AN: This is 2 parts o.

Tuesday 7:30pm

Sofi hummed in her kitchen as she prepared dinner that evening. Dare is leaving for London tomorrow so he is coming over to her place tonight for some 'quality time'. It is a weekday but they are making an exception for today since they can't be together this weekend, plus remember he had to leave for Abuja last weekend.

She was cooking catfish pepper soup and plantain, she is not a fan of catfish but that's his favorite peppersoup. He even mentioned amala among his favorite native dishes (to her surprise), he bragged about one Nigerian restaurant in London that serves the best amala in the world, lol. He even knows that popular amala place in Yaba thanks to Akin, his 'amala plug'.

She is not even surprised anymore by his mild streetness, someone that listens to Naira Marley? Lol.

One of these days, she'll cook Amala for him. She has stopped trying to impress him with oyinbo cuisine; she gets nervous every time she cooks for him because he is such a good cook himself. He says her 'cooking is the best' but she knows he is just saying it because he is in love lol.

She will believe him if he says that today though because the peppersoup was lit. She emptied the scent leaves (basil) and reduced the heat then checked her phone.

The last time they spoke, he was still in a meeting at work, he has one more meeting in Gowon's office then he will come 'straight to her' after that. Said he couldn't wait to see her.

She finished cooking in time then quickly showered. After debating internally on what to wear because, this is not really a date-date and because a sleepwear would just be rude, she settled for jeans and a t-shirt. She didn't apply makeup she just fixed her hair, spritzed on her (his) favorite scent then balanced in her siting room and waited.

She kept on checking the dinner set up on her small dining table that she had managed to fit into her mini flat 2 years back. She kept on adjusting the cutlery and centerpiece lol. She even bought new plates in shoprite today when she branched to buy spices. She was not going to serve her baby with the old ugly ass dishware in her house.

He should be here by 8:30pm at the latest. She thought to herself as she repositioned the set up for the third time.

LOL

8:25pm

Dare: Baby, I'm going to be late, Mr. Bakare wants to see me now.

Dare: ....might need another hour, I'm so sorry.

Sofi: Take your time, I'm not going anywhere 😊

Dare: I love you

Sofi: I love you too

She understands perfectly, she knows how things can get with their job more than anyone. In addition, he has been so busy lately. He told her (on the low), that Chief wants to create a subsidiary Company to handle all their gas projects. So he is super busy with that right now.
He comes in, to work very late in the mornings because he starts his day at Chief's house. Honestly, she understands, when Chief was sick she used to go there twice on some days sef.

She was a little bit worried earlier when he said he was meeting up with Gowon. Because Gowon pops up only when there is trouble, but he assured her that all is well, said they were just doing some personal business together.

She decided to kill time by completing some coursework on her MBA and that was how 2 hours passed.

10:30pm

Dare: Baby, I need you hold on okay, Mrs. Alabi is here and we have meeting.

(A/N Guys remember Mrs. Alabi, the other oil billionaire whose daughter got married in Chapter 17-18)

Sofi: Okay 😊

Dare: Please stay up, I NEED to see you tonight.

Sofi: Okay, I'm waiting

Dare: 😘😘😘

Omo when he mentioned Mrs. Alabi she just knew their little date was doomed because you see ehhn, when these billionaires do their late night closed door meetings, it usually drags on into the wee hours. That's just how these rich people operate they don't sleep, they can just wakeup and decide to meet up in the middle of nowhere by 3am.
Mrs. Alabi is still the CEO and Chairman of her own Company so she probably wants to meet Dare too.

By 12am, she just packed the food into the freezer. She was really bummed out but she knows it is not his fault. This is what she signed up for when she fell in love with a busy man. She does not regret it one bit though, he is worth it. They still have all the time in the world; he is only going away for a week. She can wait.

She is even low-key glad he is travelling to London for the remainder of the week; maybe they'll give him small breathing space.

