Hidden Currents (Lagos Romance Series) (17 page)

She was totally, painfully, irrevocably in
love with him.

Towards evening, she started the journey
back to her apartment. She was already outside Eddie’s house before she
realized that she was driving there. She parked across the street from the
gates and sat in the car waiting. She had no idea what she was waiting for, he
couldn’t see her from inside the house, and if he drove out he could even miss
her, or worse, maybe he would be with someone and not want to see her.

She waited anyway.

At some point, she thought she saw the
gates opening, her heart started beating wildly, and her fingers became clammy.
It was only a false alarm though, as the gates remained shut.

You’re only making a fool of yourself. She
thought deploringly, Even if you see him, what would you say to him, that
you’ve become his stalker?

She wondered what he was doing inside. It
was torture, to be so close to him and not be able to reach out to him. She
wanted to tell him that she was in love with him. She wanted to see his face as
she said it, to see happiness and acceptance and not rejection. She wanted a
lot of things.

When it started to get dark she drove
towards home, feeling worse than she had when she left in the morning.

She left the unused camera inside her car,
too distracted to take it inside. As she walked up the stairs, her mind
registered that she hadn’t eaten all day, and that she was weak and tired. She
didn’t care, all she wanted to do was to lie down on her bed and cry until the
feeling of sadness was gone and the weight in her chest was lifted.

At first she couldn’t believe that it was
him. She stopped, her heart leaping wildly, her hand trembling on the banister.
She wondered if her eyes were deceiving her, if perhaps he was unreal, like a
mirage in the desert.

But it wasn’t a mirage. It was really
Eddie.

He was standing in front of the door to her
apartment, his tall figure leaning forward, one hand resting on the door where
he had been knocking and the other hand holding his phone to his ear.

He was at her house, waiting for her.

Her eyes welled up with tears. She blinked
frantically, trying to hold them back.

He started to knock again. She took one
more step. The movement must have caught his eye because at that moment he
turned away from the door and saw her.

Her stomach shifted with joy as she saw the
worry on his face change to relief. She wanted to run into his arms, to tell
him everything she was feeling. But she was also afraid.

“Ada!” He exclaimed, his voice sounding
strangely tight. He started to come down the stairs, towards her. She stood
still, waiting until he was standing right in front of her, on the landing.

“Where have you been?” He asked softly.

“I have no idea.” She looked up at him,
into his eyes, she knew her eyes were glistening with tears, and that soon,
they would run down her cheeks. Whether they were caused by her happiness at
seeing him, or the sadness that she had been feeling before, she couldn’t
really say.

“I’ve been waiting for you.” Eddie was
saying, his voice still soft. “I’ve been calling you all day.”

Ada sighed. She had left her phone in the
apartment when she left in the morning. “I didn’t have my phone with me.” She
explained.

He nodded. “I was so worried.” He said. He
took a deep breath. “I’ve called everybody trying to find out where you were.”

Where had she been? She had no remembrance
of anything she had seen or done all day. “I was looking for you.” She
whispered softly.

“I was always here.” He murmured.

Ada’s heart tightened at the memory of him
and those painful words he had said to her. “You said you were with someone.”
She accused.

He touched a hand to her face and stroked
her cheek. “I was being an idiot.” He said, shaking his head. “I’m sorry.”

Ada laughed. It was a mixture of relief and
happiness and joy. She was going to ask him something else, but she forgot it,
whatever it was, when he kissed her.

I’ve been lost, Ada thought, as she drank
in the taste of him, and now I’ve found home.

He kissed her as if he would never stop,
and she didn’t want him to. After a long while, he pulled back and they grinned
at each other like idiots. Then Ada pulled him down and kissed him again.

“We’d better go inside,” Ada said finally,
still grinning.

They ascended the rest of stairs together,
Eddie holding her hand in his. When they got to her door, she fished in the
pocket of her shorts for her keys, while Eddie kissed the corners of her lips.

“So you’re not with someone?” She asked, as
she opened the door. She knew she shouldn’t, but she still felt trepidation in
her heart as she waited for him to answer.

He shook his head.

“So the girl at the exhibition yesterday?”

He looked shamefaced. “Her name’s Estella,
she’s someone’s assistant at my office. We were at a meeting together and she
mentioned that she just moved to Lagos and had never been anywhere, so I asked
her to come with me. I didn’t want to arrive alone looking like an idiot, and
stand around while you ignore me like you did at the awards…”

“I didn’t ignore you,” Ada protested. “You
ignored me! I kept hoping you would talk to me, and then you just left without
saying goodbye.”

He sighed. “I just felt… I don’t understand
how I felt.” He took her hands in his, “You confuse me, Ada Arinze, I don’t
know where I am when I’m around you.”

Ada smiled and moved into his waiting arms.
“I don’t think I’ve known where I was around you since the first day I saw
you.”

“Really?” He chuckled. “I always knew you
were into me.” He teased.

Ada giggled, and then said seriously. “Well
I am, I really am.”

“I love you.” He said and kissed her again.

Ada’s stomach fluttered gleefully as her
heart swelled with pleasure, “I love you.” She replied, when she caught her
breath. She had never been so happy.

“What about that girl you were with at the
Sheraton?” She asked him, much later.

“Ada Arinze, Are you jealous?” He asked
teasingly.

Ada nodded.

Eddie laughed. As his dimples sprang to
life on his cheeks, Ada reached out and traced them with her fingers.

“So?” She prodded.

