Bitch

Episode 32

The day was over and the TOP building was
getting more scanty by the second and people
left for their homes in their numbers.

Zainab was done directing the last show of the
day, it was a fashion show so she actually did
more of the directing than just standing back
and watch as the director in charge of fashion
shows did his work.

Zainab had always been a survivor and a
“strong” lady who never let anyone push her
around and thus her parents and siblings had
long stopped worrying about her well being
because they knew she was always just fine by
herself. As she wrote a report on how the day
went, thoughts of her family crossed her mind
and she instantly made a mental note on that
spot to travel to Canada and see her family
the first chance she got, she had no idea why
she they crossed her mind but she sure liked
the fact that it did.

Finally, after thirty long minutes of
transferring excerpts from her notes into the
report sheet, she finally gave a sigh of relief as
she tapped on the send button on her
computer screen and waited for the “YOUR
EMAIL HAS BEEN SENT” alert that came up
immediately after the message had been
delivered. Zainab wondered why she couldn’t
just write the report down and on her way out,
drop it at the management office rather than
email it to them, but rules were rules and TOP
sure had their ways of doing things.

Zainab stood up from her chair and with the
speed of light, she picked up her handbag and
stormed out of the building heading straight
to the car park, by this time, the building was
so empty that the little drops of water which
came from the water dispenser which hadn’t
been locked properly could be heard from
someone like Zainab who was at a really
considerable distance from it.

She had gotten to the car park and was about
to enter her car when she was startled by a
“hey! Zain,” she turned back, expecting to see E.A who was the only person who used to call
her that but to her greatest surprise it wasn’t
E.A but Henry.

“Henry!” She exclaimed in surprise, “what are you still doing here by this time of the day?”

Henry grinned, “I’m a grown man, I don’t have a curfew anymore and besides, I wanted to see the most beautiful lady on earth before she left.”

Zainab sighed, “let me give you a tip, flattery
annoys me, so please stop it.”

“Do you have a mirror?” Henry asked.

“What does that have to with what we are
talking about now?” Zainab asked looking
perplexed.

“Everything. I doubt you have a mirror
because if you did, you would have seen
yourself and know I’m not flattering you.”

Zainab hated flattery but that line got to her
and she could feeling her cheeks get red,
“aren’t you going home?” She quickly asked in an attempt to change the topic.

“Oh! Yea, that brings me to the second reason
why I was waiting for you. I was hoping you
would give me a lift?” Henry asked.

Zainab smiled, “sure, no problem. Hop in!”

Henry gave her a charming smile and went
round the car to the seat beside the driver’s
seat to seat down, she entered the car and
switched it on, before she zoomed off, she
asked, “where do you stay?”

“Don’t worry, when we get to where I’ll stop,
I’ll let you know.” Henry said, he still had the
proud grin on his face and he was starting to
look more like Boniface, or so Zainab thought.

She drove out of the car park.

---

There is usually this period just before
someone faints where he or she sees two stars
and a red comical devil with horns and a
garden fork.

As Jummy saw this abomination, she started
seeing the stars and the Devil but before she
could actually faint, the voice of John
snapped her back to reality.

“Jummy! What are you doing here?!” He ask
frantically. “I thought you are on your way to
China?!”

A thousand possible responses ran through
Jummy’s head but non of them seemed
suitable for the occasion so she just stared at
John and Samuel who had sat down on the
bed still naked in silence.

“I… I… Didn’t want you to find out like this.”

John added as he saw Jummy had no plans of
saying anything.

Jummy was startled by that statement, “what
do you mean?!” She asked. She knew what it
meant but just had to ask.

John stared at Jummy for a few seconds
before walking to the bed side table where a
bottle of brandy and two glasses were, he
filled one cup and turned to Samuel, “do you
care for a drink?” Samuel shook his head to
signify no so John took a sip from the glass
cup. With the glass cup in his hand, he walked
to the other side of the bed and picked up two
boxers, he threw one to Samuel and wore the
other, Samuel did the same and wore his
boxers too.

John then went to sit beside Samuel and
pecked him right in the presence of Jummy
who was boiling with rage now.

