THE CONTRACT
EPISODE 13
Abena danced in the kitchen as she stirred the sauce that was cooking. Tobi walked in, wearing [email protected] and a white shi-t. “What are you doing?” He asked with a surprised look.
“Cooking. I was hungry.” She smiled him. He opened his mouth to say something but she st©pped him by shoving a chopping board in his hands. He gave her a quizzical look.
“Since you’re here, I hate chopping onions. So since you’re going to eat the food, you should [email protected] in cooking it.” She smiled broadly.
“And you think I would chop onions for you?” He asked, fighting the smile that threatened to appear on hisl-ips.
“Well yes. I can’t cry. It’s bad for the baby, remember?” She handed him the knife. “You won’t be crying because you’re sad, you’ll be crying because of the onions.” He pointed out.
“And onions make me sad.” She handed him a bowl of onions. “Get chopping. I don’t want to eat late tonight.”
He smiled and obeyed her order, and she looked away from him, trying not to check him out. He looked really good in everything he wore, and the fact that he was chopping onions made him look h0t.
It was getting domestic.
“Oh my God, Tobi! Are you crying?” She joked when she saw tears on his cheek. “Shut up Abena.” He laughed and wiped the tears.
“You have nice eyes. And eyelashes.” She blurted out and looked away immediately, totally embarras-sed.
He bur-st out laughing and [email protected]£ closer to her, and she scooted away, trying to get away from him.
“You think I have nice eyes?” He asked again.
“Thats not what I said. St©p coming too close to me, you’re holding an onion.” She warned.
“Then what did you say?” He asked, tra-pping her in a corner
“I said, ‘look at the nice skies, and rainbow dashes’.” She blurted out again and gave her face a palm [email protected]
“What is wrong with me?” She muttered while he laughed, clutching his stomach. “No food for you, for embarras-sing me.” She pointed a f!nger at him and walked back to the sink to wash the rice.
“Aw, I’m sorry, don’t be angry, my baby mama.” He tea-sed, standing behind her and snaking his arms around her [email protected]!st.
“Don’t call me that!” She snapped and pu-ll-ed away from him.
“Abena. Chill, it was joke.” He said, his smile disappearing.
“I’m not your baby mama. And st©p tou-ching me dammit! I’m not one of those girls that get pregnant for celebrities and sU-Ck all the money out of them!” She hissed.
“Well you’re here, pregnant for me, and getting paid for it.” He spat back, arms folded against his che-st, and a scowl on his face.
The next thing he felt was her palm against his cheek.
“You’re a terrible person!” She screamed before walking up the stairs, sobbing loudly.
He t©uçhed his cheek and sighed. The [email protected] hurt, but not as much as his words.
…
“Abena. Abena open up plea-se. I made your Jollof rice, and chicken, and I even got fresh bananas.”
He heard her sniffling in her room, and felt a pang of guilt.
“I also got you cookies, chocolates, and more bananas.” He said again.
He heard the door cli-ck open and she stood in front of him, blocking him from entering her room.
“I have to come in with the whole package Abena.” He said softly and she let him in, gr-abbing the bunch of bananas from him. He chuckled, but kept quiet when she glared at him.
“I’m sorry, I’m such a d–k. I have no filter, and I say a lot of mean things.” He apologized.
“Yes, you do.” She simply said.
“Let me make it up to you.” He offered.
“Sorry, I don’t hang out with my baby daddy.
I don’t want people to think I’m with him for money…” She gave a sarcastic pause. “Oh, yes! I am getting paid.”
“Abena, thats unfair. I’m trying to apologize.
I’m sorry I always say the wrong things. I’m such a bad person to you.” He sighed and she felt bad.
She looked at the worried look on his beautiful face and immediately gave in.
He had no idea what he did to her.
“Fine. Apology accepted.” She said gr-abbing the box of cookies from him.
