“What did you write for him” I asked.
“That he would clap eyes on you and give you the ring he has been carrying around in his pocket since he last saw you.” She said seriously.
I sighed. “That would have been something
sha
”
She nodded and we both gave a moment of silence to imagine something so romantic.
“So how did it happen?” She asked.
“I don’t know” I shook my head.
“Well he didn’t just tell you he was engaged just like that, did he?” She frowned. “Tell me everything and how you found out”
I didn’t need any more encouragement, I launched into a detailed description of everything that had happened
over the weekend. It was nice that it was early and nobody else was coming to the office for another half hour, if
Fadeke
or Oliver had come in while we were talking to see or hear us
analyzing
Michael’s every word and expression and gushing like schoolgirls, I don’t know if they would ever have respected me again.
“He kissed you!” Ada exclaimed after I’d finished. “Wow!”
I nodded.
“Are you sure he’s engaged.” She asked. “Maybe he manufactured a fiancée to make you jealous.”
I shook my head at the suggestion. “Michael wouldn’t play those kinds of games” I said. “He’s not the type.”
“Do you think he just couldn’t help
himself.
” She continued, off on some fantastical tangent. “Like that scene in Pride and Prejudice when you know
Mr.
Darcy just wants to kiss Elizabeth but he has to really control
himself
”
I gave her a look of pure disbelief. “What have you done with the Ada I
know!
” I exclaimed. “Stop being so romantic” I continued. “You’re supposed to be one of the sensible ones.”
She smiled. “I know.” She sighed. “Maybe it’s my romantic time of the month.” She started to laugh, and
then stopped suddenly as a new thought occurred to her. “What if he just wants to have a fling with you, you know guys are not really so trustworthy, even the best ones can sometimes have bad intentions.”
“Did you learn that from experience, or from a
book.
” I asked unkindly.
She ignored me. “I learnt it from other people’s experiences.” She said.
“...and books.”
She added with a shrug.
I sighed. “Do you think that’s possible, I mean, he’s hurt me before.”
“No he hasn’t” she said. “He never dumped you that first time, you told me he kept calling you, and trying to talk to you. It was you who refused to take his calls and talk to him. Trust me, dumping doesn’t feel like that.” She paused. “You probably overreacted to the fact that you jumped straight from friendship to sex.”
I frowned. “Do you think so?”
She gave me a look of exasperation. “Live not in the past my dear.” She sighed.” So what are you going to do? Are you going to stop seeing him totally?
“I think that’s best.” I said. If it’s ever possible, I added silently.
“But you don’t know what his relationship is like, his fiancée might be a bitch you know, maybe she makes him unhappy.”
“He doesn’t need me to tell him or rescue him if he’s in a bad relationship.” I said.
“That’s true.” She thought for a moment. “It’s
kinda
sad though, He obviously likes you, and you’re crazy about him. It will be a shame if it doesn’t work.”
I sighed. “He’s driving me crazy enough as it is, if I start thinking along the lines you’re proposing, I’ll just go mad or something.”
She looked sympathetic. “Don’t worry, it will work out”
“Or not.”
I said dourly.
“Or not.”
She agreed with a shrug. Then she laughed softly. “We’re too young to be agonizing over a man.” She said. “And I must be really pathetic to be sad over your romantic troubles….” She shook her head.
“When I should be having mine.”
I was going to ask her why she would want romantic troubles when the door opened and Eddie strode in.
Eddie
Bakare
was my
partner,
we had started Living Lagos together, though I now ran it almost entirely on my own. He came into the office every once in a while, more to see me and talk than to see how the magazine was
doing, he had started working for his father in oil servicing, in a company he would one day run, and from the look of him, he was doing really well.
“Hey!” I greeted, smiling as I got up to hug him, “Longest time no see”.
He hugged me back with a smile making his dimples dance around his cheeks. Eddie was the all-round lucky type of guy. Very intelligent, very good to look at, not smoulderingly hot, just more of the handsome, boy next door, with a tall athletic body and an ever ready smile. He was very friendly and good natured, and people invariably loved him, mostly girls, before and after he had broken their hearts.
“It’s you who doesn’t want to see me now.” He said in pidgin... “I’ve been right where you left me”
“
Hmmn
.”
I scoffed, going back to sit at my desk. “What made you remember us today?”
He shrugged. “I have an early meeting somewhere at Marina today” He said. “Just decided to stop by and say ‘hey’ on my way” He stopped and looked at Ada, who was sitting frozen on her seat. “Hi Ada” he said.
I looked at her, she hadn’t said a word since he came in, and she was looking at him like she wasn’t sure what to say. “Hi” she replied finally, her voice, not quite firm. She turned back to me. “I’m going to do work on those
changes now.” She said. “And I’ll ask Oliver to bring his submission to you as soon as he comes in.”
I nodded.
She picked up the sheets from my desk and started for the door without
so
much as a look at Eddie.
“Later.” I said.
“Later, Ada” Eddie added.
“Later.” She squeaked as she hurried out of the door,
“What’s with her?” Eddie asked as the door closed behind her.
“What with her what?”
I said.
He raised an eyebrow, and then smiled. “That’s not what I was asking.” He said mischievously “but I wouldn’t mind knowing.”
I gave him a look of disapproval.
He laughed. “You’re so prim” He said. “But really why does she have to either disappear or
act like
a robot anytime I come into the room.”
