He said no episode 12 – 13

HE SAID NO

EPISODE 12 – 13

It was around 10:30 am on a Monday morning, and the weather was just starting to heat up, Mrs. Akinwale Grace wobbled into city bank, she walked down the banking hall, dragging her feet as she did. She was putting on a long flair Ankara gown with black and white prints on flat black sandals, her dressing was particularly awkward for a Monday morning.

She looked disorg-nized and bloated with her loosely packed undone hair and her protruding tummy in full glare. Her ATM card had expired and she was there for a new one.

Looking at the long queue of customers also waiting to be attended to made her feel dizzy, she asked the last person she saw on the queue,

“Please uncle, are you the last person on the queue,”

“No, there are two ladies behind me,” she sighed as she clung tightly to her funny-looking black bag, which had started losing shape due to excessive use, it seemed like she was going to be there for a really long time.

“Okay, uncle. I am behind them,” she said, before settling on one of the seats provided in the bank for customers,

Grace, Amifel’s friend who was coming back from the staff toilet, saw Mrs. Akinwale Grace sitting with her face cupped in her hand. Although there were many other customers seated all around the banking hall, she caught her attention because she took notice of her big baby bump and she sort of looked pale.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” Grace beckoned as she bent slightly beside her, “Hope you are fine?” she asked, Mrs. Grace, looked up on impulse to find a beautiful young lady dressed in an onion-colored corporate gown in front of her, she would have mistaken her for a customer like herself, save the identity card hung around her neck.

“Yes sister, I am fine, I am just a bit stressed out,” she said, hoping to get some sympathy,

“May I know what you are here for?”

“I came to request for a new ATM card, my old one has expired for almost a month now,”

“Okay, just wait here while I try to get some help,” Grace offered, she had walked a few meters before she came back again,

“Please may I have your form?”

“Oh, form? “she asked, looking puzzled,

“Yes ma, you are expected to fill a request form,”

“I totally forgot,”

“Not to worry, I’ll be back shortly,” Grace said before she walked briskly to the front row, where another staff was attending to customers who were there for new ATM cards as well. She came back some minutes later with a form which she waited for her to fill before taking it back to the staff in charge, all the while Mrs. Akinwale Grace was seated,

“It would be ready shortly ma, “Grace said to her,

“My sister, thank you so much. I am very grateful.” Mrs. Akinwale said with gratitude, as she adjusted on her seat,

Grace who had no customer to attend to initially already had a couple of them waiting to air out their complaints. She apologized before taking the time to attend to them. Some minutes later, Mrs. Akinwale Grace was given her new ATM card and as she stood up to leave, she scanned through the hall and sighted Grace where she was seated, she had a few people to attend to but she still decided to wait, she was there for almost an hour after she was attended to, and just when Grace was done attending to the last customer, Mrs. Grace approached her,

“Sister, thank you so much for the other time. I am really grateful,” she said as she approached Grace,

“Madam, you are still around? Don’t tell me that you are yet to be attended to?” Grace asked, alarmed.

“I already got my card, I noticed that you were busy and I wanted to say thank you before leaving. Please have this for lunch,” She said as she folded a number of crispy 1000 naira notes into her hands, Grace who was dumbfounded stood up at that instant,

“No, madam. Don’t worry, it was nothing,” she declined,

“I insist, please.” She pleaded, Grace collected the money while thanking her profusely,

“What’s the name please?” Mrs. Grace asked,

“My name is Grace Eribo ma,” she answered,

“Grace?”

“Yes, ma,”

“No wonder, my name is Grace too, Mrs. Grace Akinwale,” she said, as her face curved into a smile.

“Wow, really. That’s amazing, no wonder I was drawn to you,” Grace smiled, as a new customer walked down to her table.

“Thank you for showering me with grace,” she continued, flashing her beautiful set of white teeth.

“It was nothing ma, thank you once again,” Grace said, beyond the stress lines drawn on her face and her rough dressing, Grace couldn’t help but notice that she was beautiful, or used to be.

“Please don’t mention, I guess we’ll talk some other time, Miss Grace,” she said while she hung her bag more comfortably on her shoulder,

“That would be fine ma, please let me have your contact,” Grace said, reaching for her phone which was in her drawer, as Mrs. Grace called out her number, she added, “Maybe I’ll visit you, one…”

“No! “she cut in bluntly, as her countenance changed almost instantly, “my husband might not like it,” she continued,

“Oh… okay ma, I totally understand, ” she said, obviously she did not understand a thing. “I’ll see you some other time, ” Grace quickly said, saving the day.

As Mrs. Grace Akinwale bade her farewell, she settled back on her seat and dropped the folded money into her drawer before she attended to the next customer. When she was done, she opened her drawer to count the money,

“10,000 naira for lunch!” she said aloud, Mrs. Grace didn’t look like someone who could conveniently afford to give out 1000 naira, talk more of 10,000 naira.

“What happened?” Ngozi, her colleague in the customer care department asked her, she was seated close to Grace.

“Nothing, Ngozi. Don’t mind me,” she answered,

“She must be really comfortable,” she said to herself before keeping the money in the small pocket behind her bag, she was thankful for the free money she just got, but she could not help but wonder why she was so poorly dressed and in particular, “Why did she talk about her husband with so much dread?”

