BUKOLA

Most people get nervous when starting a new job. In my situation, that is not the case. In my own case, I am excited. Excited to be back on this life.

"Good morning, Ms. Solade. Please, have your seat." Although married, I did not officially change my name. I honestly saw no need to.

"Thank you, ma'am." The strict woman directs her eyes to a folder in her hands, looks at me, before looking back into what she was holding.

"You were supposed to resume work yesterday." She states firmly, adjusting her glasses to look at me.

"My apologies about that. The mail got lost in my spam box." I respond to her.

"There are many people out there who need this same position you would be working at. Don't mess this up, else you are out." Now the idea of changing my surname to Sambo seems very tempting. I bet she won't be telling me this if she knows I am her Oga's wife.

"Victor will take you on a tour across the facility." The woman says and I just force a smile, nodding my head. She is just like most HR personnel I know. I sometimes refer to them as Inhuman Resources in my head due to my bad experiences with some of them, mostly during the job hunt phase. I think it is deeply rooted to how they are trained.

"Alright, ma'am. Thank you." She dials a number on the landline and instructs the person to come in.

Few moments after, someone walks into the office. She introduces him as Victor Osamede. He is a staff with the Human Resources department.

We exit the office for a tour of the facility. He also introduced me to some of the top management staff that were on seat. By the time we were arriving Aminu's office, my heart began to race faster for no just cause.

"Good morning, Allison. Is Mr. Sambo in?" Victor asks her with a smile which she returns with a smile of her own.

"Yes, he is in."

"Alright. I'll like an audience with him, please." When her gaze reaches my figure, she lets out a snicker. This babe is just plain stupid.

"Please, go in." As I follow behind him, our voice stops us

"Only you, Victor. Not her." A smirk dances on my lips when I turn to look at the clown.

"We're actually together. She's a new staff." The disappointment on her face is enough to brighten up my day.

Mr. Sambo was sitting on his chair, looking all tensed up. Like something was severely wrong with him. His face quickly morphs into a smile when he sees me.

"Good morning, Sir." Victor greets and he just nods, muttering a 'morning' to him. He also responds in a similar manner when I greet.

"This is Miss. Bukola Solade, our newest addition to the company. I am taking her on a quick tour across the facility and also introducing her to everyone."

"Alright."

"It's a pleasure to be here, Sir." I try to hide my smile and keep a very professional face.

"Welcome to Sambo Holdings." He says.

"Thank you, Mr. Sambo."

"You may take your leave now, Victor. I'd like to have a word with Miss. Solade here."

"Okay, Sir." Victor nods in understanding before excusing us. The moment he leaves the room, Aminu breaks into a smile and stands up from where he is sat.

"Come here, wifey." He does not wait for my response before he takes me into his arms.

"Good morning."

"Good morning. Sorry, I left the house very early today." He says.

"You didn't need to explain about that."

"Yeah, I do. Remember our convo last night?"

"We give us a try." I reiterate.

"Exactly. Have you had breakfast?" He asks me.

"No."

"Alright. Let's go."

"Say what? No, Aminu. I'm not going for breakfast with you."

"Why?"

"You want to spoil my shine here? What if there are nice looking men willing to sweep me off my feet?" He hold around me tightens a little when I say this. This man! Behaving like a baby whose toys are about to be seized from them.

"In that case, this breakfast really has to happen."

"Slow down. I was just kidding. I just don't want anyone thinking I got this job because of you."

"You almost gave me a heart attack."

"I know, right." I start to giggle when he begins to attack my sides with tickles.

"Aminu." I just could not hold in the full blown laughter that breaks out of my lips.

"What if I order for breakfast and we have it here instead?" He asks again. This man just wants to have breakfast by force.

"My answer still remains no."

"Alright."

"You could place an order and get it delivered to me, though. I won't say no to that."

"Yes, ma." He does a mock salute and laughs.

"Only because it's your first day." He adds and I just roll my eyes.

"Thank you, kind Sir." I answer with a slight bow of my head, bobbing a curtsy to him.

