The sacred bride episode 5

The Sacred Bride
Bunmi B. Gabriel
Segment 5
Bloom
I stared at Leila without a smile, what she was explaining made no sense and seeing her look so tired was surprising.
‘So let me get this straight,’ I said pushing my hands out. ‘This guy have been looking for you and Dark said my going to that company have changed my destiny, how?’
‘I don’t know, he’s sitting down there staring at you, ask him, he wouldn’t tell me.’ I looked over at Dark who was swishing his tail nonchalantly, his eyes were closed as he slept.
‘I believe when someone’s eyes are shut, they are sleeping,’ he said softly.
‘How did you hear us then,’ she huffed.
‘Unlike some people, I have ears and I listen, what is It to you?’
‘What is wrong with you? Just tell us what is happening, how did her going there change things?’
‘The first question is why did both of you disobey me and go to that club, I warned you both not to go.’ He said coldly, opening his eyes sharply.
‘You warned us?’ I asked confusedly, looking over at Leila, she grinned and looked away. ‘Dark warned you yet you made us go!’
‘He’s always warning me so I thought it was a normal thing,’ she said guiltily. ‘You can’t blame me, he’s weird and never straightforward.’
‘What do we do now? Should I avoid the place?’
‘No avoiding will change what I am seeing, you can run but somehow, you will end up meeting him. He’s chi is strong, possessive, authoritative and stubborn. Once his mind is set on something, it works ahead of him and process it, that way, he always gets what he wants no matter how difficult it is. His mind is set on you, you will find a way back to him one way or the other.’
‘Who’s him?’ Leila asked puzzledly.
‘Yeah, are you talking about Mr. Kendrick?’
‘I am talking about he who speaks and reality is bent to his will. He is one of the blessed humans, one of those rare gifted ones and somehow fate have match him with you, the question is why?’
‘See what I mean! He never speaks straight!’
‘Hmm, we’ll see.’ Dark smirked and rolled over.
‘Who’s him?’
‘Your reflection,’
‘My reflection?’ I asked exasperatedly.
‘Oh my wow,’ Leila said huffily. Dark sighed and stood up.
‘A cat can’t get a good sleep here,’ he disappeared. I chuckled and looked at Leila for answers.
‘He’s Dark, who do you think my madness comes from? Mom!’ She snorted. ‘It’s time to torment our sweet little brother.’
‘After everything that have happened tonight?’
‘I ran away, not break a leg and even if I did break a leg, I don’t need em to dump our bro in a swamp.’
‘Leila, you are unbelievable,’
‘I know that already, it’s my talent.’ She winked at me and walked to her room, she’s annoying.
Eric
I flipped through the file the investigator dropped for me, it was fine, really fine and I already had what I wanted. Her real name is Leila Wellington, first daughter of the Wellington family, that’s legit. I remember my dad told me that the main Wellington family had two daughters, both were very humble girls who preferred living as nobodies. I didn’t care much but now I do, not because of her wealth, I’m not poor, but because of her dancing. A dancer like that will certainly make me finally make Droplet, my rival jealous. He’s always boasting and trying to get over me like we are mates. I normally don’t care but after he started dating my girlfriend and both of them made up a lie about she leaving me for him because I treated her very badly, it angered me. She’s a very good dancer, both did a music video to insult me, the lyrics was worse and it stained my name.
Because of those two childish idiots, I’m now seen as a woman beater and incorrigible cheater, that hurts especially when I’m not. My mom haven’t stopped nagging, she wanted me to get married but there I was, facing a scandal. She’s a church woman, serious one that takes her religious serious so according to her, it was ruining her relationsh¡p in church.
‘She’s perfect,’ I whispered softly, running my finger on the smiling picture of her and her sister. She’s beautiful, rich, sassy, a good dancer and super hot. She’s ten times more better than my ex and that is what I need.
‘Are you done admiring your babe’s picture,’ my manager, Kate said frowningly. ‘I’ve been sitting here for three hours watching you k-ss her picture like she’s your runaway wife, what are your orders already?! We need to settle this scandal.’
‘Tomorrow, give her a call.’
‘I can’t just call her and say “hey Miss Wellington, my boss want you to date him to get someone jealous”, that’s mean! I’m a woman so I know that.’
‘So what do you suggest I do?’ I asked with a sigh.
‘Good question, you start with baby steps,’ she smiled. ‘I’ll follow her up on Instagram, make it look like her dancing videos was recommended and then offer her an opportunity to star in your next music video. From there you can meet her and try to win her heart….
