Must Read: As Deep As The Sea

Episode 7 years ago

Must Read: As Deep As The Sea

“Please baby girl. Do this for your helpless parents.”
“Why are you begging her? She has grown wings. You should have been there when she was talking to me as if… ”
“Blessing,” his voice cut her short. She hissed and returned her attention to the television screen.
He faced his daughter, “Baby please.”
Promise eyed her dad and collected the gift.
“His address is in the brown envelop and some cash too for the road.”
Her face lit with a smile.
“You are bribing her with money,” Blessing hissed again, “You are the one spoiling these children.”
“Run along and don’t come home late.”
“All right dad,” she gave him a peck on the cheek and left.
“She bribed you too with a peck,” Blessing clapped her hands, “Wonders shall never end in this house.”
Osagie locked the front door and joined his wife on the settee.
“They are adults now love. We can’t keep treating them like children.”
“Really? In our days… ”
“Exactly! That was in our days, the generation of today, we need to be very careful.”


“Hmm… ” She sighed and decided to stop arguing. Her husband was probably right. Nevertheless, her daughter had never spoken to her like that before. She needed to get to the root of the matter.
Did Promise have anything against Gbenga Lewis? The mere mention of his name seemed to bring out the worst in her. She would watch both of them closely henceforth. Something might be cooking, whether good or bad, she would find out.


*******


Promise checked out the address her father had written out. Gbenga lived at Dolphin Estate. It wasn’t far from her area. Where did he get the money to rent an apartment in such an expensive place? Her parent’s company paid their staff handsomely, but, living in Dolphin Estate with that kind of salary was financially suicidal.



She decided to deliver the gift and visit the Silverbird Cinema to watch a movie. That was the best plan she could come up with. She wasn’t into visiting friends. Aside Kabira who lived in Abuja with her husband, she had no close friend.




The few people she tagged as friends were just girls she attended the same High school or University with. Nothing special. She wasn’t really close to anyone in church either.



She located the house. It was a duplex and she could hear the music blasting within the compound. She checked the brown envelop again and found his phone number. She picked up her blackberry phone and dialed it. It rang for a very long time. She decided to send him a text message.



A few minutes later, someone opened the brown gate and stepped out. Promise got out of the car with the gift. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw Gbenga clad in a pair of blue jeans with a fitted black tee shirt.


‘Lord God Almighty! Why did you create fair in complexion guys?’
He approached her and sized her up. Her slim figure was cradled in a pink short sleeve blouse, complimented with a white three quarter pant.


He tried not to smile, but he couldn’t help it. She looked beautiful.
“Hi.”
She stilled her emotions and cleared her throat, “My parents wanted you to have this,” she lifted the gift.
His smile faded, “Please extend my gratitude,” he collected the gift from her.



“Happy Birthday.”
He raised his brow in surprise, “Thanks, why don’t you come in?”
She shook her head, “No, thanks. I have to go.”
He tried not to look disappointed.
“Em… Nice house.”
He glanced back at the building, “I inherited it from my father.”
“Oh!” It was good to know that he wasn’t living above his means as she had thought.
“He is late.”
“Oh… I am sorry.”
He shrugged.



She began to play with her car keys. She wanted to leave but her legs stood rooted to the ground.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come in?” He noticed her reluctance to leave.


She lifted her eyes and met his watchful ones.



Gbenga realized that he might have judged his boss’ first daughter wrongly. He had always thought she was arrogant and puffed up, but, it seemed that, that wasn’t the case. He had seen the way she related with other people, and he thought she was deliberately picking on him by been unapproachable. He couldn’t deny the fact that he was attracted to her and at the moment, he had a nagging feeling that she also felt the same way.




She tore her eyes away and found the strength to walk back to the car. She needed to leave, she had lost her composure completely. She unlocked it and mumbled something that sounds like ‘See you on Monday’.




He felt a slight pain across his chest when he realized that she was leaving. He hurried towards her and held the door of the car before she could close it.




Her astonished gaze met his pleading ones.
“I want you to stay.”


She swallowed hard and tightened her grip on the car key.

“Please.”
She looked away and took a deep breath.
‘Promise, I hope you know what you are doing.’
She got out of the car and locked it.
“Thank you. Welcome to my humble home.”
She chuckled and followed him into the house.


‘Lord God, over to you