He said no Episode 13 & 14

13/14
HE SAID NO
EPISODE 13
 
 
After staying for a while at Honorable Durojaiye’s birthday p@rty, he was celebr@ting his 60th birthday and the p@rty which put up by his children had lots of dignitaries in attendance, Amifel decided to take a stroll outside the large event center, although the p@rty was quite interesting for an old school p@rty, the sound of the speakers was starting to make her head to ban-g.
Oluyole Event center was one of the largest indoor halls in the state and Amifel alongside her awesome team did an awesome job with the hall decoration and overall planning of the event.
“Another successful event is done and dusted,” she said, smiling to herself as the invited and non-invited guests trooped in and out of the premises. She was first thinking about leaving the p@rty midway because she had a meeting to catch up with but on second thought she decided to stay till the end. She had alre-ady received half payment and was expecting the rest after the event.
“Hello, I love your dress,” a young female guest smiled as she walked out of the premise,
“Thank you,” she smiled back before taking a quic-k glance at her dress, Clas-sic stitches must have really done a good job, she had been receiving compliments all day and she was not tired, trust Mrs. Robert, she hyped her up so well and only allowed her to leave home after she promised to s£nd a picture of her outfit to George.
She was elegantly dressed in a shimmering long black go-wn, the off-shoulder go-wn was sewn to complement her beautifully shaped b©dy, and she felt confident. She had learnt her lesson the ha-rd way.
She once attended an event where she dressed casually because she felt that it was just a birthday p@rty until the guests started coming in and someone mistook her for the maid. She chuckled as she remembered the way she stood transfixed to a sp©t after one of the guests spoke to her rashly,
“Hey, come and clean up this place,” at first, she didn’t know that she was the one the man was referring to, and so she ignored him until he moved close to where she was and gave her a harsh sl@p at the back, and tugged at her sleeves and dragged her r0ûghly to his seat before facing her, for a cute young man, he looked mad and his unkempt dre-ads made him look even madder.
“Are you deaf? Clean up this place!” he barked, Amifel looked at him, she felt like a gong hit her on the head, she could not believe her eyes. Embarras-sed? That would be an un-derstatement. All eyes fell on them, she wanted to talk but all of a sudden, she could not find her voice, don’t even bother to ask why she didn’t walk away, her legs felt heavier than a grinding stone. It reminded her of the statue in a folktale she re-ad when she was much younger, where poor tortoise hid in the bush to sing songs that made a bean-cake seller drop her tray of bean-cakes to dance away, this kept happening every day, even the people that followed her on a rescue mission found themselves dancing away and nob©dy could tell who was responsible until a one-legged man made a statue and smeared it all around with a gummy substance.
The next day, the young lady was out as usual to sell her bean-cakes and Tortoise did as his manner had become, the young girl danced away alongside other people that had come to witness the scene, only the statue was left. Tortoise, who didn’t know that it was a statue angrily sl@pped the statue repeatedly until his whole b©dy was ti-ghtly glued to the statue and he was honorably caught. That was how Amifel felt as she helplessly watched as the drama unfolded, the man kept ranting and was even mad at her for not talking nor moving, and for a while, nob©dy c@m£ to her rescue. Thankfully, a poorly dressed girl ran towards them with a mop stick,
“Excuse me, sir, I will clean it right away,” the girl said, as she quic-kly set to work without waiting for directions.
“Oh, I thought…” Amifel did not let him finish before she shamefully left the scene at a speed of light, even a maid does not deserve to be treated with so much disgust, they are human too and they deserve to be respected. Her clients apologized to her profusely afterward and even paid her extra, as for the man, he might have apologized if she had waited but she was not looking forward to seeing him again. Since then, she promised herself to always look her best for events including burial ceremonies.
She was thinking of going back inside the hall, when she remembered that she had not spoken to George since their last d@t£, he s£nt her a text to her that day, to say that he had gotten home and it had been 3 days, she had not bothered to call him either. She cared less, after all, she was looking for a way to excuse herself, but on second thought, she decided to give him a call.
“That is really unlike George, I hope he’s fine,” she thought to herself as she dialed his number, he didn’t pick up the first time and she called again, hoping he would not pick up but he did,
“Hello,” he said coldly,
“Hey George, how are you? hope you’re good?” she asked,
“Yeah, I’m good, you?” George didn’t sound eager to talk to her and so, she tried to prolong the conversation to save the awkward situation.
“Good too, I haven’t heard from you for a while, hope everything is fine?”
“Yeah, I have been busy,” he said, sounding so emotionless,
“Oh, okay. I just wanted to check up on you, I mean it’s unlike you not to even call to…”
“I call when I want to speak to you, you can take a cue from that,” he cut in,
“Oh, really? So, should I take that to mean that you don’t want to speak to me?” she asked,
“I didn’t say that, I only said you can call if you want to speak to me, I don’t have to do the calling all the time,”
“Oh, it’s fine, I get. Have a good day,” she angrily cut the call before he could say another word, as she waited a bit for his call back. Typical George would always call back, especially if they hadn’t said their proper goodbyes, or if he knew that she was angry.
After waiting for almost 15 minutes, it was obvious that George had no intentions of calling back. She went back into the hall a while later, and she was thankful that they were almost wra-pping up the event or she couldn’t have coped in such a happy atmosphere with her bottled-up anger.
Was George was being petty or what?
 
