twenty-six

He smiled as he put down the paper, “Dee, I didn’t say that naww” “But you sound

like you are! Do you still want to hear more?” I pouted. “Sure baby. We’ve got a few

minutes to spare before we head out” he glanced at his watch. “Okay, okay. Did I

tell you about the time he was to photograph Reggie Bush for a Calvin Klein

commercial?” I was so excited talking about Chris. Kiki didn’t seem in the mood to

hear every single detail of my interview but I knew Layefa would always listen to me.

“So the director was trying to explain something to Reggie when Chris jumped in and

was like ‘I think this is what he means’ taking off his shirt and all! He said

Reggie and the rest of the crew were stupefied!” . Layefa actually chuckled. “So

what happened after that?” “The director was so taken by his poise that he renounced

the original idea and decided to do the commercial with both Reggie and Chris! Side

by side! And Chris still took the pictures!” “Wow! This guy really gets you excited

oh! How did he still take the pictures?” Layefa knew just how I like people reacting

to my gist. I just couldn’t stand it when I was telling someone about something and

they go ‘Mmhm’ or ‘yeah?’ or ‘eeyahh’ ‘Are you serious?’. I expected questions to

show you were really listening.


“With that Timer thing naww. Asin he’s seriously talented!” I finished my croissant,

glanced at the clock, gulped my juice then said, “Gotta run, boo”. Layefa glimpsed

his watch, “Yeah, yeah. We should get going”. We headed out the kitchen door.


“Baby, I think forgot my Coach sunglasses in your car” I said as I locked the door

behind me. “Oh? Don’t think you’d need them with this weather sha” we looked at the

sky. It had suddenly turned grey. “Darn! I hate rain!” I sulked. “See you later,

Dee” he kissed the top of my head and walked towards his car. I walked over to mine

and minutes later we both drove off.


I turned on the radio and let the music drive me. I was even more excited when

Freeze came on air. He cracked me up diee! A teenage girl called in and asked Freeze

to call up her dad and find out if he was really cheating on her mum. Like there’s

this thing they do at Cool FM where they call up people and play pranks on them to

find out stuff for people that called in. So Freeze called the girl’s dad and

pretends to be an ex-boyfriend of the lady he’s supposedly cheating with. It was

some funny shit mehn.

“Hehehehe, it’s your boy Da Grin…” the intro of my message tone blared. I scrambled

for my phone in my bag. I just loved getting text messages. They always got me

excited. I guess every girl feels that way when she hears her message tone too.

It was from my network! Boy was I pissed! I didn’t even read it before I deleted it

in anger. Just as I was tossing the phone back in my bag, I got another text. This

time it was from IK. It just simply said: what’s your BB pin?

twenty-five

After I left the office I got stuck in traffic for about two and a half hours. The

only thing is, this time it was my fault. I should have known better than to hit the

road during rush hour. I had to call Chris and cancel, anyway. I got home at 8:12

exactly. Layefa was already home. I let myself in and slumped on the living room

couch. I didn’t even take my shoes off. I was just sooo tired.

“Dee?” Layefa called coming down the stairs with a towel tied firmly round his

waist. He probably heard me driving in. “Huh?”I muttered sleepily from the couch.

“Where are you naww?” His eyes danced around before he finally spotted me. “Whatchu

doing there? You tired?” he asked walking over to me. He pulled me up gently and

wrapped his arms around me. “I need a driver” I nodded as i nuzzled my head into his

chest. “Awww. Poor thing.” He patted my back and kissed my hair.


