Chapter 19

1, 2 buckle my shoes. 3, 4 knock at the door. 5, 6 pick up sticks. 7, 8 --- Friend. . . or foe?

GBOYEGA

Frankly, I didn't know why I was told do business with him.

I mean, I even turned down the money even though it was a lot.

This was fun for me.

My life had been boring of late.

So hey, why not. I didn't mind, as long as I wasn't in danger and not messing up anyone's life. It wasn't as if I was told to kill anyone. I'd have drawn the line there.

So I did what I was told to.

I was glad I took up the offer though, the man was an IT whiz.

I did some research on him to find out if what he told me was true and it all panned out.

The man's father was a king, for crying out loud.

If I were to be the next king, I wouldn't have wasted time. I'd have left all this behind and ascended the throne. I made a sound of disgust at the back of my throat.

Typical case of a child wanting to get away from his rich parents and pave his own path.

Yeah, naah, I'll pass.

My parents were rich and I revelled in it. Their riches paved the way for me in life, business, networking and practically everything.

I wasn't a damn saint. It would have been extremely stupid of me to pass it up just because I wanted to pave my own way.

My phone buzzed and I dropped the glass in my hand to pick it up.

It was a text from the same unknown number. I had tried tracking it, but seemed some technical guru was at work jamming up all stray tracks. I looked at the text now and smiled.

This would be fun.

Invite yourself to his house after your time at the club.

I looked around.

It means I was being watched.

I would give them a show.

I removed my jacket and loosened my tie. This damn shirt felt too constrained so I loosened the top two buttons. After a slight hesitation, I loosened the whole buttons, removed my shirt and slung it on the chair.

Picking up the glass I had put on the table, I rose it in salute to no one in particular, then I leaned back in my chair.

The time indicated it was six thirty in the evening. He was supposed to meet me here by six o'clock. Traffic, probably. I'll give him twenty minutes more, then I'm out of here.

Damn what mystery person wants.

Half an hour later when there was still no sign of him, I decided it was time for me to leave. I removed my feet from the table and began gathering my car keys and clothing strewn across the other chair.

That's the problem with disrobing in a place that's not yours. You end up being saddled with all these clothes you don't want to put back on. I shook my head as I struggled with the discarded clothings in my hand.

"Gboyega!" I looked up and saw him bounding over to me. I wove him over to the empty seat across from me and put down my discarded clothes.

By the time he plopped into the seat, he was breathing heavily and looking like he'd been running. We shook hands and he stifled a yawn, looked at me ruefully and announced he needed a drink after eyeing the bottle of whiskey on the table.

I caught the attention of a waiter near the pool and ordered a bottle of tequila when he came over. We made small talk while we waited for his bottle but I could see his heart wasn't really into it. He kept looking at his watch.

"What's up man, why the regular time check?" I looked at him quizzically.

His drink came and he poured a generous helping into his glass. We clicked glasses, cheering to life and he threw back his head and swallowed the tequila in one big gulp.

I lifted an eyebrow at this, but then shrugged.

I liked this guy more and more. We would make good drinking buddies.

"That bad?" I asked, leaning towards him.

He sighed and shook his head. "Been wanting to do that since the start of the day, but my wife doesn't like me drinking." He looked at me then, his eyes watery and slightly red. After-effect of gulping tequila down so fast.

I picked up the pack of cigarettes lying on the table, slipped one out and lit it. I took a drag, exhaled and leaned back in my chair. "Your old woman, huh? She know you're here?" I took another drag and squinted at him through the smoke.

He didn't reply, just removed his phone from his jacket and dialed a number. Putting it to his ear, he started talking. "Baby! I might be a bit late. Stopped at a bar for a meet up with a friend. Hope you don't mind?" There was a pause, and then he continued speaking. "Of course, my darling, it's a guy." He looked at me then and chuckled. "I'll get you some ice cream on the way home. Is our baby sleeping? Aww! kiss her for me. I love you too, baby."

I chuckled and took another drag of my cigarette, after which I got up, grabbed my whiskey bottle and beckoned him to follow me.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"Inside the club where the main action is." I was already walking away from him.

"What of our things?" He asked.

"Leave them. Someone will bring them to us." I threw at him over my shoulder.

"Wait up!" He wheezed, running towards me.

Man, just keep up. I said under my breath.

He was breathing hard.

This guy really needed to do some cardio training. His stamina was poor.

We got into the club and there was loud music. I smiled and went straight to a low table with two empty chairs. I put down the whiskey bottle and took another deep drag of the cigarette in my mouth.

Eyare caught up with me finally, and sat opposite me. He had the tequila bottle in his hand. I looked at him, lifted the whiskey bottle to my lips and took two swigs of it. He raised his eyebrows, inclined his head and did the same thing with his tequila bottle.

