"I don't like talking about it"

"I understand" Toyin could see why. Her bringing it up here knocked the air out of his lungs.

"It's just stuff I've buried. You know, so I can move on." The latter sentence sounded like a question. Like he wasn't confident in his own coping mechanism.

They both fell into silence for a moment again. He was staring into space again. The pre-boarding announcement for his flight finally broke the silence; the announcer was using an inexplicable fone voice as usual, she couldn't understand shit but she heard Toronto and 6:45Pm sha. It was still past four, there was time to talk to him. "Seyi said you're leaving because he has found a buyer for the house?"

He looked like he about to curse Seyi at first for being a complete amebo, but then brushed it aside and sighed. "Not exactly, I'd say his selling the house kind of put an end to my procrastination. I have to go back and clean up this mess completely, not hide here"

"I don't know, It looks like you're giving up, to me" She didn't even think before saying it. She was worried about her remark possibly being insensitive considering the fact that this was a touchy subject for him, but he cackled lightly.

"Toyin, there's nothing left to GIVE UP here, it's over already" He started eating the chips again. He must have found her remark genuinely funny because it lifted his mood. She was at least glad his lighthearted side was making a gradual comeback.

"The fact is the concept of NaijaPod was way ahead of its time, streaming movies and music was not part of naija internet culture back then, mobile data was expensive, internet penetration was relatively low, and to be honest we made a lot dumb decisions. I don't think I'm good at being an entrepreneur." He sounded like he truly believed the last part.

Maybe it was part of his coping mechanism, to set that notion in his subconscious so it can help him move on without looking back. However, it's a poor coping mechanism, he should only learn and grow from the mistakes not berate himself like this. She knew this more than anyone, she will never forget how she wrote JAMB 3 times before she got admission for the course she wanted. Back then she kept failing physics but she was determined so she self-studied over and over again until she was able to score over 50 in physics.

"People fail all the time, especially entrepreneurs. The Owner of the Company Sofi works for said he formed eight companies and failed consecutively before he found success with his ninth venture. Also look at Linda Ikeji, she tried a lot things-"

"That's totally different she didn't need a lot capital, plus she had first-mover advantage" He laughed.

Aha so he is one of the people that downplay Linda's success. "But there were other bloggers and websites then, there was bellanaija, nairaland, notjustokay.com" She defended her heroine.

"Hmmm in other words you're Aunty Linda FC?" He teased.

"Yes naw! don't say shit about her here o, I will fight you."

"I hope you are not one of those mentally deranged commenters that live on blog?" He feigned fear.

She bursted into laughter. "No naw, those ones are just trolls." She smiled at him as she sipped her coke again after a long time. She liked how he always had a way of turning their gloomy conversations into playful ones. He was broken inside but still managed to radiate infectious positive energy on the outside and she respected that.

"My point is, try something else, come up with a new idea, Nigeria is huge emerging market for tech, there are so many opportunities. Take the mistakes you made with the streaming company and learn from them." She knew he had made up his mind already about leaving the country but she didn't want him to think so low of himself.

He has some impressive educational background; he has an MIT M.Sc. in Computational Science and Engineering and she sha knew that MIT alumni are like kings and queens of invention or 'techpreneurship' but he seemed to be taking this particular failure hard. Maybe he has never failed in his life. "Please, try again." She added.

"I will someday, but right now, I want to start my PhD." He said.

She raised her brows. She wasn't particularly surprised about this, from her google search, she found that his father was a Professor of Physics in a Canadian University. It was definitely his father because they had the same surname and they kind of look alike from the picture she found. She also found a female name with his surname on some research papers too who was apparently a Professor of Psychology. She couldn't tell if it was his mother or sister or some distant relative. Nevertheless, she had pretty much figured that he was from a family of brains. She wondered if they were also hot like him. Focus!

"Is it what you want or what your parents want?" She asked him.

Astounded by her question he said "Okay just how much did Seyi tell you?"

She smiled, praising herself inside for possessing immaculate FBI skills. His reaction, without doubt corroborated her guess.

