Business And Pleasure

22

I sat up with a start, feeling myself wet and sticky all over. Gross, I thought as I wiped sweat off of my face. Oh the pungent smell of disinfectant. I was definitely in a hospital.

"You're awake!" a pair of arms seized my middle and held on tight, as if for dear life. I stared at the person that had just hugged me. Antoine's girlfriend-oh! Fiance. She looked absolutely terrible with her face all puffy and her eyes bloodshot, looking like she had been crying really hard even though she was trying to smile at me. Why had she been crying-Antoine! But I had to make sure that she was OK before running off to my best friend.

"How are you?" I asked with as much sympathy as I could muster, even rubbing her arm a little as she put on a brave face.

"I am..." she breathed in. "I will be better."

Good. Now where is my friend? "And Antoine?"

She tried to smile but failed and began crying instead. Well, looked like she wasn't going to give me any answers soon. I got out of bed and walked to the door but she quickly stopped me.

"You can't see him-"

"Why not?!" I cried incredulously, waving my arms like a mad man.

She stared at me quietly, with her wide doe eyes. "You just can't-"

I glared. "THAT'S MY BEST FRIEND FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE!   WHO ARE YOU TO TELL ME I CAN'T SEE HIM?!"

She tried to hold my hand but I stepped away from her. Then she began to shake her head sadly.

"WHERE IS HE!?" I yelled. I was about to lose my mind. I grabbed her and shook her. "Where?!"

"You just can't see him," she said. She looked scared.

I laughed like a crazy person. "I'm his best friend. I can't see him? Hmm. We'll see about that!" I pushed her to the side and roamed the small private hospital looking for him but he wasn't anywhere. I literally went in and out of every ward looking for him but nothing!

Then I felt some soft small hands on my bare shoulders and I looked up to see Antoine's Fiance, dabbing some tissue on her now pink cheeks since she was light skinned.

"You can't see him," she said gently even though she was weeping by now.

I started to cry too. "Why can't I see him? Why don't you just tell me where he is? Please."

"Joera...he did not make it." She wailed and I had to hold her since I went completely numb. She wept out on my shoulder and I don't know how but I walked her to my car and drove to my house where I waited until she fell asleep before sneaking to my study.

When I got there, I crawled under the desk with a framed selfie of me and Antoine the day the firm gave me a house and a car. I watched videos of us when we first became friends, a video I had snuck of him asking some girl out while her boyfriend was in the bathroom at a coffee shop, the list was endless and I cried until I could cry no more, weak and tired, I fell asleep right there, clutching the frame like it was our last connection. I managed to convince myself that my best friend was still around before falling asleep.

The door opened and I stiffened under the desk, quiet as a mouse so that whoever had come in would not see me. Absolutely no one should see me in this state. I was a mess and I smelled like it. I know. Eeeww.

"I know you're in here," Bassey's voice suddenly said. What the-

Without hesitation, I emerged from under my desk with my face swollen from crying and all that extreme tear wiping I did. "How'd you know I was here?" Uggh. Morning breath.

She stared at me. "You look absolutely...i can't find the right word so I'll go with horrific. The door was open so I let myself in." She smiled, a small shimmer to her big brown lips.

"What are you doing here so early?" I asked, feeling shabby and trying to make myself as presentable as  possible by smoothing down my wrinkled suit. "You look pretty."

"Can't say the same for you but anyway, I came to apologise. About...you know?" she looked a tad uncomfortable, shifting Her weight from one leg to the other in the ten seconds she had arrived.

"You don't have to apologise-"

"I have to. I put you in an awkward position and...I...I sexually harassed you-"

I laughed. "Bassey, I kissed you back. That wasn't harassment. Look, I understand. You don't have to lose sleep over it. Probably enjoyed it a tinsy itsy bit."

She laughed before turning to the door. Then she stopped and turned back to me. "While we're being honest and open with each other, you're a great lawyer and an incredible woman, as well as a great kisser." She winked at me and I flushed. "Remember that time after your boyfriend turned out to be alive and all that? I wanted to tell you that his name is Oscar Senowu and that he is Trenton's adoptive brother."

My jaw dropped.

"So him, his brother and Trenton are brothers. Trenton was adopted by the Senowus when he was 10 because his family and theirs were friends but they decided that Trenton can keep his surname. Oscar married his high school sweetheart when they finished varsity and they had three children. When he got deployed, he got another family from a whole other continent, they have three children as well and..." Bassey looked down at her feet. "Also...I might be pregnant with my ex-husband's kid."

I fell into my chair and stared at Bassey. This was all too much. But I chose to focus on the pregnancy. "Have you told him yet?"

She shook her head. "I found myself a great and amazing girlfriend who wants this child with me badly. Do I really have to tell my ex?"

"I really can't tell you what to do," I said. "I'm just glad and happy that you found someone. I definitely need to meet her soon."

Bassey nodded. "One day. Let's just see how far we go first. Anyway, I'm gonna leave. I love you to bits." She grinned and walked out.

I went out to my room to shower then got ready, wondering where Antoine's fiance had disappeared to. As I grabbed my car keys from the rack, my answering machine flashed red and I knew there was a message on there. I pressed play.

"Joera..." The voice was the fiance's. "Thank you for taking care of me and all. You've been a great friend to me and treated me like you had known me for years. I just wanted to say thank you and that I have left the keys to your company house and the car on the kitchen counter. I have taken my things and I'm on my way to the airport as we speak. I'm going back home. And Antoine...his family would not let me see his body or bury him so I have decided to leave."

I stared in shock at the machine. How could she just leave without fighting for her man?! Antoine and his family never got along and they had absolutely no reason to stop his fiance from viewing his body or burying him! They had disowned him almost ten years ago after he committed fraud in their family business. Yes. Antoine had been a bad egg and an ex-convict. He was not perfect but he was trying and had been succeeding, if only he had been taken away from me so soon! I felt numb as it finally dawned on me that I would never ever see him again, especially with his family back in the picture.