The Cleaning Lady

Episode 22

Saturday afternoon. Sheila had been around for the past two hours. she had made his room orderly again. Several times he would surprise her by grabbing her waist, tickling her, sq££ze her breasts from behind. It was all fun and games for them.

Later on Sheila was going through some books he had kept in a corner of the room.
“You might need to get rid of some of these books. They look like books my granddad read in his time” she said.
“Leave my books if you don’t want me to descend on you” he threatened, hovering over her. He smacked her round but where she squatted and she squealed.

Laughing, he returned to the TV and switched it on. Sheila continued to arrange the books and her eyes fell on an envelope. She looked inside and saw it was a bunch of pictures. She went through them. Most of them were of him during his school days.

“You have some funny pictures here” she laughed.
“What pictures?”
“Seems like some you took in the university.”
“Oh I thought I had thrown them away.”
She continued going through them. She saw some of his time in NYSC camp. One particular face caught her eye. She put on her glasses to have a closer look. This face was very familiar. She thought back to where she had seen the face, and when she remembered, she jumped, almost toppling over flat on her face.
“You okay baby?” Kunle asked him, remote in hand.

She showed him the picture. “Do you know this lady” she asked, her heart racing in her chest.

He looked at the face she was pointing at. “Yes I do. Why do you ask?”
“That’s the lady at the restaurant.”
“Which lady?”
“The one that told me all that trash about men.”
Kunle’s heart jumped. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. I’m 100% positive.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes Kunle. It’s her. I will never forget that face.”
Kunle began to seethe. Everything was beginning to become clearer now. Sheila saw the anger show over his face and she held his arm.

“Kunle, what’s wrong? Do you know her? Talk to me please!!!!”
“I now understand why you acted that way at the restaurant.” He said, his hand growing into an angry fist.

“Kunle you are scaring me. Who is she?”
Kunle didn’t respond. He got up and grabbed his shirt.

“Sheila, get dressed. We need to go somewhere together.”
“Where are we going?”
“Don’t worry. You will know when we get there.”
“Kunle biko. Please talk to me” Sheila begged.

Kunle didn’t respond. He was thinking real hard. He had bundled Sheila into her clothes and dragged her out quite roughly by the arm.

They were now in a cab heading to God knows where, she thought. She had been scared at the sudden change and the look of rage in his eyes.

“Kunle what’s wrong? Why are you so angry? Tell me what’s going on.” She pleaded.

Kunle stared at her without a word. He wanted to tell her. She wouldn’t understand. Not yet.

He was beginning to understand her behavior at the restaurant the other day. How dare she? Who the hell did she think she was? Does she think she owns him?

He had allowed her to treat him as her puppet for too long. He had given her his heart and she had smashed it to the ground and dashed it to a million pieces. Well not anymore. He wasn’t going to allow her destroy his mended heart again.

“Sheila, baby, please, you will certainly know soon. It’s just a matter of time now.”
“But why the sudden anger?”
“Be patient. You’ll soon know.”
He pulled out his phone to send her a text.