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REPLACEMENT GIRL 👧 😌 💕 😏
CHAPTER 21
*HUMAIRAH POV*
Days gone, the Niger State College Of Arts and Social Sciences did me good. I was now in my 3rd year in the school. It was a Degree issuing College so I had to add another year for my 400level and then another year for my NYSC program.
It was a dream come true! My uncle and his family were so happy for me, same as my parents back in the village. I had visited them fourteen times since I started school. My mother never knew her masturbating daughter would turn out to be such a great person in the future. I only smiled at her and told her masturbation was a disease I couldn’t get rid of, it took me a lot of courage, prayer, sacrifices, and fasts to st©p it. And when I went to a doctor to check if it hadn’t done any harm to me, I was told I may have difficulty in mothering a child in my life although another doctor proved that wrong. But whatever the case may be, masturbation isn’t really a good thing in Islam. And for men, it is unhealthy when it is done frequently.
I would not despair in my life. If Allah could bring an end to my masturbating habit, then there is absolutely nothing HE can not do. I just had to be patient, perhaps in my first year of marriage I would conceive for my husband. But marriage? Who cared about it anyways? In fact, love was the last thing on my mind right now. The person I once loved poured a handful of sand on my face. Right now, I was scared of even as-sociating myself with men talk more of falling in love with them. Many have tried but rejection was what they faced. I practically disliked love right now.
Recently, I was posted to NAFDAC Zonal office in Minna for my I.T, and thus I was about to be s£nt for a special as-signment in one of the [email protected] of Zaki Company by the chairman of the agency. It was kind of a spying mission.
“Sir, I can’t go there!” I protested folding my arms across my che-st. “This is where I chose”
“You are naive” He shook his head smiling.
“I have my reasons sir, I can’t go there!” I said.
“If you really want to do your I.T here then you must abide by our rules. We are only s£nding you to Zaki Company as an I.T student to get us some information. It is not spying!” He said.
“But why Zaki of all companies, sir?” I queried. “Why not Bulama Cooperation, Yargote Group, or DAF Limited?”
“Because Zaki is the only company that is not abiding by the rules. Take this…” He said handing over some files to me. “Everything about Zaki Company’s acts of misconduct is there but we are yet to be sure about it. If you help us get some information about them, I promise to secure a job for you here after your school”
“Hmm!” I huffed.
“Think about it” He plastered a smile on his face. He knew there was no way I could ignore such a big offer. It means immediately after my Service I would get a job without stress.
“Okay then” I abs£ntmindedly uttered.
“Good!” He smiled.
…
My first day at Zaki Beverage Factory was great. I was respectfully welcomed by Ahmad’s secretary, Jemima and in my pres£nce she called him over because he wasn’t around.
“He’s on his way coming” She anxiously said.
“Okay” I said swiping throu-gh my phone.
In few minutes time, Ahmad’s voice [email protected]£ from the intercom that Jemima should meet him in his office with the new NAFDAC I.T student.
“Let’s go” She said to me.
“Okay” I smiled as I stood to my feet and followed her to his office. You can hi fresh ish on+233544142683 to join us on our telegram page for more stories.It was very cold, the air-conditioniner was b!owing awesomely.
I thought I didn’t love Ahmad anymore but as soon as I saw him I knew he was still in my heart the fact that I felt him de-ep inside me. He was still the handsome Ahmad I knew years back.
“What the hell?” He wrinkled his brows with a dropped jaw, perhaps surprised of seeing his best cook becoming his I.T worker.
“Is everything okay, sir?” Jemima asked.
“Ye… yes” He stuttered. “Give me her file”
“Alright sir” She said and then handed the file to him before leaving.
“Come and have a sit, Humairah” He said to me.
“Okay” I gently walked over to one of the visitors’ swivel chairs facing him and sat in it.
“I am not surprised” He said going throu-gh my file. “I actually know you would do something good with the money I’ve been s£nding you”
“What?” His words made me to scoff at him. Like seriously? He thought I would use his fv¢king money? The N40k he had been s£nding me monthly ever since I st©pped working in his house? Well, I really think he nee-ded some elaborations.
“Ahmad Jaafar Zaki, thank you for all the money you’ve been s£nding me albeit I never used them for myself” I said and continued. “How do you expect me to use the money I didn’t work for?” I giggled at him as he paid attention to me. “My savings from the legitimate salaries I got from you while working in your house was sufficient to get me another job in the town and to also enrol me into school. As for the money you’ve been s£nding me, I’ve been transferring them to the account of Minna Orphanage Home. That way, the both of us would be rewarded abundantly by Allah. You can st©p s£nding if you wish, that is none of my business!”
