The miracle I nee-d 2 Episode 6

#THE_MIRACLE_I_nee-d_2

EPISODE 6

“Daddy!” Amanda screeched happily as she jumped on her father immediately he walked into the house.

“How are you my pumpkin?” Pete asked with a wi-de smile as his eyes scanned the living room for Kathleen, but he could only see her mother and sister sitting there with Chuka.

“Welcome Uncle. Good evening sir.” Isioma greeted with a polite smile.

“Good evening Isioma, how are you?” Pete asked before turning to look at Kathleen’s mom, “Good evening ma. How have you been?”

Kathleen’s mother smiled at him, “Good evening. How are you? How was your trip? You’re welcome.” She said, happy that he was back, and was probably going to resolve her daughter’s doubts.

“I’m fine.”

“Guy, I think say you say na one week meeting? Why are you back when today is just Wednesday?” Chidi asked with a curious frown.

“Where is Kathleen?” Pete asked, ignoring Chidi’s interrogation.

“She called to say she is hanging out with Sharon this evening so I shouldn’t pick her from work. She should be home soon.” Chidi explained ma-king Pete frown. He had hurriedly left the conference just so he could meet her, but she wasn’t even at home?

“Okay.” He said, sounding slightly disappointed, “plea-se don’t let her know I’m back,” he told them before heading for his be-droom with Amanda who was chattering endlessly.

He knew he should probably give her a call and let her know he was back, but he wanted her to come home and see him, so the surprise wouldn’t be entirely ruined.

Immediately he got into his be-droom he dropped his suitcase on the be-d, “How have you been pumpkin?” Pete asked as he sat on the be-d and placed Amanda on his l@p.

“I missed you very much,” Amanda said with a happy smile as she wra-pped her arms around his n£¢k.

“I missed you more baby. Why don’t we go out this weekend? We will spend the whole day together as we used to,” Pete suggested. He realized he hadn’t been paying attention to her ever since Kathleen started working for him and her family c@m£ visiting.

“With aunty Kathleen?” Amanda asked curiously.

“You want her to come with us?” Pete asked, and she bobbe-d her head eagerly.

“She is going to be my mummy, right?” Amanda asked, ma-king Pete’s curve in a smile.

“You want her to be your mummy?”

“Yes.”

“Why?” Pete asked curiously.

“Because she is very pretty and nice.”

“Yes, she is,” Pete said with a nod.

“So?” Amanda asked, c0cking her head to the side.

“So what?”

She frowned at him as though he had a short memory, “I asked if she was going to become my mummy,” she reminded him.

“Oh! Maybe. I will ask her.”

“I asked her to marry you alre-ady,” Amanda confessed.

Pete’s heart skipped a beat, “You did? When?”

“Yesterday when we were looking at the pictures.”

“And what did she say?”

“She just cried. Maybe she wants you to ask her yourself,” Amanda suggested.

“Maybe.”

“So you’re going to ask, right?” Amanda asked excitedly.

“Yes. I just have to think about the best way to go about it.” Pete said with a nod.
__________

*[The Lounge]*

“It’s getting late. I think I should start going home,” Kathleen said immediately she glanced at her phone and realized it was past 8 PM alre-ady.

Sharon picked up her phone to check the time, “But it’s just 8 PM, it’s not that late yet,” Sharon protested since she was still enjoying the conversation with Chuka.

“Coming from someone who doesn’t have a job. I have to go to work tomorrow, and so does he,” Kathleen said, ma-king Sharon glare at her while Chuka chuckled.

“Kathleen is right, it’s getting late. Give me a minute to settle the bill,” Chuka said before standing up and walking away.

“Why are you behaving like this na?” Sharon hissed at Kathleen immediately they were alone.

“How?”

“Abeg don’t worry. It’s like you don’t even want me and him to be friends,” Sharon said irritably.

“We both know that if he likes you he will ask for your number and try to meet you again without me in the picture, so st©p acting so desperate,” Kathleen advised, ma-king Sharon snort.

“You’re now the one giving me relationsh!padvice o! This life nuh really balance,” Sharon said ma-king Kathleen giggle.

“See, just allow me to do most of the talking unless he’s talking to you directly, you hear?” Sharon asked, and Kathleen nodded.

“I hope I didn’t keep you ladies waiting?” Chuka asked when he returned to the table, and both ladies stood up.

“Not at all,” Sharon as-sured him, flashing him a smile.

“Let’s do this again soon. I really enjoyed your company,” Chuka said as they all walked out of the lounge and got into the elevator.

