In One Night episode 4

In One Night
episode 4
Bimpe and Patrick were sitting by the edge of the rock, overlooking the city below. The large granite rock was probably formed from slow crystallization of molten magna centuries ago. The space wagon was still not starting up, and Patrick had called up his mechanic to come and check it out. It was an electrical problem that he had taken to the man to fix earlier on in the week, and was surprised when it occurred again.
Patrick was going on and on about a party he had gone for the day before in a secluded part of Ibadan, but she wasn’t paying any attention to what he was saying. Her mind was miles away, wondering if this was karma paying her a visit for all the bad things she had done in the past. She snapped out of it, and focused on the beauty in front of her. About hundred feet below was a fully lit up community, with tiny specks of light from cars and motorcycles moving here and there. “This kind of reminds me of when Jesus was tempted by the devil.” She blurted out all of a sudden.
“What? What’s that?” He said and turned around to look at her. “Girl, have you been half-listening to a single word I have said?”
“Oh sorry.” She said and chuckled.
“And How did you know how it looked when Jesus was tempted Satan? Are you Satan’s sister?”
“No.” She said and laughed a little more before saying, “You know…that Jesus movie.”
“Passion of Christ?”
“No, Jesus of Nazareth. I watched it when I was a kid. There was a scene like this in it.”
“Okay. So, as I was saying, Ahmed and I recently found a s₱0t with rich deposits of Aquamarines.”
“What? I thought you were talking about a party you went for where girls were walking around half unclad?”
He turned around to look at her with a frown on his face before saying, “That was like 15 minutes ago.”
“I’m sorry.” She said and closed the gap between them on the rock before adding, “Okay. Please tell me more.” She added as she crossed her legs and straightened out the rumples on the bottom part of her red mini gown.
“Well, you know me and Ahmed have been mining Aquamarines in Ibadan North for a while now.”
“Okay.” She said and urged him to go on, even though she didn’t have a clue what he was talking about.
“Aquamarines don’t have value like Diamonds or Rubies, or even Sapphires.” He said and looked at her to see if she was following. She nodded and he went on with, “Aquamarines are just like $100 a carat, so you need a shitt load to make some substantial income.”
“Oh! I actually thought you guys were mining diamonds.”
“Diamonds in Ibadan?” He said in between laughs, and when he saw the angry look on her face, he composed himself. “Anyway, earlier this week, we found a s₱0t that could give us lots of carats of Aquamarine.”
“Oh! Cool.” She said, sounding enthusiastic. Then like she remembered that she was no longer in good terms with her boyfriend, a sober look crept up her face. Then she looked at Patrick and said, “Patrick, why are you helping me?”
“I don’t understand.”
“You know what I did, but you are still helping me. Why?”
He looked into space for a while before saying, “Because…I don’t know, maybe because I like you.”
“You like me and you told Ahmed not to date me.”
“What? I…”
“I overhead you telling him that the first time I slept over at you guys flat.”
“Well…” He was saying and stopped to scratch his head. “You are a very beautiful girl, and you are on campus. I knew there would be different guys chasing you.” He said and looked at her. He didn’t have to say anymore to pass the message. She looked away, and when she looked his way again, tears were rolling down her eyes.
It started with little sobs, and then she broke down and cried uncontrollably. Patrick couldn’t help but move in closer, and hold her in his arms as her body vibrated.
“I messed up real bad.” She said between sobs.
“It’s okay.”
“Patrick, I’ve been a bad person; a real bad and ungrateful girl.”
“It’s okay.” He repeated, patting her hair. After some time, the sobs turned to low sniffs, and then she went quiet.
“Yusuf’s dad is an Oba.” She said all of a sudden. “Yusuf is the guy Ahmed saw me with.”
“Oh! Okay.”
“I never had s€× with him.” She said as she lifted her head to look him in the eye. He was caught off guard with that and didn’t know how to respond, so he kept quiet, and she put her head back on his chest. “He’s really harmless, but he has a lot of hothead tag-along friends because of his money and his dad’s position.” She stopped to wipe tears from her eyes before going on with, “He has helped keep a lot of guys off me. I mean a lot.” She went silent for a few seconds before adding, “I’m not a saint, but I never slept with any guy asides from Ahmed. But he definitely won’t believe that now. He won’t believe me.”
After a prolonged silence, Patrick lifted up her head and said, “This guy isn’t coming. Let’s go and see if the car will start now.”
She had actually been dozing off and staggered a bit as he stood her up. He held on to her in a reflex action, and she laughed as she said she was okay. He let her go and headed towards the car. She looked down at the bright lights below for a few seconds, sighed, turned around, and walked off to the car.
Patrick got in the driver’s side of the space wagon, and she leaned on the door. He took a deep breath before turning the key in the ignition; the Sienna started right away.
……….
Ahmed and Ruth had gotten to talk and know each other better when they ate late dinner at a restaurant in the same building that housed the club they were going to be partying in that night. Now they were at the club, seating side by side on a couch, drinking and bumping their heads to music; occasionally leaning in to talk into each other’s ear, while Abike and her lanky boyfriend danced in front of them. The place was packed. There were two higher institutions within close proximity of the club, and most of the students had wound up work for the year, so it was like they had come to unwind in a major way.
Ahmed was about to ask Ruth if they could go out and talk when Kehlani’s CRAZY song came on, and she slowly got off her seat nodding her head. She adjusted the black Chinese style mini gown she had on, and started a slow dance; she picked up pace when the beat of the song came on. He couldn’t believe how flexible she was with her thick body. With a smile on his face, he looked from Abike to Ruth, and then got off the couch to dance with her.
tbc