The next day, after having such an emotional twilight moment with Alan at the beach yesterday, we decided to chill out with some of Alan's old buddies at the famous Rooftop Lounge at Lekki. When I say "we" it is comprised of I, Alan, and Lewa. Initially, when I attempted to invite Lewa, she plainly told me "No, I won't come along, I prefer staying at home... Eh, maybe I will read up a book or two in the process." But once she overheard "Edafe will also be there" from Alan's mouth, it took her two minutes to change into her jean shorts and a white cotton top that exposed her right creamy chocolate shoulder. She packed her long natural hair into a bun and placed her camera around her neck, and on her feet, she wore these cute pink trainers. She looked like a tourist right now. With a billion-dollar smile plastered on her face, she said "I will tag along."
I stared at Alan for a few seconds, with that expression of what the heck just happened? written on my face. Then Lewa quickly stepped out of the house before we did.
"Interesting," I said to Alan.
"Well, why do you think I mentioned Edafe will be there? It was a bait, and just as I expected, she fell..." Then in a lower tone and with a smirk on his face, he said, almost to himself, "I want to unearth what is going on between those two today."
Now, I, Alan, Lewa, Mo, and his girlfriend Hope were all seated at a fancy wooden table and pillow stuffed chairs at the Rooftop Lounge. The environment was really lovely and airy, with some cool music playing at the background. Alan's friend Mo was quite friendly and loquacious, his girlfriend Hope, had a weird laughter, which sounded like a hummingbird. She laughed at any joke her boyfriend threw even though it was funny or not. It was unmistakable that she was greatly fond of her boyfriend. I also concluded that they must have just started dating, cuz I could feel the girly butterflies from where I was seated.
I adjusted my large brown sun hat. Then I looked beside me and caught Alan staring through his dark shades. Once he noticed I caught him, he gave me a toothy grin, then bent over and whispered in my ear. "Never in my life have I seen a lady who looks so great in a hat. And oooh my, this jumpsuit..." He said pausing to assess me. "Damn gurl! You are like some tasty chili sauce."
I couldn't help but giggle. "I guess you are gonna ask for my autograph very soon, cuz it is obvious you are officially my #1 fan on this planet."
With a serious expression, he said. "I have pondered on requesting for it for quite some time now. It will be perfect if you can sign it right here." He placed his hand on his chest, at the middle-left spot where the heart resided.
I elbowed him slightly. "Ouch." He said.
"You are so silly," I said.
"I go love ooo," Mo said which interrupted me and Alan. "See as una forget say we dey for here."
"Yeah. Get a room, guys." Hope added generously sharing her weird laugh all over the place in the process. I couldn't help but smash into laughter too. And I knew the reason why I was laughing wasn't because of what she said, but because of what she sounded like while laughing.
"Wetin man go do again naw?" Alan said, but as usual, his accent was just too smooth for his pidgin English.
"My guy, me sef I understand. When person carry fine babe way fine like witch join body, hin body go just dey do am shigbim shigbim." Mo replied, and as usual, his girlfriend broke into a peal of uproarious laughter.
"Sorry I am late." A British-African voice from behind interrupted the spirited moment we were all having now. A young man in his mid-twenties with a neat beard around his cute dark babyface joined our table and sat beside Lewa who had been quietly taking photos with her camera and carefully observing the environment since we got here, as though she was expecting someone. The way her cheeks immediately stained themselves with rainbow colors, made me realize without an ounce of doubt that the young man who just joined us, was no other than Edafe.
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"Edafe, you go soon dey pay fine for all these your late coming o." Mo said. As he stretched out his hand for a shake, Edafe accepted the offer as he laughed off what Mo had just said.
"My guy how far? You are scarce these days o." Alan said.
"Omo, this period has been damn busy for me. A lot of persons getting married here and there. I can not count the number of dishes I have prepared these few weeks. This chef work eh..." Edafe was saying when he paused and acknowledged the person sitting beside him. "Well, hello pretty." He said to Lewa. I noticed how Alan sat up at the mention of that.
"Hi, Edafe." Lewa said. I could see the way she was battling to wear her conventional confident countenance, but she was failing woefully because these rainbow colors forcefully kept popping up on her cheeks. I could understand what she was going through perfectly well, cuz her elder brother usually had that effect on me too.
