Jeremiah

Shopping.

Not exactly my favorite sport. I honestly didn't enjoy it at all, and that was why I never went to the mall alone. I barely ever went to the mall. Thank God for modernity and technology, where you could actually do anything you wanted from the comfort of your home, like I did.

Shopping isn't really hard at all, when you could afford a personal shopper that could go to stores on your behalf, and FaceTime you while you chose what you wanted. That was how I loved to shop, on my bed, with my phone or tab in my hands, point picking what I wanted but this time, this time was really different.

This time was different, because this wasn't exactly a shopping I could run from, or partake in from my bed. I wished I could but Oma would rather die than be apart from me, especially since she had actually pulled me all the way to the jewelry store, so she didn't have to choose an engagement ring on her own. I mean, what lady shops for an engagement ring, without her man standing beside her? It was going to look really weird if she did, and getting the ring was all she talked about the entire week.

Unlike Oma, I wasn't too psyched about the GBTS gala. I had never attended one in my life, and I couldn't possibly care about this one, but this one was different, this one wasn't like the rest. Dad wanted to announce my engagement with Oma officially, during the event. It was more like a two in one event. There was the fundraiser gala, and then there was our engagement party, so now you see why Oma is so hell bent on picking out the most perfect engagement ring.

I had never actually thought of giving her one, ever, and I knew just how much she had dreamt of that moment. The GBTS gala was giving her a chance to fulfill her dreams of getting an actual ring to mark our engagement. She spent the whole morning explaining what she wanted it to be like, but me, I've never really cared about anything, especially not this engagement. My eyes remained glued to my phone. Kora was online, and she had all of my attention.

"What you doing? 👀." She typed. I let out a tiny smile.

"Nothing exactly. I'm just at the mall, shopping. You want something?"

"Uh, not exactly...Do I want to know what you're shopping for?"

I froze. In as much as I hated lying to Kora, or anyone at all, I didn't know if it was okay to tell the girl I liked that I was ring shopping with the fiancée I didn't want to get married to.

"Nah." I told her. "You don't."

"Then I won't ask. "

"Where are you?"

"I'm at the bakery. Trying to pick up my Nanny's birthday cake. Her birthday is today."

"Wait- You have a nanny?"

"I wish I did. I used to, but not anymore. She doesn't really have anyone to celebrate her birthdays with, so I'm just going to be there for her, celebrate it with her."

"Oh. That's dope. I'm sure she'd like that. You two must be pretty close."

"We are. I literally tell her everything. She's the closest person I have to a mother, after my mum. Sometimes, I feel like she knows me better than my mum."

"It must feel so good to have someone like that in your life, doesn't it?"

"Well, I'm sure you can relate. You've probably lived all your life being taken care of and attended to by a lot of maids and Nannies. You've obviously never done anything on your own before."

I scoffed. Looking into my phone again. She was still typing when-

"Jeremiah. Did you hear what I asked?"

Oma's voice cut my concentration short. I turned to her immediately, I had to at least act like I was listening to her, like I cared about what we were doing at that point. I watched her eyes shift to my phone, she was looking into it. I could tell she could see a part of my text, I quickly turned my phone upside down so she didn't have to see too much. It was for her own good. In as much as I didn't prove it all the time, I cared about Oma, and I didn't want her getting hurt, at least not like this.

Oma let out a tiny scoff, and then bite on her lower lip as the attendant slowly called for our attention again. I quickly sat up from my side of the couch, so I could take a good look at the shinny diamond jewelries in front of me. There were two diamond rings in two different boxes. Both of them were extremely beautiful.

"Your fiancée is having a hard time in choosing what ring to take." The light skinned lady sitting in a suit right in front of us told me. "We were hoping if you could help us choose which you think would look perfect on her."

"I don't think you need me to do any of that." I turned back to Oma. She was staring at me impatiently. "I honestly don't know much about female jewelry." I told her. "Just pick anyone you like. You have nice fingers, they'd both look good on you."
At that point, I could just go ahead and say 'I really don't care about this stupid engagement, Oma."

Oma let out a frustrating scoff, pretending to laugh a little. I could tell she was becoming really fed up with my arrogance.

"Look Jeremiah!" She yelled my name just a little bit. "Can you please take this more seriously?"

She was starting to get upset. I slowly turned to the woman in front of us.

"I-" she stammered, getting up to her feet. "I'll just give you two some time to make a decision." It was obvious she wanted to give us some space. I turned back to Oma, before she even walked away.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked her.

