18 years later......
I glanced around the serene environment of the eatery and subconsciously pulled my face cap downwards. The eatery held a quiet atmosphere, one suitable for me to relax and forget that my problems existed.
I looked to my side and saw a woman dressed in a white dress shirt and black slacks walking up to me. "Good day, ma'am. You look good by the way. Please what can I get for you?" She asked overly nicely and I cocked my brows at her with a skeptical look.
There was no way I looked good in baggy brown cargos and black shirt with a white face cap which was now brown on my head to conceal my messy hair.
I scoffed ignoring her compliment. "I'm actually not ready to order. I'm still looking at the menu" I replied opening the menu I had just noticed was on the table.
"Okay, just ring this bell when you need me," she said pointing to the tiny bell on the mahogany table. I nodded and she returned to the counter.
The eatery was scanty and quiet. Just how I loved it. I had not even come here to order anything, I had only come to relax, eat their complimentary bread, drink their water, and go home. I could never in a million years afford a place like this even if my boss decided to give me a raise. I picked up a piece of bread and threw it into my mouth, munching on it slowly.
"Hmmmm" I moaned
"This tastes better than Onyinye's food" I whispered.
"Really?" I heard a deep husky voice say. I jerked my head up to meet a tall, fine, and light-skinned young man. He was clad in a black tuxedo with his hair neatly cut.
Well, that was embarrassing. I swallowed the bread and wiped my mouth. "Yes? How may I help you?" I asked putting on my most serious face.
"Forgive my manners," He said straightening his tie and taking a seat opposite me. "I'm Collins Ifeanyi Azuka," He said with an expectant expression.
"Okay. What na happen?" I asked.
"Should I bow down to you because your name is Collins whatever Azuka?"
He gasped at what I said and said "No, of course not. I was just thinking that name would ring a bell"
"Well it doesn't," I replied.
"What about you, what's your name?" He asked.
"None of your business" I answered while he signaled for a waitress to come. It was the same waitress who had attended to me earlier.
"Oh, my goodness. Mr Azuka, we are so sorry we kept you waiting. It won't repeat itself, Sir. What would you like to eat today sir?" The waitress begged and I burst out laughing.
They both turned their heads at me. The waitress gave me a look that said "wetin dey do this one?". I held my mouth and my laughter subsided.
"Oh Temitope, it's okay. I've told you you don't have to keep giving me that kind of treatment." He replied and she blushed probably because he called her by her name "Temitope".
"I would like four sausages and two meat pies with a glass of orange juice," He told Temitope. "What would you like to have my dear?" He asked turning to me.
I was shocked by his gesture.
"Ah me?" I quizzed pointing to myself and he nodded affirmatively.
'Omo! I only came here to chop bread but it looks like I'm going to have lunch and dinner here' I thought.
"Okay give me a plate of jollof rice and chicken as takeaway and then Amala and efo riro (vegetable soup) with a bottle of chilleddd coke. I will eat that one here" I said shamelessly and she eyed me while Collins had a neutral expression.
"What happened?" I asked Temitope who ignored me and sashayed away, her hips swaying from left to right.
"Uncle thank you o," I said to Collins smiling. He had actually made my day. "So please tell me your name?" He requested and I smiled. "Precious Balogun" I lied.
"Precious, just the way you are" he commented smirking and I shrugged.
"I thought you said it was none of my business," He said smirking once again I chuckled saying "Food is the way to my heart" and he let out a hearty laugh.
"What do you do for a living?"
"I'm a doctor" He answered "Ewww" I simply said.
"Why eww?" He quizzed with a hurt expression.
"You doctors are too serious for my liking" I replied and he laughed again before I joined him in his hearty laughter.
"I like the way you laugh," We said simultaneously and Temitope came back with our food.
The aroma of my food was messing with my nostrils. I dug right in and stopped when I saw him whispering while closing his eyes. He was praying over the food.
"You see what I mean when I say doctors are too serious. It's just food, why pray over it, abi did Temitope poison it ?"
"Come on. That's how I was raised. I'm guessing you're a Christian too?"
"I am"
"But not a serious one?" He asked
"I am a serious Christian" I asserted.
"So what do you do for a living?" He asked and I licked the soup off my fingers.
"Well, I guess I'm a lawyer even though I'm planning to resign soon"
"Why do you plan to resign?"
"Okay. I think I'm beginning to give you too much information when I barely know you. See what food has done to me" I said ringing the bell for Temitope to come. With a face void of emotions, I washed my hands and said "Please pack this one too in a takeaway pack for me plus the jollof rice, and bring it immediately. Thank you".
Temitope carried my food away.
"Wait, okay fine you don't have to tell me why you plan to resign. At least eat the food here"
"I just remembered my housemate would be waiting for me so I have to go," I said. Onyinye might have been waiting for me for the past thirty minutes because I had the house key but that wasn't the reason I was going home. I found it odd for me to be laughing and having a good non-toxic conversation with a nice guy. It was unlike me to laugh that way and crack jokes with someone I barely knew. After the incident that happened to my father, I Iearned not to trust anyone.
Temitope the waitress returned with my food packed in takeaway plates and I stood up to leave. "I hope to see you some other time here," he said and I nodded.
"Only if you will keep buying me free food" I muttered and exited the restaurant.
I took a danfo bus back to my house and met angry Onyinye sitting on the wooden stool in front of our yard. "Dry bones!" I called her. The scowl on her face morphed into a more intensified one.
"Dry bones" was a nickname I had given Onyinye since our university days. She was a very dark-skinned, skinny twenty-seven-year-old lady. Onyinye could eat all the junk food in the world and still not gain weight.
