When A Playboy Loves

|| 7.

King

The alarm on Uti's phone never got a chance to ring before she cut it off, offering me a half shrug when I raised a questioning eyebrow. It was past six, two hours before Mother's plane arrived Calabar and I was a little less nervous than I was when she first informed me about her impromptu visit.

Mother was full of surprises and this time was no exception. Thankfully, her call came in at the nick of time, just when I was about to leave the club, otherwise, I would have missed Uti, my new girlfriend.

"We will leave soon," I responded with a nod, placing the back of my palm against my mouth to stifle a yawn. I had never stayed this late at a club and now, I was eager to get back to my bed.

After shoving the last of the liquor bottles into a cabinet, she gestured for us to leave. Together, we strolled into the near empty garage, the only sound being that of our feet connecting with the floor.

A cold breeze swept over us and Uti's arm wrapped tightly around herself, shivering slightly from the morning cold.

"Thank you," she muttered when I draped my suit jacket over her shoulders, blessing me with a sincere smile that made her eyes sparkle.

We spent the next thirty minutes in the car, with the heat on full blast, just discussing what to expect from a woman as powerful and demanding as my mother.

"Hold on, let me get this straight," Uti's hands were stretched out in front of her like she was pushing back an invisible enemy. "You want me to look your mother straight in the eye and lie to her about being your girlfriend?"

"More or less," I replied and then sighed, turning the key in the ignition. "I love my mother very much but sometimes she's too much to handle, even for me."

She kept mute after that, leaving me to wonder if Mother was going to pull one of her infamous tricks on arrival. It wouldn't matter though because this time I was prepared.

"This is you?" She pointed to a picture of me on her iPhone 6 and I nodded.

It was a picture of me at a beach in France; I was bare-chested with my arms protectively cradling my belly, pretending it was a baby bump while Charles, one of the many friends I made there emptied a bottle of water over my head. Relocating to a new place had been scary but the new, crazy experiences made up for it.

She showed me another picture, one where I was wearing a black T-shirt that had the caption, MY MONEY GROWS LIKE GRASS emblazoned on it in green colour while Junior's own shirt read, AMA KIP KIP. We were both smiling, our hands making the peace sign at the camera.

At that point in our lives, our greatest worries asides maintaining good grades were how to get our crushes to notice us. Uti swiped to another picture and I groaned, attempting to snatch the phone from her hands, maybe it was time to hide some of my old Facebook pictures.

"Why are you going through my Facebook?" I asked, steering the car in the direction which she pointed.

"I want to know more about my boyfriend." I chuckled at her response, drumming my fingers against the steering wheel while she continued fishing for more embarrassing pictures of me. "The media says you are a manwhore and you made your first million at the age of 20."

A wide grin broke out on my face, at least, they got one thing right.

"I was actually 10," I corrected, failing to mention the fact that it was just the equivalence of my shares which was a birthday gift.

"10?" She scoffed in disbelief, "at that age, the only money I had was from visitors, money my mother always claimed she was saving for me."

Silence enveloped us and out of my peripheral vision, I saw her lean back with her eyes closed. The directions she gave to her house were a bit vague but having watched her attend to customers all night with a forced grin, I knew just how tired she was, I only hoped that my memory could serve me well.

* * *

"So, you guys don't have an elevator?" I asked for what seemed like the hundredth time since we started walking the stairs of her four-storey building. Beads of sweat decorated my forehead while Uti just forged ahead like she was leisurely taking a stroll at the park.

"Why would anyone in their right mind choose to stay on the highest floor in a building like this?" I queried, withdrawing my hands from the shaky handrail.

"Because it's safer, most times when robbers come here, they are too lazy to climb the stairs." Her tone was defensive and an apology started working its way to my lips until her words settled in my brain.

What?

"Robbers? Like thieves?" She nodded without even looking back, the distance between us growing as she began to take the steps two at a time. "And you are still living here?"

She turned to face me; hands akimbo as she stared down at me with annoyance marring her beautiful features. "Yes, not all of us can afford to live where we want."

That got me to shut up but it didn't stop the raging thoughts swirling in my head, I could never imagine myself or any of my friends living in this area, let alone in a house like this. The building was in a dire need of repairs and the only renovations that seemed to have taken place were from a long time ago.

"It's stronger than it looks," her velvety voice interrupted my reverie, drawing my attention from the cracks on the walls.

Her reassurances did nothing to stop the alarm bells ringing loudly in my head and for a fleeting second, I was worried about the jeep that she had insisted I parked inside the compound. Even the wooden door she was currently knocking on looked like it couldn't protect its occupants, everything about this place screamed unsafe.

The door opened and a dark-skinned boy rushed to wrap his arms around her waist, she happily carried him up, hoisting him on her hips as she rocked from side to side.

"Uncle Umoh is here," he whispered, then as if just noticing me, "hello."

"Hello," I responded with a friendly smile.

She pushed the door wider and we walked into the sitting room to see a man, probably the Uncle he was talking about and another child, one that was older than the boy seated on the worn-out seats.

"Umoh," Uti mumbled with the enthusiasm of a kid who had her Christmas gifts seized. Umoh quickly masked his surprise at seeing me, standing up to engulf her in a hug before placing kisses on both of her cheeks.

No one paid me any attention as the children shuffled out of the room and the adult pair moved to a corner to discuss in muffled voices, returning minutes later with matching smiles.

"Hi, I'm Umoh, Utianle's boyfriend," Umoh muttered, stretching out his hand to reveal wrist that showed the Sky-Dweller Oyster steel wristwatch, one of the most expensive Rolex brands.

Umoh was a fine man that could have easily graced the cover of a fashion magazine and he had the fashion sense to go with his looks. Uti definitely had good tastes in men.

"I'm King," his grip was firm, the handshake lasting longer than it should have.

"Vincent's driver," he added with a frown as if disappointed at me for hiding the nature of this new position I also wasn't aware of until now.

"If anything happens to my girl, I know where to find you."

My eyes drifted to Uti who was busy admiring her polish-free nails. "I'm the best driver Mr. Vincent has, I could give you his number so you can confirm that.''

That got Uti's attention, luckily for her, Umoh shook his head, ''Madam Uti, shall we?"

*****

You guyssssssss! We are on 1k reads ... If I could dance, this is the part where I would have done a happy dance. Thank you, keep the votes, comments and reads coming.

BTW, how did your Monday go? Mine was pretty hectic.

Fun fact: I had one of those AMA KIP KIP slides, it was the trend when I was in Senior Secondary school (good old days), almost every article of clothing had those slogans.