Hope was pumped, yet nervous for her second 'first day at work' in the span of two weeks. Raymond had barely said anything to her the day before when they'd had their usual Sunday family dinner and that had put her on edge the whole dinner. Thinking back, it bummed her that she hadn't been able to enjoy the meal the way she should have.
She'd woken up as early as 5:00 am, gotten ready and waited. It had taken her a while to decide on what to wear but she had eventually settled for a simple grey T shirt and black dress pants -- Nothing too serious but not too casual either. Raymond hadn't mentioned what time he was picking her up and she was reluctant to call and find out. Val had at some point left for work, and Hope couldn't have been more grateful. It would be too much of a hassle explaining to her why Raymond was picking her up on a Monday morning.
Finally, her phone lighted up with a text from Raymond to meet him outside. Not wasting a second, Hope picked up her bag and smoothened invisible creases off her shirt before dashing out of the house.
Raymond's car was already parked outside and he gave her an almost imperceptible nod as she opened the door and slid in.
"Eight thirty five, really? Is this a scheme to get me fired on the first day? again?" Hope asked as she made herself comfortable in his car.
"Good morning to you, Hope and yes, I slept very well. Thanks for asking," he replied with a sarcastic smile.
Hope rolled her eyes. Tucking in her seat belt, she mumbled, "You're too bright, it's annoying."
Raymond graced her with yet another smile. "And you're too gloomy, it's depressing. Lighten up, alright? No one is firing you, at least not today."
Hope gaped at his response. "Not today? Just drive."
"Yes madam," he replied, starting the car.
Neither of them said anything after that. With Raymond humming to whatever song was playing in his head, Hope was left to deal with the silence. It bored her so she decided to breach it.
"So," she started. "I know you got me a waitressing job, but that's basically all I know. Care to brief me?"
His gaze didn't stray off the road but his brows furrowed like he'd just realized something. "Oh. Yeah, sorry about that. There's not much to know, really. It's a fairly new restaurant and has not been around for that long. One of their waiters quit abruptly and you were in luck, I guess."
"Okay," Hope nodded, taking the information in. "How much is the pay?"
"Twenty thousand. I know it's not all that but it's the best I could do on such short notice. What do you think?"
Hope shrugged. It was not as if she had any other choice. "Yeah, it's fine, I guess."
He nodded.
"You know, for a while yesterday, I was afraid you'd changed your mind."
"Why would you think that?" He asked, suddenly amused.
Hope shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it had something to do with you ignoring me all through dinner?"
"Hm. We're here," Raymond declared, swerving the car into the parking lot in front of the restaurant.
Hope's eyes roamed the brightly painted building that had the word 'Momalicious' hanging off it.
She raised her brows at Raymond, her lips tugging on an amused smile.
"I don't know. Don't ask." Raymond chuckled, opening the car door and getting out.
"Here goes nothing," Hope muttered before doing the same.
• ~ •
Approximately seven hours later, Hope was very much ready to leave. She'd been ushered to work almost immediately she had walked in. The owner who also happened to be the manager, a thirty something year old man who had the friendliest smile she had ever seen, had excused her tardiness, but made it clear she was expected latest seven thirty everyday.
Contrary to what she had expected, the restaurant had been so busy that she'd barely gotten thirty minutes to herself. There were five of them working the morning shift and she'd managed to strike a somewhat friendship with one of them. Oke was a tall, lanky and awkward guy who was also a bit of a talkative but Hope surprisingly had taken an instant liking to him. In the space of the five minutes she'd had a conversation with him, she had gathered he was the third of five children, his mother worked as a cleaner and his dad was a taxi driver. He was working to save up some money against the next academic session where he would be a fresher in the university.
"See you tomorrow," Oke called out to Hope on his way out after their shift. Hope nodded and waved back. She'd changed out of the uniform into her own clothes and now made her way out of the restaurant. She was surprised to see Raymond's car already parked outside for the second time that day.
