I dare you to comment on each paragraph for double update...

KANO STATE, NIGERIA.

"I am still in love with you, Oreo!"

Imad blinked incredulously, not quiet understanding where this is going but have the knowledge of what she means with those words. That she still loves him? Huh? What a cruel joke she is trying to play with him again! But why does his traitorous smithereens of a heart gave this happy flutter at the thought of it. Why does it feel like his heart got cured just by listening to those words coming from her plump cute lips? Why?!

He shakes his head absently while his fingers rub his jaw as he scrutinize her, waiting to see whether she's gone out to drink something and gather this much confidence. She has looked different the whole morning but he never thought she would confess her feelings like that. Since the time he saw that message in her laptop, he's been using her feelings against her but this time around, she's totally sweep him off his feet in surprise. I am still in love with you, Oreo? Seriously?!

But did someone dare her outside? Maybe Lateefa is playing this cruel joke on him knowing how she finds everything funny. But Amirah is also sensitive to not play this game with her friend so it results to one thing and that is that Amirah is willing to work on her feelings now. It's been a few weeks already and he's been waiting to hear about the proposal from Nazir but zilch, Nada and nothing so far. He's seen them countless times but that's beside the point, seeing them isn't exactly them being married. The guy is carving his path alright but Amirah is here confessing her undying love for him.

Who is he to believe her? No matter how much he wants to bring her emaciated body closer to his and give her a bone crushing hug but cannot do that because he is not sure what she is saying is true. She might just be lying again to get something from him, you never know with such women.

Maybe the world is fully against her now and she wants to crawl back to his arms for refuge? He is no saint anymore, he won't endorse such behaviour but this will arch his plan more graciously. She is making everything easy on him now, he won't annihilate it so easily.

Deciding to play along with her rubbish like a cold hearted man, he gave a pinched confused look to her figure, watching the anticipation broadening in her eyes. Ha, what a treacherous histrionic vermin she is. "What are you talking about, Ms. Adam?"

Amirah wanted to yell at the top of her lungs for getting shunned away like that but decided to keep her cool. If she wants this to work out the way she's engraved in her head. Her gaze is unfocused, eyes blinking rapidly and head cocked to the side as if not believing what he's just said. Of all the things she'd thought he would say, that never rushed to her head until he's said it. Pretending they are still into that businesslike matter again

Ms. Adam seriously? After she called his nickname he decided to go business?

Deciding the forget about the Ms. Adam for now and talk the matters at hand, she let out an exasperated breath before answering.

"What you've just heard, Imad. I still love you, I never stopped loving you and I can't take it anymore. You've been so distant despite us being really close, it is messing with my head. One second, I thought I could continue like this till the time comes but on another, I can't! I'll keep acting strange and my heart... I don't want to risk more."

Amirah gulped because she rambled out of proportion and she still have so much to say. Her legs are trembling beneath her, willing to grovel but she stood straighter, her palms supine with great strength on the smooth oak so she won't buckle. His gaze is susceptible making her straitjacket and all the sheaf it bagged along. The hefty amount of mayhem she's once dropped on her way back to the office ladened her shoulders with more mastery. She is close to being genuflected, her knees are whispering so.

She could hear the onomatopoeic susurrus coming from them but that will weaken her resolve and her determination. It is either now or never, she's chanted in her head for hours straight so she won't give up after she's come a long way. There is no room for capitulation or cede, she goaded inside her head to strengthen her dimming resolve. It glimmer a little sparkle again so she swallowed for more insults.

The way his lips twitch into a smile that resembled a lopsided grin screams just how much she's going to suffer to get him back. How much he is going to taunt her and bring the past in her face to make her more guilty and she will have to cede in the end. She is sure she on the other hand is featuring this pensive look or someone who's slipped into nadir. He has the jurisdiction, the parvenu he's climbed up to the minute she stooped so low to the plebeian she's always been.

Just how she's failed herself. She couldn't resist crawling back to his arms just few weeks into the time she's carved for herself.

And she thought she won't be the first one to bring the past up, look at her there like a woman begging for the last strain of her life. Most women will be looking down at her already, thinking she is being classless and all those shits but where does class have space here? The class you never will graduate from? She doesn't care, whether it is class or school, that is not her concern. Top priority is getting Imad back with her through thick or thin.

Imad bit his lip to stop the bubbling of happy laughter filled with stellar of satanic echo. "I heard that you love some Oreo and also use my name instead of Sir." He made his expression serious and back to professional. "I sincerely hope you won't make that mistake again, Ms. Adam."

"One more Ms. Adam and I will do something we'd both regret! You know what I'm talking about so drop the stupid act and talk like a man. I am done living with a past that always straightjacket me and I know you also feel the tension and you just love pretending." She breathed heavily, totally agitated to think things through. She hauled the words promiscuously at him, too goaded to think.

He did that to her, he pushed her button because he knew she'd explode right after. And now he is featuring a smug smile that makes her feel more small and a protuberance hitched behind her throat. She feels the tears inside her retina but they didn't fall, she wouldn't have stopped them from rolling though. Her recalcitrancy is slowly dissipating and haranguing faster than blink of an eye.

Imad still knows who she is and that harries but bloom hope inside her chest. Maybe, just maybe, Imad hasn't forgotten about her and still cares about her. That hope immediately hid behind in it's grotto, too disturbed to permit it to flourish. She's learnt long ago to keep her hopes at bay.

Drumming his feet and fingers at the same pace, he gave a satanic smile she didn't recognise but could see the glimpse of doom in his eyes. "What are you going to do about it that I'd regret, Ms. Adam?" He taunted, leaning back against his chair.