He finally got me up to the bedroom.
“So how was your meeting?” Layefa asked as he pulled off my shoes. I hissed. “Can

you believe I couldn’t even make it? I spent the entire evening on the road!” “Ah

ahn. The trafficwasn’t that bad when I left Lagoon oh” “Oh. You guys went to Lagoon

restaurant?” I sat up. “Yeah. Daniel’s always loved it. Saida seemed to be a big fan

of theirs too.” “Huh? What? What does Saida have to do with anything?”, I spat like

her name was venom. Layefa seemed to notice the fire in my eyes. I really did not

like hearing about that Saida chic. He quirked an eyebrow, “I told you she was

coming naww. Daniel met her at my office and seemed really taken with her so he

asked her to join us”. “Hmmnn” I muttered as I headed for the bathroom. “She really

wanted to meet you oh. I think you guy’s will really blend. Daniel too was also

really looking forward to seeing you after all this time.” He followed me. “Mmhm” I

mumbled as I massaged my scrub into my face. I rinsed off the scrub then turned to

face him. “Yeah, Daniel sent me some invite to an album launch party. Didn’t even

know he had my e-mail.” “Oh. I was surprised too when he told me. He said y’all used

to talk way back”. I nodded, “Yeah, way way back. Like during that wedding time. How

is he though? He changed much?” “He’s just the same mehn. Daniel can’t change. If

you see how he was whining Saida!”.


We changed into out PJs and slipped under the covers. “Oh. So he’s liking that one?”

I scoffed. If Layefa was noticing the air of hostility that I put on whenever it

came to Saida, he sure wasn’t acting like it. “You know Daniel naww. He doesn’t

waste time.” “That’s their business abeg. ’Night hon.” I stretched then rested my

head on Layefa’s chest. “Awww. You’re really tired oh. You didn’t even tell me bout

your interview with that photographer dude again” He stroked my hair ten turned out

the lights. “I’ll tell you tomorrow” I mumbled.




“So his maternal grandmother was the only full-fledged Nigerian in his family tree?”

Layefa asked as he sipped his coffee. I had been telling him about Chris Laire ever

since we got up. “Yes! Can you believe that? And his attitude is sooo Nigerian!” I

bit into my croissant. “Standing up every time you got up? Nigerian? Uh…I don’t

think so!” “Oh? So you think that is such a big deal? He’s just a true gentleman!”.

Layefa rolled his eyes and picked up his newspaper. “Alright baby. Whatever.” He

sounded bored. I brushed the edge of his pants with my shoes, “Am I boring you? Have

I been talking way too much?”

twenty-four

First let me tell you Dafe is. Apart from the fact that he was Mrs.Obie’s Godson and

the director of P.R., Dafe was the cockiest sonuvabitch I had ever met in my entire

life. Poise was generally known for giving young people chances which explain why

we have a lot of twenty-something’s heading our departments. Now back to Dafe: Some

months ago he set up a meeting for both of us at Tea tree. I thought it was

something about work but how wrong I was. He made a lame attempt to bring work in

but i knew was totally hitting on me. He had arranged for us to be the only ones in

the restaurant. The fool even tried to kiss me! If he was being sweet, I would have

at least stayed till the end of the diner and explained gently to him how nothing

and nobody could make me cheat on my husband. But the fool was so arrogant! So he’s

a fine boy? Who cares? He was even on Exquisite Magazine’s list of top 20 bachelors.

Abegi! Layefa was in TNM’s top 25 young and successful men last year, so there! Dafe

talked like he had the keys to Lagos in the palm of his hand. Even when I rose to

leave telling him I was going to meet my husband, he acted all “Well, it’s your

loss”. Since that night, we’ve managed to stay out of each other’s way. Until today,

apparently.


I closed my mouth and stared straight ahead of me. He didn’t deserve even a muffled

hello. I raised my hand to smoothen my hair.

“Don’t worry your hair looks fine” he said with a lopsided grin (I saw from the

corner of my eye). I didn’t even say anything in reply. I just continued humming

along with the music. Just as the doors opened on the 3rd floor, he called out, “See

you around, Delores” and walked out. I hurriedly got out too before the doors shut.

I walked into the head of department’s secretary’s office quickly before I could run

into anyone else.

“Ah! Good evening Mrs. Thompson!” the secretary who I’m sure I wasn’t really older

than greeted rising from her desk. “Good evening! Are you guys done with the

articles?” I asked taking a seat. She looked like they had just been busted. She

started stammering explaining how her boss had everything under control. I chuckled

inside then said, “No pressure, no pressure. The deadline’s not today abi? I was

just passing by.” I swiped one of the free samples of organic lip balm from her

table then headed back upstairs to check on Kiki.


