[Web Series] Waiting... Episode 8

“Hello, Dara speaking, how may I help you?” I was answering my work phone so I added a little bit of fone to it.
“Hello, Dara speaking, how may I help you?” the person responded mimicking me.
“Tayo, I swear, you need Jesus. What phone are you calling me with?”
“I’m in one of our conference rooms, I have jist for you,” she said.

“Ehen, call me back on my cell phone, let me go to my usual spot,” I quickly gathered my phone and earphones and made my way to the break room since no one would be using it now.
“So that Bayo guy, he has a child oh and the Dupe girl is his sister for real.”
“Wait what do you mean he has a child, the mother nko?”
“She lives in Nigeria.”
“I don’t understand” I said, more confused about Bayo that I was before I started speaking to Tayo.
“So like apparently, he is 31 right, lives here in Dallas, works as a senior Associate for JP Morgan and he has a five year old son with some babe like that.”
“Duh, will he have a child with a man, abeg jist me well jo, what is all this corner corner talk”
“Ok so he went to naija for his dads 60th birthday party like 6 years ago right, his dad is a senator so it was sort of a big deal.”
“Senator Ke? Are you serious?”
“Yup, I don’t think his dad is still a senator sha but anyways the girl is his childhood friend and they hadn’t seen each other since they graduated from high school. Apparently the babe told him she had always had a crush on him and they hung out a lot while he was there for a month.
“I don’t blame the girl, the man is fine” I added.
“So sha the girl was in a relationship but didn’t tell him, she probably thought she had found boyfriend. They sha had sex and after a month he bid her adieu and came back here to start his new job. Three months later, he gets a call from his mother with the girl there saying she was pregnant for him. He didn’t leave his yankee number for her and the girl tried to find other people who knew him but couldn’t find his number anywhere so she went to their house in Naija and spoke to him mum.It apparently caused a huge fight between both families but sha to cut the long story short, the child lives in Nigeria with his mum”
“Nawa oh, who even told you?” I asked curiously
“Don’t worry about that, you asked me to do a job and I have delivered so what do you plan on doing with the information?”
“What do you mean? Nothing now, it’s not like the man is banging down my door with a proposal, it seems like a lot of drama sef so I don’t want.”
“Oh well, so did I even tell you I ran into Seyi and some white pregnant babe at Mastro’s yesterday?” she started as we started gossiping about other people we knew. I hung up after about a 30 minute conversation with Tayo and headed back to my desk hoping that no one noticed I was gone.
I dropped my phone and picked up my pen and pad to go to the all employee meeting for that afternoon. As soon as I walked in, Dami waved her hand and touched the seat next to her indicating that she had saved me a seat. Dami was the only other Nigerian at my firm and we became friends after hanging out and going to several work lunches together. She had met Kola and knew his cousin so she was sort of my friend but we didn’t really talk outside of work that much for her to be considered my friend at the time. After Kola and I broke up, she wanted to hook me up with her cousin because she said I looked sad and it was beginning to make our other coworkers uncomfortable. I said no and explained that I was just going through heartbreak and didn’t want to be with anyone and she nodded and said she understood. We have remained cool since then and sometimes hang out outside of work.
After the meeting, we started talking about the weekend since there was one of those Nigerian organized parties and she was jisting me that her 19 year old cousin wants to come spend the night with her friends so she can go to the party. We laughed about our individual schemes to get out of the house back in the day when there was a party.
“We should go to dinner maybe on Friday, I know this really good steakhouse” she added after we talked about the meeting.
“I think that’s doable, I know my friend is sleeping over but that should be later in the night.”
“Ok good, I’ll pick you up cos I have to pass your area to get there anyways.
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Friday rolls around and all thoughts of Bayo have returned to my mind because I have gone to our meeting place, the grocery store, twice that week and I haven’t seen him. I wondered if he is purposely avoiding me because if he was, then he was doing a pretty good job.
I saw my phone light up and it was a text message from Dami saying “Here”. I quickly gather up my purse and strap on my sandals.
She called me right when I was about to get in the elevator; I picked up and said ” I’m coming down already now ahn”
“Dara, promise you won’t be angry at me when I tell you what I am about to tell you” she was laughing.
“What? I’m about to get in the elevator oh Dami, should I stop?”
“NO, go downstairs but it’s not me that is picking you up, remember my cousin Leke I told you about, he’s the one taking you to dinner instead”
“What do you mean?”
“Dara please he will be at your place in about 10 minutes, just go out with him, have fun it doesn’t have to end up in a relationship. It is just to take your mind off things.”
“Dami I told you I didn’t want to date anyone, I’m not going” and I hung up and went back up the elevator. She called about 3 times before finally giving up.
I went upstairs to my apartment and called Lola who was already about 5 minutes away from my place anyways.
“Shouldn’t you be at dinner Dara, why are you calling me?” she asked.
“Can you imagine what Dami did” I then told her what happened and after laughing for a good minute, she responded. “Dara there’s nothing wrong with going out jo”
“Not if I don’t want to, why is everyone trying to hook me up?”
“Wait Dara, have you seen the man you’re going out on a date with because I just drove past your apartment and this sexy man is standing outside your building.”
“It doesn’t matter jo, I don’t want to go. If he is so sexy then you go on a date with him”
“I wouldn’t mind, just tell Dami to tell him to go home abeg, its embarrassing.” Lola waited for him to drive off before she came upstairs. “You’re not a serious person, if you see the guy ehn Dara; I swear you will forget about that useless Kola. Who is that sef?” she laughed
“It doesn’t matter, even if Idris Elba knocks on my door now, I’ll tell him to come back later, my shop is closed.”
“Now that is a big lie, a whole Idris Elba” We laughed it off and I sent a quick message to Dami apologizing and asking her to please not do that again.
A few weeks later, Dami is having a soiree for her birthday; she planned this big party at some fancy hotel ballroom and I was invited so I asked Lola to be my plus one. We were having a blast when this beautiful man entered the room and worked his way across the room, greeting people and smiling.
“Lola, do you see that guy?” I was trying to keep my eyes from him but I just couldn’t, he was so sweet to look at.
Lola replied with a little hiss in her voice, “That is the man you stood up.”
Before I could remove the shock from my face, he was walking towards us smiling.


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Hi, I'm Moriam. I'm curious and I love cooking. I also like to write short stories. If you haven't check out Part one and two of Love's Pain. If you love recipes, check out my blog too.