Rita's POV

The girls and I made plans for lunch on Thursday, which was arranged conveniently for when everyone was free.

Not in a hurry to get ready, I relaxed in the jacuzzi by a few minutes after 10 am. Cameron was in his study doing God knows what because according to him, he didn't have to go in early to work today. I didn't mind however, although him staying home in his study and him going into work didn't make much of a difference sometimes.

I still hadn't asked him about the Toke lady from the party. I also didn't have any plans to. I decided to just let it go although, occasionally, over the past few days, I have thought about it in passing.

As I laid in the tub, my head resting on the edge and my eyes shut closed, I heard the sound of the room door being opened before after some shuffling, the bathroom door is pulled open as well.

"Oh, hey, babe. I thought you'd left." Cam said as he moved to his side of the twin sink.

I didn't bother to reply because me being in that tub obviously meant I hadn't left, so instead, I closed my eyes back.

I could feel my husband's gaze on me but I didn't move from where I was.

"You good?" He asks. I open my eyes to see him looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, baby. I'm good." I said as I finally mustered up the strength to get out of the tub, my body entirely unconcealed to Cam's wandering eyes. "Just tired." I said as I moved to the shower.

"Want me to help you get rid of that tiredness?" He asks cockily with a smirk.

I pause, the door handle in my hand as it was halfway slid closed. "I think you'll only make me more tired though." I pout.

"True." Cam chuckles before turning back to the sink and pulling out his shaving tools purse.

I closed the door shut and turned on the shower, allowing the water cascade down on my head. It felt refreshing especially as I had taken out my braids before today and was now on my natural hair. After some minutes, I began to wash up before getting out of the shower. The bathroom was empty so I made my way to my closet, a towel wrapped around my body.

I pulled out my hair dryer, Afro pick comb, edge control and hair oil. I dressed in a grey t-shirt of Cameron's not wanting to remain in my now damp towel as I settled at my vanity table and began to weave my hair so I could wear a wig. It was a tedious process, but in about 20 minutes I'm done. I then begin doing my make up.

When I'm through with that as well, my husband walks back in and looks down at my seated form.

"You like?" I ask him referring to my makeup as I turn my face for him to see.

Cameron smacks his lips. "Baby, how many times have I told you you're beautiful without all that on? I wonder why you use it most times." He grumbles.

I chuckle before standing and clearing up my products. "For myself, silly. Makeup makes me feel good." I tell him and he's about to say something but I cut him off, I explain myself despite the fact that I know that he won't really understand my standpoint with him being a man. "I know I'm beautiful regardless, however I use makeup to feel more beautiful, because beauty, my love, is power." I tap Cam's nose playfully before moving back to what I was doing.

He chuckles with a slight shake of his head before moving into the closet. I join him soon after, watching in the mirror as he pulls his shirt over his head in the way men do, his back muscles rippling in the process.

Damn, I think to myself as I subconsciously bite on my lips. Cam turns around and catches me staring, a small smirk coming across his lips as he steps up behind me in a slow, predatory manner.

His muscular body cages me in between him and my dresser. "You like what you see?" He asks as he traps my ear lobe between his teeth, nipping on the skin a bit harshly before soothing it with his tongue.

I moan at the feeling, my mouth unable to form a response.

"Don't play with me, little girl." Cam whispers in my ear as he pushes into me harder, the unmistakable feel off his hard-on pressed into my soft ass cheeks.

"Yes, daddy, I like what I see." I reply his earlier question in a soft voice that makes him growl in my ear.

"Fuck, baby." Cam says as he slowly trails his hand under his long shirt that I was wearing to the place where I want him the most right now. His hot lips come down on my neck as his fingers make their way to my throbbing hot core. "Look how wet you are." He whispers in what sounds like awe as he languidly rubs his middle finger against my dripping opening. I'm almost embarrassed by how wet I am but as he slowly inserts his fingers into me, one at a time, a shameless, loud whimper escapes from my lips.

Needless to say, I'm very late for lunch.

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After a short twenty minutes drive, I arrive at Craft Gourmet by Lou Baker, an upscale restaurant in Victoria Island. I make my way in and head to the front desk. After introducing myself, the host leads me off to where my friends are all seated already.

"Hey guys." I greet as I settle into the empty chair, placing my purse on the table.

"Riri!" Chichi who is seated next to me exclaims before we exchange cheek kisses.

