The chill evening air licked Leri’s face which made her smile sadly. There was something comforting about the sea breeze, like it was petting her and cooling her down.

“You know, I think I saw a mermaid once.” Wura said which captured Leri’s attention.

“Really?” she inquired eagerly.

Wura took a bite of her bread and Nutella and nodded. “I was here one evening when I suddenly saw something there,” she pointed to a direction on the calm sea, “a tail diving into the water and I can bet it was a mermaid.”

“Wow,” Leri gasped in awe, “what was the color of its tail?”

Wura shrugged, “green I guess.”

Leri smiled in wonderment. It’ll be nice to see a mermaid one day. She glanced beside her at the half-eaten slice of bread and Nutella. Wura had brought her to the beach like a sort of picnic. She had already prepared sandwiches, smoothies and bought some candy before picking her from Tomiwa’s place.

She glanced at Wura who was searching for something in the picnic basket and her heart tightened with emotion, Wura had done all these for her, when she thought she hated her.

“Thank you for bringing me here.” Leri said softly, “thank you for all these,” she gestured with her eyes to the picnic around them, “I appreciate it a lot.”

A small smile cracked on Wura’s lips. “You really are something Leri. Annoying, even too out spoken for my liking, but those are things I admire about you.”

“I thought you hated me.” Leri voice was quiet.

“I thought I did too, until Tomiwa called me this morning to tell me what happened. I know heartbreaks and impacts on people.” She paused then said with a lower voice, “I nearly committed suicide after my last heart break.”

Leri adjusted her sitting position to face Wura as she urged her to go. “What happened?”

“I was eighteen and it was my every first heart break experience,” she said after a moment. “I met this amazing guy, he was everything I ever wanted and then eventually we started dating.”

Leri waited patiently for her to drink water and then, she continued. “eight months later-he was twenty-one at that time, I was at his place and he told me that his cousin was coming over that weekend.” Wura sighed, “I cooked, cleaned the house and she did come over. We were even talking and chatting.”

“So what happened?” Leri asked softly, seeing Wura’s hesitation in continue talking.

“Later that night when we were in the room, he told me that he was going to check up on his cousin and he was coming back.” Wura smile was sad and full of memories, “I slept off waiting for him and when I woke up late in the night, he wasn’t by my side so I went to look for him and I found him in his cousin’s room. She was sleeping on him and they were both naked.”

Leri couldn’t hide her shock and disgust as she cupped her mouth with her palm.

“Apparently he had told her that I was his cousin and I was at his place for the holidays.” Wura explained, “I was so depressed that the next day, I wanted to drink rat poison.”

“Oh my gosh,” Leri exclaimed, “I’m so sorry, you didn’t deserve that.”

Wura hissed. “That’s bygone jare, but that experience taught me to be wiser, more observant and never to fully trust anyone because human beings are the most unpredictable creatures. One day they like you and would do anything for you, the next day, they pretend like you don’t exist and they don’t care.”

Leri diverted her gaze to the beach. She watched the calm waves and watched the foamy part of water wash to the shore.

People were unpredictable and she had over trusted her boyfriend and best friend.

“He’s an idiot.” Wura’s voice brought her back to the present, “it’s going to hard moving on but you have to bury your past or paint something better over it.” Wura placed her palm over Leri’s and said softly, “use today to cry and let go of the pain in you. You have to start getting better from tomorrow.”

“My relationship was two years Wura,” Leri teared up, “how can I bury two years, I thought we were going to get married, i-“

“Shh,” Wura told her, “I understand, but you have to accept the fact that its all over now. You have to heal and move on. The guy you’re crying over doesn’t care about you.”

“That’s the most painful part,” Leri sobbed, “he doesn’t care.”

“Did you notice suspicious signs or warning signs while you were dating?” Wura inquired.

Leri nodded. “He suddenly stopped calling or checking up on me. He could do that for days.”

“Without any suitable explanation?”

“Anytime I ask he always says he’s busy and the pressure from his work place was overwhelming.”

“Everytime?” Wura asked with brows raised in question.

Leri nodded. “I was always trying to be understanding and considerate. It was painful wanting to talk to someone I love, wanting to hear his voice but unable to do so because of his so-called work…I had no idea he was cheating.”