Dare's POV

12:25am

He couldn't leave, Mrs. Alabi had just flown into Lagos that night and was headed straight to Mr. Bakare's Residence to meet with them. They wanted to talk about the Alhaji Buba problem.

Mrs. Alabi is more of a politician than Mr. Bakare, she has a lot of friends in power and she knows how to handle politicians better.

When she arrived, she started gisting with Mr. Bakare first, about her own challenges; So, she is building a small refinery in her hometown somewhere in Ogun state because unlike Chief who is moving into cleaner energy exploration, she is moving into the downstream industry, she does not care about climate change. She says Africa must finish developing before it transitions into any yeye clean energy, plus.. she wants more money of course.

She decided to do 'giveaway' for her village people by building the refinery in her hometown to create more jobs and accelerate the development back home. But the project has been delayed for over a year now.

Apparently, she has had to pay about 5 different clans for the same lands again after purchasing it officially from the state government. Then she had to 'settle' various clans, groups, associations, gods (yes, gods lol) and Chiefs before commencing any construction work.

She also had to deal with the environmental activist groups both international and local that kept on writing petitions left right to the FG to stop the project.

Finally, last month they started constructing the roads and the power plant that she promised the community but unfortunately, another group of youths that were not 'properly settled' decided to kidnap 2 of the engineers. Mrs. alabi was fed up so she decided to call her good friend, the Chief of Army Staff to step in.

You see, Mrs. Alabi is not like Chief, she is street. She does not work with private security she just makes a call to the Chief of Army Staff to give her soldiers.
She is always friends with the sitting Chief of Army staff or one of the service chiefs at least, no matter where they are from.

"As we speak there are over 100 soldiers protecting my workers" She smirked.

Dare wanted to ask if that was even legal. The soldiers should be up north dealing with real national security threats like Boko Haram and Bandits. But, he just kept the question to himself this one is beyond him.

"I am doing what the Government failed to do for them, Just Imagine the irony of this whole situation!" She said in frustration.

"It's just ignorance and poverty you can't really blame them," Chief said as he poured more green tea into his cup. He doesn't drink alcohol anymore because of his health. Amanda has replaced alcohol with green tea in his diet and he actually complies, Dare cannot remember the last time he saw the old man drinking.

Mrs. Alabi went on to rant for another 30 minutes about how she has to pay and provide accommodation for these 100 soldiers, and how she should have just gone to Cameroon to build the refinery as advised by her consultants. Then she ranted again about how the Dangote refinery is almost ready while she is still here struggling with locals.

When she finished ranting they moved to the Alhaji Buba issue and Dare was glad because he couldn't wait to leave.

Mrs. Alabi said she didn't want to get involved because Alhaji Buba is a 'scary' person and so are his accomplices plus some of them are still in power.

"But, what does he really want with you?" She asked as she placed her champagne glass down "Gas is too risky and not as profitable as oil, he has pillaged enough money already, what is he up to this time?"

Mr. Bakare shook his head as he drank up his green tea.

"I mean everyone knows his illicit money has been expertly laundered and is safely stashed away in Swiss banks" she laughed dryly. "I think he is up to something and you should find out first, there's no need to panic......"

Amanda waltzed into Mr. Bakare's study in that moment interrupting them. She glared at her Husband first then moved her gaze to Mrs. Alabi.

"What?....." Mrs. Alabi said defensively "You should be glad he is with us and not meeting all those small small girls.... like Nike's father (Her husband)" She added then she and Mr. Bakare bursted into a wild fit of laughter.

Amanda frowned "Well at this rate the 'small small girls' are a better alternative for his blood pressure" Amanda said rolling her eyes.

Dare was just respecting himself, holding back his own laugh.

"Ah!" Mrs. Alabi exclaimed, she said something in Yoruba then looked back at Mr. Bakare "This woman is not in love with you Deji!" she joked.

