THE MIRACLE I NEED : Episode 21 – 30
EPISODE 21
Kathleen couldn’t help the different thoughts in her head as she looked out of the window. So many things were upsetting her. Ranging from her boss’ bossiness, to the stupid assumptions of her colleagues at the office, down to her finances, and even her spiritual life which she was feeling was beginning to dwindle since she started working for Pete. She was no longer feeling as fervent in spirit as she had been when she was in her own place. Maybe it was because she had missed too many church services. But the most important thing on the top of her list of problems was money. She needed money. Lots of it, especially for Isioma’s sake.
She sighed when she realized they were still stuck on one point for over twenty minutes already, and she couldn’t help feeling grateful that this was one of those card trips, and hence the money would be deducted directly from Pete’s account.
She glanced down at her phone when it started ringing, and hissed when she noticed the call was from Pete, “Are you there yet?” He asked impatiently, the moment the call connected.
“Not yet. We are stuck in…”
“Can you just hurry up?”
“Didn’t you just hear anything I said? I said we are stuck in traffic! What am I supposed to do? Fly over all the other cars or come down and jog down to the school?” Kathleen asked irritably and hung up the call before he could respond.
“See me see trouble o, abeg nuh use your own spoil my own.” Kathleen hissed as though Pete could hear her, before throwing her phone into her handbag. She took it out when she remembered she was yet to check on Sharon since they dropped her by the roadside that morning, so she took it out again and opened her WhatsApp messenger.
“Hey fine girl!” Ella’s message popped up making her smile.
“Hey! Good evening.” She greeted since she was still trying to be cautious with her boss’daughter.
“You’re done with work for the day, abi?” Ella who was on her way out of her own office asked as she approached the elevator. Chatting while walking was on the top of the list of all her bad habits.
“Yes. What about you?” Kathleen asked, trying to be as chatty as Ella was even though it wasn’t really her thing.
“Let me just call you. I’m on my way out of the office.” Ella explained before dropping her iPhone in her handbag and taking out her other smaller Android phone to call Kathleen.
Kathleen frowned when her phone rang, but instead of Ella’s number she saw an unknown number displayed on her screen. She accepted the call but said nothing. It was a known fact that in Nigeria one had to be weary of calls from unknown numbers since ninety percent of the time it was usually Hausa people dialing wrong number. And now there was this rumour spreading around the country of people dropping dead after receiving calls from unknown numbers.
“Sorry I was quiet, I was trying to fix my airpod, So you say how far? How was work today?”” Ella’s voice came on, making Kathleen grin.
‘Ordinary small call see all the plenty places my mind done travel go because of this yeye country’ Kathleen said to herself.
“You need to see the drama in my office today. Because of the clothes you gave me they all think I’m sleeping with the new oga. And to make matters worse he even came to my office to talk to me, can you believe these people?” Kathleen asked making Ella giggle.
“I can imagine. You can’t blame them sha. Girls do all sort of things these days, so they assume everyone is just like them.” Ella said as she got into the elevator the moment the door opened.
“Na all of them sabi.” Kathleen said with a sigh.
“Pele. You’re done for the day sha?” Ella asked as the elevator door opened and she got out, heading for the parking lot.
“Yeah. I’m going to pick Amanda up from school. Your brother has a business meeting to attend, so I have to look after her. What about you? How was work?” Kathleen remembered to ask.
“Work was okay. It’s not like I had much to do anyway. My staff is capable. All I have to do is show up at the office when I want to. By the way hope my brother isn’t bothering you too much?”
‘Why can’t that yeye guy just be like his sweet sister?’ She asked herself with a sigh, “I honestly don’t even know how to answer that question. Honestly.” Kathleen added, making Ella giggle. Her heart skipped a beat and she stopped laughing when she sighted Ken standing beside his car and looking in her direction.
She had been avoiding his call since the previous day and had told her workers to tell him she wasn’t available when he came to look for her in her office. She had thought he would have left by now, but it seemed he was bent on seeing her.
“I’ll call you back when I get home so you can give me the gist of what he did. I have to run now.” Ella said before disconnecting the call. She pretended like she was still on the phone talking to someone and acted like she did not see him as she headed for her car which was at the other side of the park. She quickened her pace when she spied him from the corner of her eyes and noticed he was following her.
“Ella please wait!” Ken called as he hurried after her and held her arm when he finally caught up with her.
“Do. Not. Touch. Me.” She snapped at him as she quickly snatched her arm from his grip and moved away from him to put distance between them.
Ken raised both hands in surrender, “I’ve been trying to reach you all day. Why were you ignoring my calls?” He asked making her laugh humorlessly.
“Trying to reach me? Doesn’t that sound hilarious to you? You spent the last two years avoiding me like a plague, and all of a sudden you’re trying to reach me?” She asked incredulously.
