Feire was done with her job for the day. She kept wondering why Desmond didn’t return her call, didn’t send her a text and still didn’t pick her call. She had called him again that day but he still didn’t pick up. Her mind was not at rest, hoping all wasn’t well with him and he might be in a tight corner where he would need her help. She convinced herself to go visit him that evening before going to see her mum who had called her a day before.
She felt he wouldn’t turn it to a case if she appeared in his house without call because he has not been picking his calls and she was worried, just trying to ensure his safety. As she got to his gate, she dialed his number again and then he picked. “I have been calling your number….” She wanted to start expressing herself when he shunned her.
“If someone has not been picking your calls, shouldn’t you know the fellow has been busy?”
“Are you being serious? Please come and get the door, I am outside.” She hissed and ended the call. She felt so bad, so bad that she was wasting her time being worried over someone who was deliberately not picking her calls and could still accuse her of disturbing him.
He soon got the door open and she felt like turning back and just leave but he was already by the gate and that wouldn’t be nice. She felt she should control her temper and try to know what he has been busy with, perhaps it would be reasonable enough for her to consider him so busy not to pick her calls nor return any with a simple text. He allowed her come in and walked by her side after locking the gate, not saying a word till they entered his apartment.
“What have you been busy doing?” She asked.
He shrugged. “Work.”
She looked at him with surprise. “Work? So time taking that you couldn’t even squeeze a minute to send a text message? Do you know how worried I have been, thinking maybe something has happened to you and there you are, neglecting calls and still saying you were so busy, Desmond.”
He sat down. “Please sit down.” He offered. “And haven’t we agreed that you wouldn’t come here?”
She shrugged. “I had to come, I just want to be sure you are fine.”
He didn’t want to pick her calls because he didn’t know what to say to her. He didn’t want to keep pretending and still leave her in the dark. It was as tedious as also spitting out the truth about the case on ground. He wished he could just open his mouth and begin to explain what has been going on to her, but she wouldn’t understand him. She would see him as a bad person, classify him under the strata given to other guys as well, and make him feel odd about himself, possibly. He wouldn’t want to risk it at all.
“I am sorry.” He muttered, rolling a toothpick between his palms as he told her with his head dropped.
She didn’t know what to say again also. Perhaps he has really been busy and she has been disturbing with her calls because she couldn’t take her mind off him. She was just trying to care though.
“So how has the work been? How is Kike?” She asked.
He nodded continuously. “Work has been fine, Kike too. What about you?”
She began to relate how yesterday went and how she has taken up the job already. Those were the things she was eager to tell him on phone but still didn’t pick her calls.
“What would you do if this guy in question approaches you for a relationship, Feire?” He asked.
She squinted her eyes. “After all the story I have said about the job, it is this you can ask about, right?”
“Stop it, I am being serious Feire. You know you have left your work and now put all of your eggs in one basket. What if this guy rises tomorrow and gives you a condition before you can continue working with him?”
She shook her head. “I better remain jobless and start looking for another job that being unfaithful to you. Why would I do such a thing?”
Desmond chuckled. “It’s so easy to make food with mouth, tedious when it comes to entering the kitchen.” He told her.
She frowned. “What is the meaning of that? Are you trying to say you don’t trust me?”
He shook his head. “Not at all, dear. I am just trying to wonder if it would be as easy as you have said it that time.”
“I am not so poor that what I am after is someone’s money, Desmond. I need loyalty, I need complete loyalty. I can’t be with someone I don’t love or be with someone on the basis of rules and conditions.” She didn’t seem interested in the talk anymore. She already knew he has not been that pleased to hear anything about the job, she shouldn’t have updated him. “I have to leave.” She brushed to her feet.
** ** **
Desmond drove out after some minutes that Feire left. He had to meet Kike’s parents as the two of them has agreed the previous day to update them and also tell them about the date they have fixed. He already called Kike to know if she was already at home and she was. He still didn’t know what was wrong with him that has made him to still be unable to tell her the whole thing.
“Are they in?” He asked Kike as he got down from his car.
“Yes they are. When do we tell them that your parents should come?”
He shrugged. “When do you feel?”
“Maybe next week. You know we want to tell them we feel October 21 is okay to wrap up everything.” She replied as they walked on, approaching the main entrance.
