Scars (Romola 2)

16: Hadassah with the company list

The week passed by with no more than the usual problems.

On Monday, she was at Iya Tobi's Itire store, cleaning the top of the check-out counter. Mr. Ola was nowhere to be found. He had said he was going on break by 12pm and now it was 3:17. No one knew where he had gone.

Bunmi stood by the door, gazing occasionally at the external staircase of the balcony that led to the store. Romola would not be surprised if Bunmi pounced on Ola as soon as he arrived at the parking lot downstairs.

She sighed, then shut her open notebook before picking a magazine from the rack. The one line she had read a thousand times still made no sense. It hadn't made any sense since she saw Olumide at that interview.

Personally, she didn't care if Mr. Ola stayed away until clock out time. It was a slow day. She flipped through a few pages of the magazine before flinging it aside. Her problems were bigger than what her favourite colour revealed about her personality.She settled into the white stool.. Coward. Bukky was right about that one thing. She was definitely a coward when it

came to going after what she wanted. She wished she had sat in the chair and faced Olumide like his presence had no power over her. If she could just wipe the smirk off his face.

Someone marched into the store and straight to the checkout table. Romola lifted her head. Why didn't Bunmi deal with the customer?

"Excuse me, do you sell intelligence here?" Romola heard a light voice tinged with an Hause accent.

She raised her head in time to see Esther pull off her red rimmed wooden frame glasses

"Hadassah."

"The only one." Hadasah tapped Romola's nose.

"What are you doing here?"'

"I work not too far from here and my co-worker dropped me close by. I decided to come and say hi before catching the bus."

Romola's brow furrowed. "How did you know that I would be here?"

Hadassah stuck out her tongue from the corner of her mouth. "Mr. Joseph didn't stop talking about how the people he had high hopes for let him down."

"Abeg, He doesn't know anything."

Romola gazed at the door. Bunmi's gaze was fixed on them and her neck was longer than Romola remembered. Romola took Hadassah by the hand, leading her towards the private staff room.

"Can I get you anything? Malt? Juice? Wine?" Romola pushed the door open.

"No no. I'm okay. Do you know we have a kitchen at my office and they serve us food like every single day."

"Calm down." Romola sat opposite Hadassah's heart shaped face. "So, what is it like?"

"I started on Monday and it is so stressful. Many times, when I get home, I barely have time or strength to watch my movies. Now I don't know what is happening between Shriti and Akshan."

"Shriti and Ark...Ark? What's the name?"

"Akshan. It's one series from Zee world. I wake up at night to catch up and I end up oversleeping. When they ask me why I am late, I don't even know what to say."

Romola folded her arms but forced a smile for Hadassah's sake. It wasn't her friend's fault that Olumide worked at Pillard. "Does your whole life revolve around Zee World?"

"No." Esther lips pursed. "But I wouldn't mind meeting a man like Ranveer. He's so— "

Romola coughed into her fist. "Does your office have full resumption with Covid and everything"

"Not really, some people only come to the office when they have to but I am an intern. I come every day, except Fridays."

"Were you the only one chosen from our class?"

"I was the only one sent there, so yes."

Pain drew blood from Romola's heart. "Sha don't go and use Zee world to spoil your record."

"I'll try." Haddasah giggled. "How are you doing? I'm sorry you didn't get the spot. Those people don't know what they are missing."

"Thank you."

"I mean it." Hadassah reached for her red handbag on the other chair.. "In fact, at work they were asking me to compile the list for our competitors and I picked out a few places that I felt you could work in. I don't know if they pay but it would definitely be good for your CV."

Hadassah gave her a colourful flyer. It was a flyer about educational opportunities in South Africa. "Where is the list?"

"Oh sorry. I got the flyer from Mr. Joseph when I went to sign my internship slip. He said—"

"The list, Hadassah. Please?"

"At the back."

Romola turned the flyer over and scanned through the list of twelve names scrawled in curly letters that were as tall as Esther. "Thank you very much. I'll give them a call."

"Anytime. I have to go now so that my father doesn't worry too much."

"Worry?"

Hadassah rose and put the strap of her bag over her shoulder. "He thinks I'll go missing. Me that I'm hoping one Ranveer kind-of-guy would come and kidnap me."

Romola laughed as she walked towards the door with Hadassah. She came out in time to see Bunmi scramble back to the seat by the store door. Had the older woman been listening? Honestly. She didn't care. Once she finished her scheme, she would be out of this shop for good.

She stared at the flyer again. She would have had a shot at writing the scholarship exam for free when she was a student at the Federal University but now, she barely had enough money to pay for her scheme. Not to talk of the scholarship exam entry fee. She folded the flyer and stuck it in the pocket of her work jeans.