On Friday night he came home late at night, around 12am or so. She was watching a TV series when he came in. She noticed he was drunk but it didn't show. He was able to hold a serious conversation with her about politics, Lagos traffic, and philosophy. He was much more serious and it dawned on her that he is actually much more serious when he is drunk, like the first day they met but when sober he is mischievous and funny.

The next day all the heaters went off again but this time ACs joined them too.

"Do you know where the circuit breaker is?" He was the one that noticed first, he couldn't work again because it was very hot and sunny outside.

"No. But i think its outside" She has never had electrical issues and the caretaker handles all the maintenance stuff for the apartments.

He found it on the balcony touched something then the the ACs came back on but he turned it back off. He said there was a problem; something was tripping off the switch and they needed to investigate in order to resolve the issue permanently so she called the caretaker to send the electrician to them.

They were able to solve the problem after about an hour. She was sitting on the dining table munching an apple when he came back into the house sweating profusely because it was very hot outside and the ACs had been down for hours now inside. Turns out, the server in his room was the culprit but they were able to fix it. He was explaining how they had to replace the wires with bigger ones to her, she was listening but she paid no mind to what he was saying.

You see ehn, in her whole life, she has never found sweaty guys attractive it was actually the opposite for her. However, this Man just changed that or maybe he was an exception. His white T-shirt was drenched in sweat but he looked gorgeous and sexy. The sunny-musky scent of his sweat filled her nostrils but weirdly enough she liked it. She liked it because her olfactory nerves and brain processed it as a sweet delicious fragrance. She wasn't aware but in that moment she was staring, almost glaring at him unconsciously, she had even stopped chewing the apple in her mouth. She was both aroused and pissed at the same time.

"What? I said I'm sorry plus I've fixed it" He snapped.

"hmmmm? Okay fine." She blinked as she came back to earth almost choking on the apple pieces in her mouth.

"So why are you looking at me like you're about to murder me" He chuckled.

She just stood up and quietly, moved to her room without saying anything. She shut the door slowly behind her and leaned on it for support then let out a sigh of relief.

'Maybe I should buy a vibrator' she thought to herself because she did not understand anymore.

The next week there was a major annual upstream oil & gas conference in Victoria Island, the whole industry was there. The IOCs, the Independent/indigenous producers and the National Oil Company (AKA NNPC). For Toyin and Sofi, this reads MEN, ELIGIBLE MEN!

80% of oil & gas professionals are men and they were hoping a good percentage of the men would be single today.

She and Sofi came well prepared, they wore their finest most expensive corporate outfits with hair and makeup on point. Sofi was even fortunate she was going to give a presentation on behalf of her Company at one of the side plenary sessions on offshore gas production. 

She wished she could present too but her own Company was way too big, it will take her like 5-10 more years before she starts representing her company anywhere. Her pay was better even as a junior manager at the IOC but Sofi got more visibility and exposure at her indigenous company. This has helped boost her reputation and career over the years, plus she gets to meet people and expand her network.  The good thing is, Sofi always shines bright at these type of events, she is an eloquent speaker and she is super smart and very, very attractive no cap!

As in, if Sofi does not catch someone's son today in this conference then she would really believe something is wrong with this entire world.

She browsed through her participant booklet after she got a sit on the 5th row in the hall. The theme of this year's conference was something about 'sustainability' and 'environmental protection' She snorted when she read that. 

How absurd. 'Oil & gas' and sustainability in one sentence was hilarious. The Industry has been doing a lot of 'greenwashing' lately because of pressure from international climate watchdogs and a rising local environmental activist group known as Green Cabal.

Green Cabal is now the most feared environmental activist group in the Nigerian Oil and gas  Industry.  Industry lobbyists have been pressuring the Federal Government to proscribe their activities and designate them an eco-terrorist group. But the group has not done anything violent..yet. 

They only draw graffiti on properties of oil companies, create petitions for national assembly and hold peaceful protests. On the other hand Toyin suspected that the group is yet to be proscribed because the founder is a Billionaire's daughter. An Oil and Gas Billionaire for that matter; Sofi's Boss's first daughter, Yinka Bakare. She was a very fierce and ballsy woman.  

She shows no mercy when she comes for the oil companies not even her own father's company. She has an Ivy League Ph.D. and she has a lot of international backing for her cause so she is kinda untouchable. Toyin  admired her rebelliousness....from a distance because she has not found another Job yet in another industry.

During the tea break around 11:30am, Sofi left for the special plenary session so she went alone to the buffet.

She just wanted tea and small chops, but when she got to the appetizer section there was no puff-puff. They had every other small chops, Hors d'oeuvres, canapés, skewers, you name it except for puff-puff. How atrocious she thought. Like, she gets this is an international event with many foreigners in attendance but they were on Nigerian soil and the caterers had the audacity to omit puff-puff?

She saw one of the servers behind the table and she called him. "Oga, where is the puff-puff?"

"Yeah where is the puff-puff?" A deep voice with American accent behind chime in.

She turned to see who her backer was.

He was a tall, handsome Guy. He had the typical Lagos beard-gang full beard style. His dark blue suit was sleek and a perfect fit. light-skinned men were not her spec but this one was fine AF. Lastly and most importantly, his ring finger was vacant!

She smiled at him and he smiled back as some other Nigerian attendees joined them in harassing the poor server because of puff-puff.

"Aha! See! We all want puff-puff" She added.

The caterers started laughing but apologized. Apparently, they ran out puff-puff, but they promised to restock the tray within 10minutes.

At first, she did not want to wait for it but the blue suit guy cracked a joke and said something about how she was the leader of the puff-puff movement and she had to see it through to the end. 

From his nametag, she could see his name was Gbenga from Carbon Petroleum, the main rival of her own Company.

"Nice to meet you Mrs...Miss Toyin" He read out her nametag while eyeing her ring finger as he extended his hand to hers for a handshake.

"It's a pleasure meeting you as well, Mr. Gbenga" She said in her most stimulating tone, spiking it with all the crumbs of fone she picked up from the UK during her masters.

They chatted while they waited by the appetizer section. She made her tea while he got coffee.

"I shouldn't be talking to you" He rolled his eyes when he saw her Company tag "But you started the puff-puff movement"

She laughed aloud.

He moved closer to her and whispered "And you're pretty" 

AN: So as you all know there are 3 books in this series. This one (Playing House) is about Toyin, the 2nd one (Sophia the First) will be about Sofi, and the final book (Flaming Shadow) is about Yinka the 'eco terrorist'. 

I Have been working on the second book and its looking good already! I'm goin to drop the first two chapters on Valentine's day to get a little feedback from you guys.

Ch 21 will be out 11pm Wednesday 3rd February. Have a lovely week ahead and Happy new month guys! 🌼🌼🌼

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