"Relax Amanda, we are not working....., Dare is here too" Mrs. Alabi said but Amanda was having none of it, she ignored the older woman as she picked up her husband's tea cup and sniffed it to ensure he was not ingesting any alcohol behind her back.

"You have one more hour" she said to Mr. Bakare then turned to Dare "Don't be like these two Dare, they are not normal"

The two Billionaires just laughed at that and continued the discussion immediately Amanda stepped out of the study.

Dare left Mr. Bakare's house by 2am. He knew he couldn't go to Sofi's anymore she had already texted him by 12am to cancel.

Wednesday

Sofi's POV

4:00pm

Sofi was super busy with the procurement department screening new contractors. She was in and out of meetings with different contractors back to back that day. She only got 20minutes for lunch. Dare too, had been busy sorting out things since he will be going away for a week.

She was in her 6th meeting for the day, listening to a presentation from an IT contractor when she saw him standing outside the meeting room through the glass and she smiled.

He was wearing a navy blue suit as usual, looking hot as ever. She quickly excused herself from the meeting and stepped out, checking her time she saw that it was past four already.

He should be on his way to the airport, why is he still here?

"urm...I am leaving for the Airport," he said formally as per they are in the office but she could see from the look in his eyes that he wanted to say more than that.

"I'm surprised you're still here, you should be on your way already," she said in a serious tone too as she shut the glass door behind her then moved away from the prying eyes of the people in the meeting room.

He is playing with Lagos traffic he will just miss his flight.

"I know" He said as his eyes searched hers, he looked a little bit restless as he looked around then sighed and put his hands in his pockets.

He wanted to hold her....

He just managed a smile, a smile that was loaded with so many things she knew he wanted to say to her. This is the first time he is going away since they started dating

Man, this office romance sucks! She wanted to at least, hug him too.

But she knew she couldn't. Even if they eventually reveal their relationship, they shouldn't be doing PDA in the office.

So she just smiled back instead and said "Go" to him.

He didn't move.

"Go on, hurry up" She shooed him playfully as she started moving backwards.

For real though, he is going to the mainland, he needs to be on his way. Lagos traffic is unpredictable and this is 4pm. His flight is the last flight to London today and he will be to speaking at a 10am event tomorrow in Canary Wharf. She was genuinely concerned.

She placed her hand on the meeting room door handle, paused then looked back at him and mouthed, "I love you"

He inched forward, almost unconsciously when she did that so she quickly pushed the door and he stopped.

He looked so frustrated lol. She felt his pain too but she wanted him to catch that flight biko. He is a serious and responsible man but it's like he gets reckless when it comes to her case.

She sighed in her chair as she watched him walk away.

No, but Dare is fine... fine from all angles. Like just look at this tall, dark stunning....

"...so this is what we plan to do.... Sofi?" The Head of the procurement department snapped her out of her mini thirsting session. He was staring at her in bewilderment. She was so lost in her thoughts that she had forgotten she was in one of the most important meetings they hold every year.

6:05pm

She was packing up her laptop when his call came in.

"I hope you've checked in" was the first thing she said to him.

"When are you getting off?" He asked.

"I'm on my way out" She said.

"Nice, can you stop at Ahmadu Bello way, just before the Eko Atlantic gate?

"Why?" It is on her route but, what is he up to again?

"It's a surprise" he said, "I have a surprise for you" She could hear the excitement in his voice.

Maybe he has gone to buy her something again to make up for standing her up last night. She woke up this morning to his texts apologizing profusely for last night. When he called this morning, he begged her to come with him to London then return for the wedding she has to attend on Friday or Saturday morning but she told him her UK Visa is expired. He was very unsettled about the whole thing.

***

Sofi's Driver parked off the road, there was enough space on the side because of the ongoing construction. About 3 minutes after, she saw his car through the side mirror pulling up too and her heart skipped a beat. Seeing his car alone gets her worked up.
Soji parked a few meters away from her car then her phone started ringing.

"What's up?" Dare said into the phone when she answered.

