After the storm (32 page)

"Oh, is
it still on?" Yemi asked. She grabbed the TV remote and flicked on
the television. "They told me it would likely air this week. Which
channel is it on?"

Laide
told her which channel, but when she flipped to it, she saw the
tail end of the advert. She left the TV on, hoping that it would
air again.

The
fashion show was only two weeks away. Cerys had used her personal
connections to get a lot of people interested in it, and the last
that Yemi had heard was that the First Lady of her home state,
Rivers state, was going to be in attendance. Cerys knew her
personally, and because the governor's wife was attending, her
hostess, the First Lady of Lagos, was also going to be there.
Amazing!

Yemi
wondered how those fashion designers who had turned them down must
be feeling now. Sharon Braithwaite had given her a call two days
earlier and congratulated her.

"I
learnt that you're the one designing the clothes for the charity
ball. It's drawing a lot of attention because of Cerys," she told
Yemi. "I just got myself a ticket to attend, and I'm really looking
forward to the event."

Yemi
thanked her. She was refusing to think too much about how all this
was going to impact her and her business.

Just as she had expected, the advert ran again on TV about an
hour later. She could not keep the smile off her face as she heard
the opening lines:
"Hi, I'm Cerys Briggs,
and I'll be walking for Matrix Kreations on the twenty-fourth of
September in support of the Ovarian Cancer Awareness
charity."

Yemi was
so excited that she barely heard the rest of the message. She
flopped back on the bed and hugged a pillow to herself. This was so
worth all of the hard work she and her staff had done to create the
outfits.

∞∞∞

"The
hall is more than halfway full, and the programme is not starting
for another thirty minutes!" Ken told Yemi excitedly as they walked
towards where Cerys's makeup was being done by the
artist.

Cerys
saw them and smiled. Yemi waggled her fingers at her. Cerys had
relaxed her guard with Yemi, and they had now become quite
friendly. She was opening the fashion show, which was just as well
because a lot of the people were there to see her.

The rest
of the evening passed in a flurry of activities for Yemi. Model
after model came backstage to change. The wardrobe assistants she
had hired to help them change were swift and efficient in helping
the girls into their next outfits; their makeup and their hair were
quickly touched up and then they were back out on the
runway.

Finally,
Yemi was called out as the designer of the clothes. She walked out
to a standing ovation and flashing camera lights. The faces of the
people in the audience were a blur to her, but she knew that the
two governors' wives had indeed come, and along with them came
other female dignitaries and celebrities. She could hardly believe
that the event that had seemed like it would be a low-key event run
by three unknown ladies in honour of their unknown late sister and
friend had become such a successful must-attend event, all because
of a famous name, Cerys Briggs.

Of
course, the other models had been great too, even the diva-like
model, but the highlight of the show had been Cerys. Everyone liked
success and wanted to be associated with it.

"Whoa,
did you hear that?" Ken asked Yemi when she came back from her
runway walk. "It's like they couldn't stop clapping for
you!"

Yemi was
just too happy. She saw Francis dancing towards her and held out
her hands to him. She felt so lucky to have such dedicated staff.
There was no way she could have done this without them.

"Mrs. K,
go have a seat in the hall. We'll sort everything out back here,"
Francis said when they had disengaged from their group hug.
"Really, we will," he insisted.

Yemi
walked back to the hall through a side entrance and took a seat at
the table that Lola had reserved for her. She saw the look of
admiration on the faces of the people already seated there as she
exchanged greetings with them.

"That
was awesome," said the man seated beside her.

She
smiled politely at him. "Thank you."

"I'm
Deji Phillips, Lola's brother-in-law," he said.

Her eyes
widened slightly. So this was the husband of Lola's late sister.
She had seen his kids when Lola brought them to her office during
one of their meetings. They were twins and about Aleena's
age.

"Pleased
to meet you," she replied. "I've heard a lot about your wife. She
must have been a very special lady for her to be remembered this
way."

"That
she was indeed. Thanks so much for agreeing to participate in
today's event. Your designs were really beautiful. I was almost
envious that you only make ladies' clothing. Aren't you tempted to
make men's as well?"

Yemi
couldn't help smiling back at him. "I could—that is, if you don't
mind the trousers being made with taffeta, silk, or organza, to
mention a few."

"That
would be something, but who knows? I could be starting a new
fashion trend."

Yemi
laughed. They continued talking intermittently for the rest of the
evening. During the cocktail session, lots of people came over to
congratulate her and to ask for her business card.

"Can I
have one too?" Deji asked, appearing by her side again. He had gone
around to say hello to some people he knew, but he must have seen
her handing out her business cards. She handed him one of the
cards. "Even though men are being discriminated against by Matrix
Kreations," he murmured as he tucked the card in his
pocket.

Yemi
smiled. They were interrupted when Dammy took the podium. The
programme was rounding up.

As she
drove home later that night, she didn't need anyone to tell her
that it had been a success, much more than the expectation of the
organisers and much more than she had ever dreamed.

∞∞∞

The next
few days convinced Yemi that she had indeed made a good decision in
sponsoring the charity event. They had so many new orders for
clothes that her staff was hard-pressed to keep up with them. She
had fully donated the proceeds from the clothes that were modelled
at the charity event. And she was also giving a percentage to the
charity from any repeated orders that came in over the next
month.

