Cover art by Gbolahan Adekoya❤️
Tilewa checked her reflection in her half-length mirror and applied a little more powder to her neck. She was dressed in a wine dinner dress that stopped a little above her knees and nude stiletto heels. She sighed in satisfaction pleased with what she saw. The butterflies in her stomach did not stop fluttering as she thought of what a romantic dinner with Ekene would be like after she had ruined the first one a little over 3 months ago. She had been very sceptical to go on another and begged him to just come over to her place so she could cook for him. However, he had insisted that he wanted a night out. It took a lot of effort on his part and also his having to involve Eno and Maria before she had given in finally.
They were not a couple. She had consciously reminded everyone in her life about that fact for the past month. She was still playing safe and preferred to remain just friends. He had also never brought up anything about a relationship so it was just platonic. Sinclair had taken to making smug faces whenever Ekene came by the office and never said a word about him after she had dropped the whole playboy talk.
Her circle of friends, however, were patiently waiting for them to move on to the next phase and make the relationship official. She soon found herself staring off into space as she reminisced on the day Ekene took her to meet up with her girls three weeks ago.
Ekene drove her to Morrison View park and Eno sighted him in the car as she alighted. She had then insisted that he join them for lunch and that was how a girls' day out had turned into a date with Ekene and her girls. They had lunch at some park somewhere at Ikeja and it was so refreshing to watch everyone get along with Ekene. Apart from Uzo, of course.
Tilewa had made sure to call her out about it because the thought of her friend liking Ekene was extremely bizarre. Therefore, in a bid to clear the air, she had called Uzo the following week to talk about it.
"What? Do you think I like him? Tilewa come on! he's just not your type of person, that's why I acted so cold around him," Uzo had replied in a bewildered tone when Tilewa presented her allegation.
"Not my type?" Tilewa inquired in confusion.
"Come on Tilewa, you've never been involved with someone like that. He's so outgoing and all, I just felt that while everyone is smitten by his charm, I'll play bad cop. That way, there will be someone to attack him if he tries anything funny."
"What?" Tilewa had laughed into the phone.
"Uh... I'm coming," Uzo had called out to someone at her end of the call.
"Who's that?" Tilewa questioned.
"Uh... Gabriel... he's saying hi."
"Gabriel? Who's that?"
"One of the guys we met at the mall the last time."
"Wait, why is he with you at home?"
"We're not at my place, we're at his," Uzo said in a mischievous tone.
It took a while before she understood the meaning of the statement.
"Oh my God, you're sleeping with him!" Tilewa had exclaimed in her empty room.
Uzo laughed hysterically. "Calm down jo, it's nothing major, we just hook up occasionally."
"Oh my God! Uzo! Remember that time we had to travel miles out of school because you got infected with an STD and-"
"Ehhhhn, it's okay o, madam."
"Just be careful babes, abstinence is better than any STD."
"I learnt my lesson, guy. I always use protection, please enjoy your abstinence, I have to go," Uzo had said hurriedly into the phone before hanging up.
A message notification from her phone woke her from her reverie. It was from Ekene. He was waiting for her outside. She picked her purse off the centre table in her living room and stepped out.
Dinner tonight was at a Chinese restaurant in Ikoyi. The pair traded stories about their week as they enjoyed noodles with shredded chicken and beef soup. The conversation soon shifted to Tilewa's business plan; over the past month and with loads of counsel and guidance from Ekene, she had started practising her portion control and was now charging her clients at fixed rates. The business was booming because Ekene had lots of single friends who were ready to pay however much for home-cooked meals. The next step was to finalize her business plans and Tilewa listened intently as Ekene broke down concepts for her.
"At this rate," he said, "You could quit your job by the start of next year and go into catering full-time."
"Quit my job?" Tilewa had never considered the possibility much less given it any thought.
He shrugged. "Your profit margins have risen steadily for the past month since you started charging fixed prices, and your clientele is gradually expanding. To deal with the demands of your customers, you would have to give full attention to this business if you expect it to grow any bigger."
Tilewa's eyes widened at the thought, she had been working for a full decade and had never for once imagined what it would be like to work for herself and she aired her thoughts to Ekene.
"You don't have to quit now, but you need to have it in mind, working for someone else is slavery when you can work for yourself and be a king in your own right."
"But there are times I don't even get any orders in like two weeks. If I quit my job I'm screwed."
"No you are not, what of times you are flooded with orders? Times when you are even struggling to keep up with them."
"But that's not even all the time, like maybe once in like 3 months."
"Then you save for the drought in the rainy season," he deadpanned
"It's not that simple... how can I quit my job?"
"Just calm down."
"I can't. Even the thought scares me. That whole entrepreneur life is not for me."