 
Episode 14.
 
The trio had not had their regular hang out for about 2 weeks, all thanks to work and conflicting schedules. However, Amifel and Blessing saw more often because they worked together most of the time. Amifel usually recommended Blessing for cakes and pastries whenever she got new invites for event plannings,
It was weekend, and there was no event to manage, Amifel was bored and so she decided to visit her friends. She didn’t bother calling because they were meant to be home, after all, it was weekend. Also, she didn’t want to go anywhere noisy and her friends won’t condescend to that, so she decided to go uninvited.
However, when she got to their place, she wished she actually called before going.
“Good afternoon ma’am, ” a chubby dark-skinned man greeted her as he opened the door, one of her friends obviously had a visitor, or maybe it was the both of them.
“Good afternoon sir, are they home?” She asked, contemplating turning back, “Yeah, Grace is around, she just excused herself to get something, ” he explained, “My name is Michael, I am Grace’s friend, ” he continued, extending his hands,
“plea-se pardon my manners, I am Amifel, and they are my friends as well, ” she answered receiving his hands in hers,
She did a quic-k scan, standing before her was a short and plump man who looked like he was in his mid-thirties, he was muscular and hairy, he definitely belonged to a low budget bearded gang and not the same gang George was in. What caught her attention the most were his boot-cut trou-sers, she thought guys no longer rocked that kind of trou-ser and she was shocked to see one in front of her, the ti-p could the trou-ser and his Afro cut reminded her of the way guys used to dress in the 70s. Ap@rt from his cute face, she scored him zero for every other attribute.
“What could Grace be doing with such a man, ” she thought to herself as she sat on their maxi-be-d, patiently waiting for Grace. She remembered the man Blessing was gisting her about in their last outing and silently hoped he wasn’t the one.
“Amifel, you are here. I didn’t know you’d be coming around, ” Grace said, immediately she c@m£ in.
“Yeah, I didn’t know that you were having a guest either, I just wanted to surprise you, ” Amifel smiled,
“Oh yeah, you did surprise me, ” Grace said, “By the way, meet Mike, he’s my friend and we serve in the same dep@rtment in church, she continued,
” I alre-ady met him, ” Amifel said, “Should I take that to mean that you are a badas-s singer?” Amifel asked, facing Michael,
“Well, I am trying my best, ” Michael laughed, his big front tooth stared at Amifel, some moments after, “I think I would love to take my leave now, ” he announced,
“What? Why? I alre-ady got you a drink, maybe you’ll take it along then, ” Grace said, unpacking the chilled can malt she went to buy, the drinks in their fridge were alre-ady h0t, all thanks to PHCN.
“I’m sorry, I just remembered I had an engagement for this evening, and I have to prepare for it, ” he explained,
Amifel felt like he wasn’t comfortable with her and she hoped she didn’t make her disapproval too obvious.
“Why do I feel like you are going because of me?” She asked him,
“I second that, Mike can be a little shy, ” Grace said, he giggled before answering her, “Of course not, if anyone would be uncomfortable then it would be your friend because she wanted to leave immediately she saw me, ”