“Maybe she doesn’t like you” I replied. Silently convinced it was the exact opposite.
“All women like me.” He said arrogantly,
then
ducked as I threw a paper clip at him. “And anyway” he continued.
“What’s with all the black clothes and afros?”
“She likes them.” I said defensively. “Anyway, not every girl can dress to impress you, you know, and not every girl wants to”
“Unfortunately.”
He agreed, smiling roguishly. “For them”
I wondered if I’d be betraying Ada if I mentioned to Eddie that I thought she liked him, but then wouldn’t I be betraying Eddie if I knew he had a chance with a girl and didn’t tell him about it. I shook my head to get rid of all the complicated rules of friendship. Plus, looking at Eddie in his designer suit and handsome skin, it was obvious that he didn’t need my help getting girls. Anyway who needed for him to break Ada’s heart and God forbid, cause her to resign, I shuddered at the thought.
“I wonder why you guys never hit it off in school though” I said thoughtfully. “She was my friend, you were my friend…” I shrugged.
“It’s the enemy of your enemy who is your friend Sophie, not the friend of your friend.” He glanced at his watch. “How are things here though?”
“Smooth sailing” I said.
“I trust” He grinned. “I have to leave now. Don’t want to be late. But, before I go…..” His grin widened “I heard you’ve been rekindling your friendship with Mike”
“How did you hear?” I exclaimed.
“You’d be surprised how information flies in this Lagos.” He laughed at the expression of alarm on my face. “Actually, Michael’s sister Cecilia was at my sister’s on Sunday and they gossiped a little.”
“Really” I tried and failed to act as if I was not interested. “What did they say?”
“I can’t remember” Eddie said. “I wasn’t listening.”
“Eddie!” I pleaded.
“You know he’s engaged don’t you?” He asked, suddenly serious.
I nodded.
He heaved a big sigh of relief. “God knows I didn’t want to be the one to have to tell you that!” He exclaimed. “Are you okay with it?”
“Hey.” I said. “He’s just my friend.”
“Fool the others, Sophie” He said quietly. “But don’t try to fool me. I was there, I am a material witness.”
I kept silent. “What were they saying?” I asked finally.
“Just stuff.”
He said, “About his fiancée, you, him,
etc
, etc.”
I sighed, men and their obsession with pretending not to gossip. “Tell me.” I prompted, eager to know why I would feature in a conversation about Michael and his fiancée,
Too
eager.
“I am almost late for my meeting” Eddie got up. He saw the look of disappointment on my face and relented. “They weren’t really saying anything, just that it was a shame Michael was engaged to Folake when he’d always liked you.”
“He’d always liked me?”
Eddie shook his head in exasperation “No! He used to follow you around school because he hated your guts.” He said sarcastically. “He kept on calling me asking to talk to you even though you refused every single time because he does that to all the girls.” He shook his head. “Anyway I resisted the impulse to tell them that you were the one who didn’t want anything to do with him.”
I stared stupidly after him as he walked to the door. When hadn’t I wanted anything to do with Michael? I thought frantically, never! I had refused to talk to him, to see him all those years ago, but it had been because I was afraid, afraid of the way I felt about him and afraid that he didn’t feel the same way about me! Not because I didn’t
want anything to do with him! Being with him was still the best thing that had ever happened to me.
“You’re wrong” I said to Eddie. “I wanted everything to do with him”
“I know.” Eddie said, stopping at the door. “That’s why I don’t understand why you kept acting like you didn’t”
I shook my head, unable to find anything to say.
“Girls!”
He said finally, with an exasperated shrug. “Anyway it’s understandable the sisters feel that way, with all the many reasons why they don’t like Folake”
“They don’t like her?”
He gave me a look that told me he wasn’t saying anything else. “I am going now” He said seriously. “Let’s not gossip about people we know” He smiled.
I smiled back and waited until the door had closed behind him before collapsing on my chair with a sigh.
Michael had kept his word and called me every day, I knew he planned to return at the end of the week. He had been calling me mostly in the evenings after work hours so when he called on Thursday afternoon around
lunchtime,
I knew he must be back.
“Hey” I said, when I answered the phone. “You’re back, aren’t you?”
“I am.” He laughed. I was going to try to surprise you but you got there before me.” He paused. “Where are you?”
“In my office.”
I answered. “Why are you asking?”
“Nothing.”
He said. “
just
that I’ll be there in a moment”
“In a what!”
I exclaimed. “But how….?”
I was still asking when the door opened and a flustered
Fadeke
showed Michael into my office.
My breath caught when I saw him walking towards me with an easy grin on his face. I got up and went to hug him, my legs shaking. How could he not know how I felt? I wondered. How could it not show on my face that even seeing him made me feel like I was falling off a cliff, unable to
breath
, out of control.
“Hi.” I said weakly.
“Hi.” He drew back to look at me. “You look wonderful.” He complimented.
I scoffed silently, as if anybody could look wonderful next to him. Even in a simple shirt and slacks, he looked like he had just stepped out of the pages of a magazine. Everything about him was beautiful, the way he looked, his tall, slim, yet strong frame, the way he moved, manly and yet graceful, He was just perfection.
“I’m so glad to see you.” I said before I could stop myself.
“
Hmmn
.”
He smiled, with a speculative gleam in his eyes. “So you missed me?” He teased.
“I didn’t say that.” I protested feebly.
“So you didn’t?” He managed to look playful and hurt at the same time.