****~Twenty~***

Fisrt things first, Happy new year guys!!!
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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?”.