WHEN LOVE JUST HAPPENS : EPISODE 31 – 40
EPISODE 34
”Babe look at me, look at me please” Jeffery turned her to face him ”I promise you, I’m not going to let anyone or anything hurt you, okay?”
”you promise?”
”with everything I own”
”thank you” Jane could tell Jeffery meant every word of what he just said.
”come here” Jeffery pulled her in for a hug ”I will have my driver and a police man take you to work or you could just call in sick if you don’t feel like going?”
”no, it’s fine I will go, besides if I don’t show up at work it will seem like I’m hiding and I don’t need a policeman, your driver is enough for now”
”okay if you say so babe”
Jane couldn’t get herself to look at Vivian when she walked into the office. With the stern look Vivian gave her, Jane could tell she has seen the tabloids already.
“Jane see me in my office now” she said as she walked past Jane to her office, Jane immediately scrambled to her feet almost tripping over in the process.
Getting to Vivian’s office; Vivian was standing by the glass wall looking at the ocean view, in previous times looking across the ocean from Vivian’s office always brought peace to Jane’s troubled heart but not this time, she was far from near calm, it was taking a lot of self control for her not to throw up her breakfast. Even if Jeffery assured her he was going to handle things, she still couldn’t bring herself to be calm, what if she loses her job because of this? Or even worse; Mr. Okafors son found her? Jane couldn’t believe the wall she spent years building to protect herself was crashing down, all because she was stupid enough not to make her relationship with Jeff discreet.
“When I asked if you had something to do with Mr. Jeffery, what was your reply?” Vivian’s voice brought Jane back to the office.
Jane kept looking at the floor, for shame of not being able to look Vivian in the eye.
“Have you no shame? Throwing yourself at client”
“I didn’t th..”
“Don’t interrupt me!” Vivian barked out “I should have known, with the way he kept demanding you handled his contract, something told me it wasn’t normal, but then I said; it’s Jane she can’t do such a thing” Vivian walked over to her table and sat on it.
”you should be ashamed of yourself, just pray this stupid act of yours doesn’t paint the company in a bad light, else you will find your sorry ass on the streets of Lagos, jobless”
“I’m sorry ma, I never meant to paint the company in a bad light, what I an…”
“Oh you will be more sorry when Jeffery’s fiancée returns”
Jane couldn’t have heard Vivian correctly, is she beginning to hear things or did Vivian just say Jeffery has a fiancée? That can’t be true, there is no way Jeffery can have a fiancée, no this must be a joke”
Vivian must have seen the registered shock on Jane’s face, for she bust into laughter “Hahahahahaha.. what were you thinking? That he was single and was going to marry you? Hahahahahaha Jane, Jane you are so gullible, wake up and smell the coffee, Jeffery is in a serious relationship, his fiancée is in London doing her master’s and will be back soon for their wedding. So you see; whatever you two had or rather are having is temporary, Jeffery is just using you to kill time”
Jane couldn’t find her voice, she suddenly became dumb, hearing Vivian spill out those information made her speechless, she opened her mouth but no word came out. She turned and ran out of Vivian’s office not wanting to hear anymore of the things she had to say. She could hear Vivian laughing as she ran out.
Jane ran to the restroom hoping to calm her nerves there. How could Jeffery do this to her, if he had a fiancée, why then did he hound her for months to be his girlfriend? “That’s because he was using you to kill time” Vivian’s voice rang in her head.
Her heart was palpitating, she ran to the sink, turned on the tap and splashed some water on her face not minding if she was going to ruin her make up, when she couldn’t get enough of the water she bent down trying to place her face directly under the tap.
“Even if you down yourself in a drum of water, your slothfulness can never be washed away, it’s clung to you like a second skin”
Jane rose her head to find Katherine staring at her through the mirror on the wall, if looks could kill, Katherine’s look would have killed Jane for she starred daggers. Jane turned to face Katherine and rested her butt on the sink “I’m guessing you have seen the tabloids already?”
“You sure do have no shame, throwing yourself at a client”
“Says someone who is busy doing squats to have larger hips so she can seduce same client” they both turned to see Amaka standing at the restroom door.
“Or are you going to deny the fact that you have been exercising to have thicker body so you can seduce Mr. Jeffery? or is it that you have been trying to know his every location so you could go there too?” Amaka said closing the gap between them.
“Ho..how did you know this?” Katherine asked stuttering
“The walls have ears”
Jane stood staring at her friend who has now wedged herself between her and Katherine.
“At least I didn’t go about being a bitch and warming his bed every other night” Katherine’s statement made Jane react, she was pushing Amaka out of her way so she could face Katherine.
