"You know, back then I used to be all over your mum in this manner... Taking her by surprise, and trying to blow her mind in very inexplicable ways. I guess you are indeed your father's son, Alan Tayo." Alan's father said as he descended the few staircases to the living room. Those words made my cheeks burn. Alan's dad had been watching us all this while.
"You taught me how to treat a lady right." Alan said as he unwrapped his arm around my waist, and then he walked up to meet his dad. He was about to prostrate when his father stopped him by holding his shoulders, then he embraced him. The father-son relationship I was seeing now, reminded me of the father-daughter relationship I used to share with dad. The thought of my late dad hurt me like hell. It's really painful that he wasn't alive to see the woman his baby girl was becoming.
Once their embrace ended, Mr. Tayo focused his attention on me. Before he could say a word to me, I quickly greeted him
"Good Day sir."
"Good Day young lady." He replied with a warm friendly smile. Wow! It was then I realized how good looking he was. Mr. Tayo was obviously in his earlier sixties, but he didn't have a protruding belly as most rich elderly Nigerian men do have. If not for his hair that was all gray, he would have passed to be Alan's elder brother. This T-shirt and jean he was rocking even made him look younger.
"So tell me, what spell did you cast on this young man to take him from being a James Bond who didn't really care much about love to this lovestruck Romeo." Mr. Tayo said, then paused in between the sentence for a sec or two, then he continued. "Don't get me wrong, you are obviously pretty enough to catch the eye of any man my son's age, but... Alan has not brought any lady home. So the fact that he decided to bring you home must only mean one thing... You are special to him."
The word special rang in my head. Did I deserve to be called special? I smiled softly at Mr. Tayo whose gaze was still very much fixed on me. He was really bent on knowing why I was so special to Alan. I looked at Alan who gazed back at me. We both knew the whole dating stuff was a drama, but deep down we still knew these kisses we had been sharing was very far from just acting... At least I was certain about that.
As I was about to cook up a story that would be pleasuring to Mr. Tayo's ears, Alan interrupted, and I was thankful for that. He said. "Uhm. Dad, we are going to tell you about all of that later... I think it's my story to tell, not hers. Besides, I think what we should be talking about is how to go about the renovation of senator Nnamdi's company."
That clearly stole Mr. Tayo's attention, coz the next thing he said was. "Oh, that's very true. Nnamdi's boy stopped by earlier today to drop some papers for you."
"Really?" Alan asked, still trying to distract his dad from probing my life.
"Yeah really. It's in my room." Mr. Tayo said.
"I think we should check that out now." Alan suggested.
"That's a good idea son." Mr. Tayo replied. Then to me, he said. "Valerie make yourself comfortable, this is your home. Okay?"
Shit! I didn't merit this hospitality I was getting. I could bet a tooth that Alan's dad was probably picturing his "grandchildren" already.
"I would do just that sir. I am so glad I have finally met you." Then I added. "Alan has told me so much about you." I lied. Alan's eyebrows went up, and the expression on his face was like Oh what now?
"Really? What and what did he say?" Alan's dad asked me as he folded his arms in front of his broad chest. Way to go Valerie! All it took was for you to keep your big mouth shut. Scratch that, medium-sized mouth shut.
Mr. Tayo stared at me. In return I gave him an uneasy smile and swallowed hard. He still gazed at me for some seconds, then the serious expression he wore on his face revamped into a smile. "I guess he said so many things then." Alan's dad finally said. I facepalmed mentally. Now I was so sure he figured I just dropped that cliche line about Alan telling me much about him, in order to impress him.
"Anyway, I would have loved to leave you love birds alone, but I just have to steal your man or Boo as you 21st-century kids call it." He said giving me that rich man laugh.
"Hahaha. I would be fine by myself sir." I replied, laughing too.
"Alright then." He said. Then he headed back in the direction he came from. I guess that was the walkway leading to his bedroom.
Now I and Alan were left alone again. Alan wore a little frown on his face as he took a few strides towards me, and when he got to where I stood, he folded his hands in front of his chest. I bit my bottom lip slightly, then asked him. "Hope my first meeting with your dad wasn't all that awful?"
"Awful is an understatement, it was terrifying." He said as he scratched his forehead and intensified the frown.
The announcement threw me off balance. "Dear Lord! Are you for real?" I asked with a wide eye.
"You know you look ten times sexier whenever you widen those eyes at me like that. So please, stop it, I am trying to concentrate here." He said, holding a hand up to indicate a stop sign.
Now I did not know if that was a compliment or not. But I knew for some reason that the announcement he just made about how terrible my first meeting with his dad was, made me feel really disappointed. But why? After all, I didn't really have to make an impression coz I was not actually Alan's girlfriend.
An unexpected lazy smile materialized on his cute face, then he drew me into a warm embrace, and whispered into my hair "You are such a scaredy-cat, Hun." The feel of his breath on my hair felt really warm and comforting. This familiarity between I and Alan was becoming too comforting. I was getting too used to being in his arms. Whenever I wasn't in his arms, it felt as if I was away from home.
"I was just messing with you. Dad obviously fell in love with you as I foresaw." He said as he cupped my face in his palms.
I stared into his eyes. Was he just trying to make me feel better? But no, I think he wasn't, cuz his eyes agreed with his words. "I am glad he did. Your dad is really a nice person."
"Of course he is. Thanks for acknowledging that though." He said, then looked towards the walkway, then back at me. "Valerie, I have to go now, but I won't be long though." He said. Then with a departing kiss on my forehead, he took his leave.