We grinned at each other.

The country club was filling up pretty nicely. Some ladies passed us, laughing and giggling. I followed them with my eyes. I'd probably score one tonight. I smiled and called the waiter. He came over and I told him to bring our things from outside beside the pool.

When he came back, I ordered for some fresh fish pepper soup to take off the edge of the alcohol. I noticed Eyare had become relaxed. He was leaning back in his chair, and the top three buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned.

"Check out the chicks." I jerked my head towards the ladies that just walked past us.

He turned round and gave them a cursory glance.

One of them looked at him and smiled and he turned right back to me with a placid look on his face.

"What? She doesn't interest you?" I was amused at his facial expression.

"I'm a married man, Gboyega," he whined.

I threw my head back and laughed. "You make it sound like It's a disease." I quipped back at him.

"I love my wife," he said, shrugging.

"No one said you shouldn't." I leaned towards him. "But aren't you tired of eating one type of meal all the time?"

Something blazed in his eyes just then. I recognised it. It was anger. It dimmed a bit, but it hovered at the edges, as his jaw clenched.

"Listen to me, Gboyega. I'm a faithful man. I pledged as such to my wife. We both did, so she's all the food I need, not some random woman." He waved a hand around for emphasis.

I nodded and shrugged. "Your loss, my man. My wife isn't here in Nigeria and a man has needs that must be fulfilled. Do you know when last I saw my wife? Six months ago. She lives in Canada with the kids and because of work, I haven't had the time to go see them." I shook my head.

It had been really hard on me. I had been celibate for so long.

Eyare looked at me like I had just grown another head.

"What?" I asked defensively.

"You haven't had time to go see your family, seriously? Make out time." he said, demonstrating with his hands. "Listen!" he leaned close. "It hasn't been peaches and cream with my wife and I. We didn't always have a loving relationship." His eyes took on a distant look and I guessed he was going down memory lane in his mind. "But we made it work, and just when we were settling down into our new found love, our baby daughter was diagnosed with leukemia."

My eyes widened at this.

Leukemia! Wow!

"But we got through that too and things are going great now. What I'm saying in essence is, life doesn't wait for you. You've got to take the bull by the horns now. Create time for your family. Go see them and spend time with them, otherwise you'd only create a wide chasm between you and them." He looked at me pointedly then and continued talking. "Your children will grow up not knowing who their father is and your wife . . ." he paused. "Your wife will be a complete stranger to you. She wouldn't want you near her, not for hugs, not for any form of closeness - just not for anything." He shrugged. "Do you want that on your conscience?" He looked at me quizzically.

Everything he said was like a nail being hammered into my heart.

I felt the pain deep inside me.

I shook my head. I had become sober all of a sudden. I let out a deep breath I didn't know I was holding.

There was heavy silence between us, punctuated only when the waiter came with our fresh fish pepper soup and some water to drink. I dug in immediately, glad for the distraction.

After awhile, I was drawn to his style of eating, so I watched as he ate. He slowly dissected his fish, making sure every bone was set apart, before tentatively putting it into his mouth.

I laughed at the sight and unfortunately for me, it ended up in a coughing session. Bad mixture of pepper and bones, probably got stuck in my throat.

He got up and began knocking my back. Tears flowed from my eyes, and my throat finally eased up a bit. "You caused it you know," I looked at him accusingly. "You eat like a woman. So dainty." I doubled up in laughter then, and he chuckled.

"You should see my wife eating. There's nothing dainty about her then. We should have exchanged behavioral attitudes instead. His eyes were shining. I saw pure unadulterated love there.

"You love her." I stated, matter of fact.

"So much --- too much, actually." He replied instantly.

"Wow!" No more words were needed. We continued eating in silence.

"I'm sorry!" I stated, looking at him. He was still removing bones from the fish.

"What for?" He frowned, looking at me.

I shrugged. "The stress you had to go through with your baby. I can't even imagine how trying that period must have been for you."

He smiled a very genuine smile just then, dropped his cutlery and brought out his phone. He scrolled through and showed me a picture on it.

"That's my wife and baby."

I took the phone from him and looked at the picture. His wife was breathtakingly beautiful. She was holding a cute baby girl who was looking up at her with a toothy grin on her face. I looked at it for a few seconds more and gave him back his phone.

"Your wife is stunning."

"I know, thanks." He grinned at me. "You'll get a chance to meet them this weekend. I'm inviting you for lunch at my place on Saturday. Can you come?" He looked at me hopefully.

"Of course I'll come." I replied, smiling at him.

And just like that, I had free entry into his house without even having to invite myself over.

I grinned at him.