“Save your breath Jane let me handle this”
“Isn’t it funny how you call someone a bch for having something you couldn’t have? Now I’m going to let the fact that you called my friend a bch slide, but if you as much as say any other insulting word from those disjointed mandibles of yours, I will have no choice but to show you what a real bch can do” Amaka said staring sternly at Katherine who was now beginning to take some cowardly step backwards.
“I can see the head of bitches is here to protect her child”
“I’m glad you know I’m the head of bches because I am your freaking boss, bch” Amaka said as she yanked Katherine’s wig off her head exposing her badly weaved hair which looked liked it hasn’t been touched by a stylist for months.
“Oh so you can’t even care for your own hair? I guess you have been too busy doing squats to remember you need to get your hair done huh?”
An angry Katherine yanked her wig off the floor and stormed out of the restroom. Jane and Amaka looked at themselves and bust into laughter.
“Thank you” Jane said to Amaka.
“You’re welcome, someone needed to put her in her place”
“And I don’t think I would have done it better than you did, did you see her face when she left? It was looking like she could burst”
“She’s lucky this is a work environment, I would have taught her a few lessons”
“I think pulling off her wig was enough, how did you get to know I was here?”
”I was coming from the HR’s office when I saw you running into the restroom and decided to come check on you only to find that scarecrow here, what happened to you, why is your make up smudged like you have been crying?”
Jane remembering why she ran into the bathroom started crying again, Amaka took out handkerchief from her trouser pocket and handed it over to her, Jane declined instead she turned on the tap again and started scooping water with her hands on her face, hoping that will help to calm her down.
“Jane what is it, was Vivian that pissed at the news of you and Jeffery dating?”
“Yes” Jane said turning to face Amaka “and not only that, she says Jeffery is engaged to be married soon”
“What? That can’t be true”
“Same thing I have been saying to myself, but she sounded so sure, what if it’s true Amaka? What if Jeffery was just using me to pass time?”
“What if it’s not true? What if he really meant all he has been telling you and Vivian is just saying all of these, because she doesn’t like your relationship with him?”
“I don’t know what to think Amaka, honestly I don’t”
“Who are you meant to believe, Vivian or Jeffery who has done nothing but prove to you how much he loves and cares for you?”
“What if he was just lying”
“Really? at what time exactly?”
Jane was about to respond when, they both heard noise coming from the office reception so they both went out to see the cause, they saw their colleagues looking out the window some were conversing among themselves. Jane and Amaka looked out the window to find the paparazzi outside.
“What are the paparazzi doing outside the office” Jane asked one of the girls looking out the window.
“To catch a glimpse of you of course”
How deep can you sink when you are already down? This was Jane’s case, not only was she on Vivian’s bad side, now she would have to also deal with the whole company, how was she going to explain the paparazzi outside trying to get a picture of her? She thought this sort of thing only happens abroad, when did Nigerian blogs and magazines begin to like gossip to the extent they had to track her down to her place of work? From the window, she could see the office security asking the paparazzi to leave.
WHEN LOVE JUST HAPPENS : EPISODE 31 – 40
Few minutes later, the chief security officer came into the office reception to address the workers.
“May I have your attention everyone?” his voice immediately brought decorum to the room full of people. “We have taken the paparazzi out of the office premises, sorry for any inconvenience this might have cost any of you, we assure you they won’t be of disturbance to you anymore, please do go back to work” with that said, everyone left for their various offices even though they wanted to stick around and gossip more; but no one dared to remain not with the forbidding look on the chief security officer’s face.
Jane and Amaka turned to leave for their offices as well when the security officer spoke again “Jane can I have a word with you?” Jane wasn’t shocked that he knew her name, half of Lagos already knows her name by now. She walked up to the chief security officer who indicated they spoke at the corner of the reception.
“Good afternoon Mr. John” Jane greeted seeing his name tag bore John.
“Good afternoon Jane, I can see you are obviously not doing good, it has to do with all of these I guess?”
“I’m sorry I never meant for any of these to happen”
“it’s fine, sometimes things just happen get out of our control” the man had an understanding look in his eyes. ”Mr Jeffery’s driver is here to take you home, you might want to take permission from your boss”
“No I don’t need to go home, I’m fine”
“With the situation of things I think you should go home”
Jane nodded understanding his point, she thanked him and went to Vivian’s office where she met Katherine who seemed to be making plans with Vivian before Jane interrupted.
“What did I tell you about knocking?” An angry Vivian asked.
“I did knock” Jane replied still trying to figure out what they were doing before she came in that was making them act all panicky.
“What do you want?” Vivian asked closing the file that was opened in front of her.
“I was wondering if I could take the day off?”
“No need you have been suspended for two weeks, so you can leave”
“Wh-at? No I meant I just wanted the day off, okay you know what? I don’t need the day off anymore”
“And who’s making a bargain with you? You under suspension for the next two weeks, you should be lucky I didn’t fire you, now leave before I change my mind”
Jane nodded, a thing she has been doing a lot since today because that’s the only way to get her affirmation to people, she looked at Katherine who kept staring daggers at her and was looking like she could kill Jane if given the chance.
