Proud woman episode 5
PROUDWOMAN
#EPISODEFIVE
(MY SPECIAL LOVE STORY)
“Raymond Anderson, I cannot descend so low to fall in love with someone like you”.
“Someone like who?”
“You. So because you won an award, you believe you are up to making me fall for you? Let us just stick with relationsh¡p with benefit”.
“Okay then. Deal. I will propose to you at where the president’s son proposed to you”.
I disconnected the line and smiled to myself.
How disappointed he would have been.
I waited for him at the beach and he finally arrived.
He smiled mischievously at me. “Why are your cheeks suddenly chubby this afternoon?”.
I glared at him. “Are you crazy?”.
He burst into laughter. “I knew you will react to that. Moreover I was only pulling your legs”.
I made eyes at him. “Why that joke of all jokes?”.
“… because you are so concerned about curves and looks. You always like to look perfect. You believe that your looks and abilities are what makes you a perfect woman”.
“What else does?”.
“Appreciation of people. You appreciate people for whom they are. Make people happy. Be concerned about people. That is what makes you a perfect woman”.
“Are you saying that I am not concerned about people?”.
“You are not even concerned about your parents to begin with, so let us scrap the argument”. He dropped the box of ring on the table and flipped it open.
I took the ring from the box and forced it into my finger. “So, now I am officially your fiancee right?”.
He nodded. “The game starts on Saturday. We will play a ‘loving couple’ on Saturday”.
“Deal”.
It was finally Saturday.
Raymond chose the gown that I was to wear for the event at the world famous Kachi’s boutique.
He didn’t allow me to choose his tuxedo for him. He did everything himself.
My fashion sense was just wasted.
He drove me in his car.
He drove on quietly.
I was uncomfortable with the silence so I turned on the stereo.
He looked up at me. “Why?”.
“It is boring right here with you behaving like a machine”.
“Was that not what you wanted? A machine relationsh¡p?”.
“If it was not a machine relationsh¡p, what difference would it make?”.
“What difference would it make?If it was not a machine relationsh¡p, I would listen to every sound your breath makes because I am concerned about how you feel about everything. I will hug you for at least fifteen minutes right now, I will take away the loneliness you feel because of your workaholic parents”.
“I am not lonely. I can never feel lonely”.
“The moment I come into your life will be the moment you will realize that you had been lonely all these while”.
Was it true? Was I lonely? Though sometimes I missed my mum, but I talked to Myra and I was fine. I don’t think I need anyone’s love.
He reversed immediately he noticed a high speeding bike coming from the other side and in the process of reversing, my head hit the dashboard.
He rushed out of the car and opened the door. He looked worriedly at me. “Are you alright?”. He touched my head.
I panicked and hugged him. “I nearly died just now. I nearly died”.
He patted me softly on my head. “Do you feel pain in your head?”.
“I am fine”.
“You are not fine”.
“Do you even care? You are totally at fault! You shouldn’t have reversed like that!!!”.
“The bike was high on speed, If I didn’t dodge, do you…”.
“No need to explain. Let us go before we get there late”.
“Is the place we are going to more important than your head?”.
“Why not? Is that not the only thing you want from me? The event you have been so obsessed about through out the week”.
He dialled a number and placed his phone on his ear.
“Who are you calling?”.
“My doctor”.
“I said I am fine!”.
“…and I said you are not fine! I saw your head hit that dashboard just now!”.
“But the event will soon start”
“Why are you talking about event right now?”.
“… because I don’t want to ruin your plans”.
“…and I said that your head is more important than any event!!!”.
I was surprised at him. Was he just feigning concern for me?
I reluctantly gave in and we waited for the doctor to arrive.
When the doctor arrived, he gave me pain reliever after injecting me and I didn’t even know when I fell asleep right there on the car seat.
When I woke up, I found myself at the backseat of the car, covered with a blanket.
I didn’t feel any pain in my head anymore.
Raymond was not in the car.
Where on earth was he?
I glanced into my wristwatch and realized that it was ten o’clock.
How can I have slept for five hours?
The party would have almost ended by now.
My heart began to beat faster.
Raymond would definitely be very mad at me.
I was hungry but I had to hold it in because now was not the time to pay attention to it.
As I removed the blanket from my body, Raymond entered the car.
He rushed to sit beside me. “How is your head now?”.
“The event. I am sorry we didn’t go for the event after how long we had prepared for this”.
“Why are you talking about the event?”.
“That event was very important to you”.
“You are more important to me”.
I shook my head in disbelief. “You liar”.
“Why are you suspicious about my concern for you? Are you not used to people being concerned about you?”.
“Why are you concerned about me? We are just business partners”.
“The truth is that I don’t even know how to ‘not be concerned about you’. You hit your head because of me and you are still wondering why I was concerned about your health”.
“A lot of people would have chosen the event over my health”.
“A lot of people that don’t know what love is. People like you”.
“Just keep quiet!!!”.
He touched my head with so much concern.
My parents had never even touched my head like that before.
No one had.
“Does it hurt here?”. He asked worriedly.
“It doesn’t”.
He nodded thoughtfully. “The doctor gave you a sleeping drug so that it will take proper effect on your body”.
I sighed. “What are you going to do about the event we missed now?”.
“There can still be another time for it. Do you want to a stroll with me right now ?”.
I nodded. Even if I still felt very guilty.
He held my hand and led me out of the car.
…like a big brother.
We walked on.
He turned to look at me. “Don’t ever blame yourself by anything that is less important than life. Everything in the world is less important than life. Always put that at the back of your mind”. He observed me closely. “Why don’t we go back to the car? I got something for you to eat”.
I followed him into the car.
He had bought eatery rice and chicken with water for me which he had packaged in a small bag.
I accepted it and began to eat hungrily.
“I will stroll around for a while, while you eat right here”.
“Where are we right now?”.
“Mount Ale bridge”. He left the car.
After eating, I joined him outside the car.
We stood, watching the water flowing below the bridge.
“So what’s your next plan?”. I asked him.
“There will always be more good times”.
He stretched a hand to me. “Instead of enemies, why don’t we become friends instead?”.
“We are engaged. What ‘enemies’ are you talking about?”.
“We are engaged but are our hearts engaged with each other?”.
“Our hearts doesn’t need to be engaged with another”.
“We coped perfectly this evening because our hearts did”.
“My heart didn’t”.
“You were touched because of a very irrelevant show of concern because you are not used to being properly concerned for. Your heart sank for ten minutes”.
“You are wrong”.
“I am right”.
He held my hand in his and we stared into the river in silence.
Somehow, I was finding out strange things about myself that I didn’t like.
WEAKNESS.
I was on my bed, thinking about our failed plans when I received Raymond’s call.
I connected it. “Hello?”.
“Check the latest news on Pulse”.
“Pulse? Alright”. I clicked on my phone to check.
It was pictures of when I and Raymond had held hands by the bridge last night.
The headline of the story, ‘The two award winners have fallen in Love’.
Someone had taken picture of us at the bridge yesterday night and posted it to the world.
We had not even gone for the event, but our plans still worked.
Our fathers will definitely come across those pictures.
Somehow.
There was going to be war.
Ay Ay, Chatapurai.
#fromyourfastfingers
Onyekachi Ikeh.