QUIETLY OBSERVING....PART 2

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Click Here for Part 1:
 http://deeyssertflower.blogspot.com/2014/09/quietly-observing-part-1.html

“I am so sorry I’m late. The traffic was bloody and I couldn’t get off the gym on time” Ariel trooped in like a thunderstorm in frenzy. She was sweating profusely, hair tightly knotted in and still in her gym clothes. She took in everyone present and took a sit beside Bella, gulping down the bottle of water in hand. I thought I witnessed a knowing glance exchange between them. I can’t really tell. She smiled a long smile at Kodi and started to tease Bukky about her larger buttock and how she needs to hit the gym quickly. Bukky had stood up to fetch herself a tumbler.

Kodi resumed her gist; something about an annoying neighbor of hers that tries to compete with her fashion style. “I tell you Bukky, She would put on the exact same dress I had on the week before and come on to me with a fit about it. I don’t get her deal”.

“She can only try so hard to catch-up with your style just like the rest of us”, I interjected loudly.

Bella seemed to have relaxed a bit with Ariel’s arrival but she still carefully avoided my gaze. Sadie had just prepared more Chapman; I stretched out my glass as she refilled empty glasses. I must admit she is the finest host there is. My thought travelled as it watched her fill Ariel’s glass while they exchanged brief pleasantries. I wonder if Sadie still feels guilty about her affair with Jordan during her Brazil trip, two years ago and if she still beats herself up about being the reason Jordan had broken off his engagement with Ariel.

I recall Jordan had pleaded with me to convince Sadie to give him a proper chance with a relationship. I hadn’t informed Sadie although I do not quite recall how I’d responded to him. I think it had been something similar to telling him how absurd he must be for assuming Sadie would ever leave Alex and her child to be with him.  I quite recall it was a few days before he broke it off with Ariel and relocated almost immediately to Dubai. In a quest to fight his case to win Sadie and redeem himself, he’d told me Ariel was bi-sexual and he couldn’t spend the rest of his life with such a partner. Bi-sexual or not, why would anyone ever cheat on a female as beautiful as Ariel? I’d realized soon enough my reasons for never liking him; Oliver Twist!

Chioma, who had been busy with her blackberry all the while, was now frowning as she observed Kodi and Ariel giggling about something.

“The move was too epic” Kodi concluded her gist giving Ariel a gentle squeeze on the arm. I should believe this is the point where Chioma explodes into a million pieces or her blackberry would very well assist her. I watched in bemusement as she squeezed the poor gadget tightly between tensed palms. Kodi had also let on that she had had a thing with Ariel before she and Chioma started off six months ago. I still haven’t figured what compelled her to feed me with these details.

Ariel was now still absorbed with what Bukky was saying concerning her and Bella’s idea for an event that “would shakeup Lekki like a thunderstorm”. Ariel reached out to untangle a twist in Bukky’s hair as Bukky smiled back a thank-you and  resumed her gist. "Hmgh!", I heaved, making a sound at the end of my tongue. Chioma also seem very interested in the venture. I can bet she is seeing different currencies in million figures in her head right now. The thought made me laugh. I took a large gulp of my drink, turned and stopped myself short in my excitement. Ariel and Bella had exchanged a knowing glance. I caught it this time! The sudden urge to vomit overwhelmed me, this time not because of Spanish desserts.

Bella knows?! She is aware Ariel and Jomo, Bukky’s fiancé are having an affair?! The same billionaire Jomo who everyone but Bukky is aware chases almost about anything in skirts. I shifted in my seat. Who everyone but Sadie has had a piece of! Or is it that Ariel knows about Laye’s paternity?

Bukky’s phone beeped, she stared at it for a second or two and cut-off the incoming call. She was suddenly pissed about something. She looked up and stared blankly at Bella, who has resumed the gist with Chioma and Ariel; not blinking an eye at Ariel, nor Bukky nor me. Ariel was fondling with the hem of her gym blouse, just as she always unconsciously does whenever she is in an awkward situation. Bella caressed the back of her neck in exasperation and almost at the same time our eyes caught each other. I nervously gulped down the rest of my chapman and scanned the room. What’s going on!? What is Ariel frowning about?

My eyes finally fell on Sadie. She was still smiling, radiating in her new mantilla, one of the many traditional head dresses she’d brought back from Spain, which has made her entire body frame seem less petite. Ariel had made us all believe her breakup with Jordan had been because he was being forced by his father to marry the Finish girl whose father had an ongoing merger with Jordan’s father’s company in Dubai, at the time. If I recall distinctively, was it not during this same period of Jordan’s “merger-fool passage” that Sadie announced she was pregnant with her second child, Kim?  Hmmmm… I glanced quickly back at Ariel who is still lost in her frown and awkward moment.  Sadie was approaching my direction, a few empty tumblers clasped between her right hand fingers. “I really hope Eny will be fine” She patted me on the back with her free hand, almost eyeing Bella as she exited into the adjoining kitchen. I raised a suspicious eye at her back.

Chioma had caught our exchange, although she couldn’t have heard Sadie from way across the hall, where she sat. She was trying effortlessly to hide her suspicious stare as she continued her chatter with Bella. A cold chill took over my body. Has she found out!? Did Sadie tell on me? That Jimi’s mysterious father, whom we all fondly named “Yah-man” because I had told all of them that I had been too drunk to remember and all I’d recalled saying while we had drunken sex was “Yah man, lehs jus do! Yah man, do!, Yah Yah”, was her [Chioma's] father, Chief Madu.

I grabbed my handbag. It was time to leave!

                                                                                                                                                 

 To be continued…….