“No one is ever too busy for the person they love, you should know that.” Wura said to her, “so I want you to see this as relief from the burdens of him.”

Leri stared at her and she continued. “I know you loved him and all, but deep down you were fed up of the whole thing but couldn’t cheat because you’re a good person. So, see this as freedom.”

What Wura said made sense because truthfully, she was getting mentally tired of the unanswered texts and lack of communication.

“Leri!” A voice called and both Wura and Leri diverted their gazes to the source of the voice.

Astrid was running towards them-or her precisely and when she finally got close, she knelt and crashed Leri into a long warm hug.

Leri Inhaled her tropical scent, and rested her head on her shoulder comfortingly.

“Are you okay?” She cupped Leri’s cheek with a palm as she studied her eyes, which were red from crying.

Leri shook her head in response, earning another hug from Astrid.

“Tomiwa didn’t want to tell me what happened but I forced him to, I am deeply sorry love, you don’t deserve that nincompoop.” Astrid said before breaking her hug.

“I’ll be fine.” Leri managed to say, “I’ll try to.”

“I will be here for you, to help you move on.” Astrid glanced around at the picnic and gasp in amazement, “Wura did all these? Why this is quite wonderful.”

“It’s no big deal jare,” Wura said refusing to look at any of them. She was embarrassed.

“It is,” Astrid chuckled, “are there any left overs? I want to eat something.”

Wura pushed the picnic basket to her. “Help yourself.”

“How was the party yesterday?” Leri asked.

Astrid smiled. “It was marvelous. I was able to take juicy pictures of our targets, my- Harnet’s perfume launch was successful and I saw a lot of influential people.”

“But isn’t there another way to distract Dahlia rather than releasing those pictures publicly. It’ll wreck her.” Leri said.

“And so?” Wura hissed in distaste, “are we the ones that said she should be sleeping with married men?”

“I know but there’s always two sides to every story, “what if the married man had forced her or blackmailed her into sleeping with him?”

“Are you even hearing yourself?” Wura asked heatedly, “Dahlia is not a good person, that should be ringing in your head like a bell.”

“I know but we haven’t even heard her side of the story, why she became this way?” Leri words were provoking Wura.

“Whatever the reason was, it doesn’t mean she can kill people anyhow like the insignificant ants and remember, she tried to kill you.” Wura reminded her, “or did something happen that you’re not telling us? Why are you suddenly taking her side?”

“I’m not taking her side but I just feel-“ Leri began but Astrid cut her off.

“That’s quite enough from both of you,” Astrid raised her palm in gesture, “please do not spoil the peaceful and marvelous aura tonight,” she turned to Leri, “love I know that deep down you still want to believe that Dahlia has a pinch of goodness in her but she bloody doesn’t. Everything she does has always been negative and planned, “ she turned to Wura, “ I know you detest Dahlia but for tonight, can we resist talking about her and focus on ourselves and helping Leri get better instead?”

Wura scoffed. “Fine, I won’t talk about that witch anymore.”

Leri also nodded. She looked to the sky and found stars already appearing in the night sky.

“You know, heart breaks don’t always have to be from your partner, it can be from any one dear to you.” Astrid said which intrigued Leri.

“What do you mean by that?” Leri couldn’t resist asking.

“For me, it’s my father,” Astrid began, “my mum is an air hostess, he had seen her in the plane on his way to Korea for a meeting. He was married at that time, but he didn’t tell my mum and so they fell in love, which led to having me.” Astrid paused for a moment before continuing, “when my mum found out, she was deranged, and so with me in her stomach, she ran away from her family in Korea to London.”

“My Eomma raised me as a single mother, all my dad did was just to send money over frequently,” Astrid blinked away tears, “I didn’t want money, I wanted my father’s love, I wanted to talk to him, I wanted to see him, I wanted him to love me.”

She paused again. “I came to Nigeria few years ago just to see him, but he’s always either busy, or not bloody available which breaks a piece of my heart every single day.” She squeezed Leri’s palm softly, “so, be strong love. You will find someone better.”

Leri sniffled as she nodded, unable to say anything incase she starts crying again. Astrid was going through constant rejection from her father, but yet she was resilient.

