One week later

Toyin was at her desk when she started thinking about him again. Its not like she was completely engulfed by thoughts of him, but her mind just randomly kept on drifting back to him. To the warm little things he did or said during the 3 times they hung out together. His weird sense of humour, those beautiful eyes, the ab- "Thank God he is leaving today" she muttered to herself.

It was Friday already and she had lunch plans with Sofi for 1pm at Bungalows.

She was assigned to a new offshore project at work earlier in the week. Her company just received delivery of a new FPSO vessel for their 5th Deepwater field. She was going to work on the project for 6 months as a process engineer and will be conducting a series of technical studies, risk and HSE assessment before the FPSO starts production in the next 6 months.

She was glad that she was selected for this project, but the project comes with alot of travelling. The last similar one she worked on two years ago had her travelling at least twice a month, spending almost a week on site, but this one is a bigger project and the field is ultradeep, much farther from the coasts of Nigeria so she was already dreading the time she'd have to spend away from her friends and good food.

Which is why she was trying to resuscitated her and Sofi's weekly lunch dates. They used to meet up for lunch at least once a week back in the day but Sofi's company got it's own in house catering at a point so Sofi rarely eats out, but today she said she needed to get away from the toxicity in her office when she called her. Toyin braced herself for fresh hot rants about the big bad boss during lunch.

Immediately she parked at the restaurant's parking lot and stepped out of her car, she noticed a guy who was about to get into a C class benz waving at her trying to get her attention. He looked like he expected her to recognize him but she didn't. He started coming towards her. Who is this one again?

"Urrrm hi" The tone of her greeting conveyed 'do I know you' but she said it with a huge smile not to come off rude. She suspected he was a toaster, she gets them a lot these days thanks to the Range rover; at filling stations, at traffic lights, ShopRite, the car was a just a magnet. However, she didn't rule out the possibility of him really being an acquaintance considering the fact that she was bad with faces because of her shortsightedness.

"You are Osaze's friend, right?" He asked her.

Her heart skipped a beat. The only person that knows of their 'friendship' is Sofi, His gate man and the Indomie mallam. What does this guy know about them? To the extent that he knows her face. Did he record their sexcapade that night? Panic swelled within her as her legs started to feel wobbly she needed to lean on something so she braced herself on her car.

"Yes?" She answered slowly. Immediately she answered she realized he was probably the guy she met that day in his house moving those cartons, so her panic reduced. But damn she only saw him once and it was dark his memory must be eidetic!

He noticed her confusion so he smiled and pointed at the car.

"It's the car. He's the only one with that has that spec in Nigeria, that's how I recognized you"

Confusion galore. When did Osaze ever drive her car that people even know him with it? Her brain was malfunctioning at this point so she choose silence.

"He is leaving today right?" Okay, this guy really knows him, but what was that about the car?

"Yes" She was breathing heavily "Sorry, are you friends with him?" She asked.

"He is my childhood friend" He looked at her carefully again then added "I met you at the Ikoyi house weeks back naw?"

"Oh, Yes!" She nodded. "Sorry I am bad with faces."

"That's actually my family home" He said boastfully. "He actually decided to leave the country because I told him we found a buyer for the house"

"Oh," Her brain finally caught onto something. There was a lot of information here, she told herself to calm down and get as much as she can out of this talkative guy.

"That's true" she said pretending she knew that already.

The guy balanced well by the car parked beside her's happy to spill more tea. "Seriously he was just burning money here for nothing, he was not paying rent o, but that old house is actually expensive to run, the diesel cost alone is crazy" He shook his head "Just unnecessary bills!"

She nodded, "I agree, I agree."

"I just hope he treats his depression when he gets back. Drinking wont fix it" He looked at the car again "Did you buy the car or you're helping him find a buyer?"

She needed to pick her answers carefully. Was Osaze trying to sell her car behind her back?

"I am trying to help him sell it" She lied confidently. She needed to say things that will make her appear very close to him. "If I don't get a buyer I might just buy it"

"Eya you tried O. That boy sef, he is crazy! How can someone just wake up, quit job his with google,.. google o! to come and do business in this jungle."

Wait what? Stay calm. "I don't even know?" She continued playing along.

"This country will kill your dreams and frustrate you. He has to go back and get his life together. He is good at what he does so i know he will be fine over there, but not in this environment!"

"Naija is too harsh" She contributed.

"Naija showed him pepper! From Government wahala to those criminal Yaba boys that stole his code, to the girls" The guy looked so pained on behalf of his friend. "Ah Alfred saw something o. Thank God he is finally going back"

wait, who tf is Alfred She was getting lost again.

"We thank God" She added lifting her hands up.

"What's the name again?" He asked her extending his hand for a handshake "I am Seyi"

"Toyin"

"Okay can I have your number so we can keep in touch?" He was already unlocking his phone.

"Also between me and you O, We haven't really found a buyer for the house. His father asked me to find a way run him out of the country so I lied about selling the house. So please if you know anyone interested, we have original C of O, no agent involved, it will be a direct sale."

lol no one will buy that yeye house!. But she nodded anyway and saved his number.

Sofi called to cancel as she was entering the restaurant, said something came up at work. She sat down quietly, her face blank. What just happened?

She started by calling the dealership to ask about the previous owner of her car. The Salesman said he could not remember the full name of the guy but told her to check the custom papers in the particulars.

The waiter was standing by the table when she hung up but she dismissed him and rushed back to her car to check the car papers.

Since she bought the car she has never actually gone though the car papers she only confirmed her name on the receipt and transfer of ownership the dealership issued. All the particulars were in a black plastic document bag. Even when she registered the car she just gave the whole bag of papers to the guy she paid to sort it out for her. She never had a reason to sit down to go through all the documents.

Alfred Osaze Osaretin That's the full name of the previous owner. The one who made the distress sale. She was stupefied. Did he know it was his car when she dropped him off that night? Why didn't he say anything?

She had googled his first name before, one of those days she was thirsting over him. But the only Osaze that came up in the searches was the footballer. So now she googled his full name and found everything.

He went by 'Alfred Osaretin' only, 'Osaze' must be his middle name. She found the articles, interviews from 3 years ago on naija tech sites, bellanaija etc. about the video streaming startup he founded, then articles about the company securing its seed funding up to series A funding.

There was a YouTube video in the search results and she tapped on it, he was speaking in of those TEDx kind of events, she tried to understand all the tech jargon he was saying in the beginning but she was too distracted by how hotter he looked and sounded as a serious person. She couldn't believe this hot 'Techpreneur' is the same guy that at- okay timeout!

She closed video quickly and went back to the articles. The recent articles were about the lawsuits and countersuits between him and his co-founder, between the Company the venture capitalists and how last last sha he owes over a million dollars in debt.

No wonder he drinks like that!

She tried calling him but his number was switched off. In their last chat he said his flight was for 6:45pm. She checked the time and it was already past 2pm, she had been in the car now for almost an hour researching him.

She started the car and started driving towards the airport. She didn't even know why she was going or what she was even trying to do, but she just wanted to maybe talk to him.

She could have waited to call him when he lands in Toronto but she just felt like she needed to do this. She felt guilty because he was a genuinely nice person who was dealing with depression and hiding it but she was busy judging him, dissing him over insignificant things.

See y'all tomorrow 10pm (Nigerian time)

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