Love Prospects 2

"Ouch," I groaned as I stumbled on my right foot on my way out to work. This is the beginning of a new week, not exactly the best way to kickstart. 'I hope this is not a bad sign.' I thought to myself as I rushed down the stairs of my apartment.  

More often than normal, I cannot help but wonder about the use of the elevator in this building. I do not blame everyone for always avoiding it. This death trap of a thing has gotten stuck more times than my boss calls my name and trust me, that's a lot of times.

That reminds me, I woke up at 5:30 am to a mail for a meeting summon from my boss. This Mr Kenneth Kings is a joy killer, no cap. Because why is our first assignment of the week an impromptu board meeting?

Thankfully, I had my department's monthly plan and quarterly goal ready.

As the Assistant Head of the Department, I would pass for the HOD rather than the actual Head of the Department. My HOD, Mrs Nike is a 'hardworking' woman because if not that, I do not know how she worked her way up to that position. After throwing commands around and delegating tasks, she only shouts "Is it ready? How is it going? We have just a week left; I'm not satisfied with our work rate."

'Maybe if you got more involved in this, you wouldn't always have to scream your lungs out' I always thought each time she started her wahala.

 

My Uber dropped me off at work at exactly 7:45 am. I signed in as I got to the reception office. I had exactly 15 minutes to prep for a short meeting with my team members before the board meeting scheduled for 8:30 am. 

"Good morning," I greeted Miss Remi, the receptionist on duty with a bright smile.

"Good morning o. You are smiling this wide on a Monday morning, I can tell your weekend went well," she said.

"Ahn ahn, is it a crime to be happy?" I jokingly replied as I walked away briskly, I do not have time to make small jokes.

"Can we have the strategy team head to present their quarterly goals for the year?" My HOD echoed to signify the commencement of the meeting.

"This man must mean business, this morning. No greeting, nothing nothing." Mrs Nike whispered to no one in particular.

'Anyway, thank God I prepped for this. I refuse to be on the receiving end of my boss' spite.' I quietly jubilated in my head.

 

Four hours later, the meeting ended on a light note, surprisingly. Seems like everyone got serious for the year. It's a good thing for the company.

 

After exchanging pleasantries with the rest of my co-workers whom I only got to see during lunch breaks and at meetings, I strolled back to my mini office. As I got to the entrance of my department's section, Uju, the newly admitted intern was smiling sheepishly and winked at me just before I got into my office.

'What's wrong with this one?' I thought as I said another round of hellos to everyone.

 

Just as I got settled into my comfortable office chair and adjusted the support pillow behind me, I looked at the table and realized there was a carefully wrapped package sitting cute with a little note attached to the side.

"A beautiful woman should begin her week on a beautiful note. Rate my usual. -Your Knight"

'Oh! So that was why Uju was looking at me like something got into her eyes.'.

Before unboxing the package, I went online to text Sam. He had texted me while I was in the board meeting, but I was too occupied to notice.

"Hi, Sam!" I texted with enthusiasm. "I was stuck in an important meeting all morning.", I explained.

He read my message almost immediately.

'Is this man jobless today?' I rolled my eyes just a call came in from him.

 

"Carina", he breathed softly into the phone.

I hope this man knows what that did to my body. 'I cannot be entertaining dirty thoughts' I cautioned myself.

I cleared my throat just before replying.

"Good afternoon, Sam. I got your package, Knight. You did not have to, you know?"

"Hmmm, I know. But how do I stay at the top of my mind for the rest of the week without showing up?" He teased.

"Thank you. I do appreciate your kind gesture."

"Have you opened it? I ordered it from my favourite Twitter Food Vendor." He said in excitement.

"Not yet. I just got back to my office. I was in a meeting, remember?"

"Alright, you should check it out soon."

"Sure, I will. It will serve as my lunch." "Thank you," I repeated.

"If you say thank you one more time, I might as well send lunch your way every day." Sam chuckled.

"No o. Do not spoil me."

"But beautiful women are meant to be spoilt rotten." He responded with all seriousness.

"Ehn ehn, if I rot now, who will appreciate the beauty?" I teased him.