My words seemed to have hurt him badly. It was obvious that he was angry, he couldn’t hide it from me – I knew him so very much!
“Why are you here?” He asked dropping my file on his desk. “To spy on our activities?”
Wait, did he just guessed it right? Well I think the last NAFDAC agent had left some traces behind, I shouldn’t be so dumb to repeat such mistake. I shouldn’t let Ahmad or anyone in the company know my secret. Everything should be quic-k and confidential, after all I only had six months for my I.T.
“I am not here to spy on you. I am only here to do my I.T and I will leave soon, so don’t you worry” I lied with a broad smile on my face.
“I don’t trust you, Humairah” He said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because all I.T students are fearful not bold but you, you are acting as if NAFDAC s£nt you here to supervise our activities” He uttered.
“You are wrong!” I protested.
“Okay then” He said with a sigh. “Welcome to Zaki Beverage Factory! As you alre-ady know, I am the son of the sole owner of the Zaki Group. We have many [email protected] and affiliations in Africa and few in Asia, this one here is one of the t©pmost in Nigeria and I am the one incharge…
CHAPTER 22
*AHMAD’S POV*
These days, things hadn’t been easy for me. Seeing Humairah around made me to think alot. It seemed like I liked her as well but the more I compare her with my wife, the more I find out she wasn’t really beautiful. Rania was practically more beautiful than her and you know how I loved beautiful women!
Humairah started her I.T few weeks ago with us and now she was acquainted with how we used to do our things here. I made her worked with my chief accountant since B.A Economics was what she was studying. She would come as early as possible and go home late at times.
Today, something tragic happened to one of our labourers. He was electrocuted by one of our machines. I didn’t know something of that nature had happened until he was taking to the hospital and the bill was pas-sed, that was when my secretary called and informed me about the situation. I was dumbfounded!
When I went to the hospital, I saw Humairah there too. There was no way they could sign the bill issued by the hospital because the fee was very high. They were all counting on me to do that. I had to scold them for hiding the situation from me in the first place and, thus, warned them never to do such thing again. I was their boss and I practically ought to know whatever that was happening in the factory.
“He will be fine” The doctor as-sured us and left.
Just then my eyes caught up with Humairah’s eyes, she quic-kly averted hers and pretended as if nothing happened. We had only spoken few times ever since she started working with us. She didn’t like being around me and always liked being in the company of other female workers. She wasn’t that teen I almost [email protected]£d before, she was now 20 and had grown up.
“Jemima, I am going” She said to my secretary.
“Home or work?” Jemima asked. She ought to ask her because it was alre-ady 4pm and today being Friday, the factory normally closed at such hour every Fridays.
“Home, but I will have to go back to the factory and get my things first before going” She said.
“Alright then, see you tomorrow” Jemima said.
Hence, they shook hands with each other and Humairah left. She didn’t even care to say a word to me. Like seriously? Wasn’t I the boss?
I followed her with my car key dangling in my hand. She was walking so fast that before I reached her, she had alre-ady st©pped a cab and stormed in. I wanted to have a talk with her so I got into my car and followed her to the factory. She alighted from the cab about paying the cabman when I stormed out of my car and walked over to her. “Humairah, can we talk?” I asked.
“Wha… what do you want?” She stuttered handing the cabman his fare.
“I just want us to talk” I said as the cabman drove away. I really nee-ded to talk to her the fact that she was always running away from me, was I a ghost or something? I didn’t remember dying talk more of becoming a ghost. Also, it seemed she didn’t have respect for me anymore.
“About what?” She wrinkled a brow.
“See me in my office!” I said and left her there.
…
I went to my office and patiently waited for her there. Time went by but she didn’t show up, thus I dialed her number to tell her to come to my office right that instant but guess what? “Who is this?” was what she said as soon as she picked the call, which means she didn’t have my contact in her phone anymore. Good for her!
“It’s me, your boss” I muttered.
“Well, I am alre-ady home” She scoffed.
“Home?” I puzzled. “Are you mad? Didn’t I told you to meet me in my office? Are you sick?”
“Kai, kada ka zage ni (hey, don’t insult me). You told me to see you in your office but you didn’t specify when. How do you expect me to know?” She blamed me.
“No, you knew exactly what I meant!” I said.
“Maybe yes” She said and terminated the call.
Goddammit! I muttered a curse un-der my breath and quic-kly dialed her number again.
“Ahmad, dan Allah kada ka dame ni (plea-se don’t disturb me). Leave me alone, plea-se just leave me alone!” She squealed and quic-kly ended the call again.
