season 2
7/8
THE PACT
Me, you, her and him
-CHAPTER 7-
Unedited
KRISTIAN
I am sitting in the cafeteria with a nice h0t cu-p of coffee when Lee walks up to me. Lee is the last person I was expecting to see this morning. I had a breakfast meeting with a client and I decided to stay a while after he left.
‘’Baby mama!’’
‘’Baby daddy!’’
‘’How are you?’’
‘’I am fine thanks, how are you?’’
‘’I am great,’’ he points at the empty chair across from mine, ‘’mind?’’
‘’There are several empty seats,’’ I respond gesturing around the empty café, ‘’but sure you can sit with me.’’
‘’Thank you, what are you doing here?’’ he asks as he sits down.
‘’I had a meeting, my client left a few minutes ago, I decided to stay behind and have more coffee, what are you doing here?’’
‘’I c@m£ to gr-ab some breakfast, I am starving.’’
‘’You have alre-ady ordered?’’
‘’Yes.’’
‘’Let me guess, freshly-squee-zed orange jui-ce, a ham omelette and sausage?’’
‘’You still remember?’’
‘’Oh yes I still do, you always order the same thing.’’
He laughs, ‘’I am glad you still remember the things I love.’’
The waiter walks up to our table before I can respond, he places the tray of food on the table and leaves. There is silence as he digs into his omelette while I pretend to be typing away on my phone while giving him a side glance.
Looking up, he catches me staring at him and I shyly raise my voice to comment, ‘’it’s a beautiful day.’’
He laughs, ‘’you don’t have to pretend with me Kristian, you know you can look at me as much as you want.’’
I shrug, ‘’you are being dramatic now.’’
‘’No I am not, how are things between you and Dante?’’
‘’Everything is okay, how are things with you and Meira?’’
‘’Well, you know Meira always complaining about different things every day.’’
‘’I am sure it’s always, why is Caleb always here? Why are you and Kristy still talking? Tell your baby that you are mine again,’’ I say in a pinched high voice imitating her and Lee bur-sts into laughter.
‘’You nailed it right there,’’ he bur-sts out laughing again, even louder than before.
‘’I bet the mare sight of me infuriates her.’’
‘’It does, you should see the look on her face when my phone rings and she notices you are the one calling.’’
‘’Well, she just nee-ds to learn how to deal with it, I will forever be in your life. And the fact that you were mine before you were hers makes her so insecure, she still sees me as a threat, she thinks we might get back some day.’’
He stares at me intently, takes a sip of his jui-ce and asks, ‘’is that even a possibility?’’
I hold my cu-p of coffee up to him, ‘’what? Us getting back?’’
‘’Yes, don’t you think we would make a perfect little family, you me and Caleb, maybe we would even have a mini you- stubborn and loud, if we had a girl, I would name her Clarissa Wanipa Mumbi…’’
I smile, ‘’if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.’’
‘’So you are saying it can’t happen, that we are completely done?’’
‘’You know we both have moved on and we are with other people.’’
He looks at me intently again, ‘’ can I ask you a question? And plea-se be honest with me.’’
‘’Okay, shoot.’’
‘’Do you love Dante?’’
‘’Why would I be with someone I don’t love?’’
‘’You don’t answer a question with another question, do you love Dante? Yes or No?’’
I swallow ha-rd before I respond, ‘’I do.’’
‘’Do you love him as much as you loved me?’’
‘’Dante is good man, I have learned to love him.’’
‘’That day that you c@m£ to my house and found Meira and I k!ssing, why did you come? plea-se be honest.’’
We have never talked about that fateful afternoon until now, I always felt there was no reason to talk about it.
‘’When I c@m£ back that afternoon, I had intentions of asking you to take me back that was why wore the ring again, I wanted to ask you for forgiveness, I wanted us to try again but,’’ I pause.
‘’Why didn’t you just tell me you wanted me back?’’
I laugh, ‘’I found you k!ss!nganother woman, there was no way I could have started begging you.’’
‘’So you decided to run like you always did?’’
‘’I loved you Lee, I loved you so much, I fv¢king broke my rules for you. I thought you loved me but you didn’t. You jumped into the hands of another woman at slightest opportunity, the very woman that was always throwing herself at you even when we were together, what did you want me to do? A lot of things went throu-gh my mind that afternoon.’’
‘’Does Dante k!ssyou the way I used to k!ssyou? Does he make you feel things you felt when I t©uçhed you or made love to you?’’ Are you certain this is the man you want to spend the rest of your life with?’’
‘’I think I should leave now.’’
‘’How many times are you going to keep running Kristian? Why can’t you be true to yourself?’’
‘’You have someone in your life and I have someone too, I am engage dude,’’ I flaunt the ring in his face.
‘’And so? I never said I love Meira and I am being honest with you right now, I would appreciate it if you were honest as well.’’
‘’Dante is a good man and I love him, it was nice bu-mping into you Bashi Caleb, I will talk to you later.’’
And with that, I gr-ab my bag and leave.