"Well, I want it to be all mine." He replied suggestively.

 

We spoke on the phone for a couple of minutes more before we had to end it because I needed to draft a report and he also had pending tasks to attend to at work.

 

The day went by fast. It was productive but exhausting. I enjoy working as a content editor in this tech company. Sometimes, it feels like I am tending to my hobby for longer hours rather than working.

 

I got off work around 6:00 pm. I decided to board public transport since I had to pick up an order a stop before my area.

By the time I got in, it was 8:00 pm already. Thankfully, the lunch I had at work was somewhat filling so I had apple and juice for dinner. There was light at home, so I decided to blend the pepper I got from the Supermarket the day before. I made soup and vegetable soup for the week which I refrigerated.

I showered as soon as I was done and got into bed to reply to my pending WhatsApp messages. I should have taken up Uju's offer to help reply to them all.

As soon as I did what I could, I dropped my phone, read my bible and slept off almost immediately.

 

Although work got more challenging and time-consuming, Sam's random surprise of lunch, junk and frequent calls came in steadily. It was a beautiful distraction. I liked that someone was concerned about me as I was too busy to think that far. Honestly? This guy was doing the right things, he knew the right time to call, the right words to say and was totally understanding and supportive. I liked being his priority alongside his work.

Sam had been trying to see me during these weeks, but work was being work. We had a major project we were working on which made me spend extra hours at work. 

If I was not working, I was sleeping and even when I could afford to squeeze an hour or two to see him, he would be busy with work.

At the end of the fourth week, we presented our pitch to the clients, and they were extra satisfied with what we came up with. I sort of knew the next coming weeks were going to be twice as busy as we had to begin implementation. As if Sam understood the dynamics, he picked me up at my workplace on Friday evening and drove us to his place.

In as much as we've been talking for over a month, that was the third time I was officially seeing him in person.

 

Sam has a very nice apartment that screams 'Bachelor'. He did not have many personal pictures around just abstract portraits. A PS5 was seated right there in his living room with home theatres.

He asked if I wanted to freshen up and I agreed. He took me to his room, offered me a round neck and shorts then showed me the restroom. After I was done with my business, I went to the living room but did not meet him there. I managed to navigate my way to the kitchen, and I met him looking all freshened up and relaxed.

As I entered, he looked up and smiled, then grabbed a highchair for me to sit in. "Or would you rather wait in the living room?"

"No, you could use my company or help. What are you making?" I asked in response.

"Nope. You are here to relax not work." He said with a fake glare directed at me.

I chuckled and asked for water which he grabbed for me.

After about 40 minutes of us randomly chatting while he cooked, we left the kitchen. He then began to set up his living room for our 'movie night" and I assisted him.

 

As I got settled into the couch, he went ahead to grab our meal and drinks. We ate while we watched a movie which I cannot remember the title because we were not exactly watching it. Sam kept distracting me with conversations. I am not so much of a movie person, so I did not mind.

 

We learnt a lot about ourselves that night.

Three months later

 

That night at Sam's place, he asked me to be his girlfriend. I agreed without much thought. We've been talking for a little over a month and we did enjoy each other company. Not to mention, I had already planned our wedding week the night of our first date.

Things were going well with Sam, work and my life in general. I was in my perfect phase.

 

"Hello" Sam answered an unknown call through his car Bluetooth as he drove us to his friend, Tope's housewarming celebration on a Sunday evening.

"Samuel?" A woman's voice responded unsure.

"Yes?" He said and glanced at me while he shrugged at my questioning look.

I went back to my phone as I tried to tune out of his conversation which was still on speaker.

"I am two months pregnant." She said after a short silence.

At that point, I looked up in surprise. Sam had a shocked look on his face, and he switched to his phone.

"Whose is it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you sure?"

"Look, this is not a good time. Can we talk about it later?"

Sam ended the call with a sigh.

"Ermm, sorry that was a friend." He apologized.

"A friend whose number you do not have saved. A friend I do not know?" I said quietly.

"Babe, do not start," Sam grumbled.

"Drop the act, nigga." I hissed.

"Ella." He said while trying to grab my hands.

I pulled away and decided to put the situation on hold.

