12/13
~THE PACT~
-CHAPTER 12-
Saturday, I am sitting at a restaurant having lunch with Lee, we are sitting by the window looking on to the rear porch at the end. Lee and I spent the entire morning shopping, at least I have managed to get him some decent clothes, he just nee-ds to get a haircut and we will be good to go.
‘’Like I said, we shall be together for six months- no S-x, no strings attached but you are not allowed to be with another woman during the duration that you will be pretending to be my fiancé, your duty will be to convince people in my social circle that we are madly in love, you will go to functions with me, we shall attend media interviews together as well as ph0to shoots.’’
He shoots me a questioning look then he opens his mouth as if to say something but quic-kly shuts it.
‘’Spit it out,’’ I say.
‘’Is this all worth it for a job? With your credentials you could a job at any company in fact with the money that you have, you don’t even nee-d to work, you could live comfortably for the news few years without a job.’’
I smile, ‘’Sondashi Inc. is not just a not just any company, its one biggest advertising company in Africa- that will be an upgrade for me. But if I am being honest, at the moment the main reason I am doing this is to get back at my father. I can’t let him and his daughter win at this and you know what? Plus you know what makes all this exciting?’’
‘’What?’’
‘’Kenzie had a temporary fling with Jaden before he got married, my dearest step sister is bitter about this, imagine the anger on her face when she sees me posting ph0tos of me and Jaden’s family.’’
‘’So this is about revenge?’’
‘’It’s more than that, can we continue?’’
‘’Sure.’’
‘’I am sure you know the basic things about me, I am Kristian Msizi, I am my mother’s only child, my parents are divorced, Mr. Msizi is the man who fathered me and he has one child with his current wife. My mother and I are inseparable but I don’t get along with Mr. Msizi and his daughter,’’ I take a bite of my pie before I continue.
‘’I love writing and that is why I have been pas-sionate about my job, away from work I love re-ading, shopping and traveling. I am also a hvge fan of social media- I am a fashion/ lifestyle influencer on Instagram and Facebook. I hate house chores plus I don’t cook, I usually eat out if not my maid caters for all meals, tell me about you.’’
‘’You alre-ady know my name and age but there’s also something I didn’t mention.’’
‘’Which is?’’
‘’I am a single father of one.’’
‘’What?’’ I exclaim.
‘’I have a daughter, her name is Joan, she is actually the reason I accepted to do this, I nee-ded the money for her treatment.’’
‘’You said you are single.’’
‘’I am single, my child’s mother and I are not together.’’
‘’What happened?’’ I ask
He takes a couple of minutes to tell me his story and by the time he is done, I am moved- his baby mama must be a heartless woman, how could she walk away from a sick child? Now I un-derstand why he dresses like that, he uses all his money for the sick child, I never thought I would get myself involved with someone who has a child but I could use this to my advantage.
‘’That’s a sad story, I would like to meet your daughter soon.’’
‘’I will arrange for that.’’
‘’Can we see her today? Before dinner at my mother’s?’’
‘’Today? What’s the hurry?’’
‘’plea-se?’’
‘’Okay.’’
‘’What do you do away from work?’’
He smiles, ‘’I am a loner, I don’t do much ap@rt from re-ading, pla-ying games and watching television. I must also mention that I love cooking, I used to make meals for Aisha because she too hated cooking.’’
‘’You sound like the perfect gentleman.’’
‘’I try to,’’ he laughs.
‘’So how did we fall in love?’’
‘’Pardon?’’
‘’People will obviously ask how we met and we should come up with one story to convince them.’’
‘’It can’t obviously be love at first sight because people know how much you hate me,’’ he says and I shoot him daggers.
He shrugs, ‘’it’s true, you treat me like trash, what do you expect.’’
I roll my eyes, ‘’I hope you un-derstand that nothing will change between us, this is business don’t expect me to try you like a king behind closed doors, I will do my p@rt when we are in public though.’’
‘’Yes madam.’’
We spend the next hour coming up with a story of how we fell in love before I drive us back to my house then I give him the car keys for one of my cars and he leaves, promising to pick me up later in the evening. I managed to get Lee another job as an administrative manager, he starts on Monday, I will hand over his resignation letter to Mr. Msizi.
Walking into the house, my phone rings, Jada is on the other end of the line.
‘’Baby girl!’’
‘’Hey, you.’’
‘’How are you?’’
‘’I am fine, how are you? What’s up?’’
‘’I managed to get someone to pose as my fiancé since Calvin refused.’’
‘’Tell me about it.’’
‘’Lee, my P.A from the office.’’
She laughs, ‘’How is that even possible? You hate that guy, how did you convince him to even agree to this?’’
‘’It’s a long story babe, I will tell you all about it when we meet but we are on for dinner at my mother’s tonight then we shall be dinning at your father’s house for your sister in law’s birthday dinner.’’