"What is wrong with me?" She asked me "You're the one whose attention has been in his phone since we got here. You're the one constantly texting the same girl on your phone every minute, even when we are together, even when we are trying to shop for our engagement ring."

Of course, Oma had noticed how much time I had spent texting Kora, not like I was ever trying to hide it anyway. Oma knew how I felt about her, about all of this, and especially about our engagement. She knew I wasn't ready, and I just didn't care about it, but she did, so much, with all of her heart.

She was ready to do anything, just for us to work, up until our wedding day. This was important to her, this engagement was everything to her, and so was I. That was the only reason she worshiped me, and stuck by me, no matter how much of a no good fiancé I had been to her all those years.

"I know this is the last place you want to be, I know you've not fully opened your heart to this wedding and this engagement, but this is my life, and on Saturday we are officially going to announce our engagement to the world. I know it might not mean much to you, but this is everything to me, and I can't let you do anything to compromise Saturday, I won't." She glared at me.

"Saturday is going to be one of the most important days of my life, it's going to be very special to me, and I need you to take this seriously. You can't screw this up, no matter what. In a couple of months or years, we are going to get married, and I need you to actually think about that, and just try to do a better job at being my husband-to-be, than spending all your time texting some random girl that would probably be useless to you after Saturday."

"Look, you have to chill okay?" I told her. "It's really not that much of a big deal. I'm here right now, aren't I? Can we just," I pushed my sleeves up nervously. "Can we just focus on what we came here for and leave? I've got somewhere I have to be."

She stretched a hand, and then waved it in front of me. I could tell she was really fed up of me. She got up quickly.

"I can't do this with you right now." She told me. "I need to use the bathroom."

I sat still, as Oma walked away from the VIP section. She had obviously had enough of my condescending attitude, not that I could help it, I was just really bad at faking how I felt. How I really felt. I honestly wanted to protect her feelings, but I just didn't know how to.

I exhaled, and then turned back to the tiny glass table where all the other jewelries were. My eyes narrowed on something really shinny just as I began to hear the knocking sound of someone's heels approach me. I slowly reached for the black box a few inches away from me, my eyes focused on the gold necklace inside it. A really beautiful necklace.

"It's a perfect gift for someone you care about."
I could recognize the attendant's voice, even without looking up to see her. "It's something they'd be able to remember you by. I'm sure Miss Oma would like it a lot, any woman would. It's a gem, one of a kind."

Not like I asked, but the review was quite helpful. I liked it, I liked that there was something about it, something that wasn't common, something rare.

"I'll take it." I told her, slowly dropping the box back on the table. I turned to the rings. "And that."
I pointed at the one closest to me. I turned back to the woman in front of me, who had a huge smile on her face. She was even happier than Oma would have been. I reached for my black Prada bag and got out my dollar card, I gave it to her.

"Swipe it in please."
She nodded quickly, taking the card from me.

"Just a second." She turned and then walked away.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Lady-K

"Excuse me." 

Oma nodded slowly as she watched Jeremiah stand from the couch. He had a phone call he really had to take. Obviously private, since he had no intentions of letting anyone hear him. Oma didn't push it, there was no point trying to know everything. After Saturday, she was so sure she was going to have nothing to be worried of. It was going to just take one or two more steps to finally be one with him.

Mrs Omachukwu Jeremiah Ozor. Saturday was all she could think about.

"You're really lucky." She slowly turned back to the female attendant that had just stood in front of her watching her. "You found yourself a rare gem."

Oma scoffed. Like she didn't know.

"You know, I wished I was engaged to someone like him when I was your age. He's so caring and so romantic too, he also has a good eye for good jewelry."

Of course he did. She loved the ring he chose. She loved anything he loved.

"Let me know what you think about the necklace he got you, when he gives it to you."

"Necklace?"
The lady nodded. She looked so excited.

"Seeing that you don't know about it, I'm sure he wants to surprise you with a necklace on your engagement party. It's really special, and pricey too. He really likes you, it's all over him. I'm so happy for the both of you, you two look compatible together, and I'm sure you'd make really beautiful babies after you get married."

A smile was beginning to find it's way on Oma's lips.
Was it true? Did Jeremiah actually buy her a necklace? Was he planning to surprise her with one later? Maybe to make up for the way he had been behaving since he got back? To make up for everything? Her heart was going to burst from all that excitement. She couldn't believe how excited she was. She was getting extremely red too. She turned back to the sales attendant.

"You sell men jewelry here too, don't you?" She asked her.

"Yes, of course." The woman said.

"I'd like to purchase a gift too."