Another Shot at Love

Chapter 31- Mails and decisions

The long hand of the clock on her wall moved slowly and landed on the number six which made the time exactly 2:30 am. Kemi laid still watching the time move, watching life pass on without her and wondering how it was possible to be so alive but so dead on the inside. It was true Tess was pregnant for her half-brother Dumebi. How ironic is that? Dumebi one way or the other had been dragged into the terrible mess that was her life. He now had a woman who was pregnant for him and his life had changed dramatic over a short space of time. Time! Her own life had dramatically turned around within 5 months... Time! Yet time crawled on slowly as she watched it that night.

Kemi stood up from her table and went over to her dresser where her laptop was and she opened it before touching the power button. As the laptop booted, her eyes fell on the painting Antonio had given her and she remembered the goodbye sessions she had with him earlier that day. In fact she was heading over to Antonio's hotel to take him to the airport when Kunbi arrived and threw her off balance. She had later picked up Antonio and as she drove, they talked about their lives together. By the time they arrived at the airport, they had both arrived at the conclusion that even if they still loved each other, it was better they remained as friends. Kemi had done a good soul searching and discovered she couldn't be with Antonio anymore. He was a sweet guy who had been there for her when life was hard on her. He held her, encouraged and he loved her. But she didn't think they were right for each other. Antonio agreed with her, although he said she would always be his 'un vero amore'. That is his 'one true love'

She had stayed with him until it was thirty minutes to his take off time and he needed to check in. Kemi had given him back the engagement ring but Antonio would not collect it. Instead, Antonio had hugged her tightly. Kissing her forehead lovingly before he left, he promised to keep in touch as often as possible. Even if she missed him greatly, she was certain it was the right decision, her parents agreed with her as well but she didn't feel that way with Kunbi.

Kemi put in her password and watched her wallpaper appear. It was one of Antonio's paintings. She connected to the internet and browsed on nothing in particular just to while time away. She later stumbled on her old Hi5 account and tried to log in to see her old messages and contacts, but she couldn't remember her password. After trying several possible passwords, she did a password reset only to discover it was sent to her old email that she stopped using shortly after she left Nigeria. Kemi opened another tab and typed in 'www.yahoomail.com' which opened quickly. The network was pretty fast at that time of the day so Kemi put in her email and password. The password turned out to be wrong too. She sighed and tried another one. It turned out wrong again. She was about to give up on it when she remember one password she had not tried and she was right. The email opened to reveal thousands of unread mails. A lot of them where junk mails and regular mails from her old subscriptions to blogs and newsletters. She turned on her media player and let her old Hillsong collection play while she spent a great deal of time deleting the unnecessary mails and reading the ones she thought was worth reading. She had sieved through a lot of mails when she saw one from Kunbi it was dated September 24th 2016 that was about two years ago.

Kemi opened the mail and read it.

"Hello again Kemi,

I should have stopped mailing you by now since I haven't gotten a reply to any of my several messages but I can't help myself. I think this is therapeutic now. Remember when we always shared all that bothered us? It's a shame I never shared with you what really bothered me and that was 'if you loved me as much as I loved you'. It was cowardly of me not to have spoken up and I regret that every single day now. If it helps, I still love you as much as I did back then but that is by the way.

I started working under dad's mentorship today, in view of me taking over the company eventually. Am I wrong to say I don't want to take over? Is that what I really want to do? I think being a lawyer makes me so fulfilled. I don't think I want Mega Corps International Kemi, but I also don't want to disappoint dad and mum.