Determination and strength. Those were the two words that kept floating around in my head as I approached Mr. and Mrs. Coker's room. Knowing that Yinka was a few feet away from me made those circulate even more in my mind.
I decided to start out with his parent's room and leave his room for last. I needed a little time to get my act together. I learnt yesterday that when it came to Yinka, I was soft and every little ill word or treatment hurt more than necessary—I needed to put on an armour to deal with him.
Mr. and Mrs. Coker weren't around so I didn't bother knocking as I strolled into the room. True to my assumption, it was indeed empty. I wasted no time in delving into my work; taking out their dirty laundry and stuffing them into the washing machine. Changing their sheets into new ones – Mrs. Coker had sensitive and so demanded that her sheets were changed every five or six days. The usual sweeping and dusting of furniture followed after.
I was rounding up my cleaning in their bathroom, when a deep, gruff voice emanated from the bedroom. I peeped through the ajar bathroom door to see Mr. Coker fling his suit jacket on the freshly made bed.
He wasn't supposed to be back at this time.
He had his phone pressed into his ear and busied himself with freeing his neck from his tie. I moved to announce my presence before I received an unwanted strip show from Yinka's father.
I had my hand on the handle about to pull it open when the conversation on the phone made me halt.
"I told you that I wouldn't be able to come and see you," he said in a hushed tone
I stayed put and waited for him to go on before I decided whether or not, it was safe for me to reveal my presence.
"What do you want me to do? Leave my wife and fly to Abuja? And for what?" he said, flaying his hand in the air.
Slowly but surely, I backed away from the bathroom door with my hand clasped over my mouth. This wasn't what I'd like to be hearing. I was at the right place at the wrong time and the consequences of being found would be grave.
All of a sudden, my breathing sounded too loud for my liking and so I willed myself to take slow breaths, all the while maintaining my hand's position over my mouth.
God, what kind of stress is this/
"Just manage. Shey, I've sent you the money for the bo-bone, what did you call it again?" short silence. "Eh-en, bone straight. Haven't you received it?"
Mad oo, so one girl is using this old man to do sugar daddy.
"Look, if something pops up and I need to come to Abuja, I'll let you know" his voice sounded a lot louder and closer than before.
"Mm... Let me take a shower and relax. I'll take a look at the message later... yeah"
Let him take a what? My eyes widened at that statement. Please, God, don't do me like this.
My heart thundered against my rib cage as I heard his footsteps draw closer to the bathroom door.
What do I do? I panicked as I frantically searched for a solution. There was no way this man would believe I didn't overhear his conversation.
He chuckled. 'That's my girl... Just give me some minutes, I'll take a look at the video"
Jesus Christ... Can this man stop saying more implicative things?
The door handle jiggled and turned. I could feel my eyes almost popping out of my socket as I backed further away. My hands fell to my side and I felt something hard rub against my fingers.
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I didn't know what I'd be facing when I walked into his room for work. I would very much prefer if he ignored me the entire time I worked. Instead of purposely trying to offend me but alas, I have no control over what he does.
I really wish I could switch jobs with any of my colleagues. I would take the heat of the kitchen. or sweeping the entire house to coming face to face with Yinka. Sadly, I couldn't even propose the idea without raising suspicions and that's the last thing I wanted.
In addition, I wanted to be able to walk into his room and show him that I could withstand whatever he threw at me and could detach easily.
I drew shorty, shaky breaths as I came to a stop in front of Yinka's room. I was drained.
The men in this family were physically and mentally draining. Memories of Mr. Coker walking into the bathroom appeared in my mind. Just when I was about to give up on solutions, my fingers came in contact with my earpiece that I had forgotten in my gown.
I didn't bother with connecting the earpiece to my phone. With a speed I didn't know I possessed, I managed to stuff both plugs into my ear while turning away from the door in time for Mr. Coker to push it open. Acting like I didn't hear a thing and wearing a calm, collected mask was another tedious task I had to surpass.
I feigned a look of surprise and turned around as he entered the bathroom. "Ah, good afternoon sir. I didn't know you were back"
He was taken aback by my presence and didn't hide that fact very well. He watched me with narrowed eyes as I took out the earpiece and studied my countenance.
I wondered if he could hear how hard my heart was beating. Or if my face divulged anything other than cluelessness.