“Kat, your birthday is next week abi? How about we all hang out together on your birthday?” Sharon suggested.

“My boss asked me to leave the day open…”

“Why do you keep calling him your boss? Call his name na! Or you’re scared of his name?” Sharon asked with a frown as they all walked out of the elevator and headed for the parking lot.

“You see what I told you before we c@m£ here? Did you notice that her voice has changed from the way it was when you just met her?” Kathleen asked Chuka who laughed out loud.

“She is very aggressive when talking to me. But once it’s you her voice transforms,” Kathleen continued as she st©pped by the car and Chuka unlocked it.

“Sharon, won’t you defend yourself?” Chuka asked as he turned to look at Sharon who was looking away in embarras-sment as she got into the car.

“Abeg no nee-d. You both should on your xenders so I s£nd you the pictures we snapped,” Sharon suggested, changing the subject. They had used her phone to take some selfies since she was the only one using an iPhone amongst them.

“Can you just s£nd it to me on WhatsApp instead?” Chuka asked as he turned on the car’s ignition, ma-king Kathleen turn in her seat to grin at Sharon, while Sharon in turn was smiling. They all knew it was a subtle way of asking her for her number.

“Sure,” Sharon said, trying not to sound too excited.

“Good then. Use my phone to flash yours so you can have my number,” Chuka said as he unlocked and handed his phone to her. That way he would have her number too.

Sharon did as he requested and then saved his number on her phone before forwarding the pictures to him on WhatsApp. After doing that she returned his phone to him.

“Now now you have uploaded on WhatsApp!” Kathleen who was checking her WhatsApp messages exclaimed as soon as she saw Sharon’s status and saw a picture of Chuka as well as one of all three of them together.

“Isn’t that WhatsApp status is meant for? I’m not like you that uploads once in a blue moon as if you’re scared of village people. You even dressed fine for a d@t£ and didn’t upload any pictures!” Sharon said with a snort.

“It’s true o! You didn’t even wish me happy birthday on WhatsApp,” Chuka exclaimed.

“Is it that important?”

“It is! Go and upload pictures jor. You’re just living like a ghost,” Sharon snapped at her as she quic-kly forwarded the pictures to Kathleen on WhatsApp too, “I’ve s£nt you the pictures. Upload the ones we snapped,” Sharon suggested.

“Because it is your birthday let me wish you a happy birthday then.” Kathleen said as she uploaded Chuka’s picture and captioned it, ‘Happy birthday to my big brother from another mother. Live long and prosper’

And then she uploaded another selfie picture of the three of them, with the caption ‘Birthday man’.

Immediately she posted it, she received a WhatsApp message from Kimberly, “You know him?”
____________

After seeing off Wumi, Kimberly sat in the living room as she waited for Eric and Prisca to be done with whatever they were cooking. Eric had asked her to relax in the living room by watching the television or pla-ying games on her phone instead of joining them in the kitchen.

Her mind wandered to all the incidents of the day and then she remembered that she was supposed to chat Kathleen up on WhatsApp. She quic-kly opened her WhatsApp mess£nger, and when she didn’t see any message from Kathleen, she decided to check the status upd@t£s of those on her contact list before chatting Kathleen up. It was at that moment that she noticed that Kathleen had just uploaded the picture of a man, so she cli-cked on it expecting to see Pete’s picture.

Kimberly was slightly taken aback when she saw the picture of ‘Tunde Obasan’ on Kathleen’s status, “Happy birthday to my big brother from another mother?” Kimberly re-ad out loud as she looked at the picture in confusion. Kathleen was friends with him? She wondered as she quic-kly replied to the post, “You know him?”

“Yes. He is my friend. Good evening,” Kathleen responded.

Friend? Kimberly wondered, but before she could respond Prisca walked out of the kitchen to join her so she dropped the phone.

“Are you very mad at me?” Prisca asked guiltily.

“No. I have no reason to be mad,” Kimberly as-sured her but Prisca didn’t look convinced.

“I know I should have told you…”

“I’m not angry. I don’t know, I’m just grateful. Though I wish you were with me out of love and devotion, I’m still glad that I had someone like you beside me. I never would have come this far without you,” Kimberly said ma-king Prisca sniffle.

“Thank you for not being mad. I love you,” Prisca said as she wiped a tear from her eyes, and Kimberly embr@ced her.

“It’s okay. Let’s not talk about any sad t©pic,” Kimberly said as she pu-ll-ed away from Prisca.