 

I tried to have fun while at Tope's event. I even managed to make friends with his younger sister who was a year younger than I am. Tolani brought a guy to her brother's event to make him pissed. Not to mention, Tolani's guy friend was smoking openly. I had a good laugh at her rebellious act. Do not blame me, being the only child was no fun.

 

"Will you spend the night at my place?" Sam asked as he drove out of Tope's house.

"No," I replied.

"Is something wrong?" He questioned.

Is this man being serious right now, I thought as I tried to hide the disgusted expression on my face.

"Is that supposed to be a question?" "Just drop me at mine. I have work to catch up with tonight." I added hurriedly.

"Alright babe."

So, this man is going to pretend the call from earlier did not happen? Oya now.

 

"Good night, Carina," Sam said as he leaned in to kiss me. Trust my petty face to turn my cheeks instead.

"Goodnight," I replied coldly.

 

The last time I spent my entire night tossing without getting a wink of sleep was when I got heartbroken from my first relationship. Odeshola was my first boyfriend and first love. Sometimes, love is never enough. We both decided to go our separate ways since we wanted different things in life. The love glue could not hold us together for longer than 6 months. After him, I met Uchenna. Omo Igbo was all about me during our 'talking stage.' The day he asked me to be his girlfriend, he laid down some rules and regulations after I asked what he expected from me in a relationship. You would not believe he said it was going to be an open relationship from his side, but he could not fathom sharing me with someone else. You people, I carried my shoes and ran for my life.

Then, Collins and I met at a work event. He was working with the organization my company collaborated with for the end-of-the-year party. We clicked and danced the night away. Collins was lightheaded but he still drank a lot as if he was nursing a hurt he did not want to talk about. At the end of the night, I ordered a ride to drop him off as he was too wasted. Although he left me with a goodbye gift by vomiting on Liliana heels I got from 24heelzng. Collins did try to reach out after that night, but I was not having it, so I ghosted.

That same week, Adeola Smith texted me on Instagram. He also works in the tech industry and claimed to have heard a lot of good things about me. He offered me a job at his and his twin's company. I refused his offer. Thereafter, he proposed that I become his and his twin's plaything. I did not bother waiting to see what that meant. Hence, no conclusion.

 

For three years straight, I was actively single and not looking for any sort of commitment until Samuel came along. He treated me so well that I could not help but bring my walls down and give this relationship thing a chance.

Although we had our differences, I did like Sam, and we were both willing to work things out no matter how big. Not until the call.

I got home wondering if I trusted him or even knew him enough. I decided to keep mum and see how he was going to handle the issue which I do not even think he knew existed.

 

"Did you get home safely?" I texted him 30 minutes later. My message got left on delivery. I waited an hour more for a response and when none came, I called him. He picked on the third ring and sounded hushed. Without much thought, I called it a night.

 

The following week, communication got strained between us. It felt like we were strangers all over. He avoided my calls, gave excuses of being busy for not turning up for our planned meetings and texted me less.

In the third week of our 'dog and cat' exchange, I decided to leave him alone. I stopped reaching out and I did not get any text from him either until 5 days later.

He called and asked if he could meet up which I first refused. He claimed to have an explanation for his 'weird' behaviour, so I turned up.

 

On Wednesday evening, I strolled into the café near my workplace to meet up with Sam.

"I am sorry." Sam begun.

"I should not have ghosted. You did nothing to deserve whatever I was doing to you."

"So, you know you were doing something?" I asked in annoyance.

"I am sorry, Ella. Guilt was eating me up." he declared.

"What do you mean?" I probed.

For the first time that evening, Sam's gaze met mine, laden with unmistakable regret.

As I caught that glance, I instinctively leaned back, suddenly struck by the gravity of the situation.

"I am sorry." he pleaded as I walked out of the café.

 

And that brings us to the end of my 'happily ever after' with Sam. All of my prospects were unique in their way even if they had unbelievable expectations. I had fun while they lasted.

 

Even with the abundance of love I had to give and my heart set on eternity, I keep getting faced with the reality of finite time.

Once, 'forever' held limitless promise, but now it is confined to cold, hard numbers.