Page 45 of Honey and Spice

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’rethe perverts?”

“Let’s go film.”

I stared at Malakai. “What the hell? That wouldactuallymake 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’tfeellate. 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.

Zindzi:I’m getting kind of irritated. Because I see him looking at me, and I’m looking at him . . .

Xavier:And my ex is looking at both of us.

Zindzi:And I’m like, fuck it. I’m just gonna go over there and see what’s good.