He was leaning against the passenger side and his lips shifted into a huge grin when he saw her approaching. "Someone order an uber?"
"Yes, please," Hope replied, pushing him away from the door and going in. "What are you doing here?"
"Picking you up, obviously." He rounded around to the driver's side and was about to open the car door when someone tugged on his shirt from behind.
Raymond turned around, surprised to see a boy about fifteen years old standing behind him and clinging onto his shirt as if for dear life while panting like he'd just run a marathon. The boy looked like he'd not taken a bath for days and hadn't eaten for much longer. He was so thin that his bones were almost visible through the thin layer of worn out shirt he was wearing.
"Oga abeg," the boy started when he could finally catch his breath. "My sister is in the hospital, she's very sick and the doctor said if I don't get money for her treatment today, she's going to die. We don't have parents and I don't want my sister to die. Please, help me. I beg you in the name of whichever God you serve. Any amount you have please, I don't mind."
Hope's nose turned upward in distaste, not buying the boy's story at all. He was a good actor, no doubt. There were tears running down his face and he really did look helpless, but she knew better. She had encountered many more who were better actors than him.
Her gaze shifted to Raymond and an alarm started to sound in her head at the look she saw on his face. "Don't you even -- "
"How much did the doctor ask you to bring for your sister's treatment?" He asked the boy and the clear sympathy in his eyes and words almost made Hope gag.
"Fifteen thousand for the down payment sir, but any amount at all is fine."
Raymond hummed and bent to address Hope who was shooting him a murderous glare. "What do you think?" He asked her softly.
"Don't even think about it. He's a scam, obviously," Hope replied hotly. "I've met so many of them with the same stories, little differences. Don't fall for it."
The boy's head shook vehemently as he refuted, his fear very apparent. "Ha! Aunty, I swear. I'm not lying. My sister is very sick--"
"It's fine," Raymond said, interrupting the boy's ramble. He opened the car door and reached over to Hope's side to open the safe in front of her.
Hope could do nothing but bore holes into him with her eyes as he brought out a bale of money and stretched it over to the boy who gaped down at the money with wide and disbelieving eyes.
"That's twenty thousand," he told the boy. "I'm sorry I don't have any more than that right now. This was meant for something else entirely but -- "
The boy snatched the money from him, muttered a 'thank you very much sir' and bolted Before Raymond could even get the next word out.
Raymond blinked repeatedly at the empty spot that'd been the boy's just a second ago. He got out of the car and looked around but it was like the boy had disappeared into space. To say he was confused was an understatement.
"I can't believe you!" Hope exclaimed as she got out and almost slammed the car door off it's hook. "I can't believe you actually just handed that boy twenty thousand naira! How could you even have fallen or that?! In this Nigeria for Christ's sake!"
Raymond still looked disoriented as he turned to the furious Hope. "What?"
"What? What!"
"You're shouting, Hope. Calm down," he urged.
That only worked to rile her up the more. For someone who had just gotten duped, he was annoyingly calm. It shouldn't have been surprising though. Twenty thousand was probably nothing to him, but mere thinking about what the money could have done in her present predicament. . .
"I can't believe you just did that," Hope mumbled, rubbing her hands frustratedly over her face. "I warned you."
Raymond sighed, and opened the door to go back into the car. He signalled for Hope to do the same which she grudgingly did.
"I don't believe I was scammed, Hope. That boy looked genuinely scared," he stated once they were both inside.
"Seriously? They do those kinds of things on a regular, uncle Ray. Of course it looked real. IT IS WHAT THEY DO." She'd expended her anger and all she was now was tired and sad.
"Why did he run away like that? I could have helped him. He said the fifteen thousand was only for the down payment," he mumbled to himself, almost as if he'd blocked her out.
Hope sighed. "Are you even listening? There's no sick sister. There's nothing to help."
He turned to her with a skeptical brow raised. "How sure are you about that?"
