#TENDER_BEAUTY
EPISODE 17 (Final)
I looked around gazing at my best friend who had now become my sister, my new mum or step mother, my new father and old father or rather, step father. Prisca had spent nothing less than one hour trying to make me forgive her dad. I was about to leave the hospital and I had refused to forgive him but Prisca has a way of ma-king ha-rd and bad situations simple. She brou-ght to my consciousness the fact that, if my old dad hadn’t spilled the beans, we would still be happy together and that her dad was more or less like my dad before we even found out the truth. I thought about everything and all he did for me when I was nothing but a stranger and had to let my anger dissolve. She had one way or the other united her mum with her dad and everyone with my old dad and I was internally happy; Prisca is an angel when she sets to be one and she can also be the exact opposite when you step on her toes.
Mr Jeg@s c@m£ towards me and bent down beside me. “I am sorry for what I did to your mother and to you. I did what I did out of ignorance and fear that I was about to scatter my home with my own hands. I am sorry, plea-se find a place in your heart to forgive me and your second dad there, plea-se”, he said pleading. No matter how stubborn a person is, it is always difficult to discard the pleadings of an elder. My anger dissolved and I rose up, wiping the tears that had come to my cheeks as I hvgged everyone. We all hvgged each other and Prisca made a funny remark about the emotional atmosphere and we all laughed.
I got to work after two days at home being a Friday and everyone welcomed me. I sat on my seat in the office feeling very lonely and not quite long, my intercom chimed and Joke told me that someone was there to see me and the person prefers to remain anonymous. My hopes were raised as I expected to see my blue eyed love but my expectations were dampened when I saw the visitor.
My expectations were dampened but not so much because the person I saw was welcome. Deji had been discharged from the hospital on Saturday but before he left I had given him ti-ps of what to do during his spare time. He had been scheduled to come thrice a week. He looked s smashing and I gazed at him with a smile on my face. “You were not expecting me right?” he said and I knew he had caught my earlier facial expression. I smiled at him embarras-sed.
“Not really. How are you doing young man? You look exceptional”, I said meaning it.
“Yeah yeah, my life has changed. I am better than fine cos my memory is back”, he said almost yelling and my eyes opened wi-de. I was out of my seat in an instant and I started asking technical questions and when pas-sed the test, we both laughed happily. He brou-ght out a cheque and stretched it towards me but I refused without even checking the amount. We argued for a while but he later hands down when he saw that I stood my grounds. We chatted for a while and when he left, I was smiling, very happy for him.
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*TWO WEEKS LATER*
I threw my pen on the table furiously and hissed. I hadn’t been able to concentrate at all thinking about Richa-rd . It was like he was tactfully dodging me because I did not cross his path once. I had wanted to go to his office many times but I thought better of it but now, I wasn’t finding it funny. Everyone and everything makes me angry and I could not focus at all, even music did not seem to wipe out the feeling of emptiness I felt so I decided to remedy the situation by taking away the façade and doing what my heart dictates.
I left my office and got to my secretary’s desk. “Joke, plea-se postpone any engagement I might have for the next one hour, I nee-d to get somewhere. If there is an emergency, you can call me”, I said. She had a puzzling smile on her face but I didn’t even think about it.
I was about getting to Richa-rd ’s office when my br@in started bugging me with the fact that I should not be doing this but I was past caring. I saw his secretary and greeted her,
“hello Tolani, how are you doing?” I asked to sound casual.
“I am fine Miss Belina”, she responded.
“plea-se is Doctor Richa-rd in? I nee-d to see him urgently”, I said hoping to get a positive response.
“Yes, he is. Wait let me inform him” she said picking the intercom.
“NO. plea-se don’t. I want it to be like a surprise visit, plea-se”
“Aaaahh, plea-se o, I might get into trouble. He has been so harsh on everyone recently and I don’t want to lose my job”
“Don’t worry, he won’t do anything like that, I promise” I said and without waiting for a reply, I went to the door and knocked. I heard the familiar voice say come in, a little above the normal but I entered. The sight of him made me forget all I wanted to say but he was not looking at me, his eyes were on the books on his table.
