Xander We have two hours left before Damien’s proposal, and I am freaking out. The venue messed up the catering and the proposal area, and I am about to get some people fired. “We have two hours until the event and everything is a fucking mess,” I grumble as I walk past Nikki. She grabs me and pulls me towards her. “Look at me,” she says softly, and my eyes meet hers, and she gives me a soft smile, “It’s just a minor issue, can I call Chantel to come help, she’s good at handling situations like this?” I sigh, I didn’t want to seem weak, or incapable, but I needed the help and as part of my therapy sessions, I was told to always ask, accept, and give help. “I’d really appreciate that baby,” She gives me a light kiss, and she pulls her phone out of her pocket. “Chantel, I need your help,” she says, not wasting any time. “Okay, I’ll send you the address,” she hangs up the phone and starts typing, she hits send and puts her phone back in her pocket. I kiss the side of her head,
Xander I am panicking. I am nervous for Damien; everything has to go perfectly tonight. We arrive at the restaurant and Damien is waiting for us outside. He looks calm, like always, but I know he’s nervous. He is wearing royal blue, a white shirt and white Nike sneakers. He seemed to be playing with a box in his hand. “Damien, you look amazing,” Nikki says as she gives him a hug. “Thank you,” he says with a smile. I give him a hug, “Are you ready?” He nods, “I’m excited and nervous. X sent me a text saying they are 20 minutes away.” “That’s great, so what was the excuse?” “Just a nice family dinner,” he chuckles. Nikki and I laugh. “I can’t wait to see the look on his face,” Nikki says, “He’s very difficult to surprise, but this plan is foolproof.” “Let’s head inside and get everybody ready,” I say, “Can’t keep the guests waiting.” We all step inside, and we are greeted by my mother, sister, and Nikki’s mom, as well as Chantel. “Mom, Jessica, thank you so much for coming,
Nikki “Nikki, come on, we need to get going, we are going to be late,” Xander yells for the fifth time this morning. “Yell at me like that again, and I’m going to kick you where the sun doesn’t shine,” I yell back. It’s been a few weeks since Charles and Damien’s engagement, and this is the final week of testimony in Aiden’s case. I am exhausted and could not wait for it to be over. They had a pretty strong case against Aiden, and it looked like he was going to be facing some serious jail time. I pick up my handbag and I make my way downstairs. Xander is on the phone, and he looks stressed, he has been for the last few days, but he doesn’t seem ready to talk about it, so I won’t force him to. He looks at me and smiles and ends his phone call. “You ready to go?” he asks as he kisses my forehead. I nod, “Yeah, I’m sorry I took so long, I couldn’t pick out an outfit, this baby seems to be growing a little too fast, and I’m getting fat.” “More ass for me to grab,” he smirks, I hit
Xander “You are lying,” Nikki shakes her head, “I wish I was, but this came straight from Chantel herself and she would never lie to me.” I am in utter disbelief, there is no way Damien would cheat on Charles, let alone with a woman. “So, Damien is bisexual?” Nikki nods and sips on her apple juice, “Apparently.” “What are we going to do?” “Nothing baby, this is absolutely none of our business,” She made a fair point; it was none of our business and we have no right to get involved. We will just have to pretend as if we know nothing. “I need another drink,” I pour myself another shot of whiskey and Nikki just laughs. “This is insane, out of all things that have happened, I wasn’t expecting this.” “I don’t think either of us was, I mean, when did this even happen? Where did it happen? And why?” “I wanted to ask those same questions, but I told myself that I would give her time and have a more serious conversation with her at a later stage,” Nikki replies, “But Xander, you tel
Damien I stood outside the door of her apartment with a gift bag in my hand. I had gotten the perfume, just like Charles had said. My palms were sweaty, I had not fully prepared to see her. “Just in and out, Damien. Give her the gift bag, don’t go inside.” I walked to the door and knocked. I hear footsteps coming and the door opens. The first thing I notice is her thick thighs, her smooth, thick mocha thighs. Concentrate. “Hey Chantel, I hope I didn’t come at a bad time,” I say with a smile. Her curly hair was in a messy bun, and she was in a tank top, with no bra, shorts, and no makeup. “Hey Damien, no you didn’t. How can I help you?” I hold the gift bag in front of me, “I brought you a gift, from Charles and me to say thank you,” I hand her the bag and she gives me a wide grin; she pulls out the small perfume box and squeals. “You guys, you didn’t have to. I love it. How did you know that I wanted this,” I put my hands in my pockets and chuckle, “Charles told me,” She pu
Later that night Xander “Charles, this is more luggage than we came with,” Damien says, “You have a serious shopping problem.” Nikki and I watched as Damien struggled with Charles's suitcases, we just couldn’t believe that Damien cheated, and on a woman. “Unbelievable,” Nikki scoffs, “And you’ll never believe what Chantel sent me a text, on the way here.” I look at her, “What?” “Charles and Damien got her a signature perfume, Delilah,” I gasp, “You’re joking?” Nikki shakes her head, “I kid you not babe and I think they may have fucked too.” I hum, “I think so too,” We give Damien a judgmental look and we shake our heads. The day Charles finds out, he is going to be devastated, and I as his best friend have to be there ready to support him and blow Damien’s balls off with a shotgun. “What if Charles knows?” “Now that’s an interesting theory but I highly doubt that babe,” Nikki shrugs, “Yeah, me too.” I pull her into my chest, “Enough about them. I am going to miss you.”
