Y'all, Zayyad is not the only man Beverly knows in life lmaooo 😂 So, no, majority of the guesses were wrong.
——
Fuck! Not Deji of all people! Can the ground just open up and swallow me? God!!
"Beverly, hey!" He pulls me into a bear hug that I am quick to break from when I inhale his scent which takes me back to the night I embarrassed myself.
I feign excitement. "Heyyy!"
"Don't act like you're excited to see me," He jokes.
"I am," I lie, drinking in his 6 '2 figure with my eyes. He is clad in an all-black outfit and the only white thing on him are his teeth and the diamond chain around his neck. "I haven't seen you in forever,"
"And whose fault is that?"
"Deji, I've been busy,"
"Busy avoiding me like I robbed your family house or something?"
I chuckle. "Okay, it's my fault. My bad, my bad," I say in mock surrender, "but I haven't been avoiding you,"
"Yeah, right. My unanswered calls and DMs were just not... seen?"
I smile, "I guess,"
He shakes his head, amused. "What are you doing here anyways?"
"It's a club, Deji," I reply in a 'duh' tone.
"I can see that, but why aren't you inside?"
Suddenly, I remember our current predicament. "They wouldn't let us in,"
"Who's they? Why?" He's confused and almost pissed.
"They say we don't have a man by our side even though we made a freakin' reservation there... so, they refused us entry,"
"What the fuck?" His face scrunches up in irritation. It's like these guys want to lose their j— Come," He holds my right wrist and we make our way to the chaotic place where we were refused entry.
On arrival, I see the girls standing in front of a different bouncer, talking to him. "My friends are there," I point like a two-year-old, whilst signaling to the girls that I've found our Messiah.
They don't seem surprised when they notice us, more like they were expecting him already. "Deji!" Vanessa cheers when she sees us.
They make their way over to us, meeting halfway. He lets go of my hand to simultaneously engulf them in warm embraces. This man hugs hit differently, I don't know if it's how he softly grabs you by the waist or how he towers over you and your head rests on his chest... I don't know, but I love them, oh! and he smells like clouds mixed with a field of sunflowers. Or maybe it's just me.
"Thank you for coming in time," Idia says as he releases her from his embrace.
"It's fine, glad I was around the corner. I didn't know Beverly was with you, would've gotten here quicker," He grins, looking at me and I playfully roll my eyes.
Idia winks at me and I don't even know how to react. Yes, everyone... get used to it, he's obsessed with me, and?
"I'll sort it, come," We follow closely behind him as he cuts the line of people queuing outside, and approaches the bouncer—the particular one who was being a buff bitch. "Aminu, what's the meaning of this?! Why are my girls outside?! Since when did this 'bring a man with you' rubbish kini start?!"
"Oga Boss, good evening, sir," The uptight bouncer hails, taking his dark shades off, and Tare hisses, loud enough for him to hear. "I no know say them be your girls," He says, his eyes traveling from one girl to the other. [I didn't know they were your girls]
"Look at your small eyes, so, you had to know we who w—"
"Tare, leave him alone," Vanessa interjects. "Don't trade words with him, let his oga handle him. Misogynistic animal,"
"He owns the place?" I ask, clueless as a goldfish, my tone low enough for Deji not to hear.
"No, he's looking to buy half the shares or something like that, so he's friends with the owner," Vanessa fills me in, "He mentioned it last time I saw him, so, I knew he was the right person to call." Her tone is in perfect volume, enough for us to hear because if it gets louder than this, then Deji will be the fifth person in this conversation.
"...these are my very own V.I.Ps. If you want to keep your job, don't make this silly mistake again," Deji continues with the bouncer, his tone threatening. I like how he's getting his words through without yelling, it's admirable and reminds me of a certain someone. I think it's a 'big man' thing.
"I'm sorry, sah," [sir with ab accent]
"Don't apologize to me, Aminu. Apologize to these fine women you kept outside for a very stupid reason,"
"I'm sorry, madam," He apologizes as he opens the door and lets us elegantly troop into this 'overrated' club.
"You're lucky, just thank your God. Stupid bastard,"
"Misogynistic dog,"
"Carrying chest like there's starch inside,"
The man bows his head in shame as we individually throw demeaning words and walk past him, he is apologizing profusely but we all could care less about his sudden 'remorse'.
Deji is the last person to walk in, right behind me, so when I say: "It's massive in here!" in awe of the interior design and size of this place, he casually replies: "Yeah, it is!"
It's a full club! The red and blue neon lights are the first thing that meets my eyes, followed by the thunderous music blasting from the speaker which is distracting but not as distracting as the people on the dance floor whining and grinding, or the voluptuous women with little to no clothes sliding and showing their acrobatic skills on poles, or the hype men chanting praises to tables that have orders expensive drinks being delivered to them.
The air smells of expensive fragrances mixed with sweat, weed, and different scented vape/shisha smoke. There are different types of girls in here: The BBLs and insta baddies, the groupies, the low-key escort babes... whatever kind of girl you imagine, as long as she is sophisticated, she is here.
"Do you guys want to go upstairs to my spot or you're cool here!?" He asks.
"We're cool here!" Idia shouts fighting the volume of the music from drowning her voice.
"If you need anything call me," He instructs with a warm smile.
"We will!" Vanessa answers for all of us. "Thank you!"
"It's nothing, Nessa," He replies before looking at me in a way that makes my core feel funny. "I'll send some drinks to your table, order whatever, it's on me!"
. . .
An hour in and the girls and I are drunk from the amount of alcohol we've consumed, but each of us to a certain degree: Idia looks like she can drive us home if we eventually are totally wasted, Tare is not only high on alcohol, but weed, too; Vanessa is drunk but can hold her liquor; me on the other hand, I'm struggling to focus on what's happening around me.
