Always Yours (Lagos Romance Series) (3 page)

He stopped talking and frowned. I smiled hesitantly.

Then he broke into a huge smile and hurried toward me.

“Sophia!” he exclaimed, giving me a hug. “I can’t believe it”

I stood there, shocked and happy at the same time. It was beautiful to stand there in his arms, inhaling his cologne and the fresh scent of his clothes. It felt so good I could have stood there forever.

“I’ve been thinking of you all evening” he said. “I don’t know why. But since I walked in here I have not been able to stop thinking about you.”

I smiled weakly and said the only thing I could think of. “Well, Long time no see” I said lamely.

“Yes!” He exclaimed.
“Too long.
What are you doing here?”

“It’s a work thing” I said.
“For my magazine.”

“Your magazine?”

I nodded. “Yes. Well I run a magazine now”

He raised his eyebrows “Well you have to tell me all about that.” He said “Just look at my little Sophie! All grown up and running her own magazine.”

“I could say the same about you” I said. “Except you’ve always been ‘all grown up’”

He laughed. “So no one has tamed that your sharp tongue of yours yet.” He said “It’s good to see you though, four years is a very long time.”

“It is” I agreed. The woman he had been talking with was still standing there, waiting for him, I guessed. I looked towards her. “Aren’t you here with someone?” I asked.

“Many people” He replied. “My sister, Cecilia, I’m sure you remember her, her husband, my cousins! That’s my cousin Julie I was just talking to. You can come meet her if you like.”

I almost let out a sigh of relief. He didn’t have a date with him after all.

As we walked toward his cousin he turned towards me.

“So are you here alone or is there someone looking daggers at my back right now, ready to challenge me to a duel?”

“Oh No
No
!”
I laughed. “I came alone.”

“Good” He laughed. “That suits me fine.”

“Really!”
I exclaimed laughing. “Why? I hope you don’t have any nefarious plans for me?”

He gave me a look I couldn’t decipher. “Here’s Julie” He said, as we reached his cousin. He introduced us. After a few moments of small talk he took my hand. “We need to catch up.” he stated. “When can I see you again?”

“I’m free this weekend” I said.

He nodded. “Let me take you home.” He offered.

I almost said yes before I realised that I’d brought my own car. “I brought my car” I said regretfully, wishing I’d never bought it.

“Okay, well tomorrow is Saturday.” He said. “So we have all day.” He thought for a moment “You know what? Give me your keys. I’ll drive you home and get someone to bring your car to your house. That way at least I’ll get to know where you live, in case you plan to disappear after tonight.

I agreed happily.

His sister came over to say hi. She was obviously pregnant and seemed to be one of those women who carried pregnancies with energy and ease. I had met her back when I and Michael were at school together.
“You!”
She started to chide me as soon as she saw me. “Why did you abandon my brother?”

“I didn’t” I protested weakly.

“Don’t mind her” Michael said to her. “She broke my heart and she won’t even accept it”

“I didn’t” I exclaimed.

“Ok O!” Cecilia said “Thank God he has found you again
sha
. Maybe you’ll be a good influence on him”

“I hope so” I laughed.
“Though with this one it might be too late.”

“He’s too corrupt already
abi
.” She laughed and turned to leave us, then stopped. “Folake just called” she said to Michael, “She asked if she should still bother to come. But I told her it was too late and we had already finished.

I thought he tensed up a little, but that could have been my imagination “Okay” he shrugged. “That’s fine.”

We soon left for my apartment. He drove one of those new Range Rovers. It was very comfortable and luxurious. “Nice car” I commented.

“I aim to please” he said.

I thought he seemed a little preoccupied. What was he thinking about, and who was Folake? The person his sister had mentioned. Was she his girlfriend or fiancée, I didn’t want to think about it so I pushed it out of my mind.

“Don’t be so quiet” He said after a while. “I spent the last four years missing yours constant prattle”

“Prattle!” I exclaimed incredulously. “I didn’t used to prattle”

“Yes you did” He said. “Then you could never stop talking, you had opinions on everything and you never hesitated to voice them”

“Some people would call that opinionated” I laughed.

“Well.” He said. “As Jesus himself once said” He looked at me with a teasing smile. “You said it”

We both burst out laughing.

At the parking lot of my apartment building we remained in the car talking. I told him all about ‘Living Lagos’, he seemed really impressed.

“I always knew you had it in you” he said at last. “Congratulations”

“Thanks” I replied diffidently.

“So aside from the magazine, what have you been up to?” He asked.

“Nothing much” I said, “Just living.” And thinking about you, I added silently.

He laughed. “I used to have nightmares that when I saw you again you would be married with a kid or two and a jealous husband who would forbid you to talk to me”

“Well I hope to have the kids and the hopefully not-so-jealous husband someday soon” I said, looking at him.

He held my eyes for a while. What was he thinking? I wondered.

“I’m engaged.” He said suddenly.

I had been sitting there in the car with him, my whole body growing warm at his closeness. As soon as he spoke it was like someone had poured icy water all over me. My stomach dropped and I looked away from him. Outside the car, the security lights were casting an orange glow all over the compound. I concentrated on that, so that I wouldn’t cry. I felt like a fool, I felt like I should have known, really. Why had I expected him to be single? He was young, handsome and
virile,
of course someone else had taken the opportunity I had thrown away.

I forced a smile. “Congratulations! I exclaimed, turning back to him. “I am very happy for you”

He looked at me for what seemed like a long time. He shifted his gaze outside the car “Thanks” He said at last.