She hoped to find out…

To be continued…
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HE SAID NO

EPISODE 13

After staying for a while at Honorable Durojaiye’s birthday party, he was celebrating his 60th birthday and the party which put up by his children had lots of dignitaries in attendance, Amifel decided to take a stroll outside the large event center, although the party was quite interesting for an old school party, the sound of the speakers was starting to make her head to bang.

Oluyole Event center was one of the largest indoor halls in the state and Amifel alongside her awesome team did an awesome job with the hall decoration and overall planning of the event.

“Another successful event is done and dusted,” she said, smiling to herself as the invited and non-invited guests trooped in and out of the premises. She was first thinking about leaving the party midway because she had a meeting to catch up with but on second thought she decided to stay till the end. She had already received half payment and was expecting the rest after the event.

“Hello, I love your dress,” a young female guest smiled as she walked out of the premise,

“Thank you,” she smiled back before taking a quick glance at her dress, Classic stitches must have really done a good job, she had been receiving compliments all day and she was not tired, trust Mrs. Robert, she hyped her up so well and only allowed her to leave home after she promised to send a picture of her outfit to George.

She was elegantly dressed in a shimmering long black gown, the off-shoulder gown was sewn to complement her beautifully shaped body, and she felt confident. She had learnt her lesson the hærd way.

She once attended an event where she dressed casually because she felt that it was just a birthday party until the guests started coming in and someone mistook her for the maid. She chuckled as she remembered the way she stood transfixed to a s₱0t after one of the guests spoke to her rashly,

“Hey, come and clean up this place,” at first, she didn’t know that she was the one the man was referring to, and so she ignored him until he moved close to where she was and gave her a harsh slap at the back, and tugged at her sleeves and dragged her roughly to his seat before facing her, for a cute young man, he looked mad and his unkempt dreads made him look even madder.

“Are you deaf? Clean up this place!” he barked, Amifel looked at him, she felt like a gong hit her on the head, she could not believe her eyes. Embarrassed? That would be an understatement. All eyes fell on them, she wanted to talk but all of a sudden, she could not find her voice, don’t even bother to ask why she didn’t walk away, her legs felt heavier than a grinding stone. It reminded her of the statue in a folktale she read when she was much younger, where poor tortoise hid in the bush to sing songs that made a bean-cake seller drop her tray of bean-cakes to dance away, this kept happening every day, even the people that followed her on a rescue mission found themselves dancing away and nobody could tell who was responsible until a one-legged man made a statue and smeared it all around with a gummy substance.

The next day, the young lady was out as usual to sell her bean-cakes and Tortoise did as his manner had become, the young girl danced away alongside other people that had come to witness the scene, only ~the statue was left. Tortoise, who didn’t know that it was a statue angrily slapped the statue repeatedly until his wh0le body was tightly glued to the statue~ ~and he was honorably caught. That was how Amifel felt as she helplessly watched as the drama unfolded, the man kept ranting and was even mad at her for not talking nor movin~ g, and for a while, nobody came to her rescue. Thankfully, a poorly dressed girl ran towards them with a mop stick,

“Excuse me, sir, I will clean it right away,” the girl said, as she quickly set to work without waiting for directions.

“Oh, I thought…” Amifel did not let him finish before she shamefully left the scene at a speed of light, even a maid does not deserve to be treated with so much disgust, they are human too and they deserve to be respected. Her clients apologized to her profusely afterward and even paid her extra, as for the man, he might have apologized if she had waited but she was not looking forward to seeing him again. Since then, she promised herself to always look her best for events including burial ceremonies.

She was thinking of going back in,side the hall, when she remembered that she had not spoken to George since their last date, he sent her a text to her that day, to say that he *had gotten home and it had been 3 days, she had not bothered to call him either. She cared less, after all, she was looking for a way to excuse herself, b* ut on second thought, she decided to give him a call.

“That is really unlike George, I hope he’s fine,” she thought to herself as she dialed his number, he didn’t pick up the first time and she called again, hoping he would not pick up but he did,

“Hello,” he said coldly,

“Hey George, how are you? hope you’re good?” she asked,

“Yeah, I’m good, you?” George didn’t sound eager to talk to her and so, she tried to prolong the conversation to save the awkward situation.

“Good too, I haven’t heard from you for a while, hope everything is fine?”

“Yeah, I have been busy,” he said, sounding so emotionless,

“Oh, okay. I just wanted to check up on you, I mean it’s unlike you not to even call to…”

“I call when I want to speak to you, you can take a cue from that,” he cut in,

“Oh, really? So, should I take that to mean that you don’t want to speak to me?” she asked,

“I didn’t say that, I only said you can call if you want to speak to me, I don’t have to do the calling all the time,”

“Oh, it’s fine, I get. Have a good day,” she angrily cut the call before he could say another word, as she waited a bit for his call back. Typical George would always call back, especially if they hadn’t said their proper goodbyes, or if he knew that she was angry.

After waiting for almost 15 minutes, it was obvious that George had no intentions of calling back. She went back into the hall a while later, and she was thankful that they were almost wrapping up the event or she couldn’t have coped in such a happy atmosphere with her bottled-up anger.

Was George was being petty or what?

To be continued…