“Yes?” he said without taking his eyes from the books.
I took a de-ep breath and said, “Richa-rd ” His head j£rked up instantly and his blue eyes pierced into my soul. I was shaking there, not knowing what to say so I looked at my hands and said whatever c@m£ to my mind.
“Richa-rd , I know I have offended you and I am sorry. I should not have said what I said but I just could not imagine myself falling for a man so I tried to push you away with my words. I know you have been avoiding me and you should because what I said is bad, it is very bad but I can’t concentrate, I have been trying to work but I just can’t, I… I…” I st©pped unable to continue. My eyes were we-t and I just wanted to run out of there but I noticed a f!nger raise my head up and I was surprised that he was alre-ady at my front. We stared into each other’s eyes and I just wanted him to hold me close because my heart was pounding wildly. I don’t know who moved forward between the two of us but I noticed that the space between us had thinned and all I wanted was to have him k!ssme. He bent his head forward like he re-ad my thoughts and closed hisl-ips against mine. I was totally lost and when we finally broke off some minutes later, he placed his head against mine and looked into my eyes.
“You don’t know just how long I have wanted to k!ssyou, heart. I love you so much”, he said.
“I love you too with all my heart Richa-rd ”. He k!$$£d me again. After the k!ss, we just held on to each other and seemed to melt into one another.
We went to the couch in his office laughing happily and there, I explained everything that happened with Kelvin, my mum, everything and he was so sympathetic and said he wished he could see Kelvin face to face in order to teach him a good lesson. He also promised never to hurt me but respect me always. He then went forward to explain everything about his family, mother, love life especially his affair with Tonia and how it had become his nightmare after her supposed death and I felt his pain. I remembered that I had felt he had a dark side but I never imagined something as serious as that. He apologized for keeping away and said that he wanted to give me time to get over what I was going throu-gh and that he had climbe-d the steps severally on his way to my office but had returned back after a second thought. We k!$$£d, laughed and by the time my phone started ringing, I discovered that I had spent three hours with him.
“Aaaahhh, I have to go, I have stayed too long” I said standing up immediately but he pu-ll-ed me back and held me against himself in a warm hvg then he k!$$£d my cheeks and whispered, ‘I love you’. I replied the same way and was out of the office.
That was the beginning of our relationsh!pand it is an experience that remains stamped in my memory. We were together for three months, had some misun-derstandings which never lasted two days before either of us, mostly him would desolve and exactly three months after our relationsh!pstarted, I got a ring on my f!ngersin a very dazzling way.
I had been at home all day, watching movies and listening to music to my heart’s content when all of a sudden, the lights went off. I was busy raining insults on NEPA and trying to look for the lamp when suddenly the lights went on again. It went off and it later started doing on and off like you would see in ghost films. I was so scared that I ran out of the house in utter confusion and when I got outside, I saw a chauffeur who claimed to be s£nt by my father to get me away from the house that the house would soon explode. I was so scared that I entered without complaints. He drove for a while and I asked him where he was going exactly and he said that I would know soon. We drove for close to an hour without traffic and my panic started rising. I asked questions and he did not answer. I started calling people secretly thinking that I was being kidnapped by nob©dy’s number was going throu-gh. I almost died out of fear cos everywhere was terribly dark.
We got to a place and he told me to come down. “Are you crazy? Where am i?” I yelled as I stepped out of the car looking at the large expance of bushes by my sides. He pointed at a tiny footpath at my front and said,
“go throu-gh that path and you would your parents”, he said and as was protesting, he entered the car and zoomed off. Tears started pouring down my face as I looked round in fear. I stared at the tiny footpath and was scared as hell then I remembered how I had escaped my previous kidnap and moved into the bush. The light from my phone did not even do anything to favour me so I started running with tears in my face when all of a sudden light appeared everywhere and the whole place was filled with people screaming ‘surprise’. My heart jumped and relief washed over me even though my heart still beat wildly.