"I've always wanted to go into deep tech, I have-"

"Which one is deep tech again?" She cut him off. A PhD will tie him down for another 5-6 years "Oya move into my apartment" She sort of whispered the last part so he didn't hear her.

"Deep tech is like, much more advanced technology, I'm particularly interested in robotics and-" He stopped when he finally processed her last sentence. "Wait, did you just ask me to move in with you?" He smirked.

"Stop playing, I'm being serious now. I have an extra room in my apartment, I have 24hr electricity, superfast Wi-Fi, I am sure that's all you developers need to work. Think of it as one of those startup 'incubators'.

He didn't say anything. He was just staring at her, confusion written all over his face. He must be thinking she is weird. She went from not wanting his phone number to asking him to move into her apartment. She decided to add more rationale for her offer. "I was assigned to a new offshore project at work and I will be spending a lot of time away from Lagos, so it's just an empty house."

He still didn't say anything so she continued. "I mean.... I just feel like you should try again. Like.... I don't think it's a coincidence that I was the buyer of your car, and then I ran into Seyi today, I don't even know why I came here but, something keeps telling me to stop you from leaving."

"I've checked in already" His said in a shaky voice, his eyes were getting glassy again.

At least he did not out rightly say No. He was using his check in as an excuse. So she took that as a cue and pushed again.

"Reschedule the ticket"

"I've rescheduled this ticket twice now" He complained.

"I'll pay the penalty or fees"

*****

He didn't have much luggage. He said he had given out most of his stuff to the gateman.

He also had to cargo his sister's 'food stuff' and naija condiments that she forced him to go and pick up from Surulere.

They talked more about both their families on their way to the airline counter. He has one elder sister and a younger brother. His little brother is a College Hockey player and his elder sister is a Medical doctor, she lives with her husband and two kids in Vancouver. Toyin was right about his father and his mother was the Psychology Professor. She died 5 years ago, Cancer.

She told him about her Family too and her childhood in Warri, like most people he was shocked she was actually Delta Igbo so she explained that her Mum is Yoruba and that's why she had a Yoruba first name.

The flight rescheduling was swift. They didn't even have to go to the office they were asked to reschedule online but his check-in was cancelled instantly. It was the cargo company that now stressed them out with a lot forms to fill and side charges as if that wasn't enough when they got to spot where she parked earlier, she almost fainted because LASTMA was hauling her car onto their carrier truck.

She ran towards them "I am here! I'm here! It's my car stop towing it." She yelled at the truck driver and operator but they ignored her.

She noticed the Officer that was dishing the orders to them from his own car and walked towards him. He looked at her without any remorse "You're the owner of this car?" He said squeezing his face.

"Yes Sir!"

"Why did you park illegally?" He scolded her.

"Oga I saw people parking there now, see that car is still there sef, all those cars parked before me" Why were they towing her car first. They skipped the first two cars that were parked in front of hers.

"You saw people parking there?" The LASTMA official repeated her line mimicking her voice.

"Oga Sorry now, please don't tow the car I had an emergency," She pleaded. She had to. If your car enters LASTMA yard in this Lagos they will show you pepper.

"Madam, go to the station and explain that" He said then drove off.

She was pissed, frustrated, exhausted, hungry and on top the weather was too hot. How was she even supposed to get to the station? there were no keke marwas or busses on the road and where was the station sef.

She looked back at Osaze, he was just standing there with his luggage staring at the car being hauled away as the truck drove past them, forming a convoy with the evil LASTMA officer's car.

"That car is fine sha" He said.

She whacked his chest lightly with her small hand "Can't you see they've seized it? How are we going to leave this place now?"

"Oh, right, let me think" He said calmly.

My precious readers, this week was tight. I was too busy, then i got sick but i said i must update today by fire by force. I'll make up for this lone chapter with another one during the week. Thank you for your patience guys! Enjoy.

⬇️⬇️⬇️ Don't forget to vote and comment ;)