Dedicated to Jesutoun Sijuade ❤

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"Oh, my dear friend! You're so beautiful! And your eyes so beautiful-like doves!" --Song of Solomon 1:15 (MSG)

The exhibit was in a week and Posi was putting final touches on everything needed.

It had been weeks and weeks of preparing for it. Posi had spent hours on ensuring that every part of the exhibit was par excellence. There had been an anonymous donation and she was thankful.

She hadn't known that she had a flair for organising things until now. She was loving every part of it.

Plus her relationship with God was just getting more intimate by the second. It felt like she could see Him physically even though He was a Spirit Being. She had best friends and she knew how close she was to them. However, what she experienced and kept on experiencing with God was something deeper. She could call on Him late at night, early in the morning, at work, at home, in a crowd, anywhere, anytime.

Posi could see now and she wasn't going blind again. Never again.

She discovered that even her other relationships with her friends and mum were also getting better on a daily basis.

She smiled as her thoughts morphed into new ones of how her friendship with Tayo was becoming more. She was open and trusting with him. And she knew there was a shift in their friendship. They talked for long hours, hung out a lot and even prayed together with Gerald and Funmi. The four of them had become so close too. Even Funmi had stopped harassing him; it was a miracle.

Besides that, they had both become almost permanent fixtures in each other's offices. The security at Tayo's building recognized her so much that she didn't need to call Kazeem to announce her arrival anymore.

On one of those days when he came in for his photoshoot towards the exhibit, they had gotten talking.

The photoshoot had just ended and Posi was busy selecting the photos to be used while Tayo chatted with Toyin. From her peripheral vision, Posi could see Toyin smiling more than usual at her and even sent a wink in her direction. It was almost like she was giving her a "I approve of this uncle" vibe.

Tayo had walked up to her to see what she was working on before sitting on the chair opposite hers. He sat in silence and gazed at her till she raised her head.

"What?"

"What what?" He had asked like he didn't know what she was talking about.

"You know what. Why are you peering at me? Do I look like a piece of grilled chicken?"

He had roared in laughter at that. "No. You're too beautiful to be a piece of chicken."

Smooth, Posi thought. "So what's up?"

"I have been meaning to ask. Why did you go into art? You always have this unexplainable look on your face when you draw, paint or just talk about it. It's fascinating to watch."

With a smile, she knew she would have to go into her story. And well, it was time. She put a pause to what she was doing and sat up with her fingers entwined on the table.

"Okay. Well, I had a bit of a rough childhood. It was filled with verbal abuse that affected my outlook on life. It took me a while to build a wall around myself. However, I noticed that in those times when I felt down, after a dose of verabumycin, I'd just pick my pencil and a plain sheet of paper and just begin to make lines and stuff. I almost always felt better."

Posi saw Tayo's face take on a look of pain, understanding, then, confusion. "Wait. What is verabumycin? Is that some sort of drug? You dislike drugs too?"

In laughter, she responded. "Verbal abuse plus mycin. You get?"

The confusion cleared off his face as he shook his head from side to side. "Your sense of humour is out of this world, Posi. It's a wonder how you can joke about that now. It must have been tough then."

"Yes. It was. I drew a lot then. And when it was time to go to the University, I decided to study fine art and learnt photography on the side along with Gerald in school. I knew fine art didn't really have a ground in Nigeria like Medicine, Law, Accounting and the likes but that was what I wanted to study. Now, I get to use it to tell a story to glorify God." She finished with a smile.

"That's great. Can I ask a question?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"How's your relationship with your parents now?"

She paused. "My mum and I just recently patched things up. I haven't spoken to my dad in years."

She had kept quiet then and it seemed she had some emotions play out on her face because Tayo took her hand in his and squeezed it. Sometimes, words weren't needed. And this was a "sometime".

Posi smiled at the memory of that moment. She wasn't a believer in having bees flutter about in one's tummy. Or was it butterflies? Even her favourite character in Hallmark Channel's The Royal Matchmaker had called that feeling "good indigestion".

However, she couldn't deny the remarkable feeling of being protected that she felt at that moment. It felt wonderful.

If those were butterflies, then so be it.

*******

After Posi told him a bit about her childhood, he had begun to feel protective of her. It was an added emotion to what he knew he felt where she was concerned.

He had tried to deny that what he felt was love. And had tried to downplay it as a brotherly affection as scripture often said. Even Apostle Paul said to treat the young ladies as sisters. Right?

In this case, he knew deep down it wasn't brotherly affection. He definitely didn't need a new sister. Adetutu was already a handful.

He loved her. That was becoming crystal clear to him. But was he ready?

A knock on his door brought him out of his reverie.

"Come in."

Kazeem walked in with a package in his hands. "This was just delivered for you, sir."

Tayo opened the meticulously packaged brown bag and saw envelopes he guessed were invitation cards for the exhibit. Opening them revealed that he was right. He had asked Posi to give him some so he could invite some of his business partners and friends he knew would enjoy it.

Picking up his phone, he dialled her number.

"Hello, Tee."

Hmmm. Somebody is calling me Tee now.

"Hi, Posi. How are you?"

"Good good. Just putting finishing touches to everything. You?"

"Good too. So, I just received the invitation cards. I would do the needful."

"Okay. Thank you. You don't know how much I appreciate this."

"Come on. It's nothing. Anything for my favourite homo sapiens." Wow, bro. Wow.

"Homo sapiens? Really, Tee?"

Okay. She heard only that. Good. " Yes. Aren't you one?" He gasped. "Don't tell me. You aren't?"

He heard her laughter and he smiled. "You are such a goofball. I'll talk to you later. By the way, the guys said we should have the hang out after the exhibit. So, clear your schedule the weekend after. I told you o."

"Why are you saying it in such a threatening way?"

"Because Funmi said to inform you or else she would cut off my dreads from the roots."

"Then, I will just have to deny that you told me."

With her voice deeper than usual, she said, "Don't you dare!"

Tayo was enjoying teasing her.

"Maybe I should chop off your beards too."

"Ah! Okay. I'm sorry. I heard you loud and clear."

"Good boy. I have to go now. Later."

"Yeah."

As he dropped his phone, he caught his reflection in his dark phone screen. What a smile.

"And that's how I forgot to tell her that the aso ebi for my dad's birthday is here," he muttered to himself.

********

"Anything for my favourite homo sapiens."

My favourite.

The sentence kept echoing in Posi's mind and the butterflies went to work. They were so restless.

Ah. This guy.

"We are good friends. He hasn't given any indication he wants more than friendship. We are going to concentrate on the exhibit. Yes, that's what we will do."

Posi picked up the piece of paper Toyin had dropped off for her. Toyin was to do the spoken word for the exhibit and had wanted her to go through the words.

As she read, her eyes misted. She could feel the uncertainty, fear, desperation, scepticism and finally the joy and freedom in the words. Posi made a few corrections and dropped her pen.

Beautiful. So beautiful.

Toyin had been sworn to secrecy. She wasn't to tell Posi about the donation that he made.

Knowing her boss, she may find out on her own. But she won't hear it from me.

She smiled. It was a wonderful thing to see people support your dream or vision in whatever capacity they could. Even Gerald and Funmi had pitched in to help by taking care of publicity, photography and the refreshments to be served.

God, please send me good friends like these.