“Okay, that is not a problem.” He replied and they entered.
** ** **
Feire sat by her mother’s side. She was served some fruits with a fork as she sat down. Her mother really did this because she was coming? She couldn’t believe it. She has been a nice woman, but not in the regard of entertaining you because she called you. Perhaps she wanted to tell her something important that’s why she has tried to buy her heart.
“So how has work been?”
She wouldn’t want to go into the details of how she has changed her jobs, they might dwell on that for hours and keep talking about the salary and all. “Fine.” She summed it all together.
“And your boyfriend?” She asked her.
She squinted her eyes as she heard. It sounded odd hearing boyfriend from her mother. She chuckled. “He is fine.” She replied.
“Really?” She grinned. “There is a he?”
She shrugged. “There has always been a he, you are the one who has not calmed down enough to know.” She replied.
“How would I have known when you never told me about it? I have also asked you on many occasions and you said there was no one. So when am I meeting him?” She asked.
“Not yet, mum. That’s why I haven’t told you. See, he is not running away, you will meet him soon.” She replied.
“You know…”
“Mummy, I know I am getting old. I know I have to marry. Can we just go to why I am here?”
She smiled. “Nothing really, I just felt like seeing you. You know you don’t reply my whatsapp messages and still won’t call me.”
She shook her head. “Mum, that thing is not whatsapp message, it is a broadcast message. How am I to reply you when I see it?”
“At least, acknowledge it.”
“I have told you before that you should not send it to me again, I don’t read those messages.”
“Actually I called you because my sister was asking after you. She asked if they don’t give you people break at your own place of work.”
She shrugged. “What has that one got to do with her? And why did she ask you and not ask me directly?”
“I wouldn’t know. You know who Kemi is. Anyway, she was telling me her children said they are missing you and she want you to come around and spend some days and if possible, some couple of weeks with them before they go back to school.”
“Couple of weeks? Didn’t you tell her that is not feasible? Who gives such length of break to just go and play with cousins?”
“But do you know you really need a break from your work. You are always busy, always busy!” She emphasized.
She shrugged. “That is the due to pay so that I don’t end up poor. Is it too much to pay?”
Her mother sighed.
“I can’t go anywhere, they have even increased the works I would be doing now.”
“That means an increment in salary, abi?”
She smiled. “Mummy, leave me.”
** ** **
Kike was in her office, punching some buttons on the laptop before her when she heard a knock. “Come in.” She said aloud without having to take her eyes off her laptop.
“Good afternoon.” She heard and raised her head. It was Susan; Uche’s sister.
“Good afternoon Susan. Please have your seat.”
“I am sorry I came without informing you first, I just feel that you’d tell me not to come if I had told you I would be coming.”
Kike smiled. “How are you?”
Susan wasn’t fine enough to reply the usual way. She just dashed into the matter on heart. “I am not sure I have ever met anyone with your heart before, Kike.” She started. “You have been a special and amazing person.” She added and stopped. She breathed heavily and looked away for some seconds before she picked her words again. “I am not sure I have also seen Uche’s life better than who how it has always been until he met you. You are not just like every other lady my brother has come across. I really don’t want you to leave him.”
Kike smiled again. “Thank you for the compliment.”
“It isn’t a compliment. I am actually telling the truth, Kike. Like, I am so serious with what I am saying. I have no time to mince words for you. I wish to see the two of you together again, I really wish.”
She sighed. “I don’t think I have also seen a sister like you before. A sister who loves her sibling so much that wants the best for him. A sister who follows up what is best for her brother even when might not care about it…”
She cut in. “He cares about it, Kike. He sent me here. He felt you’d dust him out of your office if he comes.”
Kike chuckled. “I might do more than that.”
“But why?”
“You should have asked Uche that question first before coming, Susan. You should have.”
Susan dropped her head and was quiet. “I did.”
Kike’s eyes brightened. “Oh, what did he tell you?”
“He said he broke your heart by sleeping with another woman.”
Kike laughed. “You see why I cannot risk coming back to him? He is a bloody liar. I can’t even dare come back to him. He wouldn’t tell you he raped me.” She spat.
“What?” Susan was shocked as she rose up at once. There was a knock at the door so she sat down.
