“That one on white t-shirt.” He pointed and when my eyes fell upon the person he had described, my heart almost jumped into my mouth as I realized that it was Chris and he was seated on a couch several feet away with his eyes fixed on me. I quickly turned away now, trying to compose myself or probably flee.

Chief noticed and asked, “Is something wrong?”

“Not at all… I’m just….” I stuttered then began to fan at my face with my hand as I blew air through my mouth. “…this place is just too stuffy.”

“Pele dear, do you want to go outside for some fresh air?” He asked but before I could answer, I felt someone stand behind me.

“No sir, thank you but that won’t be necessary.” I heard Chris say from behind me and I swallowed hard.

“Who are you, young man?” Chief asked, adjusting his agbada intentionally as if to look intimidated. “Weren’t you taught not to interrupt when two people are talking?”

“Chief…” I quickly intervened, forcing a smile. “Please, he’s a friend.”

“Ehen…” Chief said skeptically as he scrutinized Chris for a moment.

“Chief, please I’m sorry but I’ll have to ask you to excuse us.” I said.

“Are you sure?” He asked, eyeing Chris in an unfriendly way. “If this young man is here to bother you, just tell me and I’ll get my body guards to deal with him gidigan! (Very well)”

“No no chief, that won’t be necessary.” I quickly said and added a reassuring smile.

“Okay then…” He finally but reluctantly agreed, then he started to rise. “Well, if you insist that I should excuse you too, I’ll…” He said. “It was very nice talking to you.” He told me, eyed Chris again then left.

As soon as he was gone, Chris replaced him on his seat. He took a serious look at me for a moment then finally broke the awkward silence between us by saying, “Hi.”

I swallowed hard and replied. “Hi.” I didn’t know that I would meet him here. I felt so guilty seeing him and I surely didn’t want to go down the memory lane of why I had left.

What he did next surprised and puzzled me. He stuck his hand towards me and said, “I’m Chris.”

I hesitated as I stared at him in confusion before I hesitantly shook his hand and muttered, “Victoria.”

“First time here?” He gestured around with his hand.

“Yes…” I reluctantly decided to play along. Since I didn’t know why he was doing this, I wanted to see how it would turn out. “You?”

“No but second.” He answered.

“Okay…” I simply nodded. Since we were playing the stranger thing, then maybe it would be easier to just say goodnight and get away.

“I must say that you clean up good.’ he gestured with a hand at me, indicating that I had changed in a great way since the last time we saw.

“Thanks.” I murmured under my breath, briefly casting my eyes down.

“I’ve been staring at you for half an hour, trying to be sure if it was really you or not and as luck would have it, you looked back.” He said.

“Only because Chief mentioned that I had a starer.” I defended.

“Right…” He pursed his lips then asked, obviously tired of the pretence. “Why did you leave?”

I stared at him for a moment and was about to reply when someone suddenly said “Obim… I’ve been looking for you.” She came into view from behind me and possessively placed her arm on his shoulder and just the sight of her completely killed my zeal to reconcile.

“Great! You brought her!” I said with an exasperated sigh.

At the sound of my voice, she turned her head to look at me and her eyes grew round with surprise. “Ha! Aunty Victoria, na you be this? Chai! You don change o. You don even fine pass before, kon even add weight. (Ha! Aunty Victoria, is this you? Chai! You have changed o. You are now even more beautiful than before and you have also added some weight.)”

“Hi, Uju, how are you doing?” I reluctantly said, reaching for my drink. Right now, I preferred the company of chief than these two.

“Chris don dey find you so tey he don lose hope. (Chris has searched for you to the extent that he has lost hope.)” She said then added. “He dey relocate go America next month sef. (He’s even relocating to the U.S. next month)”

I stared at him in surprise now. “Are you serious?”

He nodded.

“Why?”

He shrugged a shoulder. “There’s nothing left for me in this country any more.”

I swallowed hard as I forced myself to ask the next question. “Are you going with her?” I cast my eyes at Uju but she quickly beat him to answering the question.

“This one ke? This one wey no fit even touch me na him go carry me go abroad? No o, he dey go alone. Once he commot, sell the house, I dey find my level. All I know say na Uju no go return to village o. This Lagos dey sweet me die. (This one? This one that cannot even touch me will take me abroad with me? No o, he’s going alone. Once he leaves and sells the house, I’ll find my way. All I know is that Uju is not going back to the village o. I have found this Lagos to be very interesting.)

