Abuja.

Mariam went back to the hospital and took Madina. On their way back to her home, she changed her mind to go to a hotel and get themselves pampered instead. Maybe she was all wrecked with her medical checkup thinking she was pregnant. That is probably what caused all the havoc and shambles in her head to follow an unknown man, a poor one at that, albeit slightly handsome.

Madina said nothing inside the car after seeing how out of disoriented and bedlamized she looked. She knows how to handle Mariam at all times and had she talked to her earlier, she wouldn't have given her an answer. Mariam is going to tell her whatever it is that is bothering her when she feels like but for now, she is just going to be a supportive friend and wait till she is ready. Going to the hotel? Probably a brilliant idea. Something Mariam is always inundated with.

Mariam does that whenever she gets tensed or after moving on from a clingy protector. Once in a while she gets stuck with an insanely rich man because there are some things she hasn't finished yet with him. But it was never because there was a short for her next protector. She's got an endless list filled with stinky rich men ready for just a glimpse of her, she knows that too. She is quite selective when it comes to that.

She is currently with one of the richest men in Africa. A fifty year old man with a large family he always proudly pose with in the camera whenever the need arose. He has four wives and thirteen children but he wanted Mariam Abdou Baldé. He's been on the list for more than three years, she only gave him a chance about a month ago. She's already thinking about giving him the red card, not with the clinginess. Her next protector is supposed to know about his position that very day. That will have to wait though.

She was allowed inside Transcorp Hilton Hotel without hassle. Who are they to do that? It's a done job. No one has been able to say No to Mariam ever since she stepped into the harlotry circle.

They went to the spa first and passed a reception area with comfortable chairs and sofas, warm décor —dark wood, thick carpeting, plush seating, lamps, cozy colors— cosmetics and beauty products for sale, brochures for spa products and services, bowls of potpourri, incense burners, lit candles. The place is highly expensive like the clients. It smells opulent too; eucalyptus, lemongrass, fresh-cut flowers, aromatic soaps, acetone, nail polish, shampoos and conditioners.

They got themselves treated to facials, manicure and pedicure before Mariam asked for head massage. She was still tensed because even with her eyes closed for the facial, her muscles were taut and strained, her brows were bunched in between her brows in perplexity. Madina was becoming more and more curious at what was wrong with her friend. What disoriented her so?

After they were done with the spa, Mariam requested for a room at the top floor in the hotel where they could view the city from a balcony while they sip expensive wine and eat pasta. In between sips, she would get tipsy and ramble on and on about what happened to her at the hospital when she ran out like the devil was right behind her, chasing her for her life. As if he was not supposed to be afraid of her.

Mariam removed her clothes and stayed in her sport bra, a small panty shorts she wore beneath her jeans, as soon as she walked inside the suite. Madina watched from the foot of the bed as she sauntered outside to the balcony with that beautiful curvaceous body of hers, the sun slowly setting down the horizon. She sat down on one of the two resting chairs outside, folding her lean ivory legs on the low table in front of her.

Madina stripped herself too, wanting to give her friend as much support as she could. Something is terribly wrong with Mariam, she needs to do something.

Their order arrive few minutes later, spaghetti bolognese with chicken salad and their expensive wine in ice bucket, two flutes. Mariam excitedly started consuming her food before her appetite vanished the next second then went for the wine. She closed her eyes and savored it, she's always loved French expensive red wine. Right now, all her senses have shut down and she is only connected with her wine. It never seize to amaze Madina how she marveled at the tastes.

Deep into the decanter, she murmured in a quiet voice. "I met a guy today at the hospital."

Madina was quiet for a heartbeat and then two before her curiosity got the best of her. "You've obviously met a lot of guys in your life. What's so different about this one?"

Mariam gave a quiet laugh, a throaty one since she's already tipsy. Such a good question. A smile lingered across her full red lips, albeit confused, she finds everything a little more than funny. How could a guy mess with her head? Someone she doesn't know, not even his name? A guy she's not seen completely? Isn't this a charm? Or one of her past lovers cursed her, or her mother or other people in the society she's caused havoc?

All the options are feasible.

"This guy I met was...different. You know I never talk about guys I met only the ones I have in my book and who to choose next for protection. But this...Madi, I think something is really wrong here. Maybe I was charmed." Now she looks really disturb, worrying her lower lip inside mouth.

"Charmed? How does he look like? And you know you cannot be charmed. A lot of them have tried in the past and so far, none succeeded." Madina tried calming her down but it was not working.

Her words were right though. They all tried getting her through charms and sorcery but she's already worked on it with her own personal sorcerer who works like no other in Haiti. Any lowly sorcerer won't be able to get past her own barrier and precincts, not the type of man she's seen anyway. He doesn't look wealthy at all, not close.

So how is this possible?

"You don't understand. You saw the way I ran headlong outside the hospital like a possessed woman. A rash move I'm not known for. I followed him to a hotel with his friend and Madina, he does not look at all rich. So what was it I saw in him? It makes absolute no sense." She sat up, holding her head in between her hands, the alcohol in the wine taking over.

