After the storm (2 page)

"Seems
like you know what you are talking about," Akeem teased.

"I love
bags; I may not be able to afford a Mulberry bag now, but someday,"
she clicked her fingers. "I shall snap one up." She turned towards
him with a satisfied smile on her face. "I think I'm done
now."

Akeem
took one final look at the bags before following her out of the
store. "Where would you like to eat?" he asked as they went down
the escalator towards the food court in the shopping
mall.

Yemi
shrugged. "I don't really mind. KFC, McDonald's, Nando's—any one of
them will do."

"Sushi?"

She made
a face. "Nah!"

He
smiled. "It's very healthy, you know. Tastes good too."

She
shook her head. "Thanks, but no thanks!"

They
settled for Nando's. The queue was surprisingly short, and they
were almost immediately led to a table by the waiter. Once she was
seated, Akeem went back to queue up for their orders and returned
to the table a few minutes later.

They
made light conversation as they waited for their orders to be
brought over. Akeem had only arrived two days earlier and was going
to be in the UK for two weeks. There was a quiet confidence about
him, and the more Yemi talked with him, the more she felt he was
not like the regular guys she had known in the past.

"What do
you do?" she could not resist asking at some point.

"What do
I do?" Akeem said, as if he was trying to remember. "Well, in broad
terms, I'm a businessman."

"What
kind of business do you do?"

"I don't
want to bore your pretty head with business talk."

"That's
patronising."

His lips
twitched in amusement at her accusation. "My family is largely into
oil and gas, real estate, and banking."

Yemi
kept her face bland as she took in the information. He seemed to
have loads of confidence, but she had not expected the answer he
gave her. Her thoughts were interrupted when the waiter
brought their food to the table.

"Do you
mind if I ask you a personal question?" Akeem asked later, spearing
a piece of chicken with his fork.

"Go on
and ask. No guarantees that I will give you an answer,
though."

"How old
are you?"

Yemi
faked a stern look. "You should not ask a lady that
question."

He
chuckled. "Yeah, I've heard that many times, and that's why I asked
you for permission."

Yemi
took a sip of her orange juice. "I turned twenty-one two months
ago. This holiday is actually a birthday present from my parents
and my brothers. What about you? How old are you?"

"I'll be
twenty-nine on my next birthday."

"Hmmm…old man," she teased.

"Little
girl," Akeem replied, smiling that slow, attractive smile at her
again. "Little, beautiful girl."

Yemi
looked away, feeling slightly flustered. He had such beautiful
eyes. Dark with thick lashes. She shook herself mentally. She had
to get a grip on herself. He seemed to have a way of making her
feel unsettled with just one glance. She decided to concentrate on
her chicken.

"So
where do you live back home?"

Yemi was
just about to answer him when her phone rang. It was
Tola.

She
excused herself to take the call. A few minutes later, she came
back, looking slightly disappointed.

"Are you
okay?" Akeem asked, looking concerned.

"I'm
fine." Yemi sighed. "That was my cousin. She was supposed to pick
me up, but she's held up in traffic. I'll have to catch a bus
home."

"Oh,
don't worry about it. I can take you home."

"You
drive here?" Yemi asked, sort of surprised. "Oh, I see, you have an
international driving license."

"I
attended both my 'A' levels and university here. I got my UK
driver's license back then." He took another sip of his drink
without taking his eyes off her. "So back to my question: Where do
you live in Lagos?"

"Akoka.
My parents are both lecturers at the University of Lagos. We live
in the staff quarters. What about you? You are from the North,
aren't you?" She had been trying to figure that out for some time
now. His accent didn't tell her much about him, but after
struggling to fit him into a state, she had concluded that he was
most likely from that region.

"Correct. I'm from Niger state, but my parents moved to Lagos
when I was five."

Yemi
looked at him thoughtfully. Akeem gazed back at her with an
inscrutable look in his eyes. She was dying to ask him more
questions but didn't want to appear to be prying.

"Go on
and ask," Akeem said, a smile tugging the corners of his
lips.

"What
makes you think I want to ask you any more questions?"

"It's
written all over your face."

"How is
the chicken? I hope you like it?" she asked with an innocent
expression on her face, and Akeem chuckled.

"You
know that's not what you wanted to ask me." He was still laughing.
"So go on and ask me what you want to know."

Definitely not, she thought to herself. That would be setting
herself up, and he would think that she was interested in him. She
glanced at her wristwatch. "I have to get going now,
anyway."

"No need
to rush off. I'm taking you home, remember?"

She hesitated. "I really don't want to take you out of your
way."
And I may have had lunch with you,
but you are still practically a stranger. A girl can't be too
careful.
She glanced at his face and met
his eyes on her.

Without
speaking, he brought out his driver's license from his wallet and
placed it in front of her. "It's no bother taking you home, and you
can call your cousin to let her know who you are with."

She felt
embarrassed that he had read her thoughts so accurately. "Thanks,
Akeem." She said a little self consciously as she pushed his
license back towards him. Somehow she knew within herself that
there was nothing sinister about him.

They
made their way to the parking lot, where he led her to his car. She
didn't recognise the make of the car, but it was a metallic-grey,
sleek-looking, low-sitting sports car. He held the door open for
her, and she was again impressed with his manners.

Yemi
tried not to stare at the plush interior of the car. Instead, she
watched him key in the postcode of her aunt's house into the
satnav. The strains of some soft jazz music filtered in from the
speakers as he drove out of the parking lot.