Prisca c@m£ to hvg me and wipe my tears but I just stood there looking like I was in another planet. I was furious at the stunt they pu-ll-ed but the anger died after I had been dressed by beauty queens who washed my feet tenderly. I wore a flowing red go-wn which was like the most beautiful go-wn I had ever seen. When I got out, everyone had vanished and I was standing there looking lost again only that this time, I was not afraid. I turned round and saw Richa-rd coming towards me being traced by a search light and when he got to me, he k!$$£d my forehead and said, “I have been waiting for you, heart”. I kept quiet and he led me to the most beautiful place I had ever seen. We were surrounded with flowers which sparkled in the dark like a star. I held him close as my breath was taken away and whispered,
“It is so beautiful Prince” He faced me and said,
“I want everyday of our lives to be more beautiful than this, love, but there is only one way this can happen” he said, knelt down and picked something from one of the flower and immediately, the flowers grew letters. I g@sped and looked from the flowers to Richa-rd and he produced a sparkling diamond ring.
“plea-se marry me”, he said and the tears in my eyes started flowing freely. I looked at the flowers and saw the same words on it. I knelt down in front of him and shouted,
“Yes… yes… yes… I would marry you”. He sli-pped the ring into my f!nger, I opened my eyes everyone was there taking pictures and I pu-ll-ed Richa-rd into my arms.
*ONE YEAR LATER*
“plea-se hurry up, we are going to be late for church”, mummy said in her dazzling native attire. My makeup artists just did not leave me alone as they were intent on ma-king me look exceptional and I wanted to. Yes, it is my wedding day! Prisca c@m£ in looking so unique in her wine go-wn as the maid of honour. She had her wedding two months ago and it was the talk of the town. Their wedding had been very big and it was carried on TV. They did their honey moon in the United States and had gone from one place to another, sightseeing.
We entered the car and zoomed off. Definitely, a wife would always be late to her own wedding. I got there and guess who walked me down the aisle? My two fathers did. Mr Badmus and Mr Jeg@s. Mr Badmus is now a big man in the society and has remarried and coming as a surprise, his wife is pregnant! God is awesome. They took me to the front and I could not hide my joy. When Richa-rd saw me coming, he opened his mouth in awe and my steps quic-kened.
After sometime, we both were re-ady to say our vows and we said it gazing at each0ther’s eyes and a promise in our heart to fulfill our vows to the letter. I respected him because he had fulfilled his promise of respecting and not asking for S-x no matter how tense the atmosphere might be. We said our vows and k!$$£d with all the love in our hearts. After a lot of merry, there was a time for couple’s dance and a slow ro-mantic song was pla-yed, Richa-rd took me to the center to dance floor and we moved slowly in circles to the music. He looked into my eyes and said, “Today is the happiest day of my life honey”. I smiled and said, “Even when I am one hundred years old, I would remember today”.
Richa-rd had briefed me about his father’s wealth but I never imagined he was exceedingly rich and famous until our wedding. So many government officials were pres£nt and so many TV stations s£nt their journalists to capture the event.
“I want our daughters to be exactly like you. Your eyes, hair, nose, voice, everything”, he said smiling lovingly.
“And I want our sons to look like you, to have everything you have including your doctoring skill but most importantly, the colour of your eyes” He laughed.
“You have not told me where we would spend our honey moon” I said after a while
“It is a surprise”, he said and k!$$£d me de-eply. All the journalists there battled to get the best position but later I forgot all about them and enjoyed the arms of my love.
*I am here in Costa Rica having the best time of my life. It is just so wonderful checking out the animals, exploring the forests and swimming with the love of my life beside me and we are going to wra-p it up by spending a week at Sunset Beach in Jamaica. Believe me, it pays to wait until you say your vows before exploring what is beneath the cloth of your spouse.*
***THE END***
WATCHOUT FOR SEASON 2