CAN’T HOLD MY TEARS SEASON 2
EPISODE 17
Hours later, Amara sat in the car with Kelvin as he drove them back to Ara P. She would have stayed but Tega kept calling, informing her about people waiting to see her until Tina herself convinced her to go. No one spoke as Kelvin drove. “Tega looks so small and weak Kelvin” she murmured, breaking the silence. “It is disheartening to see her in that state. I would donate my kidney if only it matches hers”
Kelvin reached over and squee-zed her arm, controlling the steering with the other. “She would be fine. We all nee-d to have faith in God and pray for her. We shouldn’t show her sad faces, it would only depress her. I am sure we would find a matching Kidney soon. We should have faith”
“Faith! God!” Amara almost laughed. “When has that ever worked?”
Kelvin turned his eyes off the road to look at her. “What happened to you was allowed by God for a reason Ara, you shouldn’t make the mistake of un-dermining God’s power because of it” he said. Amara didn’t respond, but turned her eyes back to the road. No one spoke until the got back to Ara P. Kelvin scanned everywhere, noticing nothing awkward except the abs£nce of Amara’s car. “Where is your car?” He asked worriedly.
“I didn’t come with it, all the tired were deflated” she said drily, alighting from the car.
“You didn’t tell me that”
“It is the least of my problems.” She said simply. “Don’t you have to go to the office?” Amara said worriedly. “You have been receiving calls and I know some are from the office. I am sorry I interrupted your day so much. I am so grateful for your help”
Kelvin knew that Amara was right. “You can interrupt my day anytime Ara, I would just walk you to your office and be on my way.” He said and put his hand in hers, holding her firmly as they walked hand in hand. Kelvin’s warmth enveloped Amara, ma-king her forget everyone around, but as they entered Ara P, the stares of her staff was impossible to ignore.
“Do you think you can let go of my hand anytime soon?” She whispered.
Kelvin smiled. “No. Everyone here should know who they are up against if they even entertain hopes stealing their boss’ heart with their perfect performance”
Amara frowned. “You are imagining things. My staff see me only as their boss, nothing more”
Kelvin stared down some guys who looked at their joined hands with disappointment written all over them. “You would be surprised sweetheart”
Amara should have told him firmly that she wasn’t his, but somehow, she didn’t want to. Sighing, she approached her office and Tega stood with a smile. “Welcome back boss. The last man got tired of waiting and promised to be back in an hour” she murmured.
Kelvin looked at Tega critically, trying to determine if someone so sweet could be a suspect.
“Thanks Tega” Amara said. Tega nodded, then, seemed to remember something. She bent to pick a letter and handed it over to Amara. “I should have given you this earlier but the whole drama prevented it. A lady c@m£ to see you shortly after you went on…” She paused, glanced at Kelvin, then quic-kly said “I mean, shortly after you left yesterday. She dropped this when she didn’t meet you” she said.
Amara nodded and took the letter. She turned to Kelvin. “You should leave now. Thanks so much for your help today. I am grateful.”
He nodded and drew her in for a hvg, again stunning her. He placed his mouth close to her ear and whispered. “No more d@t£s with anyone but me. I would be back to take you home” he straightened and smiled at her as he turned and walked away.
======
Amara di-pped the tiny spoon into the cu-p of chocolate ice-cream in her hand, scooped up a spoonful and drove it straight into her mouth. Even though she had spent the whole hectic day with most of her staff, trying rather fruitlessly to salvage some of her damaged supplies, having dinner out with Kelvin was a God-s£nt relief. She was enjoying herself beyond measure and was sad to see that it would come to an end soon. The meals had been exhausted and Kelvin had treated her to this delicious cu-p of ice-cream which she couldn’t have enough of. She m0@n ed in appreciation. “Uhmmmm…” She raised dreamy eyes to Kelvin, who was looking at her in amusement. “Oh, my God Kelvin! Tell me why I never thought of tasting chocolate ice-cream”
Kelvin grinned. “You were busy running a company”
Amara looked into her cu-p with gleaming eyes as she di-pped in her spoon again. “We always had to serve ice-cream once in a while but I never did taste this chocolate flavour” she di-pped another spoonful into her mouth and her eyes again turned dreamy.
Kelvin watched her mouth with narrowed eyes. He had never been as jealous of a spoon as he was at that moment, watching Amara li-ck off the ice-cream from the tiny plastic. His cu-p of ice-cream was held idly in his hand as the frozen cream defroze unt©uçhed. His eyes was more focused on Amara and her excitement. Amara raised her eyes to his cu-p and look at him with a small frown.
