“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…….