I stared at her in surprise, then asked in disbelief. “He didn’t sleep with you?”

She gave me a perplexed frown. “Sleep with me how? You no hear wetin I tell you before? This guy na impotent. He no be man. He dey only get erection but he no dey use am at all. Me sef don tire for him matter.(Sleep with me? Didn’t you hear what I told you earlier? This guy is an impotent. He is not a man. He only has erections but he never uses it.) She explained. “Since you commot from that house, he no wan even use eye see me at all. He go just carry car key woka commot from house come back in the night wey I don already sleep so I no go disturb am. (Ever since you left the house, he can’t even stand my presence at all. He would just grab his car key and leave the house then come back at night so that I wouldn’t even disturb him.)”

It was too good to believe and I gaped at Chris now. “…b..but I… That… Night…”

He sighed and said, “Yea, I know I f@cked up big time but honestly, I couldn’t do it.” He said honestly. “I couldn’t just bring myself to do it, V.”

Tears welled up in my eyes now and I asked in a hoarse voice. “Then why are you still with her? You even brought her to a club.”

“It was her idea.” He replied. “She wanted to go out and have fun and I just tagged along.”

I was about to speak when a sturdy guy with a bald head and a beard appeared and wrapped his arms around Uju’s waist from behind. At first she was startled and quickly snapped as she started to turn. “Na who be this?” When she recognized the man, she smiled and said, “Oh, na you… You don find me come.”

“Let’s go to the dancefloor na babe.” The guy said to her. He was huge and I wondered how she would be able to handle such a guy.

“Hold on.” She told him then turned to Chris. “You, I know that now that you have seen Victoria, na to vanish be that. Sha no worry, you see this Bobo here? (I know that you’ll vanish now that you have seen Victoria but do not worry much. Do you see this guy here?)” She pointed with her thumb over her shoulder at the guy. “Me and am dey go him place after we club finish, so no expect me for house until tomorrow morning. (He and I are going over to his place when we are done clubbing, so don’t expect me at home until tomorrow morning.)” She said and they both returned to the dancefloor.

I watched them go and then asked in surprise. “What happened to you two? You give her this much liberty?”

“What am I supposed to do? I’ve made it clear to her that I’m not interested in her in that way. Besides, she’s a young lady and she can have as much fun as she wants.” Chris answered.

“And since when did you discover that she has accepted that fact?” I asked.

“When she started bringing in men to screw her on my couch.”

I chuckled. “Fair enough.” As I sipped my drink which had gone a bit warm, an uncomfortable silence ensued between us before he broke it and asked,

“How about we start all over, just you and I?”

I stared at him for some seconds and said skeptically. “I don’t know, Chris. I have moved on and I’m so not going back to my past.”

“Well, fix me in the present. Let’s start afresh, V, please…” He implored.

“I’ll need some time to think about it. This is too sudden, I don’t want to rush into anything anymore.” I told him.

“She will not be thinking about anything. You can take her home if you want.” Someone suddenly cut in and I turned to see Tanya approaching. She was sweating a bit from all the dancing she had done. Soon, Kehinde joined us.

“Hey!” She beamed at Chris as she scrutinized him quickly. “From the description Vickie had given us, you must be Chris.”

“Really? She talked about me?” I saw him glance at me and I looked away to avoid his gaze. My friends were not just good at keeping some secrets.

“Yes.” Tanya said after ordering for a drink. “If there’s anything she mentions about her past, it’s you.”

“I see…” Chris said, fixing a knowing look at me now.

“What did she say again, Tanya?” Kehinde asked then they both chuckled as they chorused.

I blushed now and lowered my head. I was really going to kill my friends. This was so embarrassing.

“Take her home with you please. Tomorrow is Saturday. You can keep her with you until Sunday evening.” Kehinde said.

I suddenly shot her a glare as she pulled away but I was not surprised. I had such crazy and blunt friends and they were like sisters to me.

Chris got off his stool now and stretched an open hand towards me. “Shall we?” He asked and I stared into his eyes but didn’t reach for his hand.

To Be Continued….. Watch out for Episode 19…