A smile lit up his face and the bu-tterflies returned to her stomach, pla-ying around. “So, Abena.” He started, attempting to make small talk. “Why don’t you go out?” Tobi asked after a while.
“Go out? To where?” She lifted an eyebrow. “Go out, like to have fun. You always stay at home, even after I told you that you’re allowed to leave the house.” He explained.
“People stare.” She said quietly, thinking of Dr. Karo’s scrutinizing gaze.
“Stare? At what?” He asked confused.
“At me. People stare at me.” She tried to explain.
“I don’t un-derstand.”
“What have you been doing all your life? Working?”
“Precisely.”
“You have no knowledge of how life works do you?” She asked.
“Just talk Abena.” He said impatiently.
“People stare, when you’re pregnant and not married, or at least engaged.” She explained sadly.
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“Why don’t I take you out. Shopping and stuff. Anything you want.” He offered.
“Really?” Her eyes lit up.
“Yeah.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She squealed, hvgging him ti-ghtly. He re-leased himself from her grip and gave her a smile.
“No problem.”
I’ll do anything to see that smile on your face again.
But of course, he didn’t tell her that.
THE CONTRACT
EPISODE 14
Abena slumped her shoulders in defeat as she looked at herself in the mirror, wearing only un-derwear. Her closet had been emptied out and clothes were scattered all over the room. What was the matter, you might ask.
Nothing fit. The leggings r!pp£das she tried to pu-ll them up. Her jeans didn’t go past her th!ghs. Her shi-ts were too ti-ght. Her dresses were suffocating. Sk-irts didn’t go past her th!ghs. She couldn’t Zi-p up her jumpsuit.
Nothing fit, well except for her [email protected] Tobi was taking her out, and she really wanted to look good. But after trying every article of clothing in her closet, she was giving up. Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on her door.
“Abena!”
“One second!” She yelled and jumped into her [email protected] She threw on a random blouse, and regretted it immediately. It was suffocating.
“Oya, come in.” She breathed out.
He walked into her room and raised an eyebrow at the mess. Then his gaze landed on her and he bit the inside of his cheek to st©p him from laughing.
“You look… nice.” He said slowly.
“You’re a terrible liar.” She said and sat down on her be-d, tears threatening to fall.
“Okay, you don’t look nice. It looks like it’s a lot of sizes smaller.” He said truthfully.
“That’s because I’m fat.” She said quietly.
“You’re not fat, you’re pregnant.” He tried to reason out.
“What’s the difference?” She shouted at him, wiping the tears that stained her cheek.
“Um… not all fat people are pregnant?” He said slowly, trying to avoid the wrath of an hormonal pregnant woman.
“Nothing fits. I’m just so fat now, I don’t want to be fat. I want to be slim again. I want my clothes to fit me.” She said.
“So, nothing here fits.” He said.
“You trying fitting into your clothes when you have a… ball, attached to your stomach.” She said.
“That’s my baby you’re talking about.” He joked and she gave a small smile.
He slung his shoulder around her and pu-ll-ed her to him. “Abena. You’re not fat, you’re just pregnant. And you’re a very h0t pregnant woman. I have never seen a pregnant woman so beautiful.” He whispered in her hair but she ha-rd ly heard a word he said. She was too busy inhaling his scent, and staring at his che-st.
“Now, this is what you’re going to do. You’re going to wear your [email protected], and I”ll give you one of my shi-ts, so you can fit your ‘ball’ in it and st©p squashing my baby in these clothes. And then we’ll go shopping.” He said softly.
“But I wanted to look nice na. I won’t look nice in [email protected] and a man’s shi-t.” She whined, although the offer of wearing his shi-t was very tempting.
“I think you look exceptionally beautiful in everything.” He said and her heart skipped a beat.
As he left the room to bring his shi-t, Abena was convinced that he only said that to make her feel better, but Tobi knew he meant every word.
….
“Okay. I like this one, and this.” Abena said as she walked throu-gh the store, dumping every attrac-tive piece of clothing on Tobi.