‘’Okay, all the best, I will see you tomorrow.’’
‘’See you babes.’’
THE PACT
-CHAPTER 13-
Unedited
‘’What was that about?’’ Lee angrily asks, we just left the Hospice where his daughter is admitted. I didn’t tell him but I invited my social media management team to come along so they could get some ph0tos of us and the baby.
The ph0tos will come in handy when Lee and I officially announce our engagement to the world.
‘’I nee-ded some ph0tos for my social media accounts, if I claim to be in love with you, they should be some ph0tos around to show that I know about your child and I love her too- this is just business sweetheart.’’
‘’That wasn’t p@rt of the plan Kristian, you can’t just come up with such decisions, you should talk to me about it. This is about my child and I am not happy that you want to drag her into this whole issue.’’
I shrug, ‘’this is just business Lee, don’t worry your child will not be hurt.’’
‘’I don’t even know if I want to do this anymore.’’
I laugh, ‘’you signed a contract and paid p@rt of the money we agreed on, don’t you dare threaten me with that $h!t.’’
His mouth twitches once as I stare at him waiting to hear what he will say next.
‘’Before you make decisions that involve Joan plea-se talk to me first, I will really appreciate it.’’
‘’I will remember that.’’
‘’When are you likely to post those ph0tos on social media?’’
‘’After our official engagement ph0tos they will be s£nt to one of these gossip online media houses so they can be posted. We want to make it look like someone li-cked the ph0tos without our knowledge- giving people something to talk.’’
‘’I guess you have it all figured out right?’’
‘’Yes.’’
‘’Fine.’’
‘’We are almost at my mother’s house remember everything we discussed this afternoon, my mother is not ha-rd to plea-se.’’
‘’Sure boss.’’
I roll my eyes, ‘’st©p sulking alre-ady, we are supposed to be acting like a couple in love.’’
A couple of minutes later, he pu-lls up in front of my mother’s house then he steps out walks round and comes to my side, he helps me out of the car and we walk hand in hand towards the door.
‘’Mummy!’’ I call out as I push the door open.
‘’I am in the living room my darling,’’ she replies.
I lead him to the living room where I find my mother and Robert sitting next to each other watching television.
‘’Child of my youth,’’ she exclaims when she sees me.
‘’Mother of mine.’’
She stands up and embr@ces me then she looks at Lee and back at me obviously waiting for an explanation.
Mum met Lee when she c@m£ throu-gh to bring me lunch at the office and I have told her a couple of times how much I hate him.
‘’Mummy! I am sure you remember Lee from the office, he used to work as my P.A until now.’’
‘’Okay,’’ she responds waiting for me to say more.
I turn to Lee, ‘’Babe, I am sure you remember my mum,’’ I say and he nods his head.
‘’This is her p@rtner Robert.’’
He extends his hand towards mum and after they shake hands, he greets Robert too.
‘’Take a seat and plea-se feel at home,’’ Robert says.
‘’Thank you,’’ he responds before he takes a seat, sitting next to him, he puts his arm around me.
‘’So what is going on here?’’
‘’Lee and I are getting married,’’ I smile.
‘’What do you mean you are getting married? Since when?’’
‘’Lee and I fell in love I don’t even have to explain that in details, I just wanted you to know about this before you hear the news in the media, we will have an official engagement after you meet his people.’’
‘’Congratulations are in order child,’’ Robert says.
I frown, I hate it when he calls me child and he knows it but he keeps doing it to annoy me.
‘’Can I talk to you in pri-vate?’’ Mum asks.
‘’Sure.’’
‘’Excuse us,’’ she says before she leads me to the be-droom.
‘’What is going on?’’ she asks when she shuts the door behind her back.
‘’What are you talking about?’’
‘’When did this happen? You hated this guy, why are you suddenly getting married to him?’’
‘’I feel in love mum.’’
‘’How?’’
‘’What’s with all these questions? Don’t you want to me to be happy?’’
‘’I want you to be happy baby girl but I also nee-d to know what’s going on.’’
‘’There’s nothing going on, I just nee-d your support mummy plea-se.’’
‘’Are you sure you love him?’’
‘’I do,’’ I pout.
She sighs, ‘’I don’t even un-derstand what’s going on but since you are my daughter and I trust you, I will support you.’’
‘’Thank you mummy.’’
‘’You are welcome.’’
‘’I hope you are not doing this for revenge.’’
I laugh, ‘’I love Lee mum and he loves me too, I know it’s ha-rd for you to un-derstand but I want to give us a chance.’’
‘’Fine.’’
We head back into the living room and it isn’t long after that before the food is served. As we eat, mum asks Lee some questions and I watch as he convincingly explains to her how he fell in love with me. The story is so believable, one look at mum and I know she will soon believe everything he is saying, Lee is so good at this, I have no doubts Mr. Sondashi will buy this story of ours.
*
Tbc