There are certainly perks to being connected to the right people. I’ve never thought of myself as being the kind of human that depends on favors from people. I always thought that after school, I would go to an interview and get a job on merit, because I am the most suitable candidate for the job.

And now I have a job that I was barely interviewed for, earning a salary that made my mother roll on the floor countless times, screaming her appreciation, and calling me all sorts of sweet names.

I have been a very busy young woman.

I am now seated in the comfort of my office, with its huge glass windows giving me a beautiful view of Eko Atlantic City. Lagos is now the kind of city that fills in beaches and converts them into prime real estate. There is progress. And not just in my office, in my life, my career, my relationship with my mother and the growing bond between Omodale and I.

But my love life is going North, and there’s no Kanye to look after it.

I’m now remembering the exact point cupids arrow took a turn and started bleeding me dry. The first day I came into this building. The day that marked both the beginning of a good and a bad. Or maybe two goods? I don’t even know.

I remember the hesitation as Chima and I stood in the elevator together. My chest tightened and I had wondered if I was suddenly claustrophobic. He didn’t say anything to me at first and after a moment of wondering why he wasn’t saying anything, I suddenly realized that he was different. He was still the same tall, guy oozing an aura of wealth but there was an underlying confidence that wasn’t there before. There was now something manly in his demeanor.

I imagined him being the cynosure of the eyes of all the girls in one of those highbrow clubs that Lagos seems to be dripping with. He, laid back and without a care in the world, and the girls, clamoring to get his attention.

Chima had changed. More surprising, I liked the change. I wondered what influenced it. The few well executed blows given to him by Nnanna or what?

When it dawned on him that we were going to the same floor he finally broke the silence.

Chima: “It could have been easy”

Easy?

Kubi: “Huh?”

Chima: “To walk away from you again. Like I did after that humiliation I was subjected to on your account”

Kubi: “Humiliation? You were the one adamant on having your way even when I wasn’t amenable.” I retorted.”

Chima: “It wasn’t easy for me not to want you and right now it’s not easy for me to walk away again.”

Kubi: “Oh.”

The door opens. He steps out first.

Chima: “I’ll call you at 6.”

And with that, he walked away and I was left to stare at his retreating frame.

I found air again, managed to rush out of the elevator before it slammed shut and found my way to Uncle Kachi’s office.

My phone rang breaking me out of my early morning reverie. It was my boss asking me to come in for a chat. I was glad that I wasn’t working with Uncle Kachi and moreoso that he didn’t even have a working office in the building but rather, he had a lot of shares in a majority of the companies the building housed. It was refreshing to note that I could be myself without always worrying about pressure.

I slipped my feet out the flip-flops I wore while I sat behind my desk when in the office and put on my Jimmy Choo zebra print Kascade heels. It’s not like I don’t walk perfectly in them but wear them all through my 9 to 5? Jesus already paid for my sins. I’m not for that torture.

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I went to see my boss and forced the thoughts of that day out of my head.

It was a short meeting. Our company had a stake in another company that was about to be liquidated. We needed to evaluate the value of our shares and ensure that we got a hundred percent return on investment when the sale went through.

I was supposed to see Nnanna after work and since it was a Friday we had planned to go to Cafe Jade on Bishop Oluwole street to get dinner. The last time I’d had their stir fried pasta and I enjoyed every bit of it.

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This would be Nnanna’s first time and I hoped that this would be the time I tell him what happened that day when I entered this building for the first time.

The day dragged. I toyed with my work, my mind couldn’t leave where it was. My heart yearned for things my mouth couldn’t speak of and the worst form of lethargy ravaged my being.

I surfed the internet. Read bits of irrelevancies. The xenophobic South Africans still shocked me but I was more disappointed by the lackadaisical attitude of our government. I struggled to come to terms with the attitude of the present administration towards pressing issues, and my heart bemoaned the fall of our society over the past decades.

And our people’s attitude towards the government? One minute we are sad and distraught about the news of gruesome murders of our own and the next we are trolling Ebuka Obi-Uchendu and the news of his engagement.

Disheartening; the general complacency of my country people.

I call my mother for a quick chat.

Kubi: “Mum, kedu?”

Mum: “Odi nma. Kedu ka ime?”

Kubi: “I feel sick”

Mum: ‘Ewo! Why won’t you be sick? You leave the house very early and come back late after frolicking with that boy you’ve refused to introduce me to?”

Kubi: “Is that the solution to my problem now Mum?”

I roll my eyes barely containing a sigh. This woman will be the death of me.

Mum: “Come home early so we would go to church together ehn, biko.”

Kubi: “Mum I’m not going to church. I don’t have a spiritual problem, I am ill because I’m stressed and just getting used to my new job. What I need is good food, adequate rest and the right medication.”

Mum: “If you knew the solution to your problems, why then did you call your clueless, religious mother? It seems you’ve forgotten how hard I pull ears. I would remind you when you come home to sleep.”

I said bye and hang up. Pull my ears? This woman must be high on Holy Water. Jeez.

I feel better already though. She has this energy about her. I wonder why I didn’t inherit it from her. I, who at the slightest glimpse of trouble, would run to the white throne and relieve myself continuously. I, the hopeless romantic. Sigh.

Work is finally nearing to a close. I signed off a couple of invoices and place them in a file to be taken to the my boss’s office for authorisation.

Nnanna had messaged to say he was on his way and I felt a flutter-in-the belly excitement which was immediately replaced by the sickening feeling that today might not end well.

Our relationship has blossomed after I accepted his half-hearted apologies and excused his denying me in front of his petulant aunt. Said aunt was back in her house, Vee and I enjoyed a relationship that had its own wings, independent of the obvious connection. While Nnanna continued to be the man of Omodale’s dreams and she wondered day and night why after all my declarations of love and admiration, I had still not let him into the cookie jar.

Fine, he has sniffed at it a few times but I couldn’t bring myself to let him think that everything was perfect.

What went wrong, I ask myself?

Before this, it was all about Nnanna, it was all about his kisses. It was all about the nights waiting for his calls and when he did, knowing that he, being on the other side of the invisible lines of telecommunication chemistry, was all mine.

Today is the day I would finally tell myself why things have changed. And tell him why too.

I would tell him what happened at 6.15pm on that day when Chima finally called me.

I would tell him how I had eagerly waited for him to pick me up from the house.

I would tell him how we didn’t go out as planned because when I saw him standing there in front of my door, something came over me.

Something I won’t excuse my being angry at Nnanna at that time for.

Something that still comes over me when I think of Chima.

Something I still can’t bring myself to understand.

Something that made Chima….





To be continued next week Friday.


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