Wurahad already seen the wickedness and unfairness of life from an early stage which had refined her to be the woman she was now.

She had been through a lot emotionally that she felt like she would never love again-let not forget the fact that she was almost killed by her role model.
They were all survivors, warrior queens who fought the battle of life no matter the obstacle and no matter the setback.

Leri found herself seeing them as more than friends and almost as sisters.

“Wura when shall we begin our cooking lessons? Especially the native soups.” Astrid asked as she chewed peanut butter sandwich.

“You remember what happened the last time I thought you how to cook egusi soup.”

“What happened?” Leri was eager to know.

“It was an accident.” Astrid exclaimed.

“Anyways,” Wura continued, “you needed to see the amount of salt she poured in the soup even after putting iru, it was inedible.”

Leri burst in laughter and so did Wura. Even Astrid chucked.

“Chill, I think my phone is ringing.” Wura dug her hand into trouser pockets and produced the phone. She accepted the call and placed it on her ear. “Hello Tomiwa.”

“What?” There was panic in Wura’s voice, causing both Leri and Astrid stare at her in question. “We’re on our way now.”

She put her phone down back in her pocket answered their unspoken question. “Someone tried to bomb the jewelry shop this evening.”

In about an hour time, the girls were already at base. They met Tomiwa and the twins studying the bomb on the table. In Tomiwa’s hand was a piece of paper.

“Hope nobody was hurt?” Leri asked as soon as they stepped in.

“Who could’ve done this bloody rubbish?” Astrid couldn’t hide the anger in her voice.

They gathered round the explosive device. It was a bit bigger than a brown envelope with a lot of interconnecting wires.

“This was intentional.” Wura stated as she studied the device on the table, “to get our attention. How did you guys see it?”

“A man entered the shop this evening, dropped it in the store and ran out.” Faizah explained, “Fortunately Joy was able to see it and called our attention. It was in a black bag so no one knew, until we opened it and found this.”

“I was able to totally disconnect everything but the messenger did not activate the timer,” Fareed continued, “Wura is right, it was intentional.”

“It also came with a note,” Tomiwa spoke for the time and Wura collected the note from him. He glanced at Leri, who shyly looked away.

Wura read the note aloud, “the next one will be a real bomb. Be careful and stop going after us, this is the last warning.”

“SC.” Astrid said through gritted teeth, “that bloody bastard. It has to be her.”

“Where’s Aminat?” Wura questioned.

“She won’t be able to come due to certain circumstances.” Tomiwa replied her, “we have to round up this mission as soon as possible, this is getting extreme.”

“SC isn’t our main target,” Astrid reasoned out, “she’s merely a puppet, so we have to find the real bloody head.”

“They are after the bullets, after Dahlia to be precise.” Fareed added.

“But have you guys thought that they could be working together?” Leri said after a moment, “Astrid I want you to think back to the party last night, did you see anything suspicious?”

“Bloody hell,” Astrid exclaimed, “you’re right, I did notice something.”

“What?” Wura was anxious.

“One of Dahlia’a guards, I recognize him. He was one of SC’s boys guarding me when I was kidnapped.”

Everyone in the room groaned in frustration.

“This is most unexpected.” Tomiwa spoke everyone’s minds out as he faced the twins, “Install more hidden cameras round the building, tell Joy and the other attendants at the shop to be watchful. We have to be prepared for the unexpected. We have to stay alive.

Tomiwa’s speech seemed to have calmed the tension in the room as everyone relaxed. Leri glanced at him, he looked like a natural leader, carrying everyone along while trying to protect them.

“We have to release those pictures Tomiwa,” Wura was speaking with controlled anger, “and we have to get Dahlia, her sister and their so-called leader. This has taken way too long.”

“All we know is that he’s an Alhaji.” Astrid reminded them.

“I made a list of possible suspects but I’m sure even sure which one is which until we get more leads.” Faizah said.

“For tonight, let everyone go back home and rest. Today was a long day and tomorrow is a new day. We’ll be able to think better and function properly tomorrow.”

They all nodded. The day was indeed a long one, a long tiring one. Leri anticipated sleep. She needed a break from reality.

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