"Really? Maybe he is not from here or he was just a figment of imagination."

"You think? We can go back to the hotel and ask whether he was there or not. I'll be so glad if he was just imagination even though I'll go to Haiti for answers. Why would I imagine a man? Poor one? Is fate indicating some sort of bad omen?" She grinned drunkenly, her head lolling on the chair.

"Who knows? What does he look like?" Madina is now relaxed enough to recline, lying her back supine against the chair behind her.

Mariam's eyes glazed over. "He was dark, that kind of brown you would love to lick from top to bottom like a chocolate..."

"And he was tall, broad but lean at the same time. He is so fine from the side view I saw but I'm not sure if he'll be that fine. I don't trust side views."

At that, Madina raised a brow. "This doesn't look like an imagination at all. You did saw this man, Mariam."

"Why don't we go to the hotel? I don't want to be see there but but me wants to knoww." She slurred out the wrong words, her eyes getting heavier the more she talks.

"We'll go there tomorrow. Now let's get you to bed." Madina dragged a very much drunk Mariam to the bed who fell heavily on it and passed out.

Madina sat by the edge of the bed staring down at her dearest friend. One would say there is no real friendship when it comes to harlotry and prostitution but from the depths of her heart, Madina loves Mariam like she would a sister. She actually doesn't love her sisters like she does Mariam, that is just the truth. Though the subject of the love knows not about those emotions. She thinks everything between them is purely business because they have same business.

She met Mariam when she was at the peak of her waywardness and joined immediately. Madina had started hopping on bed with men for the sake of love then sooner realize that that wasn't the way. That love isn't worth losing your virtue over if there is no marriage but she was at the verge of no return and she knew that. She got addicted to sex so she yawed it into business. A win win, huh? More like a lost game.

She loves what she does especially after she's met Mariam.

At first, she was all alone with a few of her neighbors that get acquainted with young males that have nothing to offer but dinner dates and at max, give ten thousand Naira. She thought that was the main deal, enough for her to buy new clothes, see sew them, get trendy shoes and whatnot but her eyes opened wide when she heard about Mariam Abdou Baldé. The notorious woman that is wrecking lives and creating havoc all over the world.

Everyone talks about Mariam Abdou Balde. It doesn't matter the age, country or even gender. Lots of girls envy her instead of hating her because there is no way you could hate someone like her. She is bold, with awfully sweet charisma that says nothing about the rotten human hidden behind a daring beautiful face. Mariam hardly smiles, she is not that kind of person. She is only centered around her life and herself alone. Mariam is a very selfish person which is why she hates friends around her.

Madina webbed her way through her life in routes she won't ever be able to recall. She just remembered waking up one day and being around Mariam a lot. First as someone who is no less than a lady-in-waiting then something relatively close to friends years later. But she appreciates Mariam in her life more than she can vocalize. Deep down, she cares about Mariam. A lot.

Not in a way that she would tell her to stop what she is doing or in this case, what they are doing. They are both off shoulder in this journey and none of them is willing to get back on the lane. Madina enjoys this luxury too much to want anything else life has to offer. Marriage? Nah, she's alright being on her own.

She remembered Mariam once telling her. "Being around me is a privilege which you shouldn't take lightly."

And she'd agreed, still do.

In this business as they'd like to put it, there is no one above Mariam Abdou Baldé so far and from the looks of things at all angles, no one is about to sprout out more dangerous than she is. She is still the most coveted prostitute in the whole Nigeria and even neighboring countries. She is wanted by all men. Even the chastised ones. The woman in every man's wicked fantasies with a face and body to go with.

Madina is gorgeous in her own aspect but compared to Mariam, she might be invisible. That never made her envy her friend. There was no reason to when that friend was the one who yanked her away from a life she would not smell as she is now.

Who knows where she would've ended up had it not being for Mariam? Probably dying from an incurable disease not known in history or perhaps dead after raped by countless men like she heard about one of her partners before she left the neighborhood after her mother's demise. She's got a beautiful house for herself, a car and other luxuries she wouldn't have afforded if not for Mariam. She wouldn't have dreamt about in her father's cramped house.

She also helps her sisters and ailing father whenever she can which is whenever they come with their spiel of complaints. She has three sisters and only one of them is married while the other two joined the business of whoring long ago but never coming close to what she earns. She is not willing to bring them beneath her wing, they are parasites.

Mariam wouldn't like that anyway. So they all still live with their father who is battling with the same lung cancer that killed her mother. Oh, Madina's family is one wrenched family where both parents used to smoke cheap cigarettes. Is there anyway to avoid being bad when parents are worse? She's got no idea how that is possible. All of them turned out to be the same.

Except the married one who lives in Maiduguri with her husband and two children. What a life, huh?

MARIAM awoke with a pounding headache and piercing soar throat that made her hiss like a snake. She stood up with great difficulty to find Madina lying down on a couch in front of her. Why was she sleeping there? She frowned but made her way to the bathroom to search for a first aid kit where she found Advil to soothe her headache. She gurgled it down in time and left the bathroom wincing.