“She wasn’t there tonight?” I asked.

“No she was busy with work.”

“Oh!” I nodded. “Okay” I opened the car door. “I guess I see you around then” I said, trying to make it sound like I didn’t care, like he hadn’t just broken my heart a second time in one lifetime.

“I hope I’ll see you more than that” He replied. Was I imagining the pleading note in his voice? “After four years” He continued. “I don’t want you to disappear again.”

I nodded and he smiled.

“Goodnight” I said.

“Goodnight” He replied.

I watched him drive off. My heart felt really hollow. All my hopes now felt too foolish. It took all my strength even to walk up the stairs to my apartment.

I don’t think I slept very much that night. I kept thinking about Michael, about the fact that now that I’d finally found him again, he had gone and gotten himself engaged.

I had to get over him, I told myself, I had to forget, totally forget, the idea of being with him. I had to let go of all my hopes and fantasies and accept that we could only ever be friends.
What was the alternative? Trying to steal another woman's man?
On what excuse?
That I had loved him first or that I loved him more? That was something I would never do.

I dozed off sometime before morning, and woke up again before it was fully bright, my thoughts of the night before still weighing on my mind. I did my laundry, cleaned my flat and did some cooking. I had decided to spend at least an hour watching some no-brainer show on E!
when
there was a knock on the door.

Who was it? I wondered. Hardly anybody knocked on my door anymore. People would call, ping or text to say they were right outside your door. Knocking seemed to have gone the way of the Nokia 3310.

The knocking, which had stopped, started again, a little louder this time, maybe it was my landlady, I thought, getting up and going towards the door, she was the only
one who would knock as if she had a right to tear the door down. I peered into the peephole.

Michael!

What was he doing here?

I threw a frantic glance around the flat and heaved a sigh of relief that I had tidied up.
Usually well…. best not to get into that.

I was wearing a vest and shorts and my hair was in a messy twist at my neck. Should I change I wondered? Should I brush my hair? What if I took too long and he assumed I wasn’t home and left. I took a deep breath and opened the door.

His tall frame dwarfed the tiny hallway. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and looking really fresh, like he had had a really good night. “Hello.” He smiled in greeting. “You decided to open the door at last!” He peered at my face “Were you sleeping? I was beginning to think I had the wrong flat”

I laughed self-consciously. “Come in” I offered. What was he doing here?! I thought. “I wasn’t sleeping” I said in reply to his earlier question. “I just wasn’t expecting anyone”

“Yeah well too bad, I’m here!” He gave me a ‘too bad’ look and walked into the flat “I had to come and make sure I hadn’t dreamed last night.”

‘Hmmm” I scoffed. “You don’t really expect me to believe that. Do you?”

“If only you knew.” He looked around my tiny living room. It was so tiny I had only being able to fit one piece of furniture in it.
A couch.
“Your flat is cute.” He commented.

“Tiny, you mean?”

“Homey.” He countered. “I like it, I could live here happily”

I sniggered. His very presence already dwarfed my flat, making it look smaller than it actually was. “I don’t think this place can take the two of us without breaking.”

“You think?” He said. He sat on the couch and stretched his legs.
“Enjoyment!”
He sighed. “Young lady, you are living the life!”

I rolled my eyes. He could pretend to be impressed all he wanted. But I had been to his family’s house in
Ikoyi
. A flat the size of mine would have to have come out of an episode of star wars to impress him. “So?” I said pointedly. “Apart from making sure you weren’t dreaming last night….?”

“Are you trying to send me away?” He exclaimed.

“No” I said. “But I know you’re up to something, tell me what it is”

“Nothing extraordinary.”
He stated. “Just want to steal you away for today.”

“Say what?” I sputtered.

“You know? Take you out, hit the town” he shrugged. “I haven’t been back in town for long. You could show me what I’ve been missing in the past few years. We could go see a movie, go to the beach…” He paused. “Just get to know each other again”

I stared at him, my mind racing. Of course I wanted to go. What was a day? When what I wanted was to spend my whole life with him. But wasn’t he, weren’t we both forgetting a very important detail?
His fiancée?

I had already decided that we were going to be just friends, hadn’t I? That I was going to forget him? What was he trying to do? Was he unknowingly dangling himself in front of me, like a very attractive carrot? Or was he deliberately punishing me, or worse, leading me on and on until I became his own ‘girl on the side’ like the ones many married men had. I shook my head. Michael wasn’t like that.

“What did you drink?” I asked. My voice light and playful, belying the turmoil underneath. I was being a very good actress. I thought to myself. “What have you been smoking?” I continued.

“Nothing” He said, looking puzzled. “Why?” he had picked up the remote and was flicking through the channels. He looked right at home in my flat, I thought with some injudicious pleasure.

“You are an engaged man,
My
friend!” I exclaimed incredulously. “In case you had forgotten.”

“I hadn’t” he said noncommittally. “Is that a problem?”

“Well...” I faltered. “Not for me. But wouldn’t your fiancée mind?”

He shrugged. “Frankly, I don’t know. But you are my friend and I haven’t seen you in ages and I would like to spend some time catching up. That is,” He stopped and looked at me. “If you don’t mind”

Of course I didn’t, I thought. I shrugged. “Well I guess
its
okay.” I said. “But I know that if I had a fiancée, I wouldn’t let any girl, friend or no friend, within an inch of him.”

“Really?”
He grinned, his eyebrows going up.
“Possessive much.”