“Oh, really. I just thought… Well never mind, ” she said, as he made a face, “Hey, have we met before?” Amifel asked sarcastically,
” I doubt that, ” he responded,
“I’m just joking, ” she laughed, “but really, you don’t have to go, ” she continued, hoping he would insist on leaving.
“I would have loved to ma’am, maybe some other time, ”
“Okay, if you say so. It was a plea-sure meeting you, ”
“The plea-sure is mine, I guess I’ll see you around, ”
“Okay, ”
“Maybe you’ll take the drink along with you then and some snacks, ” Grace offered,
“Don’t let me do that, let your friend have it so that I would save you the stress of going to get another, ”
“Her? She’s not a visitor, we’ll sort hers out, ”
“I insist Grace, ”
“Okay fine, Amifel, I’ll be back, ” Grace said as she made to see him off after they said their goodbyes.
Grace was away for a couple of minutes and Amifel who was glad the young man left re-moved her wig and un-bu-ttoned her shi-t as she la-id down more comfortably on the be-d.
“What if that old school guy forgot something and decides to come back for it?” She thought to herself, she didn’t bother answering before she quic-kly replaced her wig and adjusted her shi-t,
“Amifel, whatsup? I didn’t know you would be coming around, ” Grace said, as soon as she opened the door,
“Madam, you have said that before, plea-se say another thing, ” Amifel said, as Grace laughed, she quic-kly re-moved her wig again and gave her hair a light scratch,
“Don’t be ridiculous jor, What’s the plan? I would have said we should go out but I don’t know when Blessing would get back, ”
“Don’t even bother, I just want to stay indoor, ” Amifel quic-kly said,
“That makes two of us, how have you been?” She asked, settling on the be-d beside her,
“I’m good, well I know I would be, ” Amifel answered,
“What’s wrong?”
“Leave my own first, let’s talk about you, is that him?”
“Who?” Grace said, trying to feign ignorance,
“Uganda, ” she hissed, “Abeg, is that the ‘man’ that you were talking about the other time?”
“Oh, Mike, it’s him, ”
“I mean the one you were hoping to share something beautiful with, ”
“Yes, it’s him, ” Grace affirmed,
“Wawu! Amazing! Is he a pastor?” Amifel said with a sm-irk,
“No, why?”
“Well maybe he plans to be, his trou-ser is a witness, “she laughed as Grace hit her pla-yfully with a pillow, ” Really, who dresses like that in this age that we are in?”
“The trou-ser isn’t that bad moreover, I think that is the only one he has of that style, ”
“Hmmm, defender of the helpless. Things people do for love…” Amifel shrugged,
” Mike is actually a nice man when you get to know him, ”
“Well, with his archaic dress style, he doesn’t exactly have a choice except he plans to remain single for a long time, ” Amifel said, almost choking on her laughter, it did not look like Grace was finding the whole thing funny,
“You don’t sound like you like him, ”
“Does that matter? So long as you like him, it’s fine, ” she giggled, as she stood up and headed to their wooden table, she helped herself to the cold malt meant for Grace’s guest, “is there anything I can munch alongside?” She asked as Grace flung a plastic bottle of chinchin towards her,
“Enough about your old school friend, some strange things have been happening lately, ” Amifel said, sitting back beside Grace, as she narrated the dream she had to her,
 
 
To be continued…