“I know what I did was very wrong and cowardly, and I’m sorry. Can we just talk about it? At least hear me out.” He pleaded. After running into her at Pete’s house the other day his conscience had been judging him for the way he had handled things between them.
“What is there to hear out? Once a jerk, is always a jerk. What was I thinking trying to reach you after a drunken one night stand? Oh! Yeah, I know what I was thinking. I actually thought because I was your best friend’s sister, and someone you’ve known for a long time you wouldn’t end things so coldly, but you easily corrected that illusion.” Ella spat out angrily and turned to leave but Ken held her arm again.
“At least hear me out, will you?”
“NO! I said I don’t want to hear any word from that filthy mouth of yours or are you deaf? Leave me the fuck alone and crawl back into whatever hole you’ve been hiding in for the last two years.” Ella yelled drawing the attention of passersby to them.
Ken let his hands drop to his side as he watched her get into her car. He knew he deserved all the insults she was throwing at him. He had acted like a big time j.erk, and had treated her like nothing more than a stranger. He hadn’t even been bold enough to look into her face the next morning but had left before she woke up from sleep.
Ella’s heart was beating really quickly as she reversed her car and drove past him. She willed herself to not look at her rearview mirror to see if he was still standing there or had returned to his car. Maybe she had overreacted a bit, but he deserved every mean word her head could make up. How could he be so mean? She knew he had always been aware of her feelings for him since they had been in secondary school, but he had pretended not to notice and she had been okay with it. He had flirted on different occasions with her whenever they were alone in the same place. And then that day she had run into Ken just few hours after breaking up with her boyfriend who she had caught cheating on her. He had seen how upset she seemed and had offered her listening ears and a shoulder to cry on. He had taken her out to cheer her up and then they had ended up at a club since it was a Friday night. She had been a bit tipsy and he had offered to drive her home. How they had ended up together in her bed was something she still didn’t understand. By the time she had woken up he next morning, he was gone, and all attempts to reach him had been futile. And here he was trying to apologize after two years? He must be very crazy. Ella concluded.
THE MIRACLE I NEED : Episode 21 – 30
____________
“So how long have you both been friends?” Eric asked both ladies in his usual quiet yet confident tone as he drove the car out of the company’s premises. He had insisted he drive the car while Kimberly sits with him in the front, since it would be awkward for either of the ladies’ to do the driving while he sits at the backseat comfortably.
“We have been friends for over ten years now, although we have known ourselves longer than that since my father used to work for her father.” Prisca who was seated in the backseat explained, knowing fully well that Kimberly wasn’t going to respond to the question.
“Oh! That is cool.” Eric said and settled into comfortable silence as he drove the car. Had he had enough money on him he probably would have offered to take Kimberly out for dinner, but he had insisted they discuss at her home over dinner because he couldn’t afford to take her out at the moment.
Kimberly picked up her phone when she received a WhatsApp chat notification from Prisca, “Say something na. The car is too quiet.”
“What am I supposed to say? Abeg let’s just go home. What are we fixing for dinner? Abi you go come down run go one eatery go buy food? I nuh sure say I get power to cook.” Kimberly texted back.
“SMH (Shaking my head).” Prisca texted before turning off her data, “So? What about you? How long have you been driving? Are you from Lagos?” Prisca asked Eric curiously, breaking the silence in the car.
Eric considered Prisca’s question as though trying to filter his words and decide how much of himself he wanted to reveal to them, “Are you asking to know how long I’ve been driving generally, or you mean how long I’ve been a cab driver?” Eric finally asked after a while making Kimberly roll her eyes. She was very certain he understood what Prisca was asking, so why was he playing around with the question?
“Yeah. I meant how long have you been a cab driver?”
“I’m not a cab driver. Yesterday was my first time, and you were my first passenger.” Eric said turning to look at Kimberly who was pretending like she wasn’t following the conversation.
What Kimberly found even more surprising than his revelation was the fact that Eric was responding so easily and chatting with Prisca, yet when she had asked him just few questions the previous day he had said, “I’ve said more words to you today than I’ve said to anyone else in months.” Who was he kidding? Kimberly wondered with a snort.
“Really? Wow!” Prisca exclaimed in awe. What were the chances that the car had just happened to break down at that particular spot that day when he was just coming out with his cab for the very first time, and Kimberly had proposed marriage to him without even knowing anything about him?
She wasn’t really a believer in coincidences, and this whole thing was beginning to make her feel like these two people might just have been destined to meet.
“Yeah. Wow!” Kimberly muttered sarcastically.