“Reunion.” He said distractedly, as she
continued to trace the movement of the dimples on his cheeks, “It was a small
reunion with some of the people I went to Sec. School with. She was just one of
them.”

Ada remembered the crowded table at the
restaurant, of course, she had guessed even then that it was a reunion. She
remembered how jealous she had been, it had been just a hug and a small kiss
after all. She sighed.

“Am I cleared now?” Eddie asked. “Can I
kiss you again?”

Ada smiled. “What are you waiting for?”

Love is a beautiful thing, really. I have never been so
happy in my life. Eddie is perfect, and I’m not just saying that because I’m in
love with him and him with me. He is just perfect, utterly, utterly perfect.

I don’t think Eddie knows how much I love him, he’s
convinced he loves me more, and no so no matter how much I try to reassure him
that he is the best thing that ever happened to me, he’s still convinced that
he has to stay on his toes when it comes to keeping me happy, and he does.

Every girl should have a man like Eddie doing everything he
can to keep her happy.

Seriously.

His family is great too. I can’t believe I ever thought they
might be snobs. His sisters are incredibly sweet, and they all agree that
they’re happy Eddie finally has a real girlfriend. And their children! I have
never been auntie Ada to so many adorable little tykes.

His parents are an inspiration. Even with grown children
they can hardly keep their eyes, and hands, off each other. Eddie’s mother
loves my pictures. She’s bought some and even urged her department at the
university to buy a couple to hang in the faculty. So she can boast about her
son’s girlfriend, as she told me.

Living Lagos is expanding dramatically too. We have new,
bigger, office space and have hired yet some more staff. Yes, I said we. I am a
partner now. Sophie offered me a small buy-in and I gladly accepted. Speaking
of Sophie, she has become something of a minor celebrity these days, and she
loves it.

I feel lucky to have become so successful in such a short
time. I have always known that my pictures were good, but there is something
infinitely pleasurable about seeing the effect they have on people. It’s been a
pleasure to see my pictures hanging in entrance lobbies of big companies,
boardrooms and the like. Even my old pictures are in demand for calendars.
These days when I go out with my camera, it’s just for the pleasure of doing
what I really love to do.

I didn’t even have to put up any money for my book, that’s
the thing with success, people start to court you. Now there are four
publishers who want to publish a book of my pictures, all trying to offer a
better deal than the other. One of them is even an international company.

As I said about success, people start to court you. I bumped
into my father when my kaleidoscopic view of sunset in Lagos was unveiled in
the lobby of the corporation where he works. He was too proud to offer more
than a few gruff words of congratulations, but that didn’t bother me. My
stepmother, on the other hand, suddenly knows that I exist. She called out of
the blue to invite me to a soiree she’s attending in Lagos soon, maybe she’s
heard the rumours of an engagement, which would result in me becoming an
enormous social asset. Whatever it is, I haven’t decided to go yet.

The rumours of an engagement, however, are true. I cannot
stop looking at the lovely, lovely ring on the fourth finger of my left hand.
It fills me with wonder and happiness. I love it so much.

But what I love, so much more, is the person who put it
there.

Thank you for reading this book! I hope you
enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I have a thing for love, I love
it, I love stories about it, and I love creating it in my head. Love stories
are the ultimate moos lifter and I would recommend them for any and every one.

There aren’t many love stories set in
Nigeria. I grew up reading romance novels set everywhere else, and I thought
perhaps I should write a series of romances that could happen to people like
me, that people I know and work with every day would be able to relate to,
that’s how the Lagos Romance Series was born.

If you’ve enjoyed this book, you may want
to read the first book in the series,
ALWAYS
YOURS
.

Don’t forget to leave a review at
amazon.com so that others (and I) will know how much pleasure this book gave you.

Somi Ekhasomhi is a twenty something writer
who lives in Lagos, Nigeria. She has been addicted to books since before she
could walk (this is subject to verification) and has read
what she claims to
be
thousands of books.

When she isn’t writing she
volunteers,
works
as an Architect at a firm in Lagos, 
rescues stray animals,
watches
TV series no adult should be caught dead watching,
reads Plato and Socrates
,
obsesses about the “Song Of Ice And Fire’ series, 
watches
documentaries about serious issues,
watches movies,
knits
, tweets,
thinks
of constructive ways to change the world for the better
, fantasizes about
La Dolce Vita and
teaches Nigerian languages to confused expatriates,
makes halfhearted attempts to learn French.

Follow her on twitter @somiekhasomhi, but
be warned, she is a random twitterer.

Always
Yours

Michael
Ade-Cole once broke her heart and left Sophie when she needed him most, so she cut
him out of her life completely. But almost five years later, she is still
desperately in love with him.

The best way
to get over someone is to see them again, or so they say. So when Sophie
engineers a meeting with Michael, all she wants, is to finally be able to
forget him, or so she tells herself.

Only, as soon
as she sees him again, she knows she wants him as much as she ever did, and he
appears to want her too. The stage would be set for a perfect romance, if only
he wasn't engaged to the beautiful Folake.

Set in the
bustling city of Lagos, this is a love triangle with too many twists and too
much heartache. Can Sophie succeed in falling out of love with Michael? Or will
she give in to the temptation of loving him, even though he belongs to someone else?

Buy
on Amazon

Jungle
Justice

In the
streets of Lagos, it takes a little to excite a crowd. An accusation of theft is
usually enough for a person to be lynched brutally. All that is required is an
old tire, some fuel, a box of matches, or a lighter.