I could hear strains of the song “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay coming from somewhere. My phone was ringing. I had just gotten out of the office and was about to start heading towards the little restaurant Dipo and I had formed a ritual of having lunch at while interning this summer. I looked at the screen. It was him. I took a deep breath and answered.
“Daddy?”
“Kesena? Hello darling, how are you?”
Silence.
“I’m guessing you’ve heard something”
“You could say that.” I replied icily, while searching in my new handbag for my car keys.
“Well, listen, I can’t talk much right now, I just called to tell you not to talk to any journalists okay? In fact, don’t discuss the issue with anyone at all. Have you heard me? Thank God it’s almost the weekend, you can come home to Abuja and stay here for a bit till things calm down. I’ll call Jide and let him know you’ll be taking sometime off.”
Jide was Chief Adeyemi to the rest of us who weren’t golf buddies with him. He was a senior partner at the law firm I had been working at for most of the summer holidays.
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna happen” I snapped.
“Pardon?”
“Are you with mum?”
“Yes, I-”
“Tell her I’ll call her later” I interrupted, and then hung up. On any ordinary day, that would not have happened. He would have had my head for daring to be so rude to him. But today was no ordinary day. I stared at my blackberry for about 10 seconds half-expecting him to ring back ready to give me a bollocking. But he didn’t. I hissed and shoved the phone into my blazer pocket and stormed towards my 3-series in the middle of the company parking lot.

There was not much traffic surprisingly for Lagos, and I arrived at the restaurant about ten minutes later. Upon walking in I spotted Dipo sitting in the corner by a window, but not by the window we usually sat at. I turned to look at our regular table and saw some semi-important looking businessmen, two in suits and one in an agbada. I rolled my eyes and began strolling over to Dipo who I noticed was not alone. When we were about six, Dipo was the noisy boy who’s mum was friends with mine. I didn’t think too much of him as I was very prissy and proper as a child and he was as obnoxious as little boys could get really. One day he forced me to race him round our compound. When I ended up beating him in the race he begged me not to tell anyone. I agreed and we’ve been best friends ever since. He was a lot taller than me now though even though I was 5”9. He was quite built too, while I was just skinny. Plus, while I had a “deep caramel” complexion according to some tactful makeup sales assistants Selfridges, Dipo was more like Lance Gross. These days, girls couldn’t get enough of him, as he was as good-looking and as charming twenty-two year old guys could get these days. Which, if you think about it, isn’t saying much.
I peered at Dipo’s table as I got closer and recognized the girl sitting next to him as Jadesola, Dipo’s breezy number umpteen who we’d known since secondary school. I wondered why he’d chosen today of all days to bring her along. Back in SS1, she came to school and announced that from then on everyone should call her “Jade” like the colour. I insisted on calling her what we’d always had, which was Desola, so it was safe to say she wasn’t particularly fond of me. It didn’t help that I was Dipo’s best friend either.

“K-pop!” Dipo stood up and gave me a kiss on the cheek. He never tired of calling me that ridiculous nickname.
“Hey hun” I replied and turned to the dainty, pretty girl beside him. “Desola love, how now?”
“I’m good, Kesena o. Haven’t seen you in a bit”
“I know!” I said and sat down, plonking my Alexander Wang bag down beside me. “It’s work, really”
Turning back to Dipo, I complained about not being in our usual spot. He shrugged and beckoned a waiter over to take our orders. Desola and I chit-chatted while we waited for our meals, Dipo was unusually quiet and spent most of the time fiddling with his iPad with a little frown on his face.
“Kesena” He suddenly blurted, just as I was about to dig in to my caesar salad.
“Yeah?”
“Um…. Abeg what do you know about this whole Delta State Redevelopment Fund thingie?” He tried to say casually, pointing at his iPad screen.
I froze.
(......... Battery Low...... stay glue)

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