“So before you decided to become a cab driver yesterday, what were you doing? You lost your job recently? Cause I can see you didn’t just graduate, and you honestly don’t look like you’re in need of a job.” Prisca observed making Kimberly turn in her seat to glare at her. As far as Kimberly was concerned, the questions were becoming too much, and she was beginning to feel embarassed by Prisca’s nosiness. There was no need getting to find out so much about him if she wasn’t going to end up getting married to him.
“It’s fine.” Eric assured Kimberly who he sensed wasn’t too pleased with her friends nosy questions, “You’re right. I recently quit my job.” He explained with a shrug. It wasn’t like he was telling a lie anyway.
“Quit? To become a cab driver? In this economy? Abeg where were you working? I need to know if being a taxi driver is better than the job you quit.” Prisca said in disbelief making Eric chuckle.
THE MIRACLE I NEED : Episode 21 – 30
Both Kimberly and Prisca were taking aback by the sound of his laughter, since he had seemed like he was set in stone and rarely ever smiled despite his absolutely handsome facial features.
“Well, I didn’t quit to become a cab driver. It was just a one time thing. I just wanted the experience so I borrowed my friend’s car. You were my only passenger yesterday.” Eric added for Kimberly’s benefit.
“Yet you didn’t take any money from her? Especially after she wasted your time?” Prisca asked making Kimberly to glare at her.
“She didn’t exactly waste my time. I wanted to while away my time, and I found her company interesting.” Eric said making Kimberly clear her throat awkwardly.
“So did you quit to start your own business or you’re from a wealthy family and don’t need money?”
“There is more to life than just money, you know?” Eric asked, evading the question, while both Kimberly and Prisca rolled their eyes.
“How would you know?” Kimberly asked dryly.
“Where did you work before now? What was your job?” Prisca asked curiously.
“I worked at iGlobal industries limited.” Eric said making both Kimberly and Prisca to gasp in surprise as they both turned to look at him with interest.
“iGlobal? Like the real iGlobal? The very one owned by Chief Obasan?” Prisca asked excitedly. From the moment she had seen him, she had felt like there was something special about this guy, and just maybe he might be the one to give them the inside information they needed about the owners of the company
“Yeah, unless the Corporate Affairs Commission now allows more than one businesses to make use of the same name.” Eric said in amusement as he wondered why both ladies seemed so surprised and excited.
“How long did you work for them? And why did you quit?” Prisca asked happily. She was even more certain now that there was no way all of this could be mere coincidence.
“Do you know anything about the owners of the company?” Kimberly asked the question that concerned her most.
“I worked there for over five years, and stopped because I needed to try something different.” Eric said with a shrug and glanced at Prisca through the rearview mirror as he answered her questions.
“The owners of the company? What do you want to know about them?” He asked Kimberly, looking at her curiously.
“Anything and everything.” Kimberly said, not looking so nervous or aloof anymore.
“Well, I suppose you can say they are a close-knit family. They’re pretty good employers and provide a good working environment for the staff.” Eric said with a shrug.
“Have you ever seen them? What does their son look like? I learnt the chairman of the company is in Abuja with his wife and daughter, while the only son handles the Lagos end of the business. Is that true?” Prisca asked excitedly making Eric raise a brow.
“How come you know so much about them?” Eric asked with interest.
“Well, you know our firm deals in real estates and interior decorations, so we are interested in the current iGlobal Estate Project. We want to partner with them or in the very least get the contract for the interior decorations of the homes. We learnt they’re selling completely furnished homes, and all the buyers have to do, is move in with their clothes. We’d love to be a part of it.” Prisca explained making Eric narrow his eyes. This really couldn’t be just coincidence, could it?
“Oh! I see.” Eric said with a nod as he looked outside the window. They were stuck in the evening traffic which was expected.
“So? Are you close to any member of the family? Especially the son? Have you met him?” Kimberly pressed.
Why was she asking so much questions about who the son was? Was she possibly interested in him? Eric wondered. “Yeah. He is someone I know, but he’s not in the country at the moment.”
“You know him? Like you are friends with him? Or you know him like you know your boss?” Kimberly asked again, making Eric turn to look at her.
“Why are you so interested in him?” Eric asked, taking Kimberly aback, while Prisca tried not to laugh.
“I beg your pardon?” Kimberly asked blinking at him in confusion.
“You shouldn’t be asking one man to marry you, and asking him questions about another man at the same time. And I don’t think my boss’ son is your type anyway, so don’t waste your time thinking about him.” Eric advised.
“And who says you know anything about my type?” Kimberly asked, sounding slightly offended while Prisca listened to their exchange with interest.
“The fact that you’re looking for a contract marriage, tells me everything I need to know about your type. And I don’t think you’re his type either.” Eric said with a smirk.
THE MIRACLE I NEED : Episode 21 – 30
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