Nikki It’s been two days since Xander left and I have to admit it, it’s been quite in the house. He calls me every day whenever he gets the chance to and we text all the time but today something didn’t feel right, he was quiet. He didn’t text me in the morning, he didn’t call me and when I asked Charles, he said he had an early morning meeting but something about that sounded like a lie. “Nikiwe, are you okay?” my mother asks. I shake my head, “Something doesn’t feel right, something is wrong with Xander.” She looks at me and frowns, “Why do you say that?” “He hasn’t spoken to me yet and he usually calls me around this time,” My mom sighs, “Nikki, I’m sure he is okay. Now let’s get you something to eat, you look hungry.” I sigh, “I’m hungry, do you have tripe?” “And so, the craving begin. I do have tripe my child,” I love my mother. After I dropped to Xander, when I came back home my mother had packed my bags and told me I was going to be living with her until Xander came bac
Xander “I hate it here,” I whisper as I get into the car after leaving my last meeting of the day. “Well, at least that’s it for the day, you need to call Nikki, she’s worried about you,” Charles says as she hands over my phone. “Charles what did I tell you? If she calls my phone, you give it to me,” Charles give me the oh no you didn’t look, and I quickly apologize. “I didn’t want you getting distracted okay, I need to leave this country and go start a new life somewhere,” “So, you’re leaving the country with me?” “Where you go, I go, we are best friends after all and besides we both know we cant be apart from each other too long before we start losing it,” I laugh, “I feel sorry for our partners,” Charles laughs, “Honestly, they’ll get used to it.” I look out the window and see Damien on the phone, he looks worried and my runs to Chantel. Guilt washes over me and I look at Charles, he looks clueless, he’s already catching up on what he missed in the tabloids. Damien ends h
Epilogue – Xander It’s safe to say that it all worked out in the end for me, and for everyone. If there is anything that I have learnt from this is that no matter how life turns out, always be the bigger person. Never let anybody else determine how you see the world and the people in it. My dad messed up a lot of things, for his selfish reason. He sowed seeds of self-doubt, hatred, and selfishness in my life, and now I’m doing the work of re-growing my emotional garden. Everything he had ever taught me was wrong, especially about women. Found my mom, fell in love, and met some incredible women along the way. They taught me more than my father ever has, and that’s saying something. Women overflow with wisdom and grace, too many of them oppressed by the men they marry or encounter. As men, we should be protecting them and uplifting them. They are the carriers of our children and future generation. I have forgiven my father for everything he has done. He was only human. God says we mu
XanderIt’s been two weeks since Aiden has been back in custody, and all I can say is that it was the best decision we had ever made. Jessica was arrested but we had her released on probation. She knew that Aiden was our half-brother and only wanted to protect him. She apologized and all was forgiven.Aiden was going to be sentenced again for his escape and they were looking at adding another two years since he returned with no incident. It was a relief for everyone because his sentence was only going to be fifteen years, according to what our lawyer had told us.I was sitting in the visitor's area of the Sun City Prison, waiting for Aiden. Today was going to be the first time I had spoken to him ever since he was arrested earlier in the year.I hear chains clanking and I look towards the door and see Aiden's handcuffed from his knees to his arms. I stand up and wait for
XanderEverybody had gathered at our house. Everybody, I mean, Damien, Charles, Chantel, and X. We were waiting for X’s team to tell us that they had captured Aiden and he was in the set location. Emotions were running high, but we were all keeping our cool.Nikki and Chantel were currently occupied by their gossip, and the guys and I were gathered in the kitchen with the burner phone set in the middle of the table.“You are seriously considering murder?”X nods, “Yeah. If we let him live, who knows what he’ll do to us? To anyone.”I felt guilty. I wanted to know more about him and why my father kept him a secret. There had to have been a reason.“X is right,”“Guys come on. What about hearing his side of the story? He is your brother; do
Charles“You can’t do that Dae. I will not allow it, you understand me,”Damien sighs, “Fuck Charles, I’m trying to keep the both of you safe. Who knows what that manic is capable of.”“Don’t you dare raise your voice at me,” I yell, “I will not let that man terrorize me or my family? We will remain here, and we will see this through together.”There was no arguing with me, I was going to have the last say and that was it. That sorry excuse of a man will not ruin our lives again.“Call Xander, we are all going to his house, and we are going to talk about this,” I say and walk out of the kitchen.I go to the spare bedroom and find Chantel sitting on the floor, with her phone in her hand.“Honey, you okay?”Chantel looked at me and she looked shaken.“Aiden is Xander’s brother?”“What? No, who told you that lie?”She gets up from the floor and sits on the bed.“Nikki just called me and told me that they found Aiden, and Aiden is Xander’s older half-brother,”“Damien!”Chantel sighs, “Th