"Hey, boo." Temi greets, giving me a small side hug.

"Hey girl." Amina says and I immediately notice her sour mood.

"Mimi, what's wrong? Are you okay?" I ask her. She shakes her head at me dismissively before downing her glass of white wine.

I look to my two other friends who I notice aren't drinking and they both shrug, as clueless as I am.

I decide to keep quiet. "Have you guys ordered yet?" I ask.

"No, we were waiting for you." Temi says just as a waitress approaches us.

"Are you ladies ready to order?" She asks, her pen and paper in hand as we all nod in response.

Temi and Chichi place their orders first before it's my turn. My eyes quickly skim through the menu before I respond. "Can I have the sautéed prawns, creole salsa and basmati rice with a glass of red wine?"  Then, I hand her back the menu. "Thank you."

She smiles politely before looking to Amina. "I'll have the Chicken pesto pasta and a glass of vodka watermelon."

After that, the waitress leaves and I turn to Amina with concern. "Day drinking? Hell you don't even night drink, what's going on?"

"I'm getting married." She blurts out.

My eyes widen in surprise as she had just recently told me she planned to get married in the next two or three years, not before.

"Congratulations?" Chichi asks tentatively.

"I'm getting married to a guy named Jabril who I don't even know, and I haven't even met. He supposedly lives in the U.K and is from a good political family. That's all my parents told me when they informed me of our marriage. Apparently, his parents have even come to properly ask for my hand on his behalf." Amina rushes out, her voice breaking as she speaks before covering her face with both her hands as her quiet sobs are heard.

Temi and I share a look of shock as Chichi immediately hands her some tissues, I move to pat her back consolingly.

She blows her nose before saying, "I mean, I knew that this sort of thing happened in Muslim families, but I thought my parents and I had an understanding. I have never even met the guy!" She repeats. "Now, I have to go on and spend the rest of my life with him. They say he's a good guy, decent, but how would they know? They don't live with him, they don't know if his behavior is all a facade and he's some sort of monster underneath it, they don't know all that, yet they are willing and ready to push me off to him like I'm some sort of excess baggage!" Amina rants.

At this point, we are all quiet. Sometimes when you don't know what to say to console a person, it's best to remain silent.

After speaking and asking rhetorical questions, Amina quiets down, her tears no longer flowing as she blows her nose into the tissue. "I'm all cried out. I've been crying since last night like it will actually make a difference." She says with a humorless laugh.

I smile sympathetically.

"What is your parents' reason for doing this?" Chichi asks, her face scrunched up.

"Halima wants to get married." Amina says referring to my younger cousin. "And my mother, you know how she is, she doesn't want my sister married before me. Like I'm fucking complaining." She says spitefully.

"That's fucked up." Temi mutters under her breathe.

"Tell me about it." Mimi says.

"So, when is the wedding?" I ask her.

"In six months. He's coming to Nigeria next week to meet me and my parents." She informed us.

"Wait, wait, is he the one that asked for this?" Temi asks with her hand raised.

Mimi pauses before shaking her head. "No, his parents."

"Wow. Let's just pray that he's handsome at least." I piped up in an effort to lighten the mood.

"He better be!" Amina exclaims making us all laugh.

For the rest of lunch, we try to cheer her up before eventually catching Chichi up on the past.

I return home in the evening with a smile on my face, and an hour after I arrive, Cameron does too.

We decide to order from 01 Mandarin, a Chinese food delivery service, and spend a chill night in watching Netflix and drinking red wine.

We both settle to watch the movie, Wonder, as neither of us were in the mood to watch an action film or any other genre for that matter.

30 minutes into the movie, we were through eating and had cuddled up on the couch. My husband had his arms wrapped around me as I laid between his legs.

Halfway through the movie, I told him a bit about Amina's predicament when he asked how my lunch date went, not wanting to delve too much into my friend's business.

"Wow, that's fast." Cam breathes out in surprise. "Let's just hope he's not a bad guy."

"Honestly. Because my cousin deserves better." I say.

It quiets down after that and we focus on the movie. It gets to the sense where Auggie walks in on his 'friend' speaking bad about him behind his back and I shake my head at that. "Kids can be so vicious sometimes." I say making Cameron chuckle.