"You're welcome, ma'am." He also does a mock bow, resulting in a short laugh on my end.

"Let me go back to HR. I really don't know where my office is."

"I'll have my assistant lead you there." He immediately interjects.

"No!" The manner with which I exclaimed makes him to look at me.

"No." I repeat in a more subtle voice, smiling.

"Alright." He responds. Not like I can't handle that Allison lady, just that I don't want to get into ny form of altercation with anybody on my first day of work. I also see exchanging words with her as an insult to my person.

Victor finally helps me settle into my department and my job description was explained to me. According to them, I will be under probation for the next one month.

•••••

"You honestly look good in them, but if it stresses you this much, why not tone down on the inches a little? Or just wear flats." So this discussion started when I told Aminu of how tired my feet feels and how heels can be so much of a stress most times.

"There's a certain type of Aura wearing heels sets me into. I like it." That's the thing. Even with the stress, I still enjoy it. Talk about beauty is pain.

"Yeah. Like I said earlier, you look good on them. I just think your comfort should be first and any other thing can follow."

"I concur with you, though."

"Was dinner prepared for us?" He asks, yawning.

"Yeah. Thank God. I am so exhausted right now. Please heat up the soup while I freshen up?" He gapes at me in surprise.

"What is it?" It takes a lot of effort for me not to laugh.

"Just day one of trying to make us work and you are already sending me on errands. First it was to get you food in the morning. Now this." He points out.

"Yes o. I need to cash in all my favours. Only God knows when your head will choose to touch again."

"You're not serious." He hisses before standing up, mumbling 'women'. He accompanies the statement with shaking his head.

"Thank you, husband." I playfully call after him. Aminu stops, turns to look at me before breaking into a wide grin.

"Welcome, wifey." He answers.

•••••

"It's been months since you got married to my son, you still have not provided us with a grand child. Or is something wrong with your womb?" The woman in front of me says. I just glare at her, losing my appetite. Meanwhile, she's eating like she did not just utter nonsense.

In my how many years of existence, Aminu's mum is one of the few persons I have come to hate extremely. Honouring this lunch invite was just to fulfil all righteousness.

"Maybe." Eunice shrugs and they both share a look before laughing. This one will not find a better thing to do with her life.

I don't understand the game she thinks she is playing. When I had initially arrived, this daughter of jezebel was not here. Aminu's mom was all smiles and it seriously made me wonder why the sudden flip in behaviour until Eunice showed up and everything added up.

"I wonder why you so desperately hang on to his family. It must be so hard on you."

"So hard that what?" She asks defensive and aggressive.

"So hard to want someone so bad when he does not see you as anything but a fling. Trash. A freaking worthless woman." Nobody insults me and gets away with it, especially not her.

"Mummy, see what this classless girl your son married is saying to me."

"At your big age, you're still reporting your fights to elders. You shoud be ashamed, Eunice. No wonder he left your sorry ass. I mean, who will want to babysit a grown baby?" I shoot back with a glare. This woman shoud ask Aminu who I am.

"You know, he can never love you." Even though her words were the truth, Aminu and I are at least, now civil with each other and trying to be better at this marrage thing.

"You that feels a man can love you, I don't see a ring on your finger, sweetie." 

"At the end of the day, he is mine snd I won't be having this battle of custody with you. Excuse me." I am done with these two. I was few steps away but I had to retract my steps to give the mother-in-law a piece of my mind.

"With all due respect, ma, and that's even because of Aminu, I honoured your invite because I don't want my mother continuously being bothered about people questioning her upbringing techniques." Not that I care, though.

"In simpler words, I honoured your invite just as a form of respect and not because I am obliged to do so. If you know you are brewing chaos the next time, please do not ever invite me. I'd rather go unnoticed than have to take in this all in the name of family. Now, I'd like to be excused. Enjoy your meal." By the time I get to my car, I am seriously seething with anger. This woman has absolutely no reason to hate me, but she conveniently does it.