‘What?’
‘You have to win her heart, make her fall in love with you and date her so it will look real.’
‘Did you just call yourself a woman?’ I asked frowningly, I really hate disrespecting women. ‘How can you imagine me hurting her that much, she has a heart you know. What is more worse, me just telling her the truth and having her help me or taking advantage of her emotions. That’s nasty.’
‘It’s business,’
‘Send her the message, offer her the job and then I will take it over from there.’
‘What if she says no? She might say that.’
‘True,’ I looked at the ceiling. ‘I’ll handle everything myself, she won’t say no if I ask her myself.’
‘Isn’t that too far?’
‘It’s not too far when I’m desperate,’
‘But Eric….’
‘What?’
‘It will look more formal if y….’
‘Shut up,’ I snapped, she sealed her l-ips. ‘Now get lost.’ She stood up sharply without any question and walked out. I brought out my phone and logged Into my Instagram account, I already have her name. I searched for Leila Wells, her account was the third one.
F-ck! She’s f-cking hot! Her profile picture was of her coming out of a swimming pool, her w-t hair shimmering under the sunlight. She wore red bikinis, it really brought out her skin and men! Those h¡ps! I don’t blame her for having such followers, she’s s€×y. I tapped into her account, went through her page, her pictures were legit and she uploaded many dance videos.
‘Wow,’ I tapped the message icon to send her a message.
“Hiya Leila, ” well, here goes nothing. I sent it to her, hopefully, she would reply well.
Leila
Bloom and I went shopping for groceries, we were out of it. Christian was with us carrying the groceries while I took selfies and Bloom do the buying. I could tell Christian was cheating on me, I just didn’t have the strength to break up yet, he’s a useful slave.
‘Hey Bloom,’ I called throwing my arm around her. ‘Say take pic!’
‘Get lost,’ she pushed me away. I chuckled and went to reply my messages, got a lot of them. I replied them as they bought more and then walked to the counter to pay with his money. I blinked when a message popped it, the name….am I seeing well?
‘Bloom,’ I called dazedly.
‘Yeah?’ She asked taking one grocery bag.
‘Please, look at this well to confirm if I don’t need to see a doctor because I’m going blind,’ I showed her the phone. She stared at it nonchalantly, tilted her head slightly before chucklingly. ‘See it?’
‘I only see some bunch of names, what am I looking at?’ I pulled her aside, tapped the message and waved the phone at her face. ‘Stop waving it,’ she sighed, seizing the phone. She looked at it for three seconds and arched a brow at me.
‘Can’t you see? Heartcode sent me hi,’ I whispered so no one would hear.
‘Might be a phony,’
‘There’s only one account with his name, no one could copy because the person always get sued.’
‘Maybe a new person opened a….’
‘I should ignore him?’
‘Reply causally and don’t get too excited, even if it turns out to be him,’ she instructed giving my phone back to me. ‘If indeed it is him, then it’s definitely nothing good.’
‘An opportunity to see how good he is,’ I said gigglingly, I was already blushing at the idea of humping on that hottie.
‘Can’t you think normal for once?’ She scoffed and walked back to Christian at the counter. I turned to the exit, typing my reply fast with excitement.
‘Where’s she going?’ I heard Christian asked.
‘Car,’ Bloom replied. I deleted what I typed thrice before settling for something simple.
From me: hello, good afternoon.
My heart thumped against my chest as I waited for a reply, anticipation clouding my head. I was already thinking of how our conversation would go, what and how I would reply him. It has to be him, please let it be him. I almost shrieked when his message came in.
From him: good afternoon. Who do you do?
Me: fantastic! You?
From him: not dead.
I giggled like an idiot, covering my mouth so my wide grin wouldn’t be that obvious. I opened the driver’s door since it was my car and sat down, my legs outside.
Me: why aren’t you dead? I would have really enjoyed attending a funeral or since we don’t know each other, chat with a ghost.
From him: I’m not easy to kill.
Me: you’re funny. I’m Leila, although you can see my name there.
From him: I assume you can see mine.
Me: of course but why chatting me up? I know you won’t just chat me up for nothing.
From him: true. I’ve seen your dance videos, I must say I’m impressed and have an interesting offer for you.
Me: what makes you think I’ll be interested in your offer?
From him: because it will be at your gain.
Me: if I may ask which I must and you must answer, how did you see my videos?
From him: is that suppose to be a reasonable question?
Me: true, okay, what can I do you for?
From him: my new music video, I want you in it. If you are going to ask why, because your feet knows what they are doing and your body have the right look for what I pictured in my head. Are you in?