"What?"
"If you were in my position, you wouldn't have given him that money?" He asked, tilting his head as he studied her.
"Of course not." Why would he even ask her that?
"Why?"
"There's no sick sister," Hope reaffirmed.
"Do you know that for sure? You're only assuming he doesn't have a sick sister. What if he does but you don't help him and his sister dies? Would you be able to live with yourself knowing that you could have helped him but you didn't because you chose to assume he's lying?" He continued when she didn't say anything, "I don't know about you but I would never have been able to live with myself if I had refused to give that boy the money."
"You're really unbelievable," Hope muttered, turning her face away from him so she was looking out the window. He was going to say something else but she didn't let him. "It's okay, uncle Ray. You've given him the money and he has run. We're never going to know if he lied or not so I don't see the point in dwelling on this. Let's just go, I've had a long day and I'm tired."
He didn't say anything else but the car engine didn't start either. Hope refused to drag her eyes off the window to see what he was doing. She was angry, but it had more to do with herself than him. For a few minutes, she had been reminded of how helpless she was against how her life was unfolding.
Hope let out a relieved breath when she heard the car finally start but neither of them said anything else from that moment forward.
On getting home, Val was not back from work yet and Tayo arrived a few minutes after. She'd texted Hope prior that she was on the way to see her.
Hope narrated the whole experience to her friend to seek a third opinion but there was no surprise that her friend's opinion didn't stray far from hers.
"Your uncle Ray has fallen mugu!" Tayo exclaimed dramatically, her hands going on top of her head. "Kai! The things I would buy with twenty thousand lasan. They will hear it in the streets!"
Hope shook her head at her friend, laughing. "Why am I not surprised you found a way to make this about you?"
"Before nko? It's the truth na."
Hope thought so as well, but try as she might, she couldn't shake Raymond's words off.
Would you be able to live with yourself knowing that you could have helped him but you didn't because you chose to assume he was lying?
Well, she hoped she was never in that position.
Deciding to banish the subject off her thoughts, she turned on Tayo. "Let's forget about that. There's something I've been meaning to ask you."
"What?"
"How did you get me the job at the Royals that time? You said you had a connection with the manager, who's it?" Hope had been curious and it had never really left her mind.
Tayo's face immediately took on a mischievous look. She laughed. "Oh that. I am the connection, darling. He's my boyfriend."
What? There was no way she'd heard right. "Who? Mr Sunday?"
Tayo nodded, waving it off like it wasn't worth discussing.
"Tayo! That man is like fifty years old. Isn't that child abuse?"
"Child? Who's the child?" Tayo asked with a condescending look at Hope. "Stop exaggerating, abeg. He's just thirty nine."
"Tayo, you're twenty one," Hope reminded her.
Her friend rolled her eyes. "Oh really? Like I didn't know that. So he's a little bit older. Big deal." She continued when all Hope did was gape at her, mouth open. "Ugh. This is why I didn't tell you before oo."
"Well, I'm sorry I didn't peg Mr Sunday as a pedophile."
"He's not a-- shey you know that's my boyfriend you're insulting? You know what? It's either you drop this subject right now or I leave," Tayo threatened.
"It's that serious?" Hope sighed at the look her friend shot her. "Okay, fine. I'll stop. For now."
"Better," Tayo huffed. There was no doubt she was pissed.
But it was hard really. Hope's mind had suddenly conjured up a image of her friend and Mr Sunday and it was just . . . not pleasant. Sure, the man had seemed nice enough but hearing that he was in a relationship with a girl almost half his age really put him in a new light for her. But then knowing how crazy her friend was, Hope concluded it was probably just a phase. One she would get over soon enough. Hopefully.
• ~ • ~ •
Hi, guys!
So, who do you think is right?
Hope?
Raymond?
Neither of them?
Would you do the same if you were in that position?
Share your thoughts, guys.
I'm curious as to how anyone else would have handled the situation.