"Wow. She still remembers my name." Edafe said, acting surprised.
"Haha. Why won't I? The homemade box of chocolate you gifted me at my last birthday party, is more than enough reason for me to remember your name." She said.
"Awww that was nothing actually... I just had to gift something nice to my good friend's kid sister." Edafe said, instantly I noticed the splash of disappointment in Lewa's facial expression when he mentioned "good friend's kid sister." I could bet she was thinking he only saw her as that. I looked at Alan and for the first time since we got here, his rapt attention wasn't on me, it was on Edafe and his sister.
Mo briefed me on how the three good friends all went to the same University. Mo read Theater Arts, Edafe read Law, and of course, Alan read Architecture. They met on campus in one of their usual dusk to dawn studying sessions popularly known as awoko (Which means, awake all through the night) at an auditorium in the school premises. Edafe was the youngest, he gained admission into the University at age fifteen.
"Those days, I and Alan who were three years older usually slapped the back of his head very well, cuz he was so small. I still wonder how he even got admitted at that age. Edafe how you take run am naw?" Mo said, which made everyone laugh hard. Then he went on to talk about his current line of work which was movie production.
"Oh, wow. You produced the 2019 blockbuster movie titled Two guns? That's amazing." I said with a little excitement in my tone "I watched it on Netflix last year. The suspense and intrigue was something else."
"I know right? My baby is so good at what he does." Hope said, as she encircled Mo's arm with pride and drew her body closer to his. I smiled at her and nodded. Hope was the typical example of a clingy girlfriend, aka gum body geng, Mo seemed to love it anyway, cuz he leaned in and gave her a peck on the cheeks which made her giggle uncontrollably as usual.
Alan spoke about the famous Dallas, TX continental hotel renovation he did, which was one of his biggest contracts so far, where he had the opportunity to make his avant-garde ideas come to life. He also talked about other contracts he had handled, then he mentioned I am the owner of the mansion he is currently renovating. "So you get mansion as you small like this? You be big babe o!" Mo said. He loved to pass comments on everything. Like I said earlier, he was quite loquacious.
"That's quite an achievement for someone around our age range... I mean, I own a nice condo, but not a mansion" Edafe added. I understood what he meant by our age range because we were obviously age mates, or maybe I was older with months, or possibly he was.
"Truth be told, the mansion belonged to my late dad chief Badmus Okofu. It is my inheritance." I said, then I wore that confident lopsided boss lady smile and continued, "But I do have some achievements stored up in my arsenal tho. I am into real estate marketing in the US. Asides from that, I am also an artist... Bagged up some awards cuz of my artworks last year." I said, which gained me a lot of wows from the table. Now, I know you might conclude, that your fav relished bragging a lot, but what did you expect me to do? Everyone was talking about their achievements, I just had to do the same.
"This your babe na correct spec o." Mo said As he stretched his hand to shake Alan across the table. "Bad guy!" I noticed he called me Alan's girlfriend, but I did not counter it. I just enjoyed the moment.
Edafe gave me a cool pleasant smile. The young man didn't talk too much, and this wasn't because he was shy. I noticed this aura of confidence around him which was only typical of very smart people. His kind looked quite introspective.
"Well... On my part, I followed my passion. I was born into a family of lawyers, so I wasn't ready to be the black sheep in the flock back then, hence, I studied Law and graduated with honors, but to my parents greatest surprise, after I was done with Law School, I said to my parents, I quote, "Mom, Dad, I want to cook and tour the world." He said, adding that melodramatic dreamy tone to his voice.
"Initially, they thought I was probably high on cocaine, so to them, I was just talking stupid at the moment. But I guess realization dawned on them when my flight to England took off." He said with a naughty smile on his face.
"Na all these ajebos dey sabi pull all these stunts naw." Mo said, "You no fi try all these things for my momsi and popsi's house o, abi you want make them swear for you?" From all indications, Mo wasn't born with a silver spoon, he had it tough, but he still found his way to the top, for that reason he earned my respect.
At that moment, the waiter arrived our table to take our orders. Mo and Hope ordered Barbecue Chicken Pizza, I ordered my favorite Grilled Chicken Quesadillas, Alan ordered the same, simply because he was a copycat, but quite a cute one tho.