They
made light conversation as he drove on towards Darent Valley Park,
where Yemi was staying with her aunt and her family.

As they
got closer to the street where she lived, he glanced sideways at
her. "My business meetings take up most of my mornings and
afternoons, but I'd love to see you in the evenings. Is that
okay?"

She did
not reply immediately. He seemed like a nice guy, but someone as
good looking as he was would likely have tonnes of girls around
him. She wasn't joining that queue. "Let me have a think about it
and get back to you," she said eventually.

He cast
a quick glance at her before focussing on the road
ahead.

"Are you
in a relationship?" he asked after a brief silence.

"No, I'm
not. Are you?"

"No," he
replied. "So?"

"So,
what?"

"So now
that we have that out of the way, shall I pick you up tomorrow at
about seven?"

"I'll
let you know."

He
glanced at her again but said nothing. A few minutes later, he
drove onto the street where her auntie lived.

"That's
the house over there, by the blue Hyundai," Yemi said, pointing to
one of the houses in the street. "You can park anywhere around
here."

Akeem
helped her carry her bags to the front door and asked for her phone
number. They exchanged numbers, and she waited for him to drive off
before she went inside. Yemi felt strangely light and happy and
could not keep the silly smile off her face. She started to put her
shopping away into her suitcases but changed her mind. She knew
that Tola would want to see what she had bought. She set the bags
at the foot of the bed, flopped on the bed, and then rolled
over.

No use getting your head up in the clouds. He may not even
call again.
But she could not stop the
warm, fuzzy thoughts flitting through her mind.

She must
have dozed off because the next thing she felt was Tola tapping her
gently on her foot.

"Wake
up, sleeping beauty," her cousin said, tugging the duvet away from
her. "How on earth are you still going to be able to sleep
tonight?"

Yemi
smiled sleepily as she stretched herself on the bed. "Wow, I feel
so refreshed!"

"How did
the shopping go?"

"Let me
show you." Yemi stretched herself again before getting out of the
bed and reaching for the shopping bags.

"Cool
choices!" Tola said as she inspected the clothes. "But then you've
always had an eye for good stuff." Her eyes caught a particular
top. "Whoa! Look at that!" She held it up against her body, and her
eyes widened as she saw the price tag. "No way! The price can't be
that low!"

Yemi
smirked. "Seventy percent discount, my girl. I snatched it up
immediately; it was the only one left."

"It's
gorgeous! You're going to blow everyone away when you go back to
uni."

Yemi put
the shopping bags away and then lay back on the bed. "I met someone
today."

Tola
jumped on the bed beside her. "Hey, what have you been up to,
girl?"

"Mind my
leg, will you?" Yemi shifted away from Tola and then sat up in bed.
She failed miserably in trying to keep the smile off her face as
she recounted her afternoon to Tola.

Tola
eyed her. "I can see you like him."

Yemi
smiled coyly. "Not really sure…"

Tola
swatted at her playfully. "Don't deceive yourself. When is he going
to call?"

"He may
not even call again." She pouted, "He called me a little
girl!"

"But he
spent the whole afternoon with you. That's got to mean something;
he is definitely going to call."

"That's
up to him, but I'm certainly not going to call him."

"Loosen
up, girl! What have you got to lose?"

Her
heart to a handsome stranger on a business trip? She didn't like
the picture that came up in her mind. Maybe it would be just as
well if Akeem didn't call again. She didn't need any man messing
with her emotions.

∞∞∞

Yemi and
Tola watched a movie after dinner that evening and, much later,
they trudged upstairs to the bedroom they shared. Tola's parents
had already retired to bed, and the girls were the only ones
awake in the house.

As they
settled into bed, Yemi's phone rang. She fished her handset out of
her bag, and her eyes widened as she saw Akeem's number. Tola's
eyes gleamed, catching on to who it was. She smiled and inched
closer to Yemi. Yemi put a finger across her lips, motioning her
not to speak.

"Hello,
Akeem," Yemi said, answering the call. "Aren't old men supposed to
be in bed by now?"

He
chuckled. "Little girls too. It's way past your
bedtime."

"I'm
already in bed." She settled herself more comfortably against the
pillows. "What have you been up to?"

"Thinking of you, hoping you were not just a daydream. I had
to call you to make sure."

Yemi
laughed. "I can assure you that I'm very much flesh and
blood."

Akeem
pretended to exhale deeply. "I feel very relieved to hear that. So
is our date on for tomorrow?"

Yemi
paused before answering, "I believe so."

"Great.
I'll definitely sleep better now that I know I'll be seeing you
tomorrow."

"Do you
always call ladies this late at night?" She smiled as she saw Tola
inching closer still, trying to hear Akeem's voice through the
phone.

"Only
beautiful ones who keep flitting around in my mind." Yemi could
hear the smile in his voice. "What are you doing during the day
tomorrow?"

"Not
going anywhere. Just going to laze around with my cousin, I
guess."

"I wish
I could spend the whole day with you," he said softly.

Yemi
felt her heart flutter at his tone. "Well, that's obviously
not going to happen."

They
talked for a few more minutes and then Yemi glanced at Tola, who
had given up trying to follow the conversation and was lying on her
back on the bed. "I've got to go now, Akeem."

"Do
you?" He sounded as if he didn't want to end the conversation. "All
right, tomorrow is almost here anyway."