At 7.58pm, she came out and peeked out of the window hoping that he would have given up and left. She expected him to have come into the store to look for her. She had been hiding in the back room now for about 20 mins. She could see him standing in the parking lot against the door of his car, just waiting. He didn't look down at his watch or look around impatiently. He just stood there with his hands on the door and his face to the sky. There was something neat about him. He wore a sweater vest over his grey dress shirt. The sleeves were folded to his elbow. The shirt came out under the vest nicely, and rested just around his jeans. She couldn't see his shoes. He had cut his hair since yesterday. His face has a nice chiseled frame; he had one of those hair-line to side burns to moustache and beard things that she wasn't too excited about. He pulled off a napkin from his pants pockets, and took off his glasses to clean them. As he lowered his head, he smiled. Oh!
"Go out there and meet the guy already", one of her co-workers startled her.
"Oh Pls", she feigned, "like I don't have a boyfriend".
"You have to admit, he's cute"
"Not really" He's beautiful!
"Well, I'm closing up in a minute".
Gina sighed heavily and walked out. She was looking right at him, but he didn't even look up. He just turned around and got into his car.
Oh no! He didn't even see we walk out. Darn! I guess I'll just get take-out from Ruby Tuesday'
She kept looking into her rear view mirror hoping that he was actually following her, but there was a pick-up truck blocking her entire line of sight.
"Hi Gina, welcome back! I was thinking you probably didn't like Ruby Tuesday anymore".
"Well... I've been cooking", she laughed, "I'm just going to place an order to go".
"OK then! You know..."
"Actually, we'll both be eating in", someone cut it.
Gina turned around trying to look very angry, "Excuse you?"
"You're welcome", Ade replied.
"Gosh, this is going to be very eventful", she mumbled as they walked to their table.
* * *
They sat down and he pulled out a new-looking Maroon Blackberry Curve.
"I thought you were looking for new phone Mr..."
"Ade. Ade Oki. Yeah I know, silly men and their toys yeah?" he flashed her that smile again, "were you trying to bail out of our dinner plans?"
"I thought you didn't see me when I walked out of the store. I assumed..."
"But deep down, you're happy I'm here aren't you?" he asked putting the phone away.
I can't believe this man is making me 'blush'.
"Anyway, what do you want from me?" she asked.
"Why must it be that I want something from you?" he retorted, "ever occur to you that I may actually have something I want to give you?"
"Are you always this cheesy, or is today my lucky day?"
"I think I'm going to order"
They had a VERY quiet dinner. It felt like a 'Who's gonna speak first?' contest. She observed him - he chewed silently with his mouth closed, his well built arms poked out through his shirt sleeves, he obviously loved his veggies, his lips were so kissable, he smiled at people walking by, he had the most beautiful eyes. He was very distracting...
"Are you just going to keep watching me eat?" he asked without looking up.
"You're very cocky, you know right?"
"What's your name?"
"Gina. Georgina".
"So, what's your real name?"
She scuffed at him, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"You're obviously Yoruba, and all you Nigerians come to America and try to do like the Americans"
"You're sickly obnoxious. My parents gave me an English first name, deal with it!"
"My parents gave me 17 Yoruba names. Sorry if my thinking is a little lop-sided"
"Why are you so different from the man I spoke to yesterday?"
He smiled again... "I don't know what it is about you that sometimes makes me act like a 14 yr-old boy".
"It's probably a bad time to tell you I have a boyfriend"
"Oh, I know. I just don't think it's a major setback. If you said fiance, ehen"
She laughed. That was the first time she had felt his Nigerian-ness.
"That's beautiful", he said, stopping and looking straight at her.
"What? I have something in my teeth?"
"No, that laugh... it's so ... real. It's amazing"
She looked down at her watch. Before she could look up and say anything...
"You're actually enjoying yourself with this stranger, but all of a sudden you feel like you're cheating on your boy, when this was just a platonic dinner. You could have been sitting here with a business associate"
"But it wasn't..."
"Really?"
"I have to be up early for work tomorrow."
"But you don't get off till 7.30pm, meaning work doesn't start till about 11am..."
"I should go...
"Here's my card. Call me sometime."
"What do you do?"
"I run a car dealership downtown."
"That's nice."
She led the way out of the restaurant. Outside the door, she held out her hand to him.
"Thank you", she said.
"No, Thank you", he replied as he leaned towards her and gave her a peck on her right cheek.
Dang! He smells good.
TO BE CONTINUED.
9 comments:
is this a true story???
is this the end?? i hope not
as writings go, it reads more like a personal account than a literary piece,
but it still makes for a very entertaining read! if it was a complete book i would definitely not have put it down at this point.
Cool! Continue....
No, it's not a true story. it's not supposed to be a serious literary piece either. It's my way of putting some excitement in my life. Even I read over the story, and I'm like Ohhh!
Oh, and that's not the end of the story.
isha baby, this story is rili nice oh, u just keep leavin me wantin mo. nice one
Isha love, u'v got somn goin on here!
*waits not so patiently for the continuation*
Very very nice...
Waiting for the continuation...
Subtlety always wins the day.
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