CHIBOK (COMPLETED)

CHAPTER TWELVE

Words can't express how grateful I am for the constant support. Thank you.

Spot any error? Please let me know.

Months have passed since the incidence at the hospital (in which Cynthia was nearly robbed), but Bello was slowly, yet surely becoming a regular personality in her life. Coming over to the park during weekends had become quite a habit thanks to him, and the gratuitous guilt she felt for hanging out with him waned into the wind with every encounter. Cynthia was beginning to accept the fact that she needed to move on.

Grace insisted that Bello had the guy-next-door drama coming on strong and that Cynthia was just trying to delay the inevitable by refusing his proposal. There have been times when Cynthia had to admit that her cousin was right. Only one thing kept her holding back. Just one snag in the history of her life.

Standing close to him this blissful afternoon, she resorted to good vibes only. Yet, the struggle continues and the pain of the past reached for the joy of the present.

Mr Bello was a gentle man of the finest breed, and the more she knew about him, the more free she felt in his company. Today they walked the park, just the two of them under the bright sky from which the gold and silver of sunshine distilled through the air, and was reflected on the glistening leaves. It had rained earlier in the morning; hence, the sky was crystal clear diffracting the mild yet brilliant sunrays.

A thick tall tree, stood sentinel over the pond, its shadow cast amidst the shimmering eddies.

"So, how did the protest turn out?" Bello was asking as the duo took a seat beside the pool.

Cynthia spun and Bello greeted her with an amused smile, "I didn't remember telling you about that," she replied after careful consideration.

Bello shrugged, "a bird told me," he said, and then averted his gaze from her to the pond. He picked a pebble and tossed it through the air, making it splat on the water and almost bouncing before sinking. "How was it?"

"Well, now that you ask, I was wondering why the bird would leave the details out?"

The man laughed at her newly found vitriol, "Okay, I overheard you and Grace talking about it. Moments before you noticed my presence." He admitted with his hand raised in the air in mock surrender. His sinewy biceps was flexed, pushing at the elastic short sleeve of his black polo shirt—a sharp contrast in colour to his own light brown skin.

Cynthia considered asking if Bello ever thought of modelling as a career, but decided against it. It would only mean that she's been seeing too much. She would keep the indifference act for longer.

"It went well; we had an audience with the first lady, quite committed to the cause too, if you ask me. But truth is, a bunch of NGOs chaired by civilians would be up to nothing but suicide should they venture to Sambisa. If you know what I mean?"

Bello nodded.

"We simply decided to send some relief materials to the IDP camps." It was Cynthia's turn to look away from his stare, "that's much about the long and short of it." She said.

As her eyes caught his dreamy gaze again about a minute later, she had paused moments before her brain could register that she was equally staring. In actual sense, Bello was the sort of well made hunks that were meant to stand out in the world of men like diamond among marbles. The sort that had faces and crazy body that was meant to impress even the well pruned mind of the most ascetic of ladies. The likes of him would have desperate lots of spinsters fighting over him, Cynthia secretly wondered if Bello was as aware of his sex appeal as she was.