Dalia looked through the documents one last time before handing it over to her assistant Yinka. They had just closed another deal but this time, it was an even bigger job than the last, she had gotten the referral from one of her jobs to redesign a guesthouse located in Ikoyi.
“Here, send it to Barrister Claire, tell her I’ll sign it after she has looked through them, you know what, I’ll call her myself.” She picked up her phone and dialed it while she was speaking.
“Hello ma” she spoke into the phone teasingly.
“Yes sir” the other end replied in same energy “How far?”
“Busy? Anyways, I made some comments on the document, I don’t want to sign it till you have gone through them and made your own changes. Yinka is coming to drop it at your office”
“Now?” I’m entering a meeting now and it might be long, do you want him to drop it with the secretary?”
“That’s fine, But babe you know they want me to start work next month, so I gats sign am quick, abeg help your friend”.
“Madam, if person hear you now, them go think say you no dey pay me, trust me girl I know, I will send it back to you latest on Saturday, okay? Her friend replied her with a smile on her face, “Aunty abeg dem don dey signal me, we go talk later.” Claire said in a rush before dropping the call.
“So she wont be around but you can drop it with the secretary and make a note to pick it up on Saturday or make arrangements for it.” Dalia said addressing Yinka. “Also the vendor meeting...”
“Yes ma” Yinka replied.
“Since these people want us to start early next month, there is no time again, I think we should move it back a bit, especially the furniture guys and the painters.”
“Ok ma, I will call them and give you the feedback. Also ma, I sent an email to AJ so he can send us some portfolios to look through for the art work we want, I gave him an idea of the themes we are looking to work with.”
“Ah, that’s good! I forgot about him.” This was why she appreciated Yinka, the last girl she had hired had been a complete disaster, who had chosen to flirt with two of her clients till she got wind of it, but with Yinka, she did not even have to do certain things for herself anymore, he really took the stress off her. She made a mental note to give him a sizable bonus for this new project they had.
“Thank you ma” He replied smiling.
“You can go now”, she looked at the time to confirm it was indeed past 4, “you can go home from there but please make sure your phone is not switched off.”
“Thank you ma, goodnight ma.” He said excitedly before leaving her office.
She had been neck deep in work throughout the week, that she blocked out the event that happened over the weekend. Leaning back into her chair, she looked through her phone, Emeka had not called nor even sent a message.
That is his own, all this men sef, she thought to herself, “Him and his Dee.”
She debated calling him then decided against it before calling Ese.
“I was just about calling you! You, once you enter work mode no one hears from you, abeg I need that event planner's number, the one that did your mum's party” Ese cuts in before the pleasantries kicked in.
“Good afternoon oh, how are you doing oh, ah Dee how far? Are you okay?” Dalia said in a different voice as if to mimic Ese then laughed.
“Sorry, I thought of doing this wedding planning thing myself and get a coordinator but to be honest the only idea I have closest to a wedding was Ada and you played a role in it.”
Dalia smiled, as much as she was not a fan of Ese’s partner, she would not let her organise this event on her own. Ese who though was a genius HR manager was helpless when it came to organizing events on her own.
“How on earth were you thinking you could pull that,” Dalia laughed out loud “you wey no fit organize your own birthday? You can’t organize your own party girl!” She spoke in clear English so Ese could understand her better.
“I have corrected myself”, Ese laughed along with her “send her number to me please let me see if she can squeeze me in.”
“I’ll send it now”, Dalia put the phone on loudspeaker and searched her contact list for the number and sent it to her “Sent”.
“Thank you, I will call you if anything pops up,” Ese replied before hanging up.
Dalia looked into space after the call, thinking of Ese, all through their years of friendship she and Ese had never had a reason to be awkward around each other for days, and this would be their first time, after speaking with Ada she realised that maybe she had gone a bit far with Kerri in kicking against the marriage.
Her phone beeped indicating a text message.
Hi Dalia, How are you doing? This is Steve from Church, I wanted to check in on you. Hope you had a good day?
She read the text with a puzzled expression, Steve? As in Brother Steve? Ha! How did he get my number? She sighed. She stood up and walked to her mini fridge to grab an energy bar making a mental note to stop at the supermarket to get more of them.
As she popped a bit in her mouth, her stomach growled, she did a mental check and realised all she had for the day was coffee and a wrap. She did a quick maths to decide if to order a meal or close for the day and after mentally going through her to do list she decided to go home instead.
As she was putting her laptop in her bag, her phone rang, she did not bother to pick it since it was already inside her bag, then she wrapped her Diane Von Furstenberg dress tightly before stepping out of her office. By the time she stopped over at the accountant’s desk to give him some purchase order and gotten to her car, her phone had rang nonstop, she plopped herself at the backseat while the driver started the car and took out the phone, seeing the number displayed on the screen she stilled herself from getting excited then picked it up.
“Hi, good evening” she replied somewhat lukewarm.
“Hey, how are you?” came the husky reply from the other end of the phone.
“I’m good, just getting off work.”
“Ah, good for you, I’m still stuck in my office, you sound tired” Emeka’s voice showed concern.
“I am, I just need to get home, eat proper food and take a warm shower, it’s been a mental day for me.”
“Hmm, anything I can do to help?”
“Awww thanks, that is sweet of you but except you want to send food and a masseuse to me” she added sweetly, the little resentment she had on him melted away listening to his voice.
“That’s all? Consider it done! I’ll send someone to you in an hour's time”, he said.
“Emeka, I was joking”, she laughed. “Thanks, you’re too sweet.
“Hello! Emeka” She looked at the phone not sure they were stll connected, there were mutterings in the background on the other end.
“Yh, I just asked someone to handle that, you just get home and wait for that meal and massage” He came back on the line.
She was amazed and speechless for a while, this was too deep for her, she had never met a guy who would do this just 2 weeks into talking.
“Erhmmm Emeka, I was joking, I did not expect you to take it seriously” she finally spoke.
"I wanted to, and you're welcome," she could hear a smile in his voice. "So, tell me how your week has been. Catch me up."
She blushed and had to look at the driver's seat to be sure she was not been too obvious with her smile, then she went ahead and gave him a breakdown of week and her latest projects, their talk went on through the traffic, by the time she got home, she felt so much lighter and felt a bubble in her chest.
She stepped out of the elevator to open the door to her apartment, phone in hand when her phone beeped again.
Back off! This is not the ground for your kind, You have been warned
She paused as she looked at her phone’s screen in complete confusion and with trembling hands
What’s this?...
Featured image: IG- @peniel_enchill
