"Awwww" Amarachi yawned, rubbing sleep
off her eyes as she stood at the kitchen's entrance.
"Good morning dearie, how was your night?"
"Fine thanks, Good morning. How was yours too?"
"Good"
Everything had returned to normal the last night, after Kelvin left the house. Ini walked into Ama's room and hugged her tightly with tears in her eyes for about a minute and left the room without saying anything. Ama wondered what happened, what made her friend suddenly become calm towards her again. She knew it was more than the meatpie treat, she believed Kelvin must have said something to her.
"I see you're almost done, why don't you go and have your bath, I'll continue."
"No, don't bother. I'll just finish it myself" Ini smiled as she replied
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Just pay five hundred thousand, you'll have everything here. The rent will be due by next month and you'll continue paying it yourself"
"No that's too much for an ordinary salon, even if I should rent another place and buy my own equipments, it wouldn't be that much"
"Haba! Mr. Collins, how can you call this an ordinary barbing salon, its not" Frank countered.
"You know how much I spent setting up this place? It's over a million naira"
"Oga, don't talk like that. You know over the years, the cost of this equipments have reduced, so you have consider that"
"No, this is an insult. I just started this place last year, the last quarter, please if you are not ready to buy, just go ." Frank complained, "how can you pay me five hundred thousand naira for this place?"
"Okay na, I can't pay more than that, I've given you my number, when you are ready, just call me" the man said and began to walk out.
"Don't worry, I won't even call you"
Frank wondered how a person with conscience could want to pay five hundred thousand for something he knew costs more than a million naira. He had not even used the salon up to six months yet.
The man's negotiation was even better, someone else had offered to pay a hundred thousand naira the day before.
"Hello Uche, O boy. I never see better buyer o" Frank answered a call on his phone.
"Okay, I dey come meet you for there now" the voice replied
Uche was a friend of his and also an owner of a salon like his. In twenty minutes, Uche got to his salon.
"How far na?"
"I dey o Uche, how business?"
"Fine my brother", Uche replied. "So, why do you want to sell off your business? You've come a long way struggling for the business to stand, now that you are making good profit, you want to sell off your salons. What's the problem?"
"No, it's not that I want to sell it off. I just have to sell it off, I don't have an option"
"Why don't you borrow money for whatever you want to do first? This business is paying you o and your customers are even big men and celebrities"
"No, its not really the money I need. I'm moving from this city permanently"
"Haba! Why na? Where you wan go? Na for here tins dey happen o" Uche askedin pidgin English
"It's not something you can understand. Just help me find a good buyer if you can"
"Okay, what if I pay 3.5 million naira for the three salons?"
"Ermm... No, let's make it five million naira, you of all people know my other salons are bigger than this one here"
"Okay then, as a friend I'll pay you 4.5 million naira"
"Okay, good." Frank's face brightened up, "when do I get the payment? It has to be between now and next week"
"Don't worry, just get the necessary documents ready, I'll get back to you on Friday likely with 3 million first and will pay the rest in installment. Is that okay?"
"Yea, it is"
+++++++++++++++++++++++
"Hi, how's the office today?" Dennis read a ping from Ama.
"Good dear, but would have been better if you were here"
"Hehehe, I can't wait to be at the office sef, I'm so bored right now"
"Eeyah, should I come keep you company?"
"Lol, what lie would you tell today?"
"Would say I'm going to take an injection"
"Lol, c'mon. Is that how you lie? Lol"
"Anything just to make you happy"
"No, don't lie to make me happy."
"Okay, I'll come pick you after work, let's go chill out somewhere"
"Okay, that's better . I would be expecting you"
"Good, I love you so much"
"Hmmm... Thanks"
"Thanks, or you love me too?"
"Huh ho, I thought I told you to give me sometime"
"Sometime? Why? I don't really understand your reasons"
"I don't want to rush into a relationship without being sure of my feelings"
"But the truth is I love you Ama. Don't you believe me?"
"I do, but it's not up to a month we met. So I have to be careful not to make a mistake and I also don't want anything to distract me"
"Okay, we'll talk later when we see. Got to get back to work now"
"Aiit, bye"
Dennis walked back to his office from the cafeteria where he went to take a soft drink. When he got back into his office, he met a letter addressed to him on his table. He settled into his chair and read through the letter, he was one of the employees who had been nominated for a special training program in the UK.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Kelvin was the last to get out of the car when they drove into Videx company for the final negotiations with their company.
"Sorry guys, I had to answer that call" he apologized to his colleagues. "Let's go straight in, they must have been expecting us"
Kelvin, Sandra and Peter walked into the room where they had the last meeting with the Videx's representatives.
As the meeting begun, Sandra couldn't keep her eyes off Ini. It looked as if she had seen her somewhere else apart from when they came for the first meeting.
The meeting came to a conclusion after the both parties had agreed on the mode of their partnership and the interest sharing rate.
The meeting ended and each of the representatives paired to briefly greet each other.
"I'm Sandra Benjamin", Sandra introduced herself as she shook hands with Ini while they walked outside to the compound with the rest of the board.
"Ini Williams"
"Wow!", the name rang a bell but she couldn't remember where she heard it from again, "Nice to meet you"
"Yeah, its my pleasure." Ini replied smiling.
"You know what? I like the way you talk, would like to be friends with you. Would you give me your phone number?"
