"You can park here," I told him. He maneuvered his car into the space I had pointed to him and parked it. I got out of the car, and so did he. For some minutes, I stood beside the car, staring at the blue gate before me, thinking of what to do. Going in would be a bad idea. Staying out was also a dumb idea. Finally, I came up with the master plan, I'll just call their mum to let her know I'm here. I know you might be wondering why I'm so wary of going in, well you'll find out soonest.

"Are you sure they are home?" Ademide asked, coming over to my side.

"I'm a hundred percent sure."

"Then why are you just standing over here? Why don't you just knock..."

"No!" I said quietly, grasping hold of his hand, stopping him from moving closer to the gate. He gave me a questioning look, and then I spoke further, "Do you know what is going to happen if you move an inch closer to that gate?" I pointed to the gate for emphasis, my voice was clear and full of warning, but he just gave me a bored look, "you don't know, so I will tell you. If you take a step closer to that gate, there would be a world war three between the both of us, and Lucky." I smiled before adding, "Do you know who Lucky is?"

He rolled his eyes, definitely tired of my nonsense talk, but it wasn't nonsense talk. There was sense in the nonsense, I must say.

"Lucky is the name of their dog, and she is a bitch! A very bad one," I said shaking my finger in front of his face. He was going to say something but I held up my palm to stop him from talking, and continued. "And if you as much as knock on that gate..." I gave a wry laugh before adding, "you won't see me near you, I would have been at my house because I won't be here to witness the justice of Lucky."

"So, what do you plan on doing? Are we to stay out here, celebrating a birthday with the...lemme guess, trees." He threw his hand up as he said this.

"I'll just call their Mum, because I'm so not entering that house without an escort," I said, bringing out my phone from my jean pocket.

"For real screamer, you could have called her from the onset, it would have saved us both the long speech you just gave." He folded his arms and rested his back on his car.

I glared at him before going ahead and calling the twins mum, it wasn't until the third ring before she picked up, and that was actually too long for my impatient self.

"Hello, Mary," I heard her calm voice say from the other end.

"Hello ma."

"Did you call to wish your babies a happy birthday? Let me get them for..."

"No ma. Actually I'm outside your house, can you tell Joseph to come open the gate for me?" I asked sweetly.

"Really, that is lovely, I will send Joseph out now."

I hung up with a big smile on my face, expecting Joseph. I looked at Ademide to see him staring at my face attentively, I think I might be right, this guy is obsessed with my face. Well, he once admitted it himself.

"Is there something so unique about my face?" I asked with a grin, expecting him to shove it off and ignore me.

"Yes, there is." He answered and just kept on staring at my face, I actually expected him to add something else, but he didn't. So I just stood there watching him stare at my face like his life depended on it, amazement danced in his eyes as he stared at me, as though he had never seen a face like mine before. Could it be that I'm just too pretty, damn, I knew how pretty I was, but I had no idea my face was something someone would obsess over.

I gave room for rational thoughts, and ignored Ademide when the gate opened revealing a smiling Joseph. He ran into my arms and I did my best to take him, keeping my balance so I won't fall.

"Aunt Mary, I thought you weren't going to show up again." He said smiling.

"Awwn, my baby." I rubbed his head affectionately, also spotting a big smile on my face.

"Good evening sir," Joseph said greeting Ademide who was looking at I and Joseph with wonder, like he hadn't seen a pair like us before.

"Hello Joseph," he said with that gorgeous smile of his, then he asked the most unnecessary question ever. "Joseph, if I may ask, how old are you?"

"And what's that got to do with anything?" I asked with an eye roll, but he ignored me and looked expectantly at Joseph who soon answered him with a shy smile. Awwn, my baby is always shy around new people.

"I'm nine."

Ademide had a shocked look on his face, then he stepped closer to me, before bending down to my heights as if he wanted to emphasize a point. Then he said in a very quiet and amused tone, "he is nine, that means you are supposed to be ten years older than him, right?"

"Obviously," I said.

"Then why the hell are you both the same heights?" He asked. I stepped back in surprise, staring at him with mouth agape. I felt anger wash through me, but I pushed it down, he had been really nice to me, so I had to atleast overlook a few things. "For real, where the hell were you when God was distributing heights to his children?"

He started howling with laughter now, I pushed down every anger I felt and turned to look at Joseph who was also howling with laughter. I folded my arms and gave him a glare, "Joseph, shall we go in now?"