“Well, as you can see, I’m bisexual.” John
started. “I was born this way and I’ve gotten
used to it, Samuel is purely homosexual
though and he doesn’t mind me dating and
s——g the opposite s-x.”

Jummy stared at him with rage and if her eyes
were guns, John would have been long dead.

She couldn’t believe her eyes and ears. She
had expected a lot of of apologizes and John
chasing her, literally rolling on the floor and
begging her with a good explanation but here
he was, speaking calmly like two guys being
naked in a room is a normal thing.

“Please, don’t get it all twisted. I love you, I
really do and would love to marry you
someday, what I and John have is just a
beneficial sexual relationship, I have urges
that needs to be satisfied you know?”

“John, what’s wrong with you?” Jummy said sympathetically, something told her John was
either high or possessed by some very
powerful marine spirits.

“See, don’t take this to another level oh,” John said slightly raising his voice, “my mum is
disturbing me over marriage and grand
children issues and I plan on giving her what
she want, I could have picked any girl on the
street to marry but I didn’t want to live with
someone I didn’t have anything for. So when
you came around and l fell in love with you, I
knew you were the one for me.” John stood up
and poured some of the brandy into the
second cup, he picked it up and went towards
Jummy and offered it to her, she took it but
didn’t drink it. “Jummy, I know you love me
and I love you too, we can have a happy
marriage, you won’t even have to work again
because I’ll give you a weekly allowance
that’s more than twice your monthly salary at
GNP, and also I’ll be the best husband you’ve ever had, I was even going to propose to you when you came back from your trip.”

Jummy could hear the voice of her mum in her
head, her mum was as usual, asking her for
grand kids.

Jummy took a sip of the drink, “you have to
promise to end whatever you have with
Samuel or any other guy right now!” She said,
she couldn’t believe she just said that but
what other option did she have.

John suddenly started laughing, “that’s where
we might have a problem. I can’t stop even if
I wanted to. You’ll have to take me like this,
as you might have seen, I’m pretty good in
bed so you won’t even notice and difference
between me and a straight guy. The only thing
I can promise is, Samuel would be the only
guy and just so you know, you can go ahead
and date other guys even while we are
married, I wouldn’t mind as long as you still
remain my wife.”

Jummy took another sip of the drink and
wanted to say something but instead, she felt
her eyes get suddenly moist and she knew she
was about to start crying.

• * B * *

She tried to hold back the tears at first but
couldn’t anymore as she bursted out wailing.

Her feet felt so weak and couldn’t carry the
weight of her body any longer so she slumped
with a loud thud and cried so violently with
all her soul that if tears could change
everything back to normal, her tears would
have.

She was crying because she had just watched
the best thing in her life turn into her worst
nightmare all in a few minutes, she was crying
because she had been fooled by John so
easily, she was crying because no one had
warned her, she was crying because she had
been so blinded that she didn’t think of
anything fishy when John said no to s-x, she
was crying because she saw nothing wrong
with two fully grown men living in one house
and only one did all the hustling, but most of
all she was crying because she was ashamed
of herself that she was even considering
John’s offer.

It seemed like a good deal. She would finally
give her nagging mum the grand child she
wanted, she would be called a “MRS” and no
longer “MISS,” she won’t have to keep up with the who GNP drama anymore with Stephen
and Mrs Ogbanaya playing with her like a toy.

And to top it all, she would have more money
than she could spend, it was indeed a great
deal that most ladies would jump into without
any hesitation.

John squatted close to her and said, “you
don’t have to give me a reply now, go home
and think about it but you have to reply me
before the week runs out so I’ll know if I
should still buy the engagement ring.” With
that, John stood up and walked out of the
room.

Samuel stood up and walked to the door,
before he walked out of he room, he turned to
Jummy, “you might have noticed I don’t really like you, I even told John to go after that your friend but he was more attracted to you,
should I give you an advice?”