“So??? What happened? What did he say? You guys good?” I interrogated bursting into

my office. Kiki was all smiles typing away on her blackberry. She didn’t even look

up at me, “Huh?” “Kiki! Answer me naww” I pestered. She typed some more then tossed

her silky Indian weave aside. She finally acknowledged me. “What did you say naww? I

just heard a mumble of different sounds”. Look at this mumu girl oh. I laughed.

Everything was probably good with IK now that was why she could be doing me like

this. “Kiki! Stop it! Just tell me!” she smiled, “Okay fine. He said he was sorry

for everything. I said I was sorry for avoiding his messages. He said he missed me.

That we should get together for dinner. Told him I couldn’t then-” “WHAT??? Why

would you say that”, I cut in. “I told you before naww. I have a date with Tobi.”

She replied like I was getting on her nerves.

I raised my hands in surrender and walked round to my side of the desk. i shut down

my computer while Kiki continued with her typing. Ten minutes later, we had packed

up our stuff and were headed home. I headed for the elevator while she headed for

the stairs. As a health rule Kiki always took the stairs. We waved goodbye and I

made a mental note to check out that suspicious Tobi character.

twenty-three

It was just some invite to an album launch party. “This Daniel sha! He just came back oh. And he’s already sending out invites” “What party?” Kiki asked walking over to my side of the desk. “Oh! Tha kidd! that guy that sang that ‘Me and my baby’ song”. Raising my eyebrows, I’m like “What? Which one is that again?” “Delores! I will so fucking slap you if you tell me you don’t know that song!” “Chill. Is it the one that has Banky W on it?” “Duh! I swear you’re getting old oh. How come you’re getting invited to his album launch sef? I heard he’s like a teenager or something”. I shrugged, “Daniel probably knows the boy’s label executives or something”.
“So what were we saying bout IK now? You gonna call him?” I pestered. I knew I was nagging her but she’s my best friend and I wasn’t going to sit and watch her throw something good away. “Ok fine! Ah! I’ll call him, Delores” Kiki said throwing her hands up in despair as she walked back to her seat across the table from me. “You are? Oya call him now” I picked up her phone from the table and tossed it to her. She rolled her eyes as she caught it. “Don’t worry, I’ll ex as soon as I’m sure he’s picked up” I assured her grinning like a Cheshire cat. I stood behind her and watched her dial the number. He picked up on the fourth ring. She dangled the phone in front of my eyes then mouthed, “See?”. I nodded and mouthed, “I’m ouddie!”. She smiled as I quickly exited my office. I knew Kiki wouldn’t have had a problem with me being there but I just liked to give people their space.
“Bols, what’s crackin’? I said slipping into the visitors’ chair opposite Bola, my assistant. Smiling, she held up a list of names I’d told her to research on and said, “Just this”. Nodding, I said, “Good girl. Carry on!”
I liked Bola a lot. She was the kind of assistant who didn’t make you feel as if you were too demanding even if you were. She was also really efficient at her job. She kinda reminded me of Betty in ‘Ugly betty’ except she was anything but ugly. She was a petite pretty young thing. Though Bola was barely twenty, she had all the experience I needed her to have. Her dad her passed away just before she finished secondary school so her and her sibling had to pick up a few jobs to assist their mom with the bills and all.
“Is that a new bracelet? It’s rather hot oh. Where did you get it?” I asked holding up her wrist for a proper look. From the way she was smiling, I knew someone had given it to her even before she said it. “Oh.This? Thank you! It was a gift.” She stared at her desk bashfully. “Ohhhh. No need to be embarrassed now. At least he has taste” I said with a wink.
I decided to go snoop around the office building and let her get back to her researching. I headed to the beauty department first. Those whores never got tired of drama. I walked to the elevator hoping not to run into any of those chatty colleagues of mine. I couldn’t stand office chit-chat that went further than “Hello. How are you doing? How’s the family? See you around.” But noooo. Some people just had to tell you how their day sucked, how their sister’s boyfriend’s uncle is running for Governor and stuff like that.
Thankfully I made it the elevator without anyone stopping me. I got in and hit the 3rd floor button which was where the beauty department was. I hummed along with the elevator music before it abruptly stopped on the 5th floor. Before I knew it, the doors opened and Dafe Martins walked in. For about five seconds I just stood and stared with my mouth hanging. Like seriously. What were the chances of running into someone you’d expertly managed to avoid for months?!

