You know how it is with some people, they walk into a room and the entire room becomes a stage, and they become stars…that was Steve, the minute he walked into our office, simultaneously I had two things going on in my head,
1. I had Norah Jones’ come away with me playing in my head and
2. I wished Nadine would suddenly disappear or at least be in the inner office.
The first thought was because Steve was exactly the kinda guy you actually think of running away with, standing about 6’3, perfect dark chocolate skin, eyes that seemed to squint and see through your very soul and a smile that had this cynicism that was damn right attractive, and the second thought was because I felt plain besides Nadine, and if he was like most men, he would be hitting on her pretty soon.
Don’t get me wrong, I have more than my fair share of admirers, but when with Nadine, I always felt like I was second choice, or a consolation price for the schmucks who didn’t have the guts to step up to her. I was secretly hoping this extremely good looking guy would have a flaw somewhere, then he spoke and all I could say in my head was thank God I am sitting down, because I couldn’t feel my legs anymore, his voice was deep and calm at same time, like he could hypnotize you just by talking.
“You ladies must be the wedding planners right?” he addressed both of us, but was walking toward s Nadine, okay I’ll have to be fair to him, Nadine was closer to the entrance, so it was only logical that he’d walk towards her, not me. “I am in a bit of a rush, cos I have a flight in two hours” he continued.
“Yes we are, but we are going to need more time if you are going to plan a wedding” Nadine said standing up to attend to him “I am Nadine and that’s my partner Dionne” I could not exactly trust myself to speak, so I nodded and smiled my hello from the end of the room.
“I am not the one getting married” he said “I promised my sister I would stop by to make an appointment for her before heading for the airport, that’s why I am here”
Nadine’s face lit up in an enthusiastic smile, “oh, then just fill out this slip and voila! Your sister has an appointment” the smile told me a lot, she was just as smitten by him as I was, only she was cold and calm enough to handle it better. ”so you are travelling, you live outside Lagos?” she asked
“I live here in Lagos, but I fly a lot. I am a pilot” he said, not taking his eyes of the form as he scribbled his sister’s details. Then he looked up and caught me staring, I felt like killing myself.
“Dionne right? You kinda remind me of a friend of mine , Raymond, we were in school together” as he spoke, he walked closer to me, then he mentioned Raymond’s last name and I finally found my voice “he is my cousin, same last name”
“The resemblance is uncanny!” he exclaimed “difference is you are definitely better looking, Raymond never told us he had a beauty queen for a cousin” he teased. I must have blushed all shades of red; here I was a full grown Lagos Island big girl, blushing like a teenager over a mere compliment.
“Her appointment is for 11am” Nadine interjected, my guess was she wasn’t liking the tone of our conversation, and the fact that I was stealing the spotlight away from her, was definitely not her idea of fun.” Do ask her to inform us if she will not be able to make that time, so we can reschedule” her voice was no longer sweet and flirty, but succinctly polite and officious.
“will do” Steve said “and here’s my card, please ask Raymond to give me a call, it will be really nice to hear from him again” he said looking me straight in the eyes, and something told me the card was meant for me, and Raymond was simply a decoy, maybe I was right, or maybe I was just listening to the butterflies fluttering in my stomach.
As soon as Steve left our office, there was a certain tension in the atmosphere, a tension so thick you could almost cut through it with a knife.we both did a flashback simultaneously...it had been almost 3 years....
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