"Anything sir?" I asked like the good little maid he expected me to be.
That seemed to dissolve his suspicion as he flexed and relaxed his facial muscles. "Erh, no. Are you done here?"
"Yes sir" I moved to pick the cleaning bucket and with a firm nod, I exited the bathroom. I didn't need to look back to know that he was watching me.
I walked stiffly like I had an iron rod stuffed in my back till I exited the bedroom. Only then did I relax and release the breath I was holding.
Only God can see me through in this household.
I placed three loud knocks on Yinka's bedroom and awaited a response. I didn't get one and after two long minutes of waiting, I once again assumed that he wasn't in.
I slightly pushed open the door and stuck my head through the ajar space, peering into the room. I wanted to make sure it was truly empty. I could only survive one traumatic experience at a time.
It was, thankfully so.
These days, since the remixing of his song with Davido, Yinka's schedule had been unpredictable. At least to me. I couldn't really pinpoint his location all the time and there wasn't a surety that he would be home if you didn't inform him in advance.
For the first time, I was glad about his now frequent engagements. I could see less and less of him while I worked.
Looking around the room, I noticed that it wasn't entirely dishevelled. Long after, Yinka and I became cordial and friendly with each other, I began to notice some changes in his room appearance. He made some conscious effort to keep the room in a state that made my work a lot easier.
Instead of clothes strewn across the room in seen and unseen corners, he made sure to gather them in his laundry bag so I could just pick it up effortlessly. His bed, well, he tried his best to keep it laid but I still had to redo it every time because there were always creases on the sheet. All the same, I appreciated the little effort he made to alleviate my workload.
It's nice to see that that didn't change.
I got straight into work.
It was late afternoon before I finished with Yinka's room. Just as I was about to gather up all my cleaning items and leave, my phone chimed. It was a bank notification stating that twenty thousand naira was withdrawn from my account.
"Ah-ah!"
I froze for a moment in the centre of the room as I tried to recollect when I'd withdrawn twenty thousand naira. I knew that bank notifications came in late sometimes. I glanced down at the phone and my remaining balance indicated that it was a current transaction.
"Wait o—" I shifted my weight from my left to my right side and tilted my head to the side. "—Let me just call Oluchi cause I'm not understanding"
I dialled her immediately and waited for her to pick up her phone. Earlier today, I had given her my card to withdraw ten thousand naira and that was the only debit alert I was expecting to see.
"Why is she not picking up?" I yelled out and began to pace around the room.
Why is all of this just happening to me, today?
She picked up on my second attempt and I wasted no time in bombarding her with questions.
"What's going on, please? Why am I seeing twice of what I asked you to withdraw?"
There was no response from her but her heavy breathing told me that she was still on the line.
"Hello?! Answer me, now!" I was more than frustrated at this point.
"Ne-Neye..." she managed to let out before breaking down in tears.
My heart began to thump hard and fast against my chest.
"What happened?" I yelled loudly
She proceeded to mutter out some incoherent words that were drowned out by her weeping.
"I can't hear you. Calm down and talk to me!" I slapped my unoccupied palm against my thigh in annoyance.
I realized that my tone was a little too harsh and wasn't going to help douse the situation. I inhaled deeply in a bid to calm down and tried again. "What happened? Talk to me. Are you okay?"
After multiple attempts to calm and reassure her that I wasn't angry, she finally opened up. Apparently, she had withdrawn the ten thousand from someone with a POS and unbeknownst to her, the guy had conned her by taking more than she asked for. It wasn't until she had long left the scene and checked the receipt he gave to her that she became aware.
"Did you go back to where you withdrew from? Did you confront the guy?" I asked
She whimpered and answered. "Y-yes. He said he doesn't remember me meeting him"
"Are you sure he's the one?" I asked as calmly as I muster.
"Yes," she drawled out and started to cry again.
"Don't cry abeg. Just relax. Have you left the place?"
"I just left there now but I've not gone far" she replied
"Okay. Go back there. Let me call Felix and see if he's in school so that he'll come and meet you. Where are you sef?"
She gave me her location and I proceeded to contact Felix. Luckily for me, he was indeed around the school premises and also had Tope with him. Even better, I knew Tope would handle things logically and when push comes to shove, she knew how to dramatize and cause a scene.
