MARRIED TO A STRANGER
By: Mister Allen
Episode 11
it’s just for a few minutes and the money will be all yours”, but almost immediately another
voice whispered “don’t do it! It’s a trap. What if she tells your wife?”, the vows he made to his wife on the altar and on the day he
proposed immediately flashed through his head.
“I can’t do this” he whispered mustering all the courage he could get to push Ellen away from him,
” I can’t sleep with you” he blurted out,
“I love my wife”, he said pushing the chair back and getting up to run towards the door, he opened it and ran out of her office like he was being chased by a lion, he ran past the startled
secretary, all the way down the stairs from the 5th floor till he finally reached his car, he didn’t
even wait to use the lift.
“You messed up big time” Franklin his former colleague scolded when he narrated his ordeal
later that evening when they met each other at the bar for drinks, “now where do you think you’re going to get the money from?
Nobody’s going to give you such an amount for free, not with the current situation of the country” he said,
“you need to apply wisdom when it comes to issues like these” he continued without giving Jeff a chance to talk,
“very soon your wife is going to start disrespecting you when she sees that you can no longer provide for her and different men will
start to make advances with promises of financial benefits, do you think your wife will
say no to them Mr Goody two shoes?”
Franklin asked,
“I think I’ve had enough to drink” Jeff said getting up to leave, “come back here! Pay for
your drink before you go” Franklin said pointing at the bottle of beer on the table, “or your
goody-two-shoes never reach that level?” He teased. Jeff reached out to his pocket, brought
out a couple of naira notes slamming them on the table, “that should cover yours as well idiot!” he said giving Franklin a smack on the back of his head as he walked away. He knew he had done the right thing and he didn’t need
anyone making him regret his actions,
Lara was a good woman and she would never cheat on him, he could beat his chest anywhere to defend her on that.
As usual, she was waiting at the door to welcome him with a kiss and a big hug when he finally arrived home. “How did the meeting
today go?” she asked, “same old thing” he replied, “don’t want to talk about it” he said
climbing up the stairs, she knew better than to probe further, she didn’t want to upset him so
she went to the kitchen to get his food ready instead; she had prepared a special meal hoping to celebrate some good news but it
didn’t matter now, good news or bad news they might as well eat.” Dinner will be ready in a few
minutes” she called out to him, “I’ll be downstairs in a bit” he replied.
“Jojo went to bed quite early today” he announced sitting at the dining table to eat when he was done changing from his work clothes, “yes she did” Lara replied, “apparently
she was exhausted from school, today’s
their sports day” she replied with a chuckle, “That explains it” he said nodding his head as
he dished his food into his plate.
“So how was work today?” He asked,
“it was okay” she replied, “I’ll be traveling to Abuja next week for a meeting with some
clients” she added to Jeff’s surprise causing him to drop his fork making a clanking loud noise with his plate. “Since when did your job
start to involve traveling?” He asked with raised eyebrows, “apparently, our marketing manager resigned last week without telling any of us, so I’m the new acting manager, my boss just informed me about it today” she announced excitedly, “the new role comes with a huge raise and if I perform well, I get to retain the position” she said clapping joyfully.
“How come you didn’t mention this earlier?” Jeff asked,
“I wanted you to settle down first before making the announcement” she said excitedly, her excitement faded when she noticed Jeff wasn’t smiling,
“what’s the matter?” She asked,
“are you traveling alone?” He asked,
“no I’m not” she replied pausing for a while, “my boss is coming along too”
“Really?” Jeff asked dropping his fork again, “so your new role is going to involve you going
on trips like this with your boss?” He asked,
“sometimes…” Lara replied slowly trying to figure out where the conversation was leading to. “I don’t think I’m comfortable with this
arrangement” Jeff said getting up, “I can’t have you gallivanting round the country in different hotels with your male boss all in the name of
marketing” he added, “but there’s not much we can do about that” Lara replied.
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