twenty-two

Maybe I should have cancelled with Chris instead. “You’re leaving work now? I’m

almost leaving too sha” Layefa said. Maybe there was no need to panic sef. Since it

was jus Layefa, Daniel and I, we could probably have dinner anytime. “Baby, I’m

meeting Chris again this evening oh. I’ll have to put a rain check on dinner with

you guys.” “Oh. Ah ahn. Why cant you guys meet tomorrow?” I felt rather silly that I

didn’t know the answer to that question. Why hadn’t I just suggested we meet

tomorrow? “Uh…I don’t know for the guy oh. I think he has a really busy itinerary.”

“Alright. No wahala. I just hope that guy isn’t having any ideas about you” Layefa

said casually. “Layefa!” I cried. He chuckled, “What? It’s true now. In fact if he

wasn’t having any ideas about you, I’d say he was gay”. I couldn’t believe he was

taking things so easy. I felt so guilty remembering how I’d totally let Chris flirt

with me. I forced a low laugh. “Well, you’ve got nothing to worry about cuz I’d

choose caramel-skinned high-class lawyers over chocolate-skinned high-class

photographers. Any day.” We exchanged mushy, lovey-dovey words for a while before I

caught Kiki rolling her eyes. “See you at home then?” I said as I hung up.

“Y’all are jus funny” Kiki said followed by a sigh. She was probably missing IK.

“How far with IK now?” I asked. “Oh him. He called me yesterday but I was at church

so I couldn’t pick up.” “Call him back now” I said. Shaking her head, “He can like

to call me again if he really wants to talk to me”. Why was Kiki acting so childish?

“Babe, are you trying to really push him away?”. I really couldn’t understand why

girls made a big deal about calling guys back. “Moving on jare. I’m meeting Tobi for

lunch tomorrow again”. She was actually grinning. Kiki was vexing me oh. IK was a

catch! Just because he went through a phase doesn’t mean she had to cut him loose.

If I didn’t have Layefa I’d probably be jealous of what they had. They’d been

together for only a year but I already felt like I knew IK almost as well as I knew

Kiki herself.

“Kiki! Snap out of it! This thing you’re doing with Tobi. Whatever it is, just stop!

It’s obvious IK’s missing you already. Don’t you miss him too?” Even I missed IK. I

couldn’t understand why she didn’t freaking run out of the church building to answer

his call! “Delores, it’s not that easy!” Kiki cried. I hoped she wouldn’t start

tearing up. Just as I rose to comfort her, a window popped up on the corner of my

computer screen: new e-mail from Daniel O. Kiki must have noticed my surprised

expression, “What is it now?” “Just Layefa’s friend e-mailing me”. I clicked on the

link immediately.

***Sorry this one is kinda short guys!****

Twenty-one

We spent the next hour and a half stuck in traffic that should normally have taken

us twenty minutes. We took the time to get to know each other more though. I found

out a lot more things about Chris that I hadn’t thought to ask during the interview.

“So you were like all these crazy-stalker-paparazzi types?” I chuckled as he

explained to me how he really got started in photography. During the interview he

just casually said he stumbled upon a couple of wonderful pictures and knew

immediately that that was what he wanted to do. But that wasn’t what really happened!

What happened was: some wanna-be opera star just moved into the apartment building

he was staying during his med. school days. One day he gave her a lift to the opera

house and had to punch some guy who was forcefully trying to take pictures of her.

Later that night when he and his roommate where gisting, he learned that pictures of

the wanna-be would be extremely valuable at a later date when she was some big

Hollywood star. Then came his light bulb moment! Why take pictures of wanna-bes when

you can pictures of actual stars?!

