I sat up and changed tack.
“We should probably talk about the logistics of this. While we’re here.”
Malakai looked genuinely puzzled. “Logistics?”
“Um. Like . . . physical logistics of pretending to be part of a couple and working on your film?”
Malakai’s eyes popped open as if he’d just remembered why we were here. “Oh, right. Yeah, absolutely. Sure. I’ll follow your lead. What do you think about public hand-holding?”
“Fine. Not sustained hand-holding, though. Only enough for people to see and then I’ll fix my hair or something.”
“Sure. We’re going to have to hang out at public events for a bit so that means FreakyFridayz, café for breakfast, maybe twice a week? House parties too. I have a few birthdays coming up and they’d be great to source interviews for the film.”
I kept my groan internal. House parties were my own form of personal torture. “How are you invited to so many parties? You just got here.”
“What can I say? I’m a delight.”
I grunted. “Fine. Also, um, no more kisses.”
There was no getting around the fact that I was physically attracted to Malakai Korede. I was attracted to him to a degree that would have got me seriously concerned if I didn’t know that we were fundamentally incompatible. Though it was true the more time I spent with him, the more I discovered things I liked about him. Like how when he looked at me as I spoke it was as if he was holding every word I uttered for safekeeping. But that was neither here nor there. The kissing rule was just a case of establishing professional boundaries.
“I agree.”
“Cool. Next time we meet we’ll sort out our timetable. Public events, dates, Gotta Hear Both Sides planning, that sort of thing.”
“Hot.”
“Maybe I’ll put it all in a Google Calendar and share it with you for efficiency.”
His voice dropped octaves. “Kiki, you can’t talk dirty to me in a restaurant.”
“I’m sorry. I just . . . I get so carried away.”
“Clearly.” He ran his eyes across me in theatrical disgust. “Control yourself. We have work to do.” He gestured to the camera on the table. “You ready? . . . You get to choose who we ask first.”
I allowed my eyes to roam across the gradually thinning-out diner, stopping on the couple I saw earlier laughing just a few booths ahead of us. They were sat close on the same side of the booth, like us, talking in murmurs. Touching but not touching, clearly wanting to.
I gave them a chin nod. “Them. First date.”
“Really? Not the couple clearly doing nasty things to each under the table?”
We tilted our heads to look at the couple in question, across the aisle from us. The slow arm movements were very distressing. The girl’s mouth suddenly dropped open. Mine did too, for an entirely different reason.
“Oh.” I broke our short, shocked silence.
Malakai cleared his throat. “Um. I’m sorry. Is she?”
“I think so. Good for her. Only twenty-five percent of women are able to.”
“We should look away. If we stay looking, we’re perverts.” Our eyes stayed glued to the scene.
“Um, we’re the perverts?”
“Let’s go film.”
I stared at Malakai. “What the hell? That would actually make us perverted, Kai. That’s disgust—”
“I meant let’s go film the first-date couple, Scotch.”
“Oh. Okay. Cool. Yeah, let’s do that. It’s getting late.” But it didn’t feel late. An hour and a half had passed and the night still felt like it was just beginning.
[Untitled_Love.Doc]
Director, producer: Malakai Korede
Consulting Producer/Interviewer: Kiki Banjo
Interviewees: Zindzi Sisulu and Xavier Barker
Kiki: You guys are adorable. You seem really aware of each other at all times. Connected. When did you meet?
Xavier: About three or four—
Zindzi: Hours ago.
Kiki: You guys met tonight?
Xavier: Yeah. And we got talking—
Zindzi: And it’s weird because the second I saw him, I knew I wanted to talk to him. And my girls were saying that I was being thirsty, that I should wait for him to come to me.
Xavier: I spotted her as soon as she came in. I told my boy that I was gonna talk to her. But, like, maybe five minutes after that, my ex walks into the party. And she’s with her girls. And I was like . . . man, this shit is about to be long. I didn’t want unnecessary drama. I didn’t want it to seem like I was doing it on purpose.