My only worry was that said POS guy would still be hanging around his spot. I knew that the possibility of the guy evacuating the place after being confronted by my sister was indeed high. I dialled my sister to assure her that help was coming.
"—Just make sure that the guy doesn't go anywhere. Please, be careful. I'm on my way back" I said before I cut off.
As I placed my phone in my back pocket, I found myself laughing. A dry, humourless chuckle to be exact. "The enemy is really working hard on my case today"
I gathered the cleaning items and moved to the door. I pulled it back open and found Yinka with his hand outstretched towards the door. We both had a look of surprise on our faces as we gaped at each other.
I recovered quickly and moved out of the doorway, giving him room to pass. He didn't. Instead, he gave me a timid boyish smile and threw in a soft-toned. "Hey"
Huh? Am I hearing double or what?
"Good evening, SIR" I replied, making sure to put some emphasis on the last word.
He winced at my words and took one step forward. "C'mon, don't be like that"
"Sir, I want to pass. Can you please move?" I took one step back and stated firmly.
"Can we talk?"
"I want to pass, SIR" I stated adamantly
He took another step forward. "Can I just talk to you for a moment... please?"
I was ready to bark a 'no' at him but after adding that please, my resolve softened a little bit and I decided to hear him out.
I turned around and walked back into the room. I placed the cleaning tools just beside my feet and crossed my arms against my chest, awaiting his spiel.
He closed the door behind him and walked over to me, not too close. There was a healthy amount of space between us.
He put his hand in his pocket and lowered his head a bit. "Look I'm sorry, okay..."
I narrowed my eyes at him as I waited for the rest of the apology if it could even be called that. The other part of speech sure was taking its time to fall out of his mouth and I wasn't in the right headspace to wait for it.
I moved to pick up the tools on the floor and head out but his hands shot out to stop me.
"Wait. Wait. Wait" he rushed out
I paused mid-action and straightened back up then assumed my previous position.
He ran a hand from the centre of his hair down to his face and exhaled deeply. "I don't know what to say to you, except I'm sorry. I was wrong for how I acted the other day and how I treated you, yesterday. I shouldn't have but you have to understand me. I was looking all over for you in the club and when I finally did, you were cooped up with your 'friend'"
"Really? You looked for me?—" I let my formal tone of speaking drop for what I considered would be the last time. His apology was going so well until it wasn't and just had to speak up. "—You really want me to believe that"
I shifted my weight to one foot. "Please, when exactly did you start 'looking' for me? Was it ten minutes you left me with a bunch of strangers?"
He opened his mouth to speak but I wasn't quite done.
"Fifteen? An hour? I don't about you but from how I remember it, you abandoned me and went to have the time of your life. And what do you mean 'cooped up my friend'?"
"What did you expect me to do? Stick to your side throughout the party?" he said
"No" I let out frustrated and pinched the bridge of my nose. "You still don't understand... I knew that you had to mingle for a while but I expected that after some time you'd come back looking for me but you didn't"
"I did"
"It took you a really long time. You know, if my friends hadn't shown for some reason, I would've left on my own. Because at a point, I began to wonder what exactly I was doing there."
He remained silent.
"I'm not going to deny that I wasn't a bit irrational and harsh on you. And I apologize for that but you need to understand that you played a big role in what went down that day so don't go administering blame to other people like you're innocent"
He nodded slowly. "I'm sorry... for everything"
"Thank you," I said in a 'finally' manner.
He took a step closer to me. "Are we cool now?" Hope danced around that question.
"I'm sorry but no. I forgive you but we can't go back to the way things were before" It hurt me to say it and for a split second, I wondered if I was making the right decision.
"Why?" he sounded downcast and that tugged on my heartstrings.
I needed to be strong. "You really hurt me yesterday and I don't think I can manage that kind of pain again. I just feel like you don't respect me enough and way deep down, you still see me as your maid"
That was the only logical explanation for what he did.
"I don't. You know I don't" he took my hands in his and looked deeply into my eyes.
I averted my gaze to the ground. "I don't know that"
I pulled my handsaway from his. "I think it's best we remain formal with each other" With that, I picked up my cleaning tools and walked out of his room.
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This took quite some time to be uploaded. Shey, I go still meet up with my set goal ni? (Heavy sigh)
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