“Your ice-cream is becoming bored since you have completely ignored it.” Her eyes bec@m£ bright with mischief, something that he hadn’t seen in her before, not even years back. “Why didn’t you take chocolate instead of vanilla? You might be l!çk!ng with more enthusiasm”
He frowned slightly. “I don’t like chocolate” he said.
She raised her brow. “You don’t know what you are missing” she turned her eyes back to her cu-p and di-pped in her spoon. She seemed to pause, then she suddenly lifted a spoonful of chocolate ice-cream in the air. Her eyes was bright with laughter when she looked up. “Why don’t you have a taste?” Kelvin froze as Amara brou-ght the spoon closer. For the first time, Kelvin noticed the people in the eatery as they turned to look at them. Amara obviously had forgotten about them, concentrating solely on achieving her goals. Kelvin stared at the fast approaching spoon carefully. “Open up” Amara said and dumped the full spoon in his mouth before he could even fully open his mouth. Some residues of cream smeared on hisl-ips, ma-king a funny line on his upperl-ip. The air cracked around them as they gazed into each other’s eyes, the spoon between Kelvin’sl-ips. Amara quic-kly pu-ll-ed out the spoon and settled back in her seat. She kept her eyes down, noticing the amused look of people in the restaurant who seemed not to be minding their own businesses. With a sigh, she raised her head to br@zen it out to the end. She placed a fake too-bright smile on her face, only to find Kelvin’s amused face smiling down at her.
“Well, how is it?” She snapped.
Kelvin’sl-ips started working on the forgotten cream in his mouth and his face brightened the more as he swallowed. “I must admit; it is really good. Better since it c@m£ from your beautiful hands” he said, his stainedl-ips moving. Amara blu-shed slightly. Then, bringing on his own mischievous looks, he grinned slightly at her. “Although, I think you dropped some on myl-ips. Do you think you could rectify that?”
Amara froze and shifted in agitation. “You are crazy” she looked around but everyone were back to minding their own businesses.
Kelvin win-ked at her. “No one is looking, c’mon” he taunted with a grin.
“You would wait forever” she said, gr-abbing her bag, re-ady to leave.
He frowned pitifully. “Awww. Sweetheart, you won’t have me walking out in such a mess, would you?” Amara ignored him and he chuckled. “I knew you couldn’t”
Amara frowned, hating the dare. Taking a de-ep breath, she leaned over and quic-kly brushed her f!nger against the cream on hisl-ip, but as she re-moved her f!nger, Kelvin completely shocked her by capturing her f!nger between hisl-ips. She pu-ll-ed her hand away with lightening speed, glaring at him as her heart pounded. She didn’t even dare look around to see who noticed; she knew she might die from embarras-sment.
“It tastes even better on your f!nger” he whispered, his eyes gleaming with an unidentified emotion.
I have had enough! Amara jumped to her feet at once, gr-abbing her bag. Kelvin smiled and pushed to his feet as well. Amara did not wait for him, just marched on. She waited until the got out of the eatery before she exploded. “I could kill you, you know?” She shouted back at him.
He laughed. “I never asked you to feed me”
Amara conceded angrily that he was right. She did not even know what evil had prompted that action in her.
“But I wouldn’t mind if you want to do it again” he whispered behind her, drawing nearer. “You know, I think your ice-cream was truly sweeter than mine”
Amara concentrated on breathing as the heat from his b©dy enveloped her as he put his arm around her w@!st, drawing her closer as they walked. She tried to break out of his hold, but the effort was completely futile, since his hand was as ha-rd as rock. She sighed in resignation, walking with him to his car. Wisely, she changed the t©pic.
“Do you think we should visit Tina again? She might nee-d my company. I can sleep over with her”
The ‘we’ in the s£ntence plea-sed Kelvin beyond words ma-king him smile internally. “No. Tomorrow would be good because you nee-d your rest also. You went throu-gh so much today and still went to her place after work and spent some hours. You nee-d to sleep” he said.
Although, Amara would love nothing more than to be there for Tina right now, the mention of sleep sounded heavenly. She hadn’t had enough sleep last night due to the mysterious note and now, she really would love to close her eyes for some hours. But then, the thought of slee-ping in her own ap@rtment was beginning to make her nervous.
Kelvin noticed and gave her a slant, concerned look. “Do you think you would be comfortable at your place? You can stay with me for today” he offered.
Accept! Just accept! Her br@in screamed at her. She sighed and shook her head. “No. I am fine. Whoever is doing this would get bolder if I show fear and I won’t do that”
Kelvin looked re-ady to argue, then st©pped, pu-lling her closer instead. “I alre-ady have people watching your house, so you don’t have to be worried, the person involved would be caught soon”
Amara’s shoulders sagged slightly in relief. She gazed up at him, appreciatively. “Thanks a lot Kelvin”
He didn’t respond, just walked on silently.
