Serendipity

Chapter 30: He Knows

Our lovely Tinsel queen, Adegbite Damilola is Mitchell 😻

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"I thought I'd never come out of it." Nonso said, flipping through his certificates.

Derin sat opposite him on the bed. They had returned to Lagos and were cleaning out an old shelf he'd packed his credentials in. It was then Nonso started telling her about his toughest moment. When he had been wrongly accused in his finals.

"The professor was really serious about cancelling the exam. I was scared I'd carry over or probably be rusticated from school."

Derin's heart pounded. She needed to tell him. So far things had been going good, but she feared that the truth would hurt him. She slipped her hands in his.

"It's all in the past."

Nonso looked up at her, the pain visible in his eyes. "I kept wondering, what if, what if I'd repeated. What if? You know I did rewrite that exam, under those circumstances."

Derin creased her brows. "I don't understand."

Nonso sighed. "After i was caught, my script was signaled out. It was marked and my score was first class worth. But the man who caught me told me to rewrite so they'll know if it was my brain. They set up another question and with four people around me, I rewrote my last paper. Well, it was as excepted, I didn't write extensively."

Derin was furious. Those lectures were stupid. How could they think that he'd write as brilliantly as he had written in his first exam. With all the tension and all, he couldn't.

Nonso smiled. "I could have made a first class but a second class upper is a good result too."

Then he kissed Derin squarely on the lip. Derin nuzzled closer and deepened the kiss.

"We have work, babe." He groaned against her lips.

Derin sighed dramatically and drew back. "Yeah."

The next moment, Nonso had dressed up in his official white and black attire. Derin kissed him good bye as he walked out the apartment door.

I could have made a first class.

Guilt burdened her, if he hadn't been caught, he could have made a first class. She made up her mind, she'd tell him the truth tonight, when they were both back from work, home and relaxed.

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Work was over and Mitchell had dropped by to pick her. The excitement in her voice was hard to ignore. Derin stared at her quizzically. Mitchell looked lovely in her new hairstyle. A wavy hair extension that stopped below her neck. Derin sat comfortably in the car. Sometimes she regretted not accepting the Avalon her father had offered on her twentieth birthday. She never accepted huge gifts from him. She always justified it as his ways of wanting to atone for not being there.

"Babe, guess what?" Mitchell said as she swerved right.

Derin turned to her. "What?"

"There is a job vacancy. Jib oils are expanding their company to lagos. They need a public relation officer. Do you want to apply?"

Derin raised a brow. "Is that why you're excited?"

"No. Answer this one first."

"Sure, what's the pay?"

Mitchell smirked. "Two hundred k."

Derin turned to her. "Seriously?"

"I never lie."