"Hmmm let me do the honors of ordering for us." Edafe said to Lewa flashing her a lopsided drop-dead charming smile that revealed his impeccable white set of teeth in the process.
Lewa who's mouth was involuntarily agape now, simply nodded without saying a word as she gazed at Edafe with dreamy eyes. I stifled a hard laugh, this scene just felt like one of those Korean love dramas where two lovestruck birds always found an opportunity to stare at each other for hundreds of hours.
Edafe broke off the eye contact and picked up the menu and looked at it carefully with that scrutinizing eye of a culinarian. He mumbled "Prawn Bruschetta." Then he shook his head and peeped for a few seconds more, then with a snap of his finger in the air, and a little excitement in his voice, he said "Aha! Seafood Croquette. We will have that." He said to the waiter who had been patiently waiting for Edafe to make his choice. The waiter nodded and noted it down, then took his leave.
"You will love it I promise," Edafe said to Lewa.
"I am sure I will." She said, as she collected the strands of hair that had escaped from her neatly packed bun, then carefully tucked them behind her ear. Never in my life had I ever seen a lady blush so hard, her cheeks were literally gonna explode any minute from now.
Moments later, two waiters arrived with our orders. They placed them neatly on our table. Then the playful one among them added "Bon appétit!"
"Merci," Hope replied giving him a sweet smile.
Alan took a bite of the Grilled Chicken Quesadillas. "I have always wanted to order this because I knew it was going to be nice. To me, any food with chicken in it is nice." Alan said, I knew he was just saying that so it wouldn't look as if he ordered the same food I picked, because I picked it.
"I love anything with meat in it." I replied.
"For real?" He asked.
"Yeah." I replied.
"Hmmm. Not me o." Alan said making a face. Then he lowered his voice and said, "One time, Edafe took me to one of his favorite Chinese restaurants in town, before that very day, I took it upon myself to get chopsticks. I practiced how to use them for that whole week, in order not to embarrass myself at the restaurant. To cut the long story short, when we got there, Edafe ordered Dragon soup for me and Phoenix soup for himself. I was excited, cuz you know we foodies always get excited about trying new stuff. I can vividly remember him saying those same words he said to Lewa a few moments ago, you will love it I promise. But I did not, I almost went crazy when I found out the Dragon soup was prepared with snake meat. I keep thanking the good lord till this very day that I did not taste the soup before he told me it was snake soup. When we left the restaurant Edafe explained to me, that his taste buds were very adventurous and he could eat any meal at all. To him, I was simply overreacting." Alan said, with a little horror written on his face. Then we both shifted our attention to Lewa who was Edafe's new food adventure victim at the moment. "She is a carnitarian so I wonder why she suddenly agreed to eat seafood today... Or maybe I don't wonder why maybe I know why." Alan said to me as he x-rayed Lewa with suspicious eyes.
"She has seen a fine boy naw, what do you expect?" I asked, giggling.
Alan snorted, "Let's see how that ends. "Then he took another bite from the Grilled Chicken Quesadillas.
Edafe sat up, then cleared his throat slightly and said with his British-African accent, "So why I love Seafood Croquette so much is that it brings back memories of the time just after I gained a certificate from a culinary school in England and I worked as a chef on a yacht in Manchester, the guests were so in love with the meal, so I had to prepare it almost all the time. The Seafood Croquette is made up of grinded or mashed prawn, lobster, and bread crumbs deep fried, served with chili sauce... Aw, you will love it I swear. Take a bite and see for yourself." Edafe urged Lewa.
She hesitated a bit, then took a bite. Alan kept staring at his sister as though he was watching a movie. For someone who did not do seafood, Lewa surprisingly looked like she was enjoying the meal, or maybe it was all an act. Well, time would tell.
"You likee?" Edafe asked, with a sweet smile on his cute dark face.
"Uh-huh," she replied.
"But you don't eat seafood... Like ever, ever." Alan interrupted Lewa and Edafe's interaction.
Lewa visibly forced down the food in her throat, then replied. "Well, today is an exception, big bro." She said then she picked up a saviet paper and dabbed her lips with it.
"Edafe what are you doing to my sister, she does not eat seafood, the smell of fish even makes her throw up, so why did she decide to eat this today?" Alan asked with curiosity in his voice.