“Okay,” Prisca said with a nod, and then she remembered that Kim was yet to tell her how her meeting went with Tunde Obasan. What other t©pic was better than that?

“So how did it go with Tunde Obasan?” Prisca asked ma-king Kimberly raise a f!nger to her l!pto silence her. The last thing she wanted was for Eric to find out about his friend’s betrayal and be hurt.

“Let’s step outside, I don’t want Eric to find out about what happened,” Kimberly whispered as she picked up her phone and stood up.

“Why?” Prisca asked in confusion. Wasn’t Eric the one who had arranged the meeting? Why was she keeping away the details from him? Prisca wondered.

“Babe I’m stepping outside with Prisca. I nee-d fresh air,” Kimberly called to Eric from the doorway of the kitchen.

“Sure. I’ll let you know when I’m done,” Eric said without turning to look at her as beads of sweat coated his brow. The kitchen was very h0t.

Kimberly couldn’t help feeling sorry for him, “You know you didn’t have to fix anything, right? You just c@m£ back from a trip and you’re supposed to be resting,” Kimberly said as she walked into the kitchen and wra-pped her arms around him from behind.

“Don’t worry, I’m okay. Now go and get that fresh air while I finish up here,” Eric suggested as he turned around and k!$$£d her forehead before c0cking his head towards the door.

Kimberly stood there looking at him as though she wanted to say something. A p@rt of her felt like telling him that she loved him too, but another p@rt of her was being cautious. She made up her mind that was going to tell him how much she loved him after he tells her everything about himself as he had promised to. Having made up her mind she gave him her best smile before walking out of the kitchen to join Prisca.

“I thought you were not coming out again,” Prisca said with a teasing smile when Kimberly finally joined her outside, “So what happened? And why don’t you want Eric to know about it?” Prisca asked without beating around the bush

Kimberly drew in a de-ep breath, “Can you believe that he asked me to sleep with him?”

“WHAT?” Prisca’s disbelief was obvious in her tone.

Kimberly gave a nod, “I was surprised too. Especially since he is Eric’s close friend,” Kimberly said with a sigh.

“And what did you tell him? You didn’t, did you?” Prisca asked with a worried frown.

“Honestly? I think I might have done it. Not because of all the things he promised to do, but just for the S-x,” Kimberly said with a worried frown.

“So you didn’t?” Prisca asked curiously and breathed in relief when Kimberly shook her head.

“Yeah. I was very tem-pted and I was struggling inside me and praying for the strength to reject him. And then God used Kathleen to help me,” Kimberly said with a smile.

“Kathleen?”

“Yes. She called to check on me and see if I wanted to go to church with her tomorrow. That reminds me, it seems like Kathleen is friends with him,” Kimberly said as she unlocked her phone.

“Him who? Tunde? How did you know?” Prisca asked curiously.

“She posted his picture saying today was his birthday,”

“Really? Let me see his picture. I’m disappointed that someone like him asked for S-x though. Let’s just forget the contract and…” Prisca’s words trailed off when her eyes fell on the picture Kimberly was showing her and her heart skipped a beat, “This is Tunde?” She asked, looking into Kimberly’s face.

“Yeah. He doesn’t even look like someone capable of something like that, right?” Kimberly asked with a wry smile.

Prisca said nothing as her br@in began to process all that was going on. This man was the same person she had seen when she went in search of Eric’s house. That girl had said he was Eric’s friend and had said he got a job so he moved out. She had called him Chuka, omo Igbo…

“Ask her what his name is,” Prisca said, her heart racing. She didn’t want to make any conclusions until she was certain.

“Why? His name is Tunde…” Before Kimberly could finish speaking Prisca snatched the phone from her and started typing.

“Your friend? He looks like someone I know, what is his name?” Prisca asked.

Kathleen who had been bored listening to the conversation between Chuka and Sharon glanced at her phone, “Really? His name is Chuka.”

“Chuka?” Kimberly who had been looking at what Prisca was typing asked in confusion, “Two people can look this much alike? He looks like Tunde Obasan. They even have the same haircut and all, or maybe he is lying to her about his name?” Kimberly asked in confusion.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” Kimberly asked when she noticed Prisca looking at her with mouth agape.

Prisca g@sped in surprise. If Chuka who was Eric’s friend was pretending to be Tunde Obasan, and Chuka had told his landlady’s daughter that Eric was very wealthy, then that had to mean just one thing… Eric King was Tunde Obasan, Kimberly’s husband.

WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 7