THE PACT
Me, you, her and him
-CHAPTER 8-
Sitting in my office, my stomach clenches in absolute chaos and my heart feels like it is sitting in my throat, taking a de-ep breath, I lean back into my chair and close my eyes. Two years and Lee is still the man my heart yearns for. Dante was a rebound, I only started d@t!nghim to prove to Lee that I was over him but this seems to be backfiring on me. I still love Lee and it hurts me that he is with someone else and not me. On the other hand Dante wants us to get married soon, I feel like I am tra-pped between a rock and a ha-rd place with no exit. What should I do? Do I just get married to Dante hoping that one day I will learn to love him or do I try to fix things between Lee and I but what happens to our p@rtners? How do we just break their hearts?
‘’Babe,’’ Dante taps my shoulder, startled. I turned around sharply. I didn’t even hear him walk into the office.
‘’Hey babe,’’ I manage a smile.
‘’Are you okay?’’
‘’I am fine, what’s up?’’
‘’I have been talking to you but you have been abs£nt minded, are you sure you are okay?’’
‘’I am fine, I just have a lot on my mind.’’
He sits down across from me and holds my hand, ‘’tell me about it.’’
‘’Don’t worry about me, I will be fine.’’
‘’Are you sure?’’
I nod my head, ‘’Yes.’’
‘’How was the meeting?’’
‘’It was a success, the client was amazed with our proposal, they will get back to us in the next one week.’’
‘’I am proud of you, how is Caleb? He didn’t give you a ha-rd time this morning?’’
‘’Caleb is fine, he was excited for school today because they are going to the museum, he didn’t even ask about his father.’’
‘’Be prepared to spend the entire night listening to stories about the animals he will see at the museum.’’
‘’I am not even re-ady for the stories, I know he will start telling me about it the minute we get into the car.’’
‘’And the stories will not end until he tells daddy and grandpa about it.’’
I laugh, ‘’’that child of mine is full of drama, sometimes his energy drains me but I would never trade being his mother for anything in the world, that little talkative human being keeps me sane.’’
‘’Caleb is everything, I can’t wait to have my own child too.’’
I shoot him a serious look, ‘’I thought you regarded Caleb as your own.’’
‘’You know I love Caleb like my own, I just want to have my own child too.’’
‘’All the best in your endeavors.’’
‘’What is that even supposed to mean? You should be excited about having baby number two with me.’’
‘’I am excited but baby number two won’t come until Caleb is five.’’
‘’What?’’ he shoots me daggers with his eyes.
‘’It’s my b©dy, I decide when I want to have another child.’’
‘’I think that’s my queue to leave,’’ he stands up.
‘’So you are upset?’’
‘’No I am not, I have a client to attend to in the next few minutes.’’
‘’Okay, let’s meet at lunch, bills on me.
‘’Sure.’’
‘’Love you.’’
He exits the office without saying it back and that’s how I know I have hurt his feelings. I didn’t even mean to hurt him, I just told him the truth, he can’t expect me to start thinking of having other children when I am still dealing with Caleb’s tantrums. My child is still young and I want him to have me all to himself before I can consider having more kids.
I am working on some reports for some of our recent projects to hand over to daddy P when my office door opens and Jada walks in. I haven’t seen her in the last couple of days, she has been busy with work.
‘’Sister-sister,’’ she says as she walks towards me.
‘’How are you? You have become scarce.’’
‘’The life of a doctor babe, work has been busy even Else was complaining that I don’t get to pick her up from school lately.’’
‘’Poor child.’’
‘’I know right, I think I will quit one of these days.’’
‘’You would be miserable.’’
‘’I know right.’’
‘’How is Abel?’’
‘’He is great, that man is heaven s£nt, he doesn’t even complain about the nights I get to spend at work.’’
‘’You won a jackpot with him, hold on to him ti-ghtly.’’
‘’And I am not letting go, I would kill for that man.’’
I laugh, ‘’people in love.’’
‘’How is Dante? When do we start planning for the wedding?’’
I roll my eyes, ‘’He is fine and that wedding is not coming soon.’’
‘’You should let that man go, I don’t know how many times I have to you that.’’
‘’I had a conversation with Lee today, I met him at the Café where I was meeting my client.’’
‘’And?’’
‘’He hinted that he still loves me.’’
‘’And you still love him so why can’t the two of you just settle your issues and get back together. Dante and Meira will be hurt but the truth will set all of you free, st©p pla-ying these silly games, you are too old for that.’’
‘’I hear you.’’
‘’I am not even joking, tell Dante the truth and let Lee tell his woman the truth.’’
‘’Fine.’’
When Jada leaves a couple of minutes later, I gr-ab my phone and text Lee, ‘’we nee-d to talk.’’
And he responds almost immediately, ‘’about?’’.
‘’This is important, let’s meet tomorrow evening at Ember restaurant, I will drop Caleb at mum’s house.’’
‘’Sure.’’
‘’Okay.’’
I don’t even know what I am doing but this has to be done, I am tired of pretending, Lee and I nee-d to clear things between us. I nee-d to know where I stand with him before I make a decision to break things off with Dante.
*
Tbc