With her eyes clouded with tears, Jummy
looked up at Samuel inquisitively, “take the
deal, John can have the present Miss Nigeria
if he want with the snap of a finger, but he
chose you which means you are truly special
to him. As he said, what we both have is just
a beneficial sexual relationship, nothing
more.”

Samuel walked out of the room too leaving
Jummy all alone, the deal seemed more
attractive now.

She cried for an extra hour and with a huge
effort, she called for a cab, she could risk
driving in her situation.

The cab came some minutes later and she
gave the driver Zainab’s address. She needed
to talk to someone and Zainab was the only
one that crossed her mind.

---

As Zainab cruised pass the huge platform the
which had “WELCOME TO FESTAC” written
above it, she began to wonder why Henry
hadn’t dropped yet.

The journey hadn’t been so much fun as Henry hadn’t spoken much and Zainab wasn’t much of a talker neither, that was why she and Jummy made a good team because Jummy did all the talking for her.

She looked at Henry and then turned back to
face the road, but then she glanced at Henry
again and back at the road, she wasn’t to ask
him why he hadn’t dropped but just didn’t.

Henry who had been silently observing her
finally asked, “am I that cute?” He smiled.

“Huh?” Zainab exclaimed, who is deceiving
this one? She thought.

“You have been staring at me for quite a long
while now, am I that attractive to look at?”
Zainab laughed, “you don’t really want me to answer that.”

Henry joined her laughing, “you are a case.

Anyway, how your day by the way?”

“Hectic as usual, but I survived. How about
yours, I read the report you wrote and I guess
you day went pretty smooth, right?”

“Yes, but not entirely though,” Henry replied
and switched on a sober look.

“What went wrong?” Zainab asked.

“I was kinda hoping you would hang around
all through the day, but you barely spent a
minute.”

“Oh! My work is basically to supervise and
take notes. I still wonder why they call me a
director since all sections has a sub-director
already. So when I saw you had it all covered,
I didn’t thing it was necessary I hanged
around.

“And at the end of the day, you take all the
glory,” Henry sighed and added, “a typical
case of Monkey work baboon chop.”

Zainab giggled, “and if things don’t go well, I
take all the blame.”

Henry just smiled and kept quiet.

Zainab sighted her bus stop just at the end of
the road and became worried once more,
“aren’t you going to drop? I’ve almost gotten home.”

“Yes, I am, don’t worry about me, I’ve got it all covered.” He grinned.

“Okay oh, Mr I’ve-got-it-all-covered,” she
teased and the both laughed.

As Zainab cruised into the road her house was
on, her head lamp caught a glimpse of a
figure at her gate, she had long fired the
former security guard so she wondered who
that could possibly be. She kept her thoughts
to herself and cruised closer to the her gate.

Just as she was about to drive pass the house
before hers, Henry spoke, “I’ll drop here.”

“Sorry?” She asked like she didn’t hear what he said.

“I said you should stop here.”

“Why? Do you live here?” She asked looking
confused.

“Yea, for now though. This is a TOP official
house and since I’m now on their payroll, the
gave it to me to live in. Its a coincidence that
we are now neighbors.” Henry winked.

Zainab just smiled and parked the car, she
knew it was more than a mere coincidence,
but she couldn’t complain, she knew all of this
was just Henry’s way of getting her attention
and she liked his method… Creative.

She drove to her gate and stepped out of her
car to go and open the gate when she saw
who had been standing at her gate all along,
it was someone who she least expected,
“Toafeek!” She exclaimed, “what are you doing here?”

Toafeek grinned, “is that how you greet your
elder brother you haven’t seen in years?”

Zainab felt something was wrong because
experience had taught her that august visitors
never really brought good news with them.

Before Zainab could reply a cab pulled up
beside her car at the front of her house and
Jummy stepped out of it. Her eyes were
swollen and she looked like a mess. Zainab
knew something was wrong somewhere.

“Any problem here?” Henry asked as he had
gotten closer to Zainab, he spotted Toafeek
before he walked into his house and thought it
might be trouble, so he decided to come and
be Zainab’s knight in a shining armor.

Zainab looked at Jummy, then back at Toafeek
before staring at Henry, she could sense a
long night ahead.