"Calm down. First off," he took her hands in his from where they sat at the sides of the table. "No one is asking you to quit your job now. I'm just letting you know that your business is booming and that you will soon need to factor in the possibility of full-time staff if you want it to grow without any inhibitions. No stress, no pressure. You don't have to quit your job okay?"
The way his eyes bore into hers just seemed to assail all of her fears and she was calm in a matter of moments. The reality of how well her business was doing had just hit her from a whole new perspective and the first emotion she was able to process after that was fear. Finally, calm, with her palms in Ekene's, she tried to justify that fear only to realize that it was unfounded. She was not scared of anything, yet she had felt a terror so intense in the past few seconds she could not comprehend and could barely explain, but Ekene sat across from her, patiently, listening as she tried to put this strange emotion into words.
He nodded like a wizened old sage as if he had been down this road countless times and she was just another fellow he was going to have to guide through.
"That's called fear of the unknown, and it happens to even the best of us." He continued rubbing soothing circles on her palm with his thumb. "Before I came around, this was not a business venture to you but just a hobby you had with no intent to commercialize. You are still taking your time to adjust to this whole entrepreneur thing. Don't worry, you'll do excellently at it."
Tilewa smiled back as he beamed at her.
"Now let's get on with this meal." Her hand felt so cold suddenly due to the absence of his touch as he went back to eating his meal and with an inward sigh, she reluctantly began to do same. Her appetite was long gone and was replaced instead by thoughts of her business and its future.
By the time they were done with their meal, the traffic situation was terrible. "Would you come home with me instead?"
He had to refrain from laughing as her eyebrows shot up in shock at the question and ended up making snorting sounds under his breath. Tilewa swatted him playfully, her face scrunched up in response.
"Look, nothing has to happen if you don't want it to happen." A shrug accompanied the latter part of his sentence.
"Nothing is going to happen at all please."
"Never say never," he muttered loud enough for her to hear and earned a stern look in return.
"I'm joking." He manoeuvred them out of traffic, rerouting their course to his home.
The journey was much shorter to Ekene's place and although she had been by his house several times, the night time view was a lot more peaceful.
As soon as they stepped into the building Ekene wordlessly led Tilewa to the guest room. The walls there were the same white as the living room and there was a small bed at the corner of the room with a desk and chair at the other end.
"Make yourself at home," he finally said. "The bathroom is down the corridor if you want to take a bath. Should I bring you a change of clothes?"
Tilewa nodded. "A towel too."
With a slight nod, Ekene exited the room. Tilewa walked over to the bed and landed on it with a thud, pulling off her shoes within a second. Cracking her neck, she proceeded to take off her jewellery, stretching her body afterwards and then laying on the bed while her feet remained on the ground.
She lost track of time staring at the white ceiling and sat up when Ekene came in with a smirk.
"Why the look?"
"Well, I didn't know how comfortable you'd be wearing clothes that my one-night-stands have left behind in the past, so I brought mine," he said, holding up his right hand which held a grey t-shirt.
"I'll deal," Tilewa said getting up to collect it. He was already at the desk and had dropped the towel when Tilewa reached out to take the change of clothes.
She could not help but relish the faint brush of his hand against hers as the exchange was made. Her heart began to beat a little faster as she remembered her first time in his apartment, throwing her gaze to the ground she turned back to the bed. She had barely taken two steps when he reached out for her free hand and pulled her back to him.
She looked into his eyes with a question in hers, but no words were needed at the moment. The energy between them was electric, the atmosphere changed, the attraction pulsating between the both of them was the answer to her every question and when he dipped his head to kiss her she put up no resistance, against her better judgement.
Nothing ever felt so wrong and so right at the same time. Her internal voices were screaming at her to pull away. It was too soon to get involved with another guy, especially with Sinclair's words ringing like a siren in her mind. She and Ekene did not share the same values when it came to physical attraction. But she could not think beyond the feel of his lips against hers. It was a struggle to pull away from him and when she did, she backed away with a step, then another, putting her hands to her lips, relishing the marvellous encounter she had just experienced.
"We shouldn't do this," she said, shaking her head when she finally got her coherence back.
"Shouldn't do what?" Ekene asked, taking a step towards her.
Subtly, she tried to take another step back, but he noticed. She had his full attention. Before she could speak, he beat her to it. "Look, Tilewa. We're not kids, and the attraction between the two of us is undeniable."
Tilewa could not explain how he did it, but by the time he was done with that short sentence, he was in front of her again with her hand in his. He looked at her like he could see straight into her soul and she hoped to God that he could not do that. She hoped he could not see just how badly she had fallen for him. And when he kissed her again, he silenced all the voices in her head completely.
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Eyin fans, hope we're all good now?
This was my first time writing a romantic scene, I'm not really heavy on that kind of thing but, my editor said I did good. Yay!
Comments people!!!
Vote also!!!
Till tomorrow,
Mure 👑