FARIDA

"So, what were you doing at the club?" I ask him later, while we're snuggled on the thick and soft fur-like rug, laying on the floor. It feels like we are floating on a cloud of fluffiness.

"I had some business to discuss with the owner of the club." He says, kissing me on my neck. I should get used to his constant show of affection.

"You're thinking of investing in nightlife?" I ask him with raised brows, even though my face is out of his sight.

"Seriously thinking about it." He answers, kissing my sides.

"I don't want to ever be away from you." He states and I just smile, not ready for the next bomb he threw.

"Move in with me?" He asks, making my eyes widen and an Immediate turn of my body in his direction follows.

"Sweetie, don't you think that is too early?" I ask him.

"Sorry I asked. We'll take this slow, don't worry." He responds, a sad smile on his lips.

"Thank you." Kissing him lightly on the lips, I rest my head on his chest, breathing in fresh air.

"So, did you later find out who ordered the attack on you?" I ask him the one question that kept bugging me.

"Yes. Turns out it was Mr. Sobowale." He answers.

"Ah, why would he do that?"

"I got him fired."

"About time." That man was one of the people that stressed me the most in that company. The man was never efficient and I did most of his work for him, even though we were not in the same department. It was annoying at a point because it felt like he was just using me. He never for once gave me credit for my work.

"He's behind bars now." I could feel annoyance in his tone so I decided to change the topic.

"I still can't believe this is us." A chuckle escapes my lips when I say this.

"You were the stubborn one." Laughter rumbles off his chest as he responds. Hah! It worked!

"Me? Stubborn." I lift up my head from where it was laid to look at him.

"Sweetie, your ego was here." Sitting up, I demonstrate with my hand, lifting it above my head.

"That's because you always acted untouchable." He chuckles, sitting up and immediately tackling me to the ground, till I am beneath him, his lips slightly above mine.

"I am untouchable." I state with a smirk. Next thing I feel is a slight pain on my forehead.

"Ouch! You this man! You flicked me." I exclaim with a scowl on my lips. He just laughs, pecks my lip before speaking.

"I thought you said you were untouchable." He smiles, shrugging his shoulders with a slight head movement.

"That one now means you should flick me." I am not angry, lol. I'm actually enjoying this.

"No vex, my untouchable baby girl.' He smiles, gently tapping on my nose, resulting to me rolling my eyes before a smile starts dancing on my lips. I just could not hold it. Can I even feign being mad at him now that I know I have been in denial of my feelings all this while?

"You are cute." He states casually. This man makes a girlie's insides melt effortlessly.

"You too." I respond to him.

"I'm not cute. I am handsome." He states.

"Ego." I murmur, loud enough for him not to miss out. After he pecks my cheeks and kisses me on the neck, we then go back to snuggling. Silence engulfs us and the only thing that could be heard were faint sounds of us inhaling and exhaling with our individual thoughts running through our minds. Occasionally, he would rub my arms and run light kisses on it. Is this what it feels like to let your guard off once more?

•••••

"Gamer!" Tamara jests when I finally step into the house.

"You sly. Thank God Emmy saw when you both left the club last night. You did not even call us. Chai, Farida don forget us because of man." This Bukky is just a cow.

"I don't know who is worse between the both of you." I state, shaking my head.

Four Saturdays after, as I got ready, I could not shake off the nervousness I felt for one, I had not spoken to her in a long while. Since she pleaded with me to return and I didn't, we have not communicated. I miss her playful side, Madam Yeni. Today, I am finally seeing her again.

Tobi said he wants to formally introduce me as his woman to his mom and wants us to go public after. I still want the news of our relationship out of the public eye. E get why.

So, I agreed to meeting his mom because she is family. Now I am nervous as hell. It's not like I don't know her, just that the last time we spoke, Tobi was my arch nemesis. Now, we are shocking her with us dating.

Tobi, that sweet man. It's been one month since we started dating. Being in a relationship with him still feels like the first day every single day. He is so caring and always makes sure to check on me. On days where we can't meet up physically, we spend long hours on the phone, talking. The amazing thing is there is no particular topic we discuss, just random stuff.

He finally spoke about meeting with him mom earlier this week. Saturday was perfect since both of us don't have work to deal with. I do, though but I have learnt sacrifice and compromise this one month of us being together. Besides, it is dinner, meaning it's in the evening. Who says I cannot do both the event of today and also have this dinner?

"Are you ready?" He asks when I pick the call.

"Yes, I am. Just give me a minute. I want to use my perfume."

"Women." He states, chuckling. I could imagine him shaking his head.

"I heard you." I state, rolling my eyes. Truth is, I needed a moment to re-assure myself that all will be well and going there tonight would not turn out bad, hopefully. Heaving a deep sigh, I push open my room door to see the ladies waiting for me just outside.

"Farida, you nailed this look. Damn, girl!' Lol. Weyrey duo.

"Thanks, my loves. See you both later." I blow air kisses before hurrying out of the house because I don't want them whispering bad things in my ears. These ones that don't have shame, before they take their madness outside.

"You look amazing." Tobi takes me in his arms to gently squeeze in a hug. His voice; like music in my ears. His cologne; screams of class and grandeur.

'Thank you. I'll give it to you, though." I state and he smiles, winking at me. I laugh and kiss his lips. I don't think I'll ever get tired of kissing this man. He brings his right hand from his pocket, revealing a small velvet box. My eyes widen when he opens the beauty before me. A gold necklace with matching earrings, simple and sleek.

"Your look is complete now." After helping me put on the jewelry, he kisses my shoulders tenderly.

"Thank you." I am officially a spoilt girlfriend because this man, he says I should get used to it.