The drive home was filled with comfortable conversations and Amara really enjoyed herself. Kelvin’s phone rang and he took it out to stare at the caller. He looked a bit unsettled but picked up and put the phone against his ear. “Hello” he said into the phone. Amara had never been accused of eavesdropping, but she strangely found herself doing exactly that. “Really… I can’t really talk now… I would call you back…” There was a pause, then, he hung up, dropping the phone without looking at her.
Amara’s br@in ran wild with thoughts. It was obvious that he was hiding something. He had made several business calls in her pres£nce throu-ghout the day without being tense, but as Kelvin dropped the phone and looked squarely at the road with a grim expression on his face, Amara knew something was amiss.
“Is everything alright?” She asked him gently.
He turned to her, looking at her strangely, like he hadn’t quite heard her, then he nodded. “Yes, everything is fine. I just nee-d to sort out some things”
Amara nodded and turned to look out throu-gh her window. It might be his girlfriend! She thought vaguely as the thought created a bitter taste in her mouth. Besides, she thought, nothing st©ps him from having a girlfriend, does it? It doesn’t matter that he k!$$£d me today! He could have just been reacting to the tension at that time. Men k!sswomen all the time, right? It doesn’t even matter that he spent most of the day with me, helping me throu-gh things! He has always been very nice and helpful. And what if he is a flir-t? He has always been! I should st©p thinking he has another sort of interest in me. This is all happening in my head! She sighed. It doesn’t even matter if he told me years back that he loves me! That was several years ago.
Amara swallowed the de-ep sadness that engulfed her, trying to put a cheerful look on her face. The car st©pped in front of her house and Kelvin turned slowly towards her. “I enjoyed myself today” he said gently.
“Me too. Thanks so much” she answered.
Kelvin raised his hand to brush her cheek gently and her breath caught in her throat. “You don’t have to thank me sweetheart” he whispered. He leaned over and gently k!$$£d her on her cheek. His scent enveloped her s-en-ses at the nearness, but Amara could ba-rely contain her disappointment that he hadn’t k!$$£d her where she wanted. She was even surprised to find that she wanted him to k!ssher; to really k!ssher. But as he drew back, the prospect that he might have a woman in his life alre-ady grew larger in her head.
“Are you sure you want to stay here” he asked gently. Amara nodded, unable to open her mouth for fear that she might expo-se her sadness. He nodded also and Amara saw that it was time to leave. She gr@bb£d her bag and turned to the door before she said “Goodnight”
Kelvin’s response was lost to the closing sound of the door as she walked into her compound without looking back. She vaguely heard his car pu-ll away after she had entered the compound. She security lights quenched the darkness of the light as she made her way to her ap@rtment. She saw no justifiable reason why she should be angry. Just yesterday, Max has bid her farewell with a pe-ck just like this and she had hastily jumped out of the car, but now, here she was, wishing Kelvin had given her a real k!ssinstead. What the hell was wrong with her. Tina couldn’t be right, could she? I am not in love with Kelvin, am I? Amara froze as she thought about it. About the way her heart quic-kened at the sight of him; about the way she felt safe and protected whenever he was near; about the way happiness always filled her heart whenever she was with him…
She shook her head. No! I am not in love with him or anyone for that matter, she told herself sternly. She turned to glance at her car and noticed suddenly that all the tires have been replaced. She gr!pp£dher bag and sighed. Kelvin definitely knows the way to a woman’s heart. She had alre-ady lost count on the number of things she nee-ded to thank him for.
She opened the door and went inside the ap@rtment, noticing that everything was just as it should be. She relaxed. The thought that someone was guarding the house also gave her a measure of comfort. She entered the room, discarded her clothes and took a cold shower, washing away all the sweat she had ac¢v-mulated throu-ghout the day. She vaguely thought about Tina and hoped she was asleep now. She thought about her dinner with Kelvin and smiled, discarding her worries for a while. She finally got out of the bathroom, dried herself and pushed on a silky nightie. She opened her bag to take out her tab, then sp©tted the letter Tega had given to her during the day. She had been too busy to even re-ad it.
Lying down on the be-d with a sigh, she to-re the sealed envelope and extracted the paper inside it. When she opened the paper, she bolted up instantly as she re-ad the bold words.
“STAY AWAY FROM MY HUSBAND, YOU who-re”
Amara re-ad the words again and again. Husband? Which husband? She swallowed ha-rd , trying to come up with an explanation. The only man she could think of in her life was Kelvin, and even though he wasn’t technically in her life, many people wouldn’t think that. “Is Kelvin married? Is she the one responsible for all my misfortunes?” She asked aloud, with a bewildered look on her face.
WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 18