"Okay aunt Mary," he said and opened the gate, but Ademide stopped him and brought out the two cakes and teddy from his car. I can't believe I actually forgot about it, he handed the two teddy's to Joseph, and dumped, like literally dumped the two cakes in my hand. Then he went to his car to the trunk of his car and produced two park of Capri sones, like how?

"When did you get that?" I asked.

"Your mum dropped it in my car last night," he said with a shrug like it was a normal thing and walked into the gate behind Joseph.

I followed in awe, now I understood why my mum acted so passive about the whole issue, does that mean she was aware of everything. So my mum and Ademide are now ganging up on me, with this thoughts running about in my mind I walked into their compound. I peeked carefully with the cake in hand, making sure Lucky was wearing a leash and in her cage. I'm so not ready to take any chances with my tiny little neck.

Immediately we got in I was welcomed with shout of two little kids, I watched as my twins ran into my arms, I quickly dropped the cakes on the table. "Aunt Mary." They both screamed and jumped into my arms, and I caught them both. Yeah, it took lots of practice to finally be able to carry this two big babies at the same time.

"Happy birthday!" I squealed.

The three of us were so engrossed in our little display of affection that we totally forgot every other person present, it was in this state that their mum came into the sitting room. I dropped them on the floor.

"Good evening ma," I said half kneeling.

"Oh Mary," she said pulling me into a hug. "Thank you." She let me go and I noticed she was staring at someone at my back, I turned back to behold Ademide who was looking at Emmanuel and Esther. The twins were looking up at him with curious eyes which was a surprise because they were usually wary of strangers. I watched him bend down to their level and gave them a smile.

"Happy birthday cuties," he said.

"Thank you Mr stranger," Esther said which actually had me laughing.

"I'm not a stranger, I'm actually a good friend of your Aunt Mary, My name is Ade." He said stretching forth his hand to them, and surprisingly they accepted it, for real.

"My name is Esther Oshinloye, and my brother's name is Emmanuel Oshinloye. We are five years old." For real Esther is a blabbermouth, but only with those she knew, then what was the issue with her and Ademide? While Emmanuel is the shy and reserve type like his elder brother Joseph. "And he is my second brother, Joseph Oshinloye." She pointed up at Joseph whom he had already met, ejo, talo ran ni se? (Please, who sent her?)

"It is nice to meet you all," Ademide said with a very genuine smile, maybe even more genuine than any smile I've ever seen on his face.

I turned to look at their mum who had questions on her face, gosh, I didn't think of this before bringing Ademide here. I wonder what was going through her mind now, this was actually awkward, damn, she is my pastor's wife, actually ex pastor.

"Esther don't choke the visitor with your words," their mum said with a smile, walking over to meet them. Ademide stood up right and greeted her.

"Good evening ma."

"Evening, it is nice to meet you dear," Mrs Oshinloye said.

Well, turns out they needed no introduction, for real, I was not a fan of awkward situation. After that we all actually got on pretty well, their grandma came to join us after she had woken up, and when their dad came back we had a full house party.

I was actually a little bit jealous, why? Because for some reasons known to them alone the twins were all over Ademide, it was like they kinda forgot me, and they were supposed to be my twins. And Mr and Mrs Oshinloye also fell in love with him, even the grandma, like I was literally boiling. But all the same it was fun and beautiful, and somewhere deep down I knew it wouldn't have been possible without Ademide.

******

It was around 7pm I and Ademide got home, I usually don't spend this long at the twins place, but since Ademide was there and he would be driving us home I kinda stayed longer.

I walked in going straight to my room, I said a partial greeting to Samuel who actually ignored me because of some stupid game, I was about going into my room when Ademide pulled me back. I turned back quite slowly, I was really too tired to have any sort of discussion or do anything like cook, or eat even.

"What?" I drawled.

"You are going in to sleep already, why?"

"Because I'm tired," I said too tired even to roll my eyes.

"You are not even going to watch your usual night movies, are you?"

"No."

"Ok," he rubbed his head nervously then smiled before saying, "good night." Then he turned on his heels.

"Thank you Adonis." I said making him stop in his tracks and turn back to face me.

"Adonis?" He asked with a smile, "you also called me that before, I like it."

"Of course you do, black Adonis," I said with an eye roll. "Good night Adonis."

"Good night My short screamer."

"You people are vexing me oo," I heard Samuel shout from the sitting room. "Mary go and sleep if you want to sleep!"

"Its like you are high, chicken." I yelled and I saw Ademide flinch a little before laughing, I went into my dungeon of a room with a mental note to stop screaming, and clean my room tomorrow.

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© Mary Aden