"I've been sitting down here for over an hour Bimbo! What took you so long" she yelled as I pulled out the keys from my back pocket holding the bag where the food was. "Calm down because if you knew the reason why I took so long, you would have asked me to take longer," I said and unlocked the door.
"It better be a good reason"
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"This girl you dey craze. So you shamelessly ordered Swallow sitting opposite such a classy man!" She said laughing as she devoured the plate of jollof rice and chicken with a bottle of Fanta sitting next to her.
"Omo I dey tell you. I went there to go and chop bread but I met Father Christmas there who was willing to buy me food. And he wasn't even surprised when I ordered swallow and takeaway" I said sucking the life out of the periwinkle in my hands.
All of Onyinye's anger had vanished after she saw the food. "So how was work today?" She asked.
"The same old boring, busy day, Barrister Bayo sending me on errands like I'm his daughter in the village. I don't get paid enough in that office I'm telling you" I replied indifferently.
"I go sha soon resign" I added throwing the periwinkle into the takeaway plate. "So that who will pay the rent?" Onyinye asked and I shrugged.
"I don't know maybe you will till I find a better job"
"You dey craze. Better find a good job first before you resign because na under third mainland bridge you go sleep if we no pay rent o and you know I'm just a fashion designer" Onyinye warned.
"Tailor!" I retorted and she threw her slippers at me which I dodged. She was a tailor but loved to call herself a fashion designer.
"So how did the visit to your parents' go?" She asked making my mood turn sour.
"They were fighting again. Dad's health is getting worse and Mom has gone back to her old job, working in that school as a maid again. I'm just so confused and tired right now" I said in pain; pain in my heart.
"You need to save up and take your dad to the hospital for the heart transplant. It's not safe for him to be managing a damaged heart" Onyinye advised picking up her plate and throwing it in the trash can in the kitchen.
"I know right? The money I save now won't make any difference except Bayo gives me a one million naira raise" I said dreamily. If only Barrister Bayo could do that.
"Keep dreaming dear," Onyinye said laughing. "Wait o, na your boss you dey call 'Bayo'"? She asked in shock.
"Ehen?"
"No Barrister or Mister?"
"Abeg!. That useless man that inherited a law firm that is not going anywhere" I answered and she burst into laughter.
I had my bath and changed into white a knicker and a red tank top with a faded picture of a race car. The top was threadbare. Onyinye was asleep on the couch holding the remote close to her chest like someone was going to steal it from her. I chuckled at the sight before me. I gently raised her legs to sit down and placed them back on my lap. I swiftly grabbed the remote from her grip and switched the channel from Nickelodeon to TVC.
Onyinye and I were weird adults. One would think that at our age, we would stop watching cartoons and kids' channels.
It was not quintessential for me to watch news channels, but I did it because I needed to know what my enemy was up to, A. Azubuike. The man who stole everything from my family and made my childhood traumatizing.
"A. Azubuike is seen with Mr. President at the conference hall in Germany" the reporter read.
"Rumour has it that one of his sons just returned from the United States of America to Nigeria" The reporter went on.
I switched the TV station furiously. "Look at the useless he-goat, traveling the whole world while my father is here, paralyzed with a heart that needs fixing!" I yelled and Onyinye snored louder. Nothing could wake her up.
"I just want to give God thanks for my life You know it is not easy to be this successful in this country with all the hardship and everything I still keep going higher" A. Azubuike said and I clenched my fists almost breaking the remote.
"Monster!" I said and turned it off. "I'm going to make you pay A. Azubuike, for all the pain you've caused me and my household" I said venomously. I felt something squeezing my chest and it hurt. It was inside me. In pain, I ran to the kitchen for a glass of water.
"Onyinye!"
"Onyinye!" I tapped her.
"Hmmm" she muffled rubbing her eyes.
"Let's go to bed jare!" I said dragging her to the room. She pounced on her side of the bed and fell asleep again. I joined her when I had turned off all the lights.
This was the hundredth time I was changing my sleeping position. I hadn't been able to sleep all night for all I could think of was how I was going to kill A. Azubuike if I ever got to lay my hands on him. I would rip his filthy face apart if I ever saw it.
I turned to the side of my bed and checked the time and it was 5 am. I gasped in shock and finally closed my eyes to get some sleep. Thirty minutes later, Onyinye's alarm rang. I hissed in annoyance and placed the pillow over my ears.
"Onyinye turn that thing off!" I yelled drowsily. "My friend wake up before your boss fires you for going late" She ordered getting up as the early bird she was.
"Shoot! I even forgot I'm following him to court today" I replied suddenly remembering that I was going to follow Barrister Bayo to court to represent a client.
"Huhhh. Just five more minutes" I said and drifted to sleep.
I lied. I woke up one hour later. "Jesus!" I screamed and jerked up from the bed.
"Onyinye!" I shouted her name forgetting that she had probably left for work by now.
"That dry bone couldn't even wake me up," I said rushing to the bathroom to brush my teeth and take my bath. With my black towel tied around my chest, I ran out of the shower to my bed and wore the white dress shirt and the black suit pants on my bed. I matched them with black boots. I then packed my earrings, wristwatch, cream, and perfume into my bag, threw on a wig and left the house but not before locking it and putting off all appliances.
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A/N:
Hello pepoo! This was chapter I. How you do see Bimbo and Onyinye? Don't forget to vote and comment on this chapter.
I update every Thursday so watch out for chapter II next week Thursday.
Thank you for reading.
-Morayo 💫.