I stared at him as he walked away. The intimate moment we shared prior to the time his dad walked in on us, was right before my eyes. I could still feel his strong hands on me. I kept staring and at him for some seconds as I walked towards the sofa. Unfortunately for me, my looking section went wrong, because I hit my leg on the side stool close to the sofa. "Ouch!" I said, then concentrated on where I was heading to.
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The volume of the TV was quite low, and the temperature of the room was very cool. I guess Alan's family didn't really live much of a noisy life, because the house basked in quiescence. My butt found a good spot on the fluffy white sofa. It felt so soft and seductive, I couldn't help but rest my back on it.
I stared at the TV for like 5 minutes, and during those minutes, I noticed I kept yawning profusely. I wasn't tired neither was I hungry, so I wondered why I was yawning this hard. Then at that moment realization struck me. It was this bloody series they were showing on TV that was boring me the hell off. The guy and lady had been gazing into each other's eyes for five whole minutes now! I know I loved to stare into someone's eyes... You know who. But damn, not for five minutes without saying a word. Bloody creepy damnation!!! Without wasting much time, I picked up the remote and changed the channel.
Where did Lewa disappear to? I asked myself. Coz like 30minutes ago, she said she was just going to keep I and Alan's bags in the house. As this thought crossed my mind, I stylishly employed my eyes to observe if I could catch a glimpse of her around, but I didn't. Instead, I heard a sound from the front door, which caught my attention. The doorknob twisted and in a split second, the door was open. A young man around my age walked into the house, he was presumably 5.9ft tall. He had quite a long hair that was neatly weaved backward. In his hands, he held a grocery bag and on his head, his dark sunglasses rested comfortably.
After he closed the door behind him, he was about to head into the kitchen when he realized someone was staring at him. Immediately, he abandoned the route he was taking and turned towards where I sat.
He placed the bag on the thick glass table. Then said. "Hey princess, did you miss your way here thinking it's your castle?" He asked as he sat down beside me.
I adjusted my butt a bit, to create some space between the both of us. "You are joking right?" I asked him, as I tried to process the ridiculous question he just asked me.
He grinned at me slowly. As I gazed at him from a close range now, I could see the resemblance he had with Alan's dad. Was this some relative of theirs? Because he couldn't be Alan and Lewa's brother. Back then in school, Alan never mentioned having any other sibling apart from Lewa.
"Don't mind me, I am just messing with you. But for real though, I never knew Lewa had any friend as cute as this." He said, giving me that flirty look. I stared at him in awe. This guy was indeed a certified playboy. Obviously, he wasn't new in this business at all, and his good looks were just the perfect icing on the cake.
"Thanks for the compliment... But are you really trying to flirt with me like I am some dumb high school girl?" I asked. Laughing slightly at the moves he was making towards me. I could pinpoint a player when I saw one, and this was definitely one.
"Ah, Deji! If you know you still love your life, you better shift from Big Bro's girlfriend. At least like five feet apart." Lewa suddenly appeared and interrupted our conversation. I was glad, coz the whole talk was getting a bit awkward. Especially with someone I just met.
Abruptly Deji jumped up from the sit. "Holy Moses! I was hitting on my sister-in-law!" He said looking really shocked and kind of disgusted at himself. So he is a relative after all.
I laughed so hard. These two seemed to be really fun to hang around with. "Well, maybe next time you should ask questions." I said as I balanced well to enjoy more of the drama the young man was displaying. Right now, he could possibly win an Oscar nomination with all this drama he was exhibiting.
"Don't mind Deji with his big head. He dated four of my friends at the same time and he broke their hearts at the same. Now my friends don't come around again because of him. Heck! They barely even talk to me, I guess they think I was some mastermind or something." Said Lewa with apparent irritation written on her face. Then she pointed a finger at Deji and said with a little anger evident in her voice. "You better stop chasing my friends, I have warned you before!"
"Abeg keep quiet jor. Your friends were the ones who were too easy to get. Besides, they threw themselves at me... You can't give meat to a dog and he would reject it na. Ko possible!" He replied happily, shining his 32teeths as though he just won a lottery.
At the mention of that, Lewa ran towards where Deji stood with her hands in the air, ready to strike him hard. Deji took to his heels before she could get to where he stood. He smashed into loud laughter as they ran around the sofa. I guess I stand to be corrected for saying the Tayos lived a quiet life. My eye caught sight of Alan who emerged from the inner part of the house.
"You both have started again." Alan said as he walked closer to the living area.
Lewa replied with a loud voice. "He started it! He was hitting on..."
"Shush!!!" Deji shut her up with his finger on his lips before she could finish the statement.
"Hope these two are not giving you so much stress?" Alan asked me as he sat down beside me on the sofa.
"Hahaha. Not really, I am actually enjoying myself." I said without taking my eyes off them.
"Yeah, I know that feeling. It just feels like a drama at the theater." He said as he laid down on the sofa and rested his head on my lap. I felt like touching his fine black hair, but I held myself back. I just admired it with my eyes.
Lewa and Deji kept entertaining us with their drama until something unexpected took place. The front door forcibly opened, then two elderly women came in. The one around her mid-fifties vociferated. "That stupid girl has to leave my house this very minute!"
A/N
Hehehe is Valerie the stupid girl??? Find out in the next chapter which would be published today or tomorrow.
I am so so so sorry for the long hiatus, I ought to have uploaded new chapters earlier, but I have been really busy with other stuffs this period. Thank you so much for your patience
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Glossary
Ko possible - Is not possible (Yoruba)