As we make our way into the house, Tobi looks at me and smiles. I return his gesture and exaggerate by smiling broadly, trying to conceal the fact that my heart was beating fast.

•
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TOBI

"Take care, babe. Till we see later." I end the call with Farida, smiling from ear to ear.

"So, y'all dating now?" Joan teases and I just hiss, kissing my teeth with my tongue.

"And you're asking because?"

"Oga, stop being harsh on my woman. I'll just forget you're our friend." Ayo says, wrapping his hands around her waist to kiss her. Gosh, these people should reduce their too much display of affections in front of me. They're making me feel Farida's absence so damn much. I decided to give her some space and have not seen her since Thursday because I don't want her feeling choked.

Left to me, I'd see her every single day! Just that with Farida, I needed to respect her space by being careful and not taking too much at once. Baby steps. I am yet to figure out why but I observe that she's not a relationship person. So, for her to agree to date me, I have to also use my head in this. It doesn't mean I don't see her very often, though. I just think there are days she might want her alone time so I opt for calls instead. Long calls that she sometimes falls asleep over.

"Easy there, bro." I tease.

"It's just a question I asked you o. I did not thief your biscuit." Joan mocks, fake glaring at me.

"Don't mind him, baby." He answers, smirking when he kisses the side of her head.

"As our special best friend, we have news for you." I look between them, wondering what was it they wanted to share.

"Alright." My tone urges them to go on.

"Well, we're preggos." Give it to Joan to keep being her crazy ass self, even as a wife and a soon-to-be mother.

"You're shitting me." I exclaim, my heart leaping with joy as I jump off my seat to engulf both of them in a hug.

"Stop cursing in front of my baby." She rolls her eyes and her husband smacks my hand. I'm tired of these two. Just kidding.

"This is amazing news." I am truly glad they are expanding their family. Ayo falling in love with Joan didn't really come as a shock to me because from childhood, he has always been her Knight in shining armor. She was a tomboy and the only girl in a friendship of so many guys. It was only natural for her to be closer to one of us. Well, that one person happened to be him.

It was glaring that he liked her, except for the fact that he was probably in denial or read his caring attitude for her as just being friends.

When I came back to Nigeria, I could sense that something had changed between them. The other mofos amongst us could not even see that. I knew she was hurting inside but kept pushing.

So, when they decided to kiss and make up, I was thrilled because I had silently been shipping them but honestly did not want to meddle. I mean, they are two amazing people but if they did not want to be mature about their feelings, who am I in the grand scheme of things? Well, I'm glad that's history now.

"I call dibs on godfather." I announce, chest held high.

"Which dirty godfather? All of you will play a game to see who is befitting and should be bestowed the honor of being our baby's godfather." Joan says with a wicked grin on her face. What?

"Haha. Gotcha! Just kidding." Better.

"You, our sweet friend has the spot already reserved." This her tone. It's unmistakable. She wants something.

"But..." I knew it!

"Are you dating her now?" She asks with a sly grin on her lips.

"Okay. Yes, I am." In as much as I kept bugging Farida about going public, I had not also told my friends because they won't let me see the light of day.

"Oya...y'all should start paying me my one one million Naira." Chill, am I hearing right? She stretches her palm to her husband and starts doing a happy dance before picking up her phone to type.

"One one millionaire Naira from where?" I ask her just to be sure I am not making assumptions as my thoughts. As if on cue, my phone beeps and I see it's a notification from our WhatsApp group chat.

"Y'ALL, I FREAKING KNEW THEY WERE TOGETHER! 01138203786 DRANITY BANK. PAY YOUR FREAKING DUES!" The message is ended with a sticker of 'OSITA IHEME; PAWPAW' doing a funny dance in a police uniform.

"She said you both were together and we all disagreed. So, we agreed to a sum of one million Naira to be paid by each of us to her if she is right and she pays us one million naira each if she's wrong." Ayo shrugs.

"Let me guess, she initiated the bet." I state, laughing because this whole stuff is funny. Joan is smart, this woman. And that's how she has smartly cashed out from these men.

"I saw both of you coming out of a supermarket all loved up one weekend. These ones said I was delusional. So, why not make the. Pay me hard currency for doubting me?" She laughs, shrugging.

"Baby." Ayo says in a very sweet voice.

"I'm not part of those that will pay, right?" He asks. These two!

"Of course. I love you too much. Besides, what's one million Naira compared to our love, right?" She asks and he smiles, nodding at her.

"Exactly!" He says in agreement.

"Same way two million Naira won't mean anything. You'll pay double for wanting to bribe me." She laughs, running away from him as he chases behind her. These ones are using my house to play hide and seek.

"Lovebirds, I have a dinner to prepare for." They both chuckle before bidding their goodbyes.

After dressing up, I pick up the red velvet box and put it in my pocket. I made the purchase yesterday. The piece reminded me of her the moment it caught my eye and I did not waste time in buying it. Taking one last look at myself, I pick up my keys from the centre table in the sitting room before leaving the house.

I arrive at her place and make a quick phone call to her. My baby looks gorgeous when she stepped out and I don't waste time to shower her with adoration and also help wear the jewelry piece, the earrings she had on, safely kept in the jewelry box and in the pigeon hole of the car. Good thing she initially had no necklace on.

When I told mom that I'd be coming with a plus one, I bet in her wildest dreams she wouldn't have guessed it would be Farida. It was interesting to watch the both of them. At first, mom was not sweet and friendly towards her and it bothered me so much.

"What if she's not serious with you?" She rolled her eyes when I confronted her in the kitchen? I had to convince her otherwise and make her see reason.

At the end, the dinner went well, they resumed being the great friends they were. I love their dynamics, though. It's a wonder, considering the age difference between them.