“Pick your letter from the reception on your way out” Vivian said.
Jane gathered up her things to leave, on her way out she picked up her suspension letter from the receptionist who really looked so apologetic handing it over to her. When she got outside; Mr. Solomon, Jeffery’s driver came out of a car which Jane has never seen Jeffery drive before. It was a BMW, it had tinted windows so you wouldn’t know if anyone was inside. The driver opened the back door for her to get in.
“Mr Jeffery requested I take you to one of his apartments at Eko Atlantic, as there is a tighter security there to protect you and the paparazzi wouldn’t dare come there”
Why wasn’t she surprised? She always knew Jeffery to meticulously plan things out when it came to anything concerning her.
“Ma’am?” Solomon said after seconds of her saying nothing “are you okay with the plan?”
“And why does that matter to you?” She asked not understanding why Solomon wasn’t moving the car yet.
“Mr Jeffery said not to go there if you weren’t okay with it ma’am”
“Jeffery really said that?”
“Yes he did ma’am”
“Well I’m okay with it so you can start the car”.
It’s not like she had much of a choice anyway, even though she really doesn’t want to be around Jeffery or anything that he owns at the moment, it’s either she follows his plan and lay low for a while or she risks being chased down by the paparazzi to her tiny apartment that’s if they weren’t there already. And then there’s Mr. Okafor’s son who must be looking everywhere for her by now.
As they drove out from the office premises, she noticed some paparazzi guys hanging outside the gate hopefully waiting to have a snapshot of her when she came out of the building. Thank God the window of the car was tinted so they couldn’t see she was inside the car.
She closed her eyes hoping to open them to a perfect world where she wasn’t being chased down by paparazzi and making enemies of her boss and co workers. Truly they say each day breaks differently and that the way it began doesn’t necessarily determine how it ends, for she woke up this morning feeling very happy beside her boyfriend and shared breakfast with him in his tastefully designed kitchen. Any girl her age looking at her this morning would have prayed and wished for what she had, but look at her now? In a matter of minutes her life was upturned and at the verge of losing what she thought she had; Jeffery. That’s if she ever had him in the first place. What even made her think a guy like Jeffery would be interested in a girl like her? The guy is multimillionaire the son of a multi-billionaire that automatically even makes him a billionaire himself, even if he says he doesn’t like to think of his father’s money as his own, and so decides to make his own money, that doesn’t change the fact that he is his father’s son and is going to inherit all of the old man’s wealth when he dies.
‘Oh Jane what have you gotten yourself into? How did you end up here? All these would have been avoided if you hadn’t gone and fallen for the Playboy. No Jane, all these would have been avoided if you hadn’t been typing on your phone and walking at the same time, then you wouldn’t have spilled smoothie on him and wouldn’t have met him at all’.
The ringing of her phone pulled her out of her thoughts. She picked it up and answered the call.
“Hey girl I got your text, are you okay?” It was Amaka calling, Jane had texted to let her know she was leaving. “Yeah I’m okay, got suspended for two weeks”
“Yeah I heard, the reception told me. I’m so sorry girl”
“It’s fine, I think I needed it anyway I need to clear my head”
“You have a way of seeing the positive side of things, are you off to Jeffery’s place?”
“Yeah but not the one at Ikoyi though”
“Really which one is it?”
“At Eko Atlantic, he feels that’s the safest place for me to stay at the moment”
“He has an apartment at Eko Atlantic? Girl aren’t you lucky”
“How do you mean”
“Do you know what it means to have a place at Eko Atlantic and you’re going to be living there?”
“It’s only a temporary arrangement Amaka let’s not get over our heads”
“I don’t care if it’s only for a night, the point of the matter is that you are going to Eko Atlantic, babe today hasn’t been a totally bad day after all”
“You are one weird girl Amaka, you hear Eko Atlantic and you forget about everything I told you at the restroom?”
“No I haven’t forgotten, I think it might not be true, Vivian might have said all those things, just to make you back down and break up with Jeffery”
“And why would she do that? She might not like the idea of me dating a client but I don’t think that’s strong enough reason for her to tell a lie this huge”
“Well I think it might have been because she wants Jeffery to date her niece instead”
“And who is her niece?” Jane asked not understanding what Amaka was driving at.
“Katherine, Katherine is Vivian’s niece”
“Are you being serious?”
“Yes I just found out about it myself few minutes ago from the receptionist”
”no wonder they were both acting all pained”
”yes, so you see she might not be telling the truth”
WHEN LOVE JUST HAPPENS : EPISODE 31 – 40
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