The Woman

Chapter 9

"Let's sit down and go...over it again." He walked over to his chair, all the while telling himself to focus on the case and not on her. She walked by the book shelf and stopped. He looked over to see what caught her attention, she was looking at the picture of him and Debo. He had been meaning to take the picture down, it was just a reminder of his betrayal.

"Wow! A young barrister Raymond, you looked cute!"

"Looked?"

"Don't be proud." She looked at him and then back at the picture. "You look much better now though. So who's this?" She pointed at the guy that stood beside him.

"He was my very good friend back in school." He rose from his seat and walked towards her till he was standing behind her. "This picture was taken on our graduation day from the university that was where we met, we became tight and he was my best friend."

"Was? What happened?"

"After school the next thing was youth service but I was going to law school so we parted ways. My dad from the goodness of his heart let him serve in his company, this same law firm but what did Debo do? He stole from my dad and ran away with a bunch of money. That graduation day was the last day I ever saw him and I don't think I want to see him again." He placed his hands over hers that was on the frame. . She smelt so delicate and he just wanted to hold her to him and never let go. Gently, he ran his thumb up and down her palms and kept talking as though he couldn't see the effect it was having on her. "That's why till today we don't take any corpers in our finance department."

"Raymond..."

He took a step back from her, against his strongest desires, he shouldn't feel this way, it was wrong. She turned around and looked at him and her eyes told him a million things at once, and one of which was that she was feeling exactly what he was, whatever it was and it only made him want her more. "We better get started." She stepped away from him and went straight to her seat. He caught his reflection in the picture frame.

"Get a grip!" He said to himself and went to his desk to join her. "We have like twenty minutes before they are here so let's see what we can go through."

She didn't respond and the entire twenty minutes they were together in his office, not once did she meet his gaze.

() () ()

What had just happened? Kazia ran her hands through her hair in frustration. This had been an attack on her and she felt sick but of course she couldn't show any emotions if not they would call her weak, they already did anyway.

She watched as Raymond shook the hands of Dayo and his lawyer before they exited the room and it was just two of them. "Are you alright?" He asked taking the sit beside her he had occupied just a few minutes ago.

"It's not easy being a woman and doing what I do. Simply because as a woman people perceive you as weak and unable to handle being at the top. When you are there you have to work harder and be tougher than the men have to be to gain the respect that you so rightly deserve but then when you do that people see you as cold and shut out. Then you are left trying so hard to show everyone you have a heart but are not weak and that's a thin line to walk and I know trust me because I have tried to walk it. You are that way for a long time till you just stop seeing what people are saying because you can't just be enough for them. I would have abandoned this, all of this if I could but I can't because this business is my life. It's all I ever wanted to do. All he spent the last two hours doing was making it seem like my decision to let him go was baseless and made purely out of emotions. He said I was probably on my period and all hormonal." She let out a chuckle which was not out of joy but utter disbelief for everything he had said. "If it was a man in my place he would not have said any of that." She was looking at Raymond but she wasn't looking at him either, she was replaying everything Dayo had said not too long ago. He had all but called her an incompetent bag of hormonal mess.

"Want to have breakfast? I have a feeling you haven't eaten this morning."

Kazia could see what he was doing and she was happy. She clearly needed to get her mind of everything. "I haven't."

"Good! Let's go. This building has a fully functional canteen and their food is not entirely horrible."

"Well that's encouraging."

"I'm kidding, the food is ok."

With that he led her to the ground floor and they found a sit in a secluded area of the canteen. They both ordered the same thing, fried plantain and egg sauce with a cup of freshly brewed coffee for him and juice for her.

"So tell me three weird things about you?" Kazia asked Raymond after she had downed a few pieces of plantain.

"That's an odd question but ok, let's have fun with it. Well, I'm afraid of rats for one."

"Who isn't but ok?"

"No my own fear is different. It's a 'leave my wife in the middle of sex and save myself' kind of fear. Trust me I won't form macho, I'm out of there." He said waving his fork in the air demonstrating himself fleeing.

Kazia couldn't help the outburst of laughter that erupted from her. "I'm sorry for your future wife."

"I can give her a lot of things and be a lot of things too but a rat hunter isn't one of them."

"So what else?"

"I don't agree, I've told you one now you tell me one."

"Hhhhmmm let me see. Ok, I've got one. I don't use the restroom at night, I don't know why but I just don't. I try to take care of all of such needs before it gets dark."

"Wow that's weird."

"I know." Kazia couldn't stop herself from laughing and felt a little shy so she placed her head on the table. "It's not like I'm scared, I just can't."

"You need help!"

"Ok it's your turn again!"

And he told her a couple more things till she totally forgot about everything that happed just a few minutes upstairs and she knew for sure that he was something special and her heart was in for trouble.

Just want to take a moment to thank all my readers!! You're the reason I write ☺ Thanks a million!!
Please don't forget to vote and comment so I know what you think about the story and message me anytime. Let's talk 😁

Thanks again and enjoy!
Before I run I'll love to dedicate this chapter to my bestie sparkledelux Thanks for the encouragement!!

Next chapter will be dropping soon

XOXO
IfeomaN