I flashed my eyes at Mo and his girlfriend they were busy devouring their pizza and having a couple's tête-à-tête. I took a bite from my meal for the first time since it arrived, then savored as I watched the drama going on.
"Well, maybe that's because she had not tried this yet." Edafe said with his chest puffed up with pride because of the record he just broke in Lewa's taste buds' life.
"Yeah, I think you are right." Lewa added. "This stuff is great." But I noticed she wasn't taking another bite. Edafe on his part patiently helped himself to large bites, chewing slowly and devotedly.
Lewa offered Alan some part of her meal. He loved the taste "I guess I will order this next time." Alan said, then he paused and stared at her for a moment, then shook his head slowly and said. "There is something up."
"Huh?" She asked.
"Why are you being so nice to me today?" Alan asked his sister with a tone similar to that of a detective interrogating a suspect. "Or are you trying to make me eat your seafood for you?"
Lewa gave Alan a wink, for him to code what she was doing and cooperate, but her big bro wasn't buying it.
"Shalewa Tayo, is something wrong with your eyes?" Alan asked. I almost choked on the food I was eating, because of the laughter I had been restraining. Heck! this drama going on between Lewa and her elder brother was top-notch.
Edafe noticed what was going on, and was about to say something when Lewa quickly reached out to her cocktail and gulped it all up, then when she was done, she dropped the glass on the table forcibly, like a Mexican cowboy who just finished downing a tequila shot. With a wide eye and her right hand squeezing her stomach, she got to her feet instantaneously and said, "I have to leave right now."
"I said it, she does not do seafood." Alan said, with that I told you so voice. Now all eyes were fixed on Lewa. We were all asking if she was okay. Mo and Hope suggested she sat down and did some deep breathing exercises.
"I don't feel too good, I think I am about to throw up." She finally confessed.
"My goodness. Is it because of the seafood?" Edafe asked, with much concern in his voice.
Lewa nodded. "I will take you home then." Edafe said as he got on his feet and searched for his car keys in the pocket of his jean jacket. Once he found it, he encircled Lewa's waist and was about to assist her to walk out of the place, when Alan stood up and said, "I will take her instead."
"Don't worry bruv I've got this." Edafe said, then led Lewa out of the area.
I overheard Hope say something like "Awww young love." As we all watched Lewa and Edafe exit the lounge.
Alan sat down on the seat with an expressionless face. Then he took a sip from his drink and murmured, "Bloody carnitarian."
A/N
"Bloody carnitarian"😂 Well, I guess Lewa learnt her lesson, next time she wouldn't pretend to like something, in order to please a handsome guy, or anyone at all😂😂😂
Who else has an uncooperative elder bro like Alan? You can place your thoughts in the comment box.💬 Don't forget to hit the star⭐ down below to vote.🤗
Thank you so much for reading Chapter 23. Hope you enjoyed Rooftop Lounge like I did!😃 Don't forget to always check out for hot new chapters on🌹Valerie's Contractor🌹
As usual.🤭 Can you keep a lil secret?🤫🤐👇
I love you all dearly.❤💕💞🥰😍😘You guys are the best!💯💯
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Glossary
"I go love ooo" - I will love ooo.
"See as una forget say we dey for here" - See how you guys forgot we are here.
"Wetin man go do again naw?" - What will a man do again now?
"My guy, me sef I understand. When person carry fine babe way fine like witch join body, hin body go just dey do am shigbim shigbim." - My friend, I understand too. When a person brings a fine lady who is very fine along, his body will be sweeting him."
"Edafe, you go soon dey pay fine for all these your late coming o." - You will soon start paying for all these your late coming o.
"So you get mansion as you small like this? You be big babe o!" - So you have a mansion as small as you are? You are a big lady o!
"Na all these ajebos dey sabi pull all these stunts naw." - It is all these pampered children that can pull all these stunts now.
"You no fi try all these things for my momsi and popsi's house o, abi you want make them swear for you?" - You cannot try all these things in my mom and dad's house o, or do you want them to curse you?
"Bon appétit!" - Enjoy your meal! (French)
"Merci" - Thank you (French)
Culinarian - A chef ( Definition by Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
Carnitarian - A person who eats meat but not fish. (Definition by Urban Dictionary)