He is rich, handsome and very popular among his friends but he is single. He will be 38 by his next birthday and he careless about his marital status or anything of that sort.

Tade Williams struggled out of bed because he is not willing to stand another buzz from the alarm set on his mobile phone. He muttered to himself hardly opening his eyes, how he would have loved to break the alarm object if it wasn’t his mobile phone. He is a stickler for timeliness and no matter how tired he is, he always makes effort and makes it on time. So the service of the alarm as annoying as it can be will always be patronized.

Tade is a hard worker and he thinks there are no excuses for failure; he lives by these words and even though he is tired and worn out, he always stubbornly pull through. When it is time to play, Tade takes the lead because he always deserves a pat on the back according to him. Fridays are his best days but only in the evenings. He hates the morning because “he go don tire die” he only manages to get out of bed to go to work.

He rushed out of the bathroom, (not very typical of him because he loves to be in charge) to put on his casual outfit: the one he has carefully selected for the day- putting in mind the after work mode.

“I am so fine” he said coolly and he looked at his full frame with a smile in the mirror in the corner of his room – a daily ritual he does before he goes off to work. He is indeed a fine young man with a lot of finesse and charisma which makes him the envy of his friends. He has a lot of pretty ladies flocking around him everywhere he goes – I am sure that partly explains why he is still single (***winks &smiles).

He moved briskly towards his garage without bothering whether the car is clean or not because he is sure the gateman had done justice as expected. He entered his brand new Prado jeep and off he went to work.

He got to his office right on time as usual and got around his big office to see his good old friend Osayi . He just never gets to start working immediately like other bosses pretend to do. He believes in releasing the tension of the horrible Lagos traffic before getting down to business. A clear head will get you far with your job faster than any other thing he always says.

Osayi hailed him without even giving any consideration to his position as his boss. Tade is his boss but has also been his friend for as long as he can remember. Tade was the one that even got him the job when the labour market dealt badly with him.

Just as they were chatting away, one of the office secretaries walked past and Tade made his trademark statement- Check that fish out, this ocean never stops to surprise me with it varieties sha. Osayi cautions him that he was a bit too loud with his comments but he ignored him.

He asked to know when she started but Osayi told him he had no idea. “Ol boy, you don dey dry too much for me o. Na so marriage dey change person? Osayi, the fisherman, it is so strange to hear you talk like this” said Tade.

“Anyway, guy, we need to discuss our outing tonight o and why are you even wearing that?” He asked with a frown on his face and Osayi answered that he had a church meeting later in the day.

“You don start abi? you will go with me even if you are wearing your wedding agbada, you this wet blanket” he said walking away.

He wondered why people get so boring once they got married. It is even manageable with the men (except with Osayi); the women become something else.

He quickly got into the days job while looking forward to the good time in the evening. While at it, the thoughts of Linda crossed his mind. He smiled and continued work.

Linda had called the day before to book a space for the day (that is what he calls it) and he kind of like her because..she fine and moreover, she is one of the few he has met who has got brains without compromising blasting fun. That is a rare package he tells his friends.

It was just a little after five in the evening, when Tade showed up in front of Osayi’s desk, he practically dragged him to his car and took off to the nearest club on Victoria Island. Osayi sat there like a zombie wondering what he will tell his pastor and his wife.

Osayi never bothers to argue with Tade because you never win one with him. “This is not good o” “This is not good o” “This is not good o” Osayi continues to say but somewhere in his heart of heart there was this good feeling he had. It has actually been a while that he has unwound.

*****************************************************************************

She is pretty, kind, very shy and single. She is just 21 and rounding up her Bsc. in Zoology from one of the Nigerian prestigious universities.

Tolani is a little bit afraid of the labour market given the gist she has heard from her older siblings and aunties. Sometimes she wonders if it is that bad but she is looking forward to it any ways. She feels Zoology may not give her a lot of options in the labour market but she is bent on making the best grades.

She moves briskly towards the examination hall determined to do her very best in the last paper of her final exams. She is seriously looking forward to the big relieve of becoming a graduate as soon as possible and a time to face the next phase of her life.

Still deep in her thought, gbam! She ran into somebody. “Oh! I am so sorry”, she said without looking up. She wanted to get back to business as quickly as possible so she continued on her journey but as she was about to move away, he held her arm with his strong masculine hand. She looked up to know the fellow that sorry is not enough for and low and behold it was Bosun. It was then she knew she didn’t bump into him, he did to her. Why won’t he leave me alone she thought to herself? And as if reading her mind, Bosun said, “I will never leave you alone never until you are mine”.

She wriggled herself out of his grip and almost ripped her old school silk top in the process. She faced him with anger all over her and said “I have told you, I will not have anything to do with you, I will not. I have said it over and over again and if you don’t mind, I have an exam to write”.

Just as she was about to leave, the sound of gun shots jolted them back to reality of their environment. Students started running helter-skelter for safety. Oh no! The school cult problem has started again! Before they could give much thought to it, the sounds got louder and louder. Out of fear, not knowing what to do, she held onto Bosun really tight.He refused to let his confusion show.He thought to himself – this can’t be happening but he quickly shook the thought off and came to her succor by carefully securing her at the entrance of one of the female hostels before hurrying off.

He only ran about ten meters away from her and still visible to her, when as if he forgot something, looked back at her and then towards the warring men and in split seconds he began to run back. Now she is confused and terrified. He got to her before them but only to take the bullets meant for her.

He fell hard on his face. He felt blood flowing out of his body,he realized he has been hit, he made a painful effort to move but he was stopped quickly with the sharp pain that came through, then he heard a loud scream from Tolani and darkness took over……that was all he remembered. Watch out for episode 2. extracted from www.okanmi.com