STRANGE-NEIGHBOUR
EPISODE ELEVEN
I didn’t tell my parents that I was sacked from the company.
My excuse was that I was sick and needed rest but I busied myself in my room, researching for new jobs online when my phone rang that afternoon.
It was an unfamiliar number.
I connected. “Hello?”.
“This is Josephine, the human resources manager of Delight company. You are asked to resume the company starting from tomorrow”.
It felt so surprising that I was asked to return all of a sudden.
The next day, I got to work and I resumed my duties fully with a thoughtful mind of what had made them change their mind?
All of a sudden, I saw Raymond coming in with Annabelle and I knew it at once.
Raymond had agreed to the marriage proposal with the deal that I must return to Delight company.
As I watched them, Michael approached me from behind. “They will be getting married in a month time”.
I shrugged and watched them. “Good for them”.
“What about you?are you planning to be single for life?”
“I am just thirty. I am still young”.
He sighed. “You will rather be single than be with me?”
“Yes. It is better to be single than to mingle with you” I walked into Raymond’s office to resume my duty.
As I explained to him his duty for the day, he officially responded and he was very distant from me.
It was a huge blow from someone that had confessed his feelings two days ago but I continued my duty as if I didn’t notice anything.
During closing hours, I carried my little bag and noticed that someone had damaged my second leg of shoe.
The person had destroyed it with blade and I couldn’t recognize it anymore.
How was I going to wear one leg of shoe back home?
What was I going to do?
As I walked out of the company with a leg of shoe, I could hear Annabelle and saucy Angela laughing from a distance.
They had obviously planned it.
Annabelle gutfully walked to me. “This is just a warning for biting more than you can chew”.
“You did this, right?”
“What’s your evidence?”.
“What happened to your shoe,Laura?”. Raymond asked softly from behind.
We watched him as he walked towards me.
He took off his sneakers and was left on his pair of socks.
He knelt down beside me and took off my other leg which I was wearing before.
He forced his pair of sneakers into my leg and tied the shoe lace.
Annabelle sighed breathlessly. “What do you think you are doing?”.
“What does it look like I am doing? My engagement to you doesn’t stop my heart, does it?” He faced me. “I will get you a better pair of shoes”.
Before I could recover from the shock, my colleagues were already taking pictures.
“You can’t go on barefoot because of me”
“Why? It is nothing compared to what I have in mind, Laura. Let’s get into the car”. He held my hand but Annabelle slapped his hands off mine.
“You are embarrassing me, Raymond”.
“The rule was to agree to the engagement, not to stop my heart”. He pulled me into the car and entered through the driver’s seat.
He started the engine.
“You shouldn’t have gone barefoot because of me and…”.
“Be quiet if you want to continue that softie conversation. Someone destroyed your shoe and you are still talking for her”.
I remained silent and stared at him.
He cleared his throat as he pulled into the road. “I missed you too, Laura”.
I felt so embarrassed. I looked away. “I wasn’t staring at you because I missed you”
“I never mentioned that”
I chuckled.
“Stop laughing like that”. He rolled his eyes.
“How am I laughing?”
He parked his car and hugged me tightly. “My dad will pass down the company to me in a month’s time. I will buy time and break off the engagement with Annabelle immediately I have full right over Delight company”.
I gasped at him as I pulled off his gripse. “You won’t be that cruel, right?”
“Cruel? A forced marriage is more cruel”.
“You can’t do this, Ray”.
“I am more daring than you think. You are the reason I am living, Laura”.
I sighed deeply but I didn’t say anything.
He held my hands in his. “Tell me your sincere feelings, Laura. Do you also have feelings for me or is my feelings still one-sided?”.
“I like you a lot, Raymond. I realized that when I saw you walk into the office with Annabelle. My heart hurt because I couldn’t bear loosing you to someone else. I don’t even know myself again anytime we are together”.
He kssed me.
When he released me, he touched my hair. “Can you wait for me for one month? I will do everything within my power to make you the happiest woman on earth”.
He parked in front of my house. “Goodbye for now, Laura”.
“Good bye Raymond”.
When I got home, everyone was eating porridge in the sitting room.
My father beckoned to me to follow him to his study room.
He cleared his throat. “I didn’t finish the full story the last time we talked. Yes, I was part of the people that planned the explosion of Nigel but I was also the one that made him escape that night because my conscience couldn’t contain it”.
“Escape?”.
“I was the one that pushed open the back door for Nigel to escape that night”.
“Nigel is alive?”
“Yes”.
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