“At first I tried stuff like-” he was saying just before his cell phone rang.

Holding up a finger he said, “One second”. I nodded while he hit the answer key.

“Yeah?”. After a couple of ‘Uh huh’s and ‘yeah’s, he finally ended with “Tonight’s

no good, I’ve got a date”. My eyes almost popped out of their sockets. Could he be

referring to dinner with me as a date? Or did he have some other girl in mind? So he

has female contacts in Lagos already? A gazillion thoughts sped through my mind.

After he hung up, he turned then smiled at me, “So where were we?. “Huh?!” I jerked

back to reality. It was at that exact moment that I remembered what Layefa had said

about dinner. Something about him, me and Daniel. Dang! I thought. How could I have

forgotten that I made plans with Chris already. I made a mental note to call Layefa

once I got back to the office.

“You ok, Delores?” Chris touched my arm. Jumping, I said, “Huh? Oh. Sure. No

problem. Yeah, you were telling me about your stalker days.” He looked at me for

about a minute as if to make sure I was really alright then continued with his story.


“Ay bay bay!” Kiki said coming into my office. I was so glad to see her. I had been

going over the articles I received from the style department. There were about

twenty different articles and none of them were appealing to me.

“Kiki! U tey oh! Ah ahn! Since morning!” I cried as she slumped into one of my

visitor chairs. She had left since 8 in the morning to meet with a representative of

Tiffany Amber. They were to clothe our models for our October issue.

“So how was it?” we asked at the same time. Chuckling, she said” You go first joh”.

So I told her all about Chris Laire. Ok not all. I kinda skipped the parts where he

was flirting with me. “The funniest part was when he stood every time I stood” I

concluded. “Awww. He’s such a sweerie!” Kiki cooed. “ I know! So how far with the

Tiffany Amber rep now?”. She hissed. “Those ones are just on their own. Na so so

terms and conditions den dey give me.” She explained how they kept her waiting for

over two hours before she was finally ushered into the rep’s office. Then how the

rep made her wait for about another hour while they had an office meeting.

“The bitch finally showed oh. She now started blowing phoneh for me. Me sef I showed

her that I did my masters at Sheffield. The fool!” Kiki was really pissed. She

narrated how the lady gave her a not so brief intro on Tiffany Amber general style

and all. “Ah ahn. Why didn’t you tell her we’ve worked with them before?” I

interjected. “I told her oh. She was like a lot of things have changed in their

designs blah blah blah”. Hmmmn, I thought, I hope those people didn’t mix up our

appointment with some other random magazine. “She gave me these sha” Kiki shoved a

portfolio filled with pictures of T.A’s most recent line across the table to me. I

placed it on top of the pile of style articles then picked up my phone. “They’re

probably correct stuff but I’m still gonna call Folake.

See how her people are treating us like amateurs. Rubbish. Why didn’t they set up

the meeting with one of those people we’ve dealt with before?”. Kiki just shrugged

and slumped further into her chair.

Folake’s number wasn’t going. (yes oh, I’m on first name basis with Folake of

Tiffany Amber). I dropped my phone and slumped in my chair. “I’m so effin tired

mehn”. “It’s not only you oh. How’s uncle?” kiki said. “He’s good oh. I’m supposed

to call him sef!” I sat up and picked up my phone again. “Oh shit” I muttered

glancing at my watch. It was already 5:30! How time flies when you’re working hard,

I was thinking just as Layefa picked up. “Hey Dee” he answered. “Baby…” I started.

Gosh, I hadn’t even thought of what I was going to say.

****~Twenty~***

Fisrt things first, Happy new year guys!!!
***************************************************************************

He rose to his feet and stretched forth his hand. “Daniel Olotu”, he said with his

famous cocky grin. Taking his hand as slowly as possible, she replied wetting her

lips with her tongue, “Saida Ibrahim”.” “Pleasure.” He replied touching his lips to

the back of her hand.

She flashed him a huge smile as Layefa pulled out a chair for her.

