never forgive you and you'd never forgive yourself."

Olivia sniffed and then rose her head to meet him.

"So I'm ready to wait." She continued. "I'm ready to try to get her to like me. To get her to get to know me and accept me. That way, she could give us her blessings. That way you wouldn't have to choose if we all could just live together as a happy family." She exhaled. "I know I can do it, I just need more time. And I need you to understand me. We can be happy without throwing everyone else in our lives away. I know we can."

"My mum is a difficult woman Olivia, she's really hard to please."

She snorted.

"I used to live with Victoria Silver Rafael," She cut him off. "Trust me, If I could live two years with all that madness, I can definitely handle your mum. I just need you to trust me and support me." Her eyes looked brightly in his. They were too bright, too sincere.

She watched Rafael glare at her for a while and then exhale, slowly pulling his hands away from hers.

"Come here." He pulled her gently into his embrace, breathing into her hair, holding her tight. Olivia let out a tiny exhale. "I don't know what I ever did to deserve you Olivia Kalu. You have no idea how lucky I am."

Olivia let out a tiny smile.

"I love you." He kissed her softly on her head. "I love you so so much."

Olivia tightened her hold on him. She loved him just the same. She frowned the moment something came to her, slowly raising her head from his chest. Rafael slowly let her go, lowering his head to hers.

"Wait a minute," she starred into his eyes. Rafael frowned too. "Personal question though." She narrowed her gaze to him. "How old is your mother?"

Rafael snorted out, leaving a tiny smile on his face. He chuckled right after her.