"What is going on?" She laughed nervously as she looked back and saw that Soji had alighted and was walking towards her car.

"Please tell your Driver to step out of the car for a minute," He said as he alighted too. Her heart warmed up at the sight of him but she was still worried, did he miss his flight? He needs to be in London tonight.

Before she could even process what was going on Soji was already knocking on her Driver's window. She asked her Driver to go with Soji.

"What.... why are you here?" She laughed, but her heart was beating wildly in her chest as she watched him. He had taken off the jacket and tie and was rolling up his sleeves as he strolled to her car.

He got into the car and settled beside her.

"The flight was cancelled?"

"Nope" He smiled mischievously.

"You want to cancel the trip? I thought it was impor..."

He grabbed her and kissed her intensely, then pulled back stared into her eyes and said,

"I couldn't leave without doing that"

She had so many questions for him at that point but that kiss felt so good so she leaned in again for more, she wrapped her arms around his neck as she devoured those sexy lips of his. They stopped to catch their breath, she was smiling like one fish but then she remembered the flight again, so she switched back to confusion.

"What abou.."

"Don't worry about the flight" He smiled "According to Soji, the real 'big boys' of Lagos take helicopter rides to the Airport, he was able to get me on a 6:40 one from the Ozumba helipad, it's just a 5 minute flight to the Airport"

He actually told her after their trip that Soji is really his bodyguard and is from Gowon's Company so she was not surprised. Gowon's Company started handling VIP security and logistics 3 years back so Soji must have worked with a lot of VIPs and knows these things. She has always thought that Soji guy looks and sounds too educated to be a driver.

"Also, you said 'I love you' to me for the first time today" He said as he swept her hair behind her ears.

"What? That was not the first time"  She says that to him every time now.

"No, I always say it first, and you just say 'I love you too' but today, you said it first" He looked happy very about that lol. "But it wasn't loud enough" He added and she chuckled shyly then bit her lower lip.

"I love you," She said.

"What was that?" He placed a hand behind his ear "I'm sorry I didn't quite hear...."

She held his face with her hands, both of them were smiling like idiots "I LOVE YOU, Dare"

"That's much better" He wrapped her in his arms. "I love you too, baby"

"I am sorry about last night, I am so sorry" He said into her hair.

"It's okay, I understand," She said. Awwwn he still feels bad about that?

"But I don't want you to tolerate it, I don't want to be THAT man that neglects his woman because of work, I don't want us to ever grow apart, we're going to be different I promise you"

He pulled back to look into her eyes.

"Give me hell if I ever stand you up like that again," He said seriously "Make me pay, don't normalize it"

She nodded then he wrapped his arms around her again and they stayed like that for about 5 minutes before he sat up.

"Alright, the traffic is building up, you should go home" He said and she nodded again.

"Take care of yourself okay" He planted another kiss on her lips then suddenly frowned  "Don't talk to any man at that wedding" He raised his brows and she giggled.

"Don't smile for any woman in London" she pouted.

"I don't even like smiling, i only smile for you" he smirked and she laughed.

As he stepped out of the car, he called her Driver to come and be going.

"Don't be driving anyhow o" She heard him say to her driver.

"She is in good hands Sir," Her driver said energetically.

"Good, because you're driving a Queen...what is Queen in Yoruba?"

"errh... Olori" The man said with excitement.

"Aha, that's my Olori" He said to the man and she heard the two of the laughing. She knew Dare was going to dash him money because he can tip for Africa.

They are still keeping things under wraps but both of them know that her driver has figured out that they are seeing each other by now. He has picked her up and dropped her off at his place several times. He is not an idiot he knows lol.

However, the good thing is, her Driver is not a loudmouth and he has sense.

Now here is one last thing Dare did that touched her the most that evening. She heard him telling the man to buy something for his wife and the new baby as he tipped him. She was touched by the fact that he even remembered she told him her Driver's wife gave birth.

Dare is very busy but he still pays attention to the littlest details about her. 

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