She back tracked to remember why she'd say they would regret what she will do. What is she going to do that will render Imad regretful and remorseful? He is not the guy she's met few years ago and fell for, he is now different all thanks to her. But what was she thinking when she made that devoid vacant threat. Then it clicked, it doesn't make sense after much thought to it but she will have to do something. He shouldn't see how intimidated she is.

Not avoiding his eyes, she advised her legs to take her to where he is, rounding the table with striking confidence Imad won't deny being impressed with. All her moves are so un-Amirah-like that day but he is not complaining. He needs something new and refreshing and Amirah is just that person. His chest is gathering the miscellaneous smithereens of his heart in a sheaf making it feel whole again in his ribcage. He is not about to admit that though.

He is getting too joyous and entertained to bother about what his heart wants or not. He knew that he feels healed and nothing else. Like the stress cardiomyopathy had gone through denunciation just with those words she's uttered. It makes him feel less maverick and the recalcitrancy started shaking oddly because of this Lolita in front of him. She is already a walking temptation, the way her hips sway left and right. Talk less about her mellifluous dulcet voice and mutinous baby face.

Once she is standing in front of him, she narrowed her eyes before she did something totally unexpected, she genuflected a little and tears gushed down her face like she didn't confidently rounded the table as though she was about to seduce him to her bed. Now she is bawling her eyes like a little infant searching for it's mother in the throngs at the airport. She looks so lost that his heart's sheaf smithereens ached in this vulnerable way. He is sure his eyes gave away those few seconds of pain before he sheathed them.

This won't work on him, he won't permit it to. Amirah is the treacherous reprobate here, her innocent act won't work on him anymore, he chanted like a prayer in his head. He tilted his head to the side trying to act nonchalant and he succeeded because she started sobbing hysterically. Imad was lost, he couldn't take too much vulnerability from a woman, he wasn't raised like this talk less of Amirah. The woman he loved!

He is punishing her but it is as if he is the one enduring the pain not the other way around. He feels this morbidity inebriating his senses and cranium, rendering the next words that were supposed to tumble off his mouth dormant and at the mercy of his feelings. His brain laid supine, permitting the traitorous heart to take action but he had control over his body so he could only lean further back against his chair. He's never felt this nonplussed in his entire life.

In a wavering voice filled with chokes and sobs, she muffled out. "I might not be able to do something you will regret but believe me just this once." She squalled in between rapid hiccups. "Believe me when I say all the love I've had for you were true. It was never deceit, I've always loved you, Imad. I don't know if I have the jurisdiction to stand here telling you all that but it hurts! My chest is healing but I'm back to square one again, in throe. I-I might be deceitful those years but now, I don't think I can hold it in. If only you will believe me..." She trailed off, hopelessly sitting on her knees.

Imad is staring wide eyed at her figure sitting on the foot of his chair, he couldn't move nor say anything. He is seeing the truth in her eyes but there is no way he is going to believe that after what she's done. After how much she's broken him those years ago without a thought how it would impact his life.

And she is talking about some chest pains? Has she suffered through those years too or is she just saying it to earn herself sympathy from him? Oh well, he won't ever believe a word she will say from now henceforth. Why would he? He was in his right state of mind when she deceived him like that, and he is not inebriated now to not see who she is. Amirah, that vermin!

He felt the need to drop the formality and keep the joke away from his voice. "I don't care what is going on with you whether you are in pain or not. You never cared, did you?" The question is rhetorical but Amirah is busy shaking her head in no, she cared.

Imad abruptly stood up from his chair, watching her figure slump a little on it since she has all her strength rested on it for support and without his weight on it, the chair weigh not more than she does. He buttoned the button of his suit while running an agitated hand through his hair. He is super annoyed, he did not want to talk about his past now but she is not making it easy.

He wants to drag it on and on and with a chance and aperture, he will evade this and draw it till the time he's planned to make her life hell.

He exhaled in exasperation. "Amirah." He drawled and like a charm, she rose her head to look at him through those doe-like puffy red eyes as she blubbered and snivelled. His heart clenched, forbidding him from saying anything further but his body and mouth are battling too.

Amirah couldn't believe her ears upon hearing the sound of her name gliding down his lips. Her heart summersaults in her chest, heart filtered in gleam and happiness because whenever he calls her name, something good follows right after but this time around with the expression on his face and the undertone spite spooned in his voice, she is not sure anymore. It didn't stop her heart from filling up though, it did the exact opposite.

Her bow is drooped and shoulders are drooped on the floor, weakness and guilt holding her down and hostage. She is sniffling and wiping the rheum off her face while smothering the blotched skin. She is slacking behind, her expression dull, eyes wet and achy. She knew she looks like a hopeless woman but what does it matter? Nothing will make sense if Imad won't give her a chance anymore. She knew her life is going to be shambolic.

"I want you to get something straight." A pause. "Our past is always going to be what it is, a past. I don't want any personal life getting interfered with professional one or I will have no choice but to fire you. Now get up and go freshen up, you look like a wraith." His face is stoic but his last words were jested filled with witticism.

Amirah nodded though she hasn't give up yet, this is just the place where it started. He didn't say he hated her or don't have anything to do with her only that he doesn't care which she will make into a big fat lie. It is as if he's proffered friendship or peace from their past in her books which only goaded her into wanting to work harder to gain his trust and love again.

This is a battle she is willing to fight tooth and nail with. Imad is going to be hers through and through, she will work on that part. For now, there are so much she needs to do for that to happen. She'd be damned if anything were to happen not according to her new strategy. Her heart is telling her so, she feels it too.

Imad will be hers again in no time!