“When I said that you could shop to your hearts content, I didn’t mean that you should make me your shopping bag.” He said as she dropped a dress on him.
“Well, this is your way of apologizing for ma-king me fat.” She said, looking throu-gh some shi-ts.
“You’re pregnant, not fat.” He pointed out with exasperation.
“Same thing!”
“Okay.” He said calmly. “Why don’t you try on all of this first?”
She nodded obe-diently, and he called one of the shopping as-sistants. “How can I help you sir?” She asked, batting her fake eyelashes at him.
Tobi didn’t seem to notice the flir-tatious smile that the as-sistant was giving him, or the amount of ladies that were eye-ra-ping him in the store.
“Yes, you can. Take all of this first.” He dumped the clothings on her, causing her to stumble a little. “I nee-d you to help her out.”
“Of course sir.” She gave a strained smile.
“I’ll see to it that your wife is taking care of.”
Much better , Abena thought. These women are just treating me like I’m nonexistent, so… wait… wife?
She stared at Tobi in surprise but he just gave her a wi-nk and followed the as-sistant to the changing room.
“Wife, you coming?” He tea-sed and she glared at him, ignoring her increasing heartbeat.
After a few hours of shopping, Tobi was tired, but Abena wasn’t.
She held her cone of icecream and her purse, while Tobi carried all twelve bags of maternity wear and, after the insistence of Abena, uniS-x baby clothing.
“Wait.” She said abruptly.
Tobi stumbled back. He was supposed to be annoyed. As a billionaire, he didn’t carry things for people, it was the other way around. He didn’t like to be told what to do.
But when Abena told him to do something, he did it, he complained obviously, but he did it anyway.
“What is it now?” He complained.
“We have to decorate a nursery.” She said, beaming at him like she just won a million dollars.
“No nee-d jare. I’ll get an interior decorator for that.” He said, dismissing the t©pic and walking towards the car to drop all the bags.
“But I want to do it. We should do it. It’s our baby.” She explained.
“Abena.”
“I know, I know. It’s not really mine. But plea-se, let me do this one thing for my child. Just one thing. So that I can know that I did something for my child before I left.” He looked in her eyes and knew she was alre-ady getting attached to the baby. And the baby wasn’t even born yet. But there was nothing he could do. The baby was literally attached to her.
“Okay. But, abeg, st©p referring to my daughter as an ‘it’.” He joked and she rolled her eyes.
“It’s a fifty-fifty chance jare. Thanks sha.” She smiled sincerely at him. He smiled back at her, and his gaze fell to herl-ips. How could someone look so… k!ssable, he wanted to k!ssher, right there.
“Let’s start with paint!” She squealed in excitement.
“You’re not going to paint. You could fall down when you’re painting the t©p [email protected] of the wall.” He said.
“That’s why I have you.”
…
“Let’s use pink.”
“Tobi, I told you, it has to be a uniS-x colour. We don’t know the gender of the baby.” She explained.
“Why haven’t we found out the gender of the baby?”
“Because I like surprises.” She shrugged.
“I dont.” He replied.
“Why am I not surprised.” She rolled her eyes and muttered, “Control freak.”
“Okay, so what colour can we use?” He asked, lifting an eyebrow.
“Blue!”
“No. It’s a boys colour.”
“That’s my favourite colour.”
“Why am I not surprised?” He mimicked her.
“Can’t we just decide on a main colour alre-ady?” She ignored his mocking.
“Just let me choose.” He offered and she glared at him.
“No. You lack taste in a lot of things.” She snapped.
“How about yellow?” He asked, anxious for the day to be over.
He was never taking her shopping again. “Tobi you’re a genius!” She exclaimed and but he just stared at her.
He knew what was going on.
“We can paint the room yellow and white like in str!pes. But we can add t©uçhes of green, black, grey and white. We’ll evenly distribute all the colours. But yellow would be the main colour.” She said and he nodded his head.