When they had all taken their seats: “So, uh...i’m working with Saida on that

Fashola case I told you about, She’s one of the top executives at the Lagos

Development Bank”. “Wow! Beauty and brains! How do you concentrate, bro?” Daniel

cried. Saida placed a hand on her chest and feigned a blush. Layefa just shrugged

and waved his left hand with his wedding ring on it. (How cuuute). Daniel rolled his

eyes then turned back to Saida. “So where did you go to uni at?” he asked as his

eyes danced around her voluptuous form. “Uh…First degree at Oxford, Second degree at

Harvard” she answered like it was nothing”. Well, for people like Layefa and Daniel who paroled Ivy-Leagues anyhow, it was probably nothing.

“Are you serious? Sweet. I’m a Harvard man myself; first and second degree. You

know, Layefa here did at his Masters at Harvard too”. Daniel said. She nodded then

asked “Are you a lawyer too?”. “Well, yeah. But not right now. At the mo, I’m jus

freelancing. You know, testing the waters” Daniel replied. “Ode”, Layefa muttered.

“Oh. That sounds fun. Testing the waters? So where were you before?”, Saida said

tossing her hair then moving closer to Daniel. “Just some firm in the heart of

Chicago. You know the kind with dreary old partner dudes and over-ambitious young

lawyer types”. Saida nodded then smiled. “So Saida, you got the paperwork?” Layefa

interrupted. Turning towards him, Saida said, “Yeah, of course sweetie”. She reached

into her case and got out a stack of legal documents.



Back at The Meridian Hotel rooftop café:

“Okay. That’s a wrap!” I announced. We had just concluded his interview. “Wow,

you’re pretty good at your job!” Chris said, taking my hand. “Thanks” I said

grinning. “So you wanna head back to the office and discuss the shoot?” I added. “Uh…

not really. We could meet back here later this evening to discuss it if you’d like

but right now I gotta catch some z’s” Chris replied stretching his arms. Stealing a

glance at my watch, I felt so silly suggesting that we head back to the office after

I’d taken almost two hours of his time already. I nodded and said, “No problem.

What time is good for you?”. He thought for a few seconds then said “I guess seven

is alright for me. How bout you? You think seven would be cool for you?”. Without

even thinking about it twice I just said, “Yeah, Sure”.

“I’ll just be a minute” I said rising from my seat. Being the perfect gentlemen that

he is, he stood while I rose. I walked briskly to the washroom hoisting my purse on my arm.

I ran a brush through my hair and touched up my make-up quickly. As I was about to

leave, I thought to call Layefa. He’d been trying to reach me all day.


“Hey Baby!” he picked up on the first ring. “Hey boo!” I replied. “I’m guessing you

just got outta your meeting?” he asked, “I’ve been trying to reach you all day!”.

“Yeah, baby. I know” I replied, “I wanted to call you back but I didn’t want to

keep him waiting”. “No wahala, Dee”, Layefa said, “So what’s the guy like?”.

I told him how Chris was really modest and gentlemanly, how he studied photography

at Paris, how he could speak four languages and was about to tell him bout his

exotic ethnicity when he was like, “Baby chill! It’s like you’re really excited oh.

You’ll tell me the rest at home, k?”. Even though I said “Alright then”, I secretly

hoped I wasn’t over-hyping Chris. “Daniel came by the office today oh. He even met

Saida” Layefa said. “Are you serious? How is he?” I replied deliberately ignoring

his last statement. “He’s good. He was even like we should all go out tonight. You

know, dinner”. Just then I glanced at my watch and I’d been gone from the table for

eighteen minutes. Eighteen whole minutes! “Okay baby. I’ll talk to you later, k?” I

said hurriedly cutting the line just as he said “Love you!”. I texted “Love you

more” to Layefa as I hurried back to join Chris.

“I’m terribly sorry for keeping you waiting” I gushed as I reached the table. “No

problem, no problem” he replied rising from his seat. “I was on the phone…I kinda

lost-” I tried to explain when he shushed me, “Its okay, Delores”. Smiling, I

hoisted up my purse on my arm then said, “So are you ready to leave?”.