“Come in.” She felt it was a good break from the suspense she was unveiling to Susan. It was Mosun who entered the office with some documents. She stood by Kike’s table as she gave her the documents to collect it after appending her signature on them. As she stood, her eyes caught the caller as Kike’s phone buzzed. It was Desmond.
“Hey dear.” She said as she picked the call, pressing the phone between her ear and shoulder, signing the papers Kike had brought. Kike patiently listened to the conversation, trying to pick the subject of the discussion as she stood beside her. She has been outside the office and has been listening to Kike and Susan since, she only knocked the door when a staff was passing, so she wouldn’t be caught eavesdropping.
“Should we meet today to fix it then?” Kike said to the receiver, still on the call with Desmond. “Okay then, I love you too.” She replied him with a grin before ending the call.
Mosun was covered with surprise. Did she just hear her tell him she loves him too? That sounded weird because it was obviously Desmond that must have first professed his love before she replied him. She was trying to articulate everything together; Kike left Uche after he raped her and from the look of things she’s now with Desmond. She picked up the document and left the office after she signed. She still stood by the door, adjusting her shoe and doing all unnecessary things just to be able to eavesdrop the conversation going on inside.
“He raped you?” Susan asked again.
Kike hissed. “I knew he wouldn’t tell you and I know he wouldn’t be expecting me to tell you because I should be concealing my shame. I don’t care anymore, Susan. I really don’t care.”
Susan’s head dropped. She didn’t know what to say to her anymore. She felt her brother deserved what he was getting. How could he have raped her? “I am sorry about that, Kike. I really don’t know what to say at the moment because this is so painful and shocking. He didn’t tell me this at all.”
“That’s why I told you that he is just trying to use pity to buy me back. I don’t think you would like to go back to someone who raped you likewise. I don’t know what to expect after I marry him, he will turn me to sex machine, or pornstar, right?”
Susan sighed. “I am sorry once again.” She picked her bag and stood up.
“Wait. I am getting married in a month’s time, so there is no need for any push anymore, Susan. I know you have a good heart and you want the best for him but he destroyed the opportunity he has been given.”
“I am sorry, Kike.” She set to leave.
Mosun fastened her steps away from the door as she noticed that she was approaching the door. She has heard a lot for her to sit down and digest that day.
** ** **
Desmond adjusted his blazer again before he entered the house. Kike’s dad had called him to come over that afternoon before the arrival of Kike. He was a busy man, but has tried all his best to block everything that could make him too busy for her daughter in that state. He loved his daughter especially because she has her alone and wouldn’t want one guy just sleep with her and just disappear.
Unlike before, Des was no longer scared of his call or summon. He sat down, making himself comfortable as he was served a glass of cold juice.
“I called you here for a reason, Desmond.” He heard his voice beside him.
“Yes sir.” He bowed.
“I am a very busy person, same as my wife. We have only carved out enough time because of you and Kike. I love my daughter too much for her to go through a pain and be left there all by herself. In no time, this month of August would disappear into thin air and we will welcome October which you two have planned for your wedding.”
“Yes sir.”
“Good. Here is Mark.” He pointed at a young man who has been sanding before him for a moment. Desmond has been wondering who the guy in black suite was. He couldn’t have been a bouncer or bodyguard because he hasn’t seen him with one before.
“He will take you to the house I just got for you two here in Nigeria. The house is presently under Kike’s name but after your marriage you two change it to your names.”
He grinned. “Thank you sir.”
“Also, immediately after marriage, you will be taking over the leadership of my company. I think it is time for me to rest while you pay me salary till I die.”
He chuckled. “I am so grateful sir, but leading such huge companies…” He scratched his head.
“I will be putting you through a lot of things, Desmond. I think that means that I would love you to resign tomorrow. Don’t worry about the salary that you might not be given, by next month you will be worth paying the salary of all workers at your present place of work.”
They laughed.
“It’s all for you, my daughter and my grandchild.”
He smiled. “Yes sir.”
“Lastly, I wouldn’t want to overrule your choice so I am going to leave this particular decision with you, Desmond. Personally I wish she could just travel out and stay there till she gives birth because of eyes all around and all, but if the two of you agree for her to stay and she is good by it, then…” He shrugged.
Desmond scratched his head. “I think we will have to discuss it sir.”
“Okay then. Mark, over to you.”
He thanked him again and stood up to follow Mark.
** ** **
…Another update drops this week…