He was hungry.
“What about the theme?” He asked when she glared at him, obviously angry that he wasn’t contributing to the t©pic.
“It can be a zoo theme. We’ll have stuffed animals all over the place. Don’t worry. I have the image in my head. Lets buy the paint.” She gave him a cheeky smile and he pinched her cheek.
“You’re adorable sometimes.”
She swatted his hand away and took a bucket of paint.
“You can’t carry that. Are you trying to stress my daughter.”
“Fifty-fifty chance Tobi. And no, I’m not carrying it, you are.” She said.
“The Tobi Ademi doesn’t carry paint. People do it for him.” He boasted and they exited the store with two men, carrying buckets of paint and painting tools.
“What next?” He asked once they dropped the paint in the car.
“Decorations and stuffed animals. Then we can go and eat.” He nodded and walked past her.
“Why are you rushing?” She asked.
“The fas-ter we get all the stuff, the closer I am to eating.” He explained.
“I’ve never seen you hungry before.” She laughed.
“Well apparently, when you spend a day shopping with Abena Omotosho, your stomach suffers.” He joked and she hit him pla-yfully on the shoulder.
After getting toys, decorations, the cot, strollers and all the other things that the baby would nee-d, they went for lunch.
“You’re actually not bad company.” He said as they ate. He ordered French fried and chicken but she had a cheese burger with her French fries.
“You’re the worst company.” She tea-sed. “Hm. Just be deceiving yourself. You love it when I’m around.”
“Your ego is bigger than my ‘ball’.” She laughed and he glared at her.
“Can we get icecream before we leave?” She asked hopefully.
“Abena, you alre-ady had icecream.” He pointed out.
“But I want another one.” She whined
“Fine. But on one condition.” He said.
“What?”
“You don’t decorate the nursery alone. You get an interior decorator, and then you supervise.” He said, taking a gulp from his Pepsi. They had finished eating.
“Why?”
“I don’t want you to get hurt while moving things around Abena. You’ll be like the main interior decorator, and you’ll supervise everything to your hearts content. Everything you say, goes.” He explained.
“Okay then. But won’t it be risky? Getting an interior decorator. This is supposed to be low key.” She asked.
“I have someone who is very discreet. Are you re-ady to go?” He asked, standing up.
“Yes. Lets go and get icecream.” She smiled pu-lling him along to Coldstone.
…
Once they were in the car, Abena dug into her icecream..
“Don’t let that thing spill in my car.” He warned.
“You mean the icecream?” She asked. She had alre-ady spilled a little when they drove over a bu-mp.
“Abena!” He gro-an ed.
“It was a mistake. I swear. I’m sorry. I’ll clean it up for you.” She apologized. “Do you know how much this car is?” He snapped.
“Tobi chill. It’s just icecream. No big deal. I’ll wipe it off.” She reasoned with him.
“You’re so clumsy.” He said and ignored her throu-ghout the car ride.
…
“Abena. This is becoming too much of a habit.” He said knocking on her door. “You don’t have to run into the room every time we fight. I’m sorry I snapped. But that car is really expensive.”
She opened the door and stared at him, her hands on her h!ps.
“Then why did you buy it?”
“Because it’s S-xy.” He shrugged and she laughed. “But seriously. I ordered the car before it even got to Nigeria. And it was bloody expensive.”
“How much?” She asked.
“I’m not going to tell you. Before you explode.” He laughed.
“plea-se.”
“No.” He walked out of the room and she followed him.
“Pretty plea-se.”
“Who ever said plea-se was pretty?”
“plea-se plea-se plea-se plea-se plea-se.” She sang.
“No. St©p being so annoying.” He gro-an ed and walked into the cinema room.
“Ohh. Lets watch a movie. I’ll pick.” She said and rushed past him. He just laughed and followed her.
…
As the weekend flew by, Tobi realised something, he was gradually sli-pping out of control. He was getting attached.
WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 15