The Right One

Twenty five

Hope glared at her friend. "Why are you even my friend again?"

"Because you love me."

Hope fished out her phone, deciding if she missed him that much, she might as well do something about it. She dialed his number and waited on bated breath as it rang.

"Hope."

It was inexplicable; the feelings that coursed through her whenever she as much as heard his voice.

"Hi," she replied, her voice going unintentionally soft. Her eyes narrowed as her friend who mimicked holding a phone and blowing kisses into it.

"Hi. How are you?"

Hope almost sighed in appreciation. He had the nicest voice in existence. Yes, it was that nice. "I'm fine. I miss you."

Hope cringed. She had not meant to say that out loud. When had she turned sappy? It wasn't made better when Tayo pretended to gag.

Her embarrassment of course vanished when he replied, "I miss you as well."

Hope couldn't actually know, but she could have sworn she heard his voice smiling -- or maybe it was just her finally losing her sanity, but whichever way, it was enough to have her smiling as well. "Okay, that's all I wanted to hear. Bye."

She didn't wait for a response before ending the call, her head falling to the table a second after.

"What was that?"

Hope peeked at her friend who looked like it was taking all of her willpower not to burst into laughter.

"You better not laugh," Hope warned menacingly as she stood apruptly to go back to work. Lunch break was over anyway. Her friend wasn't very obedient though, as she could hear her laughter floating after her.  She got to the counter and Oke smiled at her, his head tilting at Tayo.

"Is your friend okay?"

He was smiling though, and she knew he'd already figured whatever was causing her friend to laugh so hard was at her expense.

Hope ignored him, knowing he was out to tease her as well. She got to work almost immediately, everything falling to the back of her mind for a little while. That didn't last as long as she would have loved though.

"What would you like t--" Hope's sentence froze midway as she lifted her head only to come face to face with the Raymond Adams himself, rocking that endearing smile she just loved. For a brief while, she wondered if she'd somehow conjured him up.

Hope almost went mute, thank God for small mercies. "Uncle Ray!"

He leaned slightly over the counter, and Hope was left dumb another second. "Isn't it about time you ditched the uncle?"

Hope was lost as to where the shyness stemmed from but she found herself looking everywhere but at him at the realization of what he was implying.

"Good afternoon, sir," Oke greeted him and Raymond returned the gesture, throwing a quick smile at the boy. Hope was surprised Oke was being friendly, seeing as he was the type that intentionally ignored most people -- a funny contrast to his sometimes chirpy personality; sometimes she wondered if the boy was bipolar. She concluded he was probably being nice to Raymond because of her.

"What are you doing here?" Hope asked, relief coursing through her as her brain regained function. "It's still work hours."

He shrugged, casually. "You said you missed me, so I came."

That was it. Her heart was officially out of control and she could only pray for the strength to keep it in check before she caused a scene right there.