Another
sponsor, a popular women's magazine, had gotten the official right
to cover the event. They had some very beautiful things to say
about Matrix Kreations, but even better still was the review given
by another independent, highly rated fashion magazine. It referred
to her designs as "a fresh breeze on the fashion scene." It had
also called Yemi the new fashion designer to watch out
for.

Yemi
felt even more elated when Cerys was photographed at a dinner party
wearing one of the outfits that Yemi had made for her.

Flowers
and chocolates were delivered to her office a week after the ball.
She was puzzled until she saw the card attached. "Nice meeting you
at the charity ball. Deji."

She sent
him a "thank you" via text message and got a reply back almost
immediately.

"You're more than welcome. How're you doing?"

She wondered whether she should reply, and then she shrugged
and texted him back.
"Fine, thanks. The
euphoria of the charity ball is gradually settling
down."

He texted her back:
"Everyone is
raving about your designs. You were absolutely great!"

"Thanks, you're too kind."

"Just being truthful. Can I send my measurements as
discussed?"

"Of course. What fabric would you like, taffeta or
silk?"

"Pink taffeta, what do you think?"

"Perfect, great taste."

He sent her a smiley face attached to his next
message:
"Will send the measurements as
soon as possible, or better still, I can come over to choose the
designs I want. Pink taffeta trousers require a lot of mulling
over."

"You don't have to do that,"
she
responded.
"You can trust me to create a
nice design for you."
She finished typing,
looked at it, and then decided it was time to end the
conversation.
"It was nice chatting with
you. Love to Lola."

He must have gotten the hint because he typed:
"Same here. Take care."

Chapter
18

Yemi
checked the best-before date on the cheese packaging before tossing
it into her trolley and continuing to another side of the store for
some pasta.

It was
Aleena's birthday on Saturday, and she wanted lasagne. Akeem was
allowing her to stay at her place this weekend so that she could
have Eniola, and Chloe, her best friend at Dartmouth, over for a
sleepover. Yemi liked Chloe. She was polite and was generally well
behaved, and Yemi had to admit that so far, her fears of Aleena
picking up a snooty attitude or becoming friends with girls who put
such ideas in her head, had subsided. Chloe's mother, Charlotte,
also appeared to be a pleasant person. Her father was a politician
who lived in Abuja and only came to Lagos on weekends.

Having
found the pasta, Yemi continued towards the aisle that held the
spreads. As she pushed her trolley around the corner, she almost
bumped into a little boy who was coming from the opposite side of
the aisle. He had obviously been going a little too fast and was
not looking where he was going. Yemi stretched out a hand
involuntarily to catch him before he tripped.

"Are you
okay?" she asked him when she had helped to steady him.

"Yes, I
am." The little boy replied.

Yemi
recognised him. It was Lola's nephew, but just as she was about to
ask who he was with, she saw Deji walking towards them with the
little boy's twin sister.

"How
many times do I need to tell you not to run around in shops?" Deji
scolded him before turning to Yemi. "I'm so sorry about that. Are
you okay?"

"I'm
fine." Yemi smiled, looking down at the little boy, who was looking
very chastised indeed.

"Now
apologize to the lady, Tolu," Deji instructed him.

"I'm
sorry," Tolu said, his face slightly downcast.

Yemi
smiled at him. He was so cute. "Not to worry, no harm was done."
She looked at his twin sister, who was holding onto her father's
hand. She looked very pretty in her sleeveless
yellow-and-blue-patterned dress. From the look of her hair, it had
just recently been done and had pretty coloured beads at the end of
each braid.

"I like
your hair," Yemi said to her. "Maybe I can have mine done like it.
What do you think?"

The
little girl looked at Yemi as if she couldn't quite make up her
mind whether Yemi was serious or not.

"Those
are some lovely kids you have here," Yemi said, turning her
attention to Deji. "I met them when Lola brought them to my office
sometime before the charity event."

"Thanks.
Nice seeing you again. How have you been?"

"Fine,
thank you. Thanks again for the flowers and chocolates. My staff
and I enjoyed them."

A smile
curved his lips. "I'll have to send some more, then. That couldn't
have been enough to go around."

"Oh no,
you don't have to do that! I wasn't even expecting the ones you
sent, anyway. That was very kind of you."

"The
pleasure was all mine," he said, his gaze lingering on her face.
"Did you get my text yesterday?" he asked her.

She had,
but she didn't want chatting with him to become a habit and had
ignored his "How is your day going?" message. "Yes, I did, and I'm
so sorry I didn't reply, but yes to the question you asked, my day
was great."

Deji
just looked at her. She could see a mixture of curiosity and
something else she could not quite define in his eyes. She looked
away and glanced towards where his kids were looking at the bottles
of Nutella on display. Tolu was whispering to his sister. Yemi
smiled; they reminded her of Aleena.

"Let me
not hold you guys up," she said, taking hold of the handles of her
trolley.

"It's
the twins' birthday in two weeks," Deji said as Yemi attempted to
move forward. "I know it's rather short notice, but it will be nice
to have you and your daughter over."

Yemi
wondered how he knew that she had a daughter. She shrugged
inwardly; getting that piece of information would be easy for
anyone to do.

"I've
got the invites in the car," he continued. "I can drop one off in
the office for you if you like."

"All
right, I'll expect it," she said as she prepared to move
off.

He
smiled teasingly at her. "Am I getting my clothes soon?"

She
could not help smiling back at him. She could see where his kids
got their cuteness. "Pink taffeta, wasn't it?"

"Correct. I'm sure I'll look nicer than Cerys in
it."