XanderI hate it when someone says that. It usually means something very messed up is about to happen and there is nothing we can do to stop it.“Just say it,”“Aiden is your biological brother,” X says.Damien and I look at each other. We both couldn’t believe it and it couldn’t be true. Could it?“How? I am the only son of both of my parents,”X looks at his screen, “Well, it looks like your father was a hoe.”I push X to the side and read what is written on the screen. His records were somehow sealed from the world, probably my dad’s doing. He was born the same year that I was just a few months before my birth, fuck that makes him my older brother.“His mother is unknown,”X looks at the screen, “I’ll have someone look into that.”“You’re taking this well,” Damien says nervously.I look at him and I shrug, “I’ve genuinely run out of fucks to give when it comes to Aiden and anything involving him but what’s bothering me is that my father. My father. I hope he’s in hell,”“Do you thi
“Do you still have men in the house?”X looks at his PC and nods, “Yeah, everything is good. They are still in the living room.”I was out with X and Damien, trying to figure out if the rumour of Aiden’s escape was true. We were waiting for Damien to return from prison with some information. We were at X’s house, in his basement. His family was out for the day, so we could work without his family disrupting us too much.“Do you think he could be out there?”I sigh, “Yeah, I do. He’s a sneaky bastard, that man.”X shakes his head, “We’ll find him, and deal with him accordingly. The rest of the squad doesn’t have to know.”“You’ve done stuff like this before?”“You mean assassinate, murder, make people disappear? It’s part of the job description, man. I’m hired by all sorts of people,” X replies but it’s a side of my business most people don’t know about.I nod, “Of course.”“People like Aiden have gotten away with so much in their lives that they have run out of their extra lives but s
NikkiI groaned as I sat on my bed, the baby was growing at an exponential rate and my back was hurting like hell. I look over and see Xander fast asleep. I smile as I brush his curls out of his face.Finally married. I couldn’t believe it. God finally granted me one of my heart's desires and another one is on the way.I get out of bed and put my slippers on and make my way downstairs to the kitchen. I proceed to make breakfast and Xander comes down the stairs. He sees me and smiles at me.“Good morning my gorgeous wife, and baby,”He kisses my cheek and bends over to kiss my stomach.“Good morning baby,”He takes the spatula from my hand and tells me to sit down. I don’t argue and I sit down on one of the bar stools.“Why didn’t you wake me up babe? You’re in your second trimester and I don’t want you to strain yourself.”I sigh, “I’m pregnant, not disabled Xander. We’ve had this discussion.”He frowns, “I’m sorry babe, I don’t mean to be overbearing. I just want you and the baby to
Xander Lobola Day“Shit,” I mumble to myself.I was standing outside the gate to Nikki’s family home, and I was nervous. Shaking even. I didn’t know what to expect. Xlanti had told me everything that I needed to know but still, I was nervous. I wanted to make a first impression, a good one.“Don’t worry Xander, we are here for you. just let me do the talking and everything will be fine,” X says.I nod. Damien places his hand on my shoulder, and I let out a shaky breath.A few moments pass and two men and a woman step out of the house and stand by the gate. Xlanti puts an R200 through the gate.“Siyanibulisa badala bam,” Xlanti says.“Molo nyana wam,” one of the men greet.“Silapha ukuze sithethe nabadala malunga nelobola kaNikiwe,” Xlanti says.The three elders look at each other.“You can speak in English, for the sake of understanding each other.”“Thank you,” X says and places another R200 through the gate.One of the uncles comes to the gate and opens it, we walk through the gate
Nikki I didn’t want him dead. Even though he deserved it but still. None deserves to die. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that he was dead, I didn’t want to believe it. It’s been a few days since Aiden died and were sitting in the backyard, on the lawn. Xander had his eyes closed, I think he was asleep, and I had my head on his lap. I was looking up at the cloudy sky. Praying to god that he had at least in his final moments asked for forgiveness and that he was in heaven. Our lobola was in three days and I was excited, but I was also anxious. My dad’s side of the family was a tough bunch. Being half Xhosa and Zulu was not a good mix. My dad’s side of the family was Xhosa. I loved them to bits, unlike my maternal side, who decided to cut ties with my mother after she decided to marry my dad. Tribalistic idiots. “You okay down there?” I nod, “Yeah I’m okay. I’m just really nervous about Saturday,” Xander sits up and he looks down at me with his mesmerizing blue eyes. I was