"Tell me about it. I can never forget my secondary school years in London. Those kids were something else. As a black kid in a private school, I had to thread carefully. I couldn't retaliate or they could expel me." Cam recalls. "My father would've killed me if that had happened. Eventually though, it stopped, but the memory is still there. Those guys were the reason I had to learn to be so vocal and, dare I say, insultive." He says making us both laugh. "Sometimes you don't have to fight with your fists, words are stronger."

"True." I concur, nodding my head.

"Do you want them?" He asks.

"Kids?" I reply as I look up at him. Cameron nods his head. "Eventually, at some point. But not right now. You?"

"Why not right now?" He asks with a small frown.

I shrug. I had a lot I wanted to do business wise, plus, I'm a newly wed. I'm in no rush to start having children. I always told myself that I wanted to at least properly enjoy the first year of my marriage, as well as enjoy my husband before having kids. That much was the mindset I had as I got the Depo Provera Birth Control Shots that I did before my wedding unbeknownst to Cameron. I wasn't about to tell him that now though, if ever.

"Because I'm just not ready yet." I reply simply before getting up from between his legs to look at him directly. "We practically just got married, babe, what's the hurry?" I asked, rubbing his cheek lovingly.

"What if I said I want kids now? Well, not right now, but I want us to start trying." Cameron says, as he scratches his head lightly.

I eye him warily, moving even further away and sitting up straighter. "Are you saying that you want kids now?" I ask to confirm.

He closes his eyes shut, and bites his lips as if to keep his words in. Good, because at this point, if he said the wrong thing to me, I was ready to go off on him.

"What if I am?" He asks indirectly.

I take a deep breathe at his words. "Cam, I thought we spoke about this before we got married and we had an understanding? No kids immediately after marriage, we had said. Remember?"

"That was then, Rita. This is now. We aren't getting any younger. What's the hesitation though? I love you, you love me, we are married for Christ's sake and we both are financially stable to take care of a child. So why not?"

I give him a look of disbelief before saying distatefully, "Do you hear yourself right now? You sound like you're saying one plus one equals two. This is a child that we are talking about! It's not just about the physical and financial aspect of having one. Are we really ready is the question? Mentally? Emotionally? Spiritually?" I pause wanting to calm myself so I won't shout my words at him. "I suggested one year because I felt like by then we would both be ready, all round, I still do. We would be much stronger and tighter and mentally ready to have a baby. Why the sudden change of heart?"

Cam pulls away from me, the annoyance on his face as clear as daylight. The movie we were watching echos distantly in the background and I distinctly wonder how this conversation took such a turn. He looks like he's ready to get up and leave if the discussion doesn't go his way and I'm not surprised. That was his answer to everything, to walk away.

"I want a baby, Rita." He deadpans.

The way he says it, his approach to the idea of having a child, proves to me even more that we aren't ready to have one. "Well it's my body, isn't it?" I retort.

Cameron shoots me a sharp look before standing up and walking away with an annoyed scoff.

I remained seated there for some minutes, not knowing what to do next, confused. Before I know it, I hear his footsteps coming back down the stairs amd heading to the door.

This man is not trying to do what I think he is, I think to myself. I look at the digital clock which tells me the time is currently 10:27 pm before I stand up and approach him with quick steps. "And where do you think you are going?"

Cameron doesn't spare me a glance as he searches for his car key in our key bowl. "Out."

"Out by after 10 pm? I don't think so. Especially in this mood of yours, I'm not having anybody call me to tell me that you got in an accident or something because you were driving angry and under the influence." I say as I go to stand in front of the door in a stance.

Cameron lets out a humorless laugh before giving me a straight face. "I drank two glasses of red wine and I'm not angry, now excuse me." He tries to get me to move but I'm relentless.

"If you aren't angry then why are you leaving? Cam, seriously, it's too late for this. Let's just go upstairs and sleep it off. We'll talk tomorrow and if you want, I'll stay in the guess room tonight." I offer.

"Rita, don't piss me off. I won't say it again, move." He commands in a authoritative voice that only succeeds in making me annoyed.

I move away from the door and even open it for him. "Oya, go. Since all you do when we have disagreements is run away, go!" I kiss my teeth loudly and after sending me a vexed look, Cameron leaves, hopping into his Range Rover and driving off.

I slam the door shut in annoyance before making my way upstairs.

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New chapter soon, in the meantime though, how did you like this one?

Do you think Cameron's sudden want for a child stems deeper than it seems?

Please don't forget to vote and comment your thoughts as well as check out my other book Ada. Till next time, stay safe!