"Oh sure" Ini called out the digits to her.
"Thanks" She smiled and walked into the car to wait for her colleagues who were still sharing pleasantries with their partners.
In few seconds, Peter joined her and sat at the front seat with the driver leaving Kelvin to be the only one still talking to their partners.
Sandra watched as Kelvin held Ini's hands, he saw the way they looked into each other's eyes. It was clear that what they had wasn't just a business relationship. She looked intently at Ini's face again, then she recalled that Ini was the Lady she saw in the picture with Kelvin on Bola's phone, the girl who Bola called Kevin's girlfriend.
She smiled at herself, she praised herself for taking Ini's number, she might really need it soon.
She pondered within herself if she could allow anybody else have Kelvin, not after she had done so much especially to help him get unmerited promotion even without his knowledge.
She remembered the day Kelvin walked into the company for a job interview, she was a receptionist then. He assisted her fix a computer problem while he was waiting for his interview after she called the computer operators in the company and they refused to answer her call immediately.
They became friends after he was employed and he would always greet her and sometimes have a little chat with her when he was resuming or closing from the office. She remembered him complaining bitterly ine day that his salary was too small and it was enough for his needs.
That day, she boasted to him that she could help him get an increase with her influence in the office. He didn't believe her until few days later when both of them were promoted to higher posts with better salaries.
He asked her how she did it and she told him that she was a member of manager's church and she pleaded with him to help the both of them. He had believed her not knowing what she actually did was to sleep with the man who had been disturbing her for a long time to get the promotion
Their friendship strengthened and she longed for the day he would ask her out or profess his love for her, but it never happened. After sometime, the manager resigned and a new one resumed and made a lot of changes which included transferring her to another department whose office far from Kelvin's department. That resulted in them not seeing each other frequently for almost a year until she was brought back to the public relations department.
When she was returned, Kelvin had changed, he didn't talk to her often like before and sometimes even behaved as if she didn't exist. She struggled to get close to him again but he was more reserved and seemed to focus more on nothing but his job. She used everything she could think of to attract him including exposing her body and trying to seduce him but it didn't work.
"Hello" She made a call to Bola. "What did you call your friends name again? ... Yep, the one you showed me on Facebook ... Okay, thanks... No , don't worry, I'll come see you later"
++++++++++++++++++++++
"Hi babe, what's up?" Bola sent Ini a whatsapp message
"Hi Bola" she replied
"How are you?"
"Fine"
"Okay, what of your boyfriend?"
"Why are you asking about him?"
"Nothing, just asking"
"Don't ask about him again, thanks"
"Haba! What's the matter?"
"You are the matter. Bola, what's the reason you cooked up lies to destroy my relationship with Kelvin and my friendship with Ama?"
"Lies? How did I lie?"
"C'mon, stop asking silly questions. What did Ama do to you? Why did you decide to tell lies against her?"
"I didn't tell any lie. Everything I said was true, I saw it with my eyes"
"And you are still lying?"
"No, I'm not. See, Ama is a LovePeddler and she does not deserve to be your friend, she is desperate and all she's doing is to separate both of us"
"Don't call her a LovePeddler again, never"
"Sorry, but remember both of us never fought till you brought this Ama girl"
"Listen Bola, I'm ashamed to be your friend. I never knew you could be so mean, what has come over you?"
"Hey! It's okay, don't talk to me anyhow because of a cheap slut"
"I think I should start avoiding you, you're really dangerous"
"Do whatever you want dunce, but I'm sure you will realize who is dangerous very soon"
"Okay, thanks. Bye"
"Bye Dam and don't come to me when the trouble begins" Bola replied and closed the chat in anger.
She got up and paced the room, Ini was a fool to choose to believe Ama over her, no one has ever been bold enough to call her a liar. If Ama wants to play wise and thought she has succeeded in making Ini turn against her, then she was joking because she was going to do everything to make sure Ama had no rest until she leaves Ini's life and the city totally.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Hello" Ini received a call
"Hi Ini, how are you?"
"I'm fine. Please who am I speaking with?"
"It's Sandra, the Lady from Devi international that took your phone number today?"
"Oh! Sandra, how are you doing?"
"Fine, I just wanted to say hi and wish you a goodnight rest"
"Okay, thanks. I wish you the same"
"Alright, goodnight" the call ended.
"Who's that?" Amarachi who just walked in and dropped her bag on the table asked as she settled into a chair.
"A new friend of mine, her name is Sandra"
"Oh! Okay. So how was your day?"
"It was good o, not too stressful" Ini replied, " so where did Boss take you to this night?"
"We went to Erinsic"
"Okay, I don't need to ask you anything. I can already see that you had a great time"
"Yeah, sure" Ama smiled, "its just that Dennis said he'll be travelling for two weeks"
"To where? Is he taking a leave from work?"
"No, it's an official trip, a training program actually"
"Okay, I thought as much. Videx is used to sending people for training all the time, they're good at that" Ini chuckled.
"Hmmn, I'll be missing him o"
"Eeyah, he's going just for two weeks na", Ini paused and stared at her friend's face. "I wonder why you've not said yes to him already"
"I need to be sure Ini, I don't want to jump into anything"
"But you love him already"
"I'm not sure of that?"
"Huh ho" Ini smiled and moved close to her. "I can see it in your eyes already, don't be scared, just give it a trial"
TBC....
