Natalie and Stella waited outside. They sat around the pool of water by the entrance and talked, waiting. If they knew Nneka, she would be at the gift shop, finding something. So when their 5 minute wait became 10 minutes, they called her.
Nneka on the other hand had missed that chance by a mile. The gift shop was so close, she could touch it, but the rest of her body laid on the ground, in pain.
The fall was the easy part, the embarrassing part, that hurt the most both physically and mentally.
Nneka tried to stand up, but a sharp pain kept pushing her body towards the ground.
It hurt.
The impact of her elbow sent waves of pain throughout her body, almost like a burning sensation. She kneeled, trying to correct her breathing through the pain. "Did I bump into a wall or a person?" She asked herself.
"A person." the man answered.
Nneka's head shot up. Her eyes widened, afraid to turn around. "A person?" she squealed. Slowly she looked up at the man's face. And when they matched eyes, she quickly looked away.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
From the glance that she saw, he was tall, dark skin like hers and had a nice smile. The first thing her eyes gravitated to was always the lips, how beautiful their smiles were.
"You should leave me here?" she sighed.
"Why?"
"Because I just made a fool of myself in front of a very attractive man."
He laughed.
"Yeah, I figured."
"No, I'm not laughing at your fall or anything, I'm laughing at your response. It's bold. I like bold."
She looked up at him. "Huh?"
"Here," the man held his hands out for her to grab. She took it as he slowly pulled her up. "Now, this is better. We can talk to each other on the same level."
She nodded, taking her hand back. Inside, crumbled up in her hand was a small business card. "What's this?"
"It's my restaurant, if you're still here by dinner time, stop by. It's on me."
"Free food?" She questioned with a tilted smile. Anything with the word free always excited her and the girl. Honestly, the word free excited a lot of people, she was just one of the prime ones.
"Yes, free food," he scoffed.
Nneka paused for a moment, thinking. "How did you know I was leaving?"
"I know a Chicago-ish accent when I hear it."
"Ha, Chicago-ish accent, okay. I'll accept it." She pulls her phone out and takes a picture of the card. "Just in case I lose it."
He laughed, coughing a bit.
"Today is a really good day," she said.
"Yeah, I think so too." he looked her up and down, eyes brightly smiling down at her. And his smile, wow his smile. It was sharp, uneven, and very very attractive. Nneka could stare at his lips, as he licked them slowly, biting them too.
"Eli. My name is Eli."
Her eyes shot up, smiling. "Nneka."
"Ah, there is. It makes sense now."
"What does, the Chicago-ish accent."
"Bingo."
They stood there for a moment, smiling as the weird encounter that they just had didn't take place.
Nneka opened her mouth, but her phone beat her to it. She pulled out her phone seeing the missed call from Natalie. Her eyes jumped to the time, it was already 4:15 pm.
"I'm sorry, my friends...I have to go."
"Will I see you?" he asked.
She grinned, "of course."
Nneka ran past him, back to the front door. Her friends were standing by the entries looking back inside, trying to find her.
"Oh, I see her!" Stella shouted.
Natalie moved closer to the door. She closed her eyes and sighed.
Nneka ran to them. When she reached them, she tried to catch her breath. "You guys wouldn't believe what just happened."
Stella patted the back of her chest, "take a breather."
"Here have some," Natalie reached inside her bag for some water.
"Thank you."
"So... what happened?" Natalie asked.
"Let's eat first," Stella suggested getting up.
Nneka pulled her down, "no, no food!"
Natalie brows frowned, "Are you okay?"
"Do you need help?"
"I'm fine, thank you."
"We're just making sure we heard you right. Especially since I'm paying this time."
"You did. It's just here." Nneka handled Stella the card.
"What's this, a restaurant?"
"I just met this gorgeous man, and he said that if we happened to stop by, the food would be free."
"Free food." Natalie nodded, impressed. "Like I don't have to pay, and I get treated by a good-looking man."
"Totally worth waiting those extra 15 minutes, right?" Nneka said jokingly.
"I supposed."
Nneka scoffed, standing up. "And that's not the only thing that happened?"
Stella wrapped her arms around hers, while Natalie crossed her arms.
They walked down from the museum and into the streets where they saw a small cafe nearby. They sat down, all facing each other in a circle and ordered various drinks.
"Are we getting more free stuff?" Stella asked.
Nneka scoffed lightly, concealing a smile. "Actually, I met 2 guys today, like literally right after the other."
Natalie leaned in, interested. "Did you get their numbers? Well, except the chef cause we have his card."
Nneka shook her head, and both Stella and Natalie exchanged looks of disappointment, but not shocked.
"Hear me out alright. So, there was this guy and his stuff fell into the surrounding waters you know, and I was like let me help him out of the goodness of my heart. Little did I know when he looked up, I saw a very gorgeous man. And let me tell you, he had these beautiful eyes and amazing drawings. And the second guy, oof, the second guy."
"Go on..." Stella edged on.
"Okay, okay. So, I was running to the gift shop before meeting you guys, cause I was already late, so I was like what 5 minutes going to do."
"Yeah, "Natalie said.
"And then I hit this guy. Like my body literally collated with this man's body, and I fell back. I was so out of it. So I was like I hope this man isn't good looking or anything, but he was. And when I tell you he was fine, with a capital FINE, I mean he was fine."
The girl's body moved closer, listening even more.
"So, then we had like a 2 minute conversation, quick and simple. And then we kinda just stared at each other. Oh, and he gave me his card during our 5 sentence exchange. But anyway, he had this sexy smile and he's also the one who invited us for dinner."
"So, what did they look like? Besides the features, you're caught most intensely." Natalie asked.
Nneka thought about it. "Well, the first guy, brown wavy hair and brown eyes, oh and he was french, cute white guy. Kinda taller than me, but I'm not exactly sure. And the other guy was bald, with the most sexiest dangerous smile ever, he even licked his lips in front of me. My god, if you didn't message me, I could have devoured them in, my, head. Oh, and he's black too. And he was definitely taller than me."
"I chose the second one," Stella said.
"I concur."
"They say the way to a man's heart is through cooking. But many people don't realize it's the same for women. Good food equals a good life." Stella explained.
Nneka agreed, "True. a chief too."
"Wow, 2 guys in less than 30 minutes. So, when are we eating?" Natalie asked.
"You guys act like something is going to happen. Remember, our flight is tonight."
"Okay, but should we go eat now or..." Stella was mostly interested in what was next, and who could blame her. The best part about travelling was always the food, so there was no way Stella was going to miss any of this.
"Yeah, but what are we supposed to do for 5 hours? I'm starving." Stella whined.
"You know, if this guy is dressed amazingly, then I think the food is going to be tiny."
"Yeah, what's the harm of having something before dinner? Like brunch, but for dinner like...linner." Stella said.
"I always thought it was like an early dinner, evening dinner."
"I think you're both right, so yeah." Nneka chimed in.
"Linner?"
"Yes, linner?"
Natalie and Stella gave each other high fives.
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