I shrieked into my hands, such wonderful opportunity!
‘Are you driving?’ Christian asked calmly, straining his neck to see my phone, he dare not ask because it’s none of his business.
‘No,’ I stood up, gave him my key and walked excitedly to Bloom who was already seated at the backseat. ‘Bloom, look,’ I squealed, joining her at the back. She looked at it and chuckled. ‘Unbelievable, right?’ She nodded. ‘What should I say? I mean, how should I reply?’
‘Let me see that,’ she took the phone daintily and typed in the reply, a simple plain no.
‘But what!’ I cried.
‘The best girls are the hærdest to get, he might be fake also.’
‘But….’ He replied.
From him: no? Why no? This is a very big offer.
Me: I know. If you use your head well, you will also know that if I wanted to make good use of my dancing, I would have done that years ago. I’m not interested.
‘Bloom, that was rude,’ I whimpered. ‘I need the job, I am jobless you know.’
‘You still have two jobs….’
‘As a waitress, I gotta upgrade.’
‘And if he’s one of those guys that trick people to kidnap them or….’
‘I’m Leila, your older sister who have always protected you since the day you started breathing air,’
‘Okay,’
From him: even if I add please? I really need your help.
Me: if I must ask, how did you really come about me and what is the main purpose of you chatting me up because a star like you won’t just chat me up just because of my dancing. What do you really want from me? Cut to the chase.
From him: okay, I need your help with something very important. I wouldn’t have contacted you personally if I didn’t need you badly.
Me: I ask again, how did you know me?
From him: your father and mine are friends, he used to always speak about you to me, if you know what I mean.
So, he knows I’m a Wellington. When I was dying over him, his father was suggesting me for him, small world.
Me: so you browsed my pictures?
From him: I checked your youngest sister’s page, saw a link that led me to you. Don’t ask so much question, I need Leila’s help, not her father’s.
Me: so you want to woo me as advised?
From him: bloody no! The main reason is quite complex. When I saw your pictures, you just fit in well for the part. I swear, it isn’t anything that would ruin or cost you too much.
Me: thank goodness you know who my family is. If this should affect me, I will sue you for every penny you are worth, kapish?
From him: yes, I promise.
Me: I will wait in front of Carrie’s candy castle downtown, have your driver pick me up at 4pm. If he’s ten minutes late, I walk. Have a nice day Mr. Somebody.
‘And that’s how you chat like a business pro!’ Bloom exclaimed, throwing her hands in. She really did reply well. I took my phone and reread the chat.
‘May I know what’s going on?’ Christian asked nervously.
‘I got a job offer,’
‘By who and for what?’
‘Christian, I love you but it’s none of your business.’ I said coldly.
‘I’m sorry,’ he mind his business. Bloom’s phone rang, she brought her phone out from her purse and stared at the screen with scrunched nose. She shrugged and answered it.
‘Good afternoon,’
‘Good afternoon Miss Wellington, my name is Estella Damon, secretary to Alisdair Kendrick….’ I heard a woman say, I turned to her and paid attention. ‘I call to inform you that you have been considered for the job….’ Bloom was about to jubilate but she cut her off quick. ‘However, not as a fund manager, there were others with far more better qualifications than you so the boss has offered you a job as his PA. You have 24 hours to decide if you want the job or not and when you do decide, call me back with this number or resume work on Monday. If you do not call or resume on the given date, we will assume that the job is of less interest to you and thereby drop the offer. I will be waiting for your call or to see you bright and early on Monday morning. Do have a wonderful date Miss Wellington.’ She hung up.
‘Wow,’ Bloom said incredulously.
‘I know,’ I said dramatically, sitting with arms akimbo. ‘She totally just said that smoothly and hung up rudely. She even said date instead of day, dumb and rude.’
‘Seriously, that is all you picked out?’
‘What else was I suppose to pick out? Oh yes! Her British accent exaggerate her briskness.’
‘Leila, I just got offered a job to be Alisdair Kendrick’s PA when I didn’t apply for one, isn’t that strange?’
‘It’s called grace.’
‘No, Alisdair never keeps a PA, it is odd,’ Christian said thoughtfully.
‘Whatever, you are accepting the job.’
‘Leila, you never listen to reasons, I’m not taking this job because it is not my field.’
‘You worked as a PA for Mrs. Crater once, you know how it works Bloom. I’m not going to force you, think about it.’ I concentrated on my phone again, not paying attention to the sign on the wall.
.
To be continued.