Her anger mounted when, upon nearing him, Jamal looked really relaxed and patient.
He didn't complain. He just stretched his arm out for the bag.
Mariam flung the bag at him and got even more angry when he caught the bag swiftly and strapped it to his shoulder.
She made to follow him into the center, but he turned to her with a smirk.
"Off limits, assistant," he said with a soft chuckle. "Go wait for me at the recruit center."
That statement pushed Mariam off the edge.
"Go wait for me at the recruit center," she mocked. "No, can do. I'm not a child that you can order around!"
He narrowed his eyes, amusement dancing in his eyes.
"Mariam," he called and she felt all her bravado draining. She held on to it tightly.
"Go wait for me at the recruit center."
"Repeating it won't make me listen." She stepped closer to him, until she was only a breath away.
"You made me carry your bag all the way here and now you want to dismiss me." She hissed and stepped over the threshold leading into the center.
The men were already working through their morning session and they turned to look at her when she walked in.
As she lowered herself onto the closest seat, Jamal walked past her towards the front of the room where his men were.
He was livid.
Mariam was seated halfway across the room from him and somehow, she was all he could think about.
He could feel her eyes on him as he went through the morning routine with the level threes. Every move he made, every where he turned, her eyes went with him.
She was really good at masking it, but he wasn't a fool. He could feel her desire. But it burned. The same way it had burned him eleven years ago.
Mariam has been giving him a lot of trouble and it didn't start today or four months ago.
He would bear the scar forever.
He has had to endure this burden for so long. First, seeing her sporadically when she was working as a servant few months ago.
Now, she was his assistant. He had to see her everyday, bear her being so close to him without saying a word.
The hardest part was the acting. Acting like it wasn't Mariam Ojo.
Mariam Ojo who had turned his life upside down from the very first moment she waltzed into it those years ago.
Abike couldn't understand, not even Murewa would understand. Even Mariam herself wouldn't understand.
It was a cross he had to carry alone and it had been easy when he didn't have her so close.
Now she was here, sitting across the room with a sullen pout on her mouth and all he wanted to do was to go and ask why.
He hated her. He hated her so much. But...
This was years and years of pent up emotion. He didn't know what to do with it.
"Boss, is my form right?" One of his boys asked as he made to lift the weights up.
Jamal stepped close to him and pushed his legs together.
"You have to hold this at an angle that would be comfortable for you, so you don't snap a tendon."
The guy adjusted the weights again before lifting it. Jamal checked the overhead clock and realized he didn't have any more time to spend with the boys.
He was supposed to be at the recruit center in twenty minutes. But before then, he had to collate their names and progress.