In anger, I tried her number again and again but to no avail hence I felt a strange pain in my heart. It had never happen before. What was wrong with me? I wondered placing my hand on my che-st. It better not be hypertension because I was too young for it, or wasn’t I?
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*HUMAIRAH POV*
Unity Plaza was where I started working in as a salesgirl after leaving Ahmad’s house three years back. The plaza was very close to my uncle’s house so I had no trouble in transportation. I started working as a full time employee there before school made me to switch to [email protected] time. My boss was no one but Mr. Ken Ros£nberg , he was a very rich and wonderful man. He alone occu-pied 9 shops in the Plaza and had many employees. His shops were number 6, 10, 14, 17, 20, 25, 28, 30, and 31 – all in the first and second floors. We had the best and affordable mobile phones there and their accessories. Those that worked full time were paid N28,000 monthly (28 days) while those that worked [email protected] time (Saturdays and Sundays) were paid N8,000 monthly (8 days). But you could also get much more throu-gh interests from purchases, and some customers may even ask you to keep the remaining change with you.
The Zaki Beverage Factory was always open for the t©p officials and labourers, while people like me had weekends as free days. Hence I would go to Unity Plaza on those free days at least to earn something for myself. By the way, I heard Zaki Group used to pay I.T students but I was in my second week so I can’t really tell about that for now.
Today being Saturday, I went to Unity Plaza as early as 8 O’clock in the morning. We normally used to have lot of customers during weekends and people loved buying things in our shops because of our trustworthiness and refundability. If the product you purchased got faulty within 12 months, we could replace it for you without any delay. Our boss knew business, you know!
“Hello!” A tall army officer bounced into the shop I was in charge of and began looking around. “Who’s here plea-se?” He asked.
“I am the one, sir” I cheerfully replied. “Welcome to Ken’s shop number 25, how may I help you sir?”
“I nee-d iPhone 11 Pro, do you have it?” He said.
“Let me check if we still have it in stock, sir” I said checking the record book. “Gosh, all has been sold off but we have the Pro Max”
“Okay, let me call my wife and ask if she wants that one” He said as he pu-ll-ed out his phone.
“Okay sir” I said as I took the sealed package of the phone from the shelf and put it in front of me. I knew the wife would definitely like it because Pro Max was practically the best of all the three variants of the Apple’s iPhone 11s.
“Sweetheart, they only have the pro max here too” He said as soon as he dialed her number. “How about the shops you said you will check in?” He wrinkled a brow. “No any iPhone 11 at all?” He dropped his jaw. “Okay, I think we should just buy the Pro Max or what do you think?” He queried. “Okay, come to shop 25…” He heaved a sigh. “I love you too” He hanged off the call and turned to me. “She said she’s coming” He apprised me.
“Alright sir” I amicably uttered with a smile. And in less than a minute, his wife bounced in. To say I was surprised is an un-derstatement. “Naziha??” I squealed.
“Humairah??” She rose her brows.
“You knew each other?” The army man chimed.
“Yes, it’s a long story” She said as she quic-kly held his hand. “Let’s go back home, honey!”
“But… how about the phone?” He asked.
“Forget about it, we will buy it another day” She said.
“Okay then” He said.
…
“Hmmm!” I returned the phone package into the shelf as soon as they left, thank God I didn’t even unseal it if not who would buy an unsealed iPhone? But talking about Naziha, so she was still in Nigeria? I thought I heard she ran overseas? Did Ahmad even knew she was still in Nigeria? No, if he knew that she was still here he would definitely search for her. But how about that Army officer? OMG, was he her husband or what? By the way she had changed totally, the beauty wasn’t there anymore and she had pimples allover her face.
I kept thinking about her until I later returned back home, thus I ate dinner, had a warm shower and then hopped onto my be-d. I was so tired, and just as I was about falling asleep my phone began buzzing and ringing at the same time. It was a call from an unsaved contact ending with 9816, and of course I knew who the caller was. It was Ahmad, hence I hissed and declined the call. I thought that was it but then he called again, I did the same thing and in less than a minute his text message arrived.
“Ignoring me is not the best solution to your problem. I know you love me, you told me that three years ago and I believe you still love me. I am sorry for turning your hands down. plea-se st©p ignoring me, I want you around me…”
I couldn’t finish re-ading his text message when sleep overtook me. I was practically tired, you know? And for those thinking I was being selfish or something, they aren’t in my shoes that’s why.
I believe every sane girl would treat Ahmad the way I was treating him because people like him nee-ded to be taught great lessons on how to value the feelings of women, especially women like me that are naive and fragile!
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Hmmm, sometimes you wish the person you love see things the way you see but that’s just a wishful thinking. Love is just unpredictable.
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