We make it to the market she is talking about on the first street before theirs. sellers are busy marketing in their shops and warehouses, advertising their goods and trades to customers while buyers who are looking for what to buy and Vehicles are passing by
I keep gazing around as I follow Angela. Most of the things the sellers are trading are mainly all kinds of foodstuff, pepper, tomatoes, meat, and nothing more. It's kind of strange for me as I have never been to a place like this before.
We turn to the left roadside and Angela freezes in front of a fruit and vegetable shop. There is a woman on a seat at the corner side of the store washing some garden eggs with water. We move closer to her and Angela says hi to her, bending to give her a side hug.
"How is school today?" She asks and with her head raised, I can see an older version of Karen.
"Fine," Angela answers, and the woman furrows her brows in confusion as she stares at me. Angela clears her throat to that.
"He came to our place to see Karen," She adds.
"Oh!" The woman reacts, releasing her brows
"Our granny," Angela whispers to me, and my eyes wide open in surprise.
"I should go call her," She adds and I watch her leaves me with their grandma.
"So, I'm sure you are not Nicholas," Their grandmother states, and I turn to face her back.
Who the hell is Nicholas?
"Of course not," I answer. "I'm Mike, her boss's son,"
"Her boss's son?" She repeats that in confusion.
I have no idea if I have crossed the line by telling her that.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Karen's voice catches our attention and I turn around to see her in a denim dungaree jumpsuit and crocs slippers.
Her braids are styled in a donut bun.
I look into her eyes and meet her gaze. Her eyebrows are brought together with her forehead wrinkled.
"Hi," I greet with a slight smile.
Her face does not soften with that.
"You never told me you have started a job," Grandma cut in,
"Just trying to do work and study," She shrugs, now her eyes on her grandmother.
"But you never told me. When do you start hiding things like that from me,"
"I'm sorry granny, I got fired the second day,"
"What? Why?" Her grandma exclaims. She then growls back at me as she keeps mute.
But it wasn't my fault. She hit me all because of nothing.
"It's a misunderstanding which I came here to resolve," I interfere and this makes every one of us calm down.
"You guys should go for a walk and talk then," Her Granny suggests as she continues washing the fruit.
"I have to finish what I am doing," Karen says to me.
"I'm fine with that," I reply.
"Why would you even come here," She whispers in her harsh voice.
"We need to talk," I answer her, and she makes a grunting sound, while I roll my eyes in disbelief.
"Come with me," She states and I follow her inside the store. Angela already has been attending to customers.
I sit on a plastic chair while Karen goes to set up some vegetables.
She stated in her CV that they own an eatery in this neighborhood but it's a local fruit and vegetable store in real life.
I still do not know who she is and I'm ready to know more about her while I play my game.
Noticing the customers Angela is attending to are growing in front of her, I get up to help her.
"Two pineapples please," One of the customers says. I pick up two pineapples from the ones set on the wooden fixed bracket shelf.
I give it to her moving outside the store and she pays me with three 1000 naira notes.
"Two pineapples from that shelf," I say to Angela as I point to the shelf, handing the money over to her with my right hand.
"Okay," She mutters and brings out two 200 naira notes in her purse.
I collect it from her and give it to the customer for her change.
I turn around to surprisingly see Karen staring at me. The way she did that fucking night.
"What?" I shrug. Her enviable lips pull upward and a soft smile radiates from her face. This shows her deep dimple which I can now admit I fall for.
"I'm done," She replies.
"Oh! We should help Angela," I suggest.
"She can handle them," She disagrees. "Let's go,"
"Okay,"
We step out of the shop and start heading back in the direction Angela and I came from.
"Nice to meet you, Mike," Her grandmother says to me.
"It's my pleasure ma'am," I reply with a smile.
It seems her granny likes me.
But why should I be thinking of that by the way?
"You haven't told me why you are here," She breaks the silence as we are walking side by side with our arms touching sometimes.
"Why didn't you reply to my text,"
"That's not enough reason for you to come here,"
"Maria told me you would be going to school from here, isn't kind of weird?"
"Of course it is but I have no choice since I don't want to go back to my hostel for now," She says.
I look at her to see her skewing her face with a droopy mouth.
"But you can continue staying with Maria, you guys get along," I reply. "I'm sure you would have been gisting a lot about me," I add in a teasing way.
"Of course," She retorts as she changes her mood, smirking at me.
"She told me about how you asked her to make you some chips and when she was done, you threatened her to have it or you get her fired." She expresses.
I raise my eyebrows in surprise and chuckle a little.
"What the hell!" I react, grinning.
"The HM saw me the next morning and asked me to leave the mansion since I have been sacked." She continues.
This makes me stop grinning.
Now I see the reason she left.
"Well, I can fix things," I say and she scoffs a little.
"Remember I'm fired,"
"Remember I'm one of your bosses,"
"Really," She reacts sarcastically. "Is that the reason you were bragging in front of my granny,"
Oh my goodness. She is twisting my words.
"You know I do not mean it that way right?"
"How would I know,"
"Maybe it's not my fault for you to keep that from your granny," I say and she looks up into my eyes which meet my gaze.
With that, she wants to cross the road. Noticing a bike riding from her side, I quickly draw her back, holding her hand while the bike passes us by.
Her palm is so soft and smooth like a baby's palm. This makes me take a look at it. Her short nails are polished in black.
She clears her throat, which draws my attention, and I gently release her.
"You should always look both ways," l say.
"Thanks for that Mr. Lecturer," She smirks at me and I smile.
We watch both ways before finally crossing to the other side of the road.
"She doesn't approve of me getting a job till I graduate so as not to tamper with my grade," She let out why she didn't tell her granny about getting the job.
"What a caring and lovely woman she is," I commend, and we both smile.