She groaned remembering the dream she had where that anonymous man appeared in kaleidoscopic colors. Deranged.

Deciding to get dressed again, she wore back her shirt and trousers then went out to the balcony. Harmattan is already enveloping the night late November.

The sky is already darkened, obsidian enveloping the once blue sky. She rubbed her arms watching the city lightening with cold unawareness and detached eyes. She's traveled the world, seen so many nature and picturesque places that would make any person delighted to recall. She's lost count on how many countries she's visited so far. And had felt nothing at the sight of those things. She just wanted to see the world and she has seen it. That was it. No fun. No memories.

Her gaze fell boringly at the parking space beneath their suite and as if electrified, she beheld the sight of someone's familiar back. Her eyes squinted in the poor light so she tilted her head for better view.

The man from the hospital!

She leaned towards the railing, a feeling of lightheadedness was heavily taking over her limbs making her feel weightless and ethereal. Goosebumps rise all over her naked arms from heightened tactile sensitivity and she suddenly felt warm, tingling in her nasal passages from pulling in deep, contented breaths along with an expansive feeling in her chest. Everything feels weird and different. And colored.

Her brows pulled together and then released in perplexity and curiosity. She does not understand a thing that is happening and she hates when things go in that direction. The only conclusion she could come with is, he's bewitched her in some way and she is going to find out what is it he's done and why he did it.

With that, she marched out of the room taking a shawl  from Madina's clothes and her flat too. Hurrying out of the hotel to the restaurant just outside the lobby where she's seen him and a few friends entering. She entered inside the dimly lit room, squinting her eyes to comb through the place for the familiar back or at least to feel that awareness, the sensation —she thought bitterly— she felt earlier when she saw him.

The restaurant is divided into two. One section for the VIP and other for regular so she guessed he would be at the regular with his friends since all of them look average. And there, she found him between four men sitting around a large table and ordered so many things that she bet they will have to contribute money to pay for.

She had always been brazen, never known anything called shyness or something related to modesty. She frowned when one of the men turned around to look at her for a few seconds before recognition flickered in his eyes. Mariam almost rolled her eyes. Of course, she is a public figure but for a few minutes there she's forgotten that. Her main goal is to find out what that man did to her.

Mariam sauntered to their table, head held high even as her stomach got taut with anxiousness. Suddenly she got filled to the brim with anticipation, her palms sweaty and a pounding thudding heart dripping with extra pumps of blood to her aorta. She hardened her resolve, tightened her hands into two small tight fists while her tiny straight nose flared against her face. This is it. The man that's been haunting her since morning.

She's never thought about anything in her life like she did this man today.

Standing mere two feet or so away from the table, she felt every single man's eyes on the table on her but her attention was solely on the man she is after who refused to pivot around to see her behind him. Isn't he curious at what the other men were staring at? A beautiful public figure known by everyone in Abuja? Thee Mariam Abdou Baldé?

She stood for full minute without him turning, she made sure her expression stayed blank when she rounded the table to have a look at him. What did she expect? She had no idea but she wasn't expecting what she saw in front of her and she certainly isn't sure if it is welcomed or not. Is this attraction or repulsion?

"Well done electric charge! Are you an electric field? Or magnetic bar?" She frowned at her own musings. Why did she read that scientific book in the plane few days ago?

His skin was starshadow-black like dark brown light that bathed the forest, and he had eyes of walnut-brown and a film star smile. Velour-black hair swooped in coils all over his head and powerful taut neck. His terawatt spellbinding smile showcased his angel white teeth, electrifying her already chaotic internal settings. He's got a quarter-moon eyebrows that were carved with such flawlessness that even a professional makeup artist won't be able to create. And they are full, dark!

Her eyes lowered to his classical refined nose, so straight and aquiline. Mariam knew she'd gulped a breath because she knew this man is front of her spells trouble whether forward or reverse, she's got no idea. She refuse to look any lower, not his lips of the light mustache above his lips.

Doomed!

He instantly stood when he realized that she was staring at him. Definitely wanted something it seems. Is it out of pure politeness or to intimidate her because she looks like a fucking midget against his towering height? Why did that make stomach quiver and core to tighten in a not very innocent way? She's never reacted to any man like that in her entire life even though her business demanded that —she usually takes aphrodisiacs.

She's been with men far handsomer than this dark skinned one that she wants to spend hours upon hours working on with her mouth then— fuck! Definitely fucked!

He stepped away from the table, the action made the well-fitted trousers almost indecently tight, outlining the powerful shape of his thighs. Mariam berated herself for noticing such things about him. But there was an aura about him that few men possessed, of full-blooded maleness and confidence, that she'd have to be blind not to notice.

She erased the hydroids from her palms, swallowing thickly. Wait, did she just swoon at the man she is here to suck truth out from and demand why he charmed her?

I am so thoroughly screwed.