Deji had sent drinks to our table and it was brought in with the whole dorime thing. A charade of sexy women had held a board with the message: For the baddies and they had trooped to our session of the club with several ace of spade gold bottled champagnes alongside Clase Azul.
It caught everyone's attention and the drinks just kept coming in.
Now, all these drinks are sitting on our table and not a dime of ours was paid on any, oh how I love being a woman!
Regardless of our current drunken state, we are making the most out of the night, even went as far as inviting some random baddies to chill on our table and it didn't bother us because there was enough booze and vibes to go around. Baddies don't gatekeep.
"I like Deji for you!" Idia says to me out of nowhere while I'm selecting a video to post on social media
"Yeah, he's cute or whatever but still trying to take it slow!" I respond, tapping the post button and uploading the video on my Instagram story.
"Slow? You wouldn't even speak more than two words to the man. Do you see how he looks at you and is so intentional?"
"Yes, I see that. He's cute and I like him," I say, wanting to add—But I freakin' vomited on his dick when I attempted to give him a blowjob at your engagement party and I can't look him in the eye without getting the urge to kill myself, but instead, I complete my sentence with: "...as a friend."
"Romantic relationships with the friendship foundation are usually the best, that's how Leo and I started,"
"Woah, woah! Relationship?" I theatrically say, "Who said anything about dating the nigga?!"
"It's been two years, get over your ex. You haven't even had a relationship that lasted over five months, you're either running from good men, or you're fucking the wrong ones!"
I roll my eyes, "I am over him, just that the men I've met over the years haven't been able to meet up to the standards he set,"
"What standards? The one where he was the sneakiest piece of shit on the planet who knew he had a wedding to attend but still came over to your fashion show and lied just to fuck?!" She deadpans, rolling her eyes.
"Oh wow! Thank you for reminding me. I suffer from memory loss and didn't remember any of that," I satirically say with a tight smile, "Idia, I'm at the club not in history class or relationship therapy 1-0-1, let me enjoy myself," I declare, moving my body to Tekno's Enjoyment blasting out of the speakers.
"Go on a date with Deji, I can vouch for him and beat his ass if he tries rubbish,"
I chortle, "I don't need convincing, Idia. I have enough on my plate, when I'm free, I will—" A notification: So perfect 😍😍😍, pops up on my phone screen, stopping my sentence halfway. It's Deji, and my face breaks into an uncontrollable grin.
"What?" She asks, confused.
I don't know how I look but from the look on Idia's face, I know I look like a high school girl whose crush (that she's been denying) just texted her.
I tilt my phone and show her. "He reacted to my story," I say and she playfully wiggles her brows.
I type a reply to him for the first time since I've ignored all his DMs, and he replies almost immediately: Keep sitting pretty, I like it 😌
I smile and double-tap the message, leaving a red heart on it.
"Are you guys going to sit here and gist all night? Let's go dance!" Tare pops up, interrupting us.
"Tare, we're doing important busy!" Idia announces, shouting through the music.
"You guys, this isn't your fuckin' office! We're supposed to be vibing! Come, come!" She urges us to go on the dance floor, dragging me by the hand, and me, dragging Idia, and Idia dragging Vanessa... you get it, everyone's pulling whoever they can to the dance floor.
...Baby, I can tell your every action is a plot
To get down with this bobo
Cos l know you feeling the boy
See gobe
Omo see gobe eh
See gobe...
Gobe, a classic by Davido, is blasting and we're all dancing. I'm grinding and whining on Tare and she's matching the rhythm and movement of my hips like a Jamaican man would and the thought of how girls love dancing with themselves at the club instead of men, makes me laugh. Men don't get it, we vibe better with each other.
She places her hand around my hips and we both move in sync, the other girls are near us, focusing on their dance steps that, of course, involve seductive movement.
Life feels good when you're living it with the right people, going to the right places, and doing the right things.
As I dance, drowning in every beat and lyrics of the music, I feel eyes on me... yes, men are bound to stare at pretty girls doing their thing without involving them, but these particular pair of eyes are piercing, making me feel a sort of way.
Care-freely, I look up, and in a flash, I freeze like a deer caught in the shining headlights of a car when I see Zayyad leaning on the railing of the V.V.I.P. private lounge, watching me. My heart plunges to my stomach, a feeling that is enough to make me crumble both mentally and emotionally overcomes me.
This is not real, he's not here. I'm hallucinating.
I shake my head in disbelief and look back at the spot. He is still there, watching me with a straight face, not breaking eye contact.
____
*dramatic nollywood sound*
Hi, my loves!! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! As usual, I'm working on the next chapter, and I just wanna thank you for making it this far into the book.
Do you guys like Deji?
If Bev and Deji got together, what's gonna be the ship name? Beji? Like two in Yoruba lmaooo
Deji:
We'll probably have a faceclaim for everyone except Zayyad, I don't think he'll ever get a face claim, maybe body sneak-peak or random faceless pics but the actual face? Nahhh! I don't wanna ruin him for everyone. Use whatever guy you like to fill the fantasy cos' when I was creating him, I never thought of a face but we'll get through... I hope I find some random pic one day and be like "this is what I envision Zayyad to be like" until then, see you in chapter sixxxx! 💋
Also, the Nigerian election is tomorrow and I'm literally praying Peter Gregory Obi wins because Nigeria is literally on the edge and it's like watching a loved one die because the right doctors aren't around. I'm literally so scared because I loveeee Nigeria and Nigerians so much and I just can't imagine not being home for the festive seasons because there's insecurity or lack of cash... like ...I don't get it ☹️
Anyways, I'm signing out now, later.
Love, Priceless x