Love, Flicker, Burn: Entry 6

Tiide Olufola- Carson

Lagos

I swiveled around in my chair and reached for my phone.

New Message.

These days, I had become anxious about opening messages. If it was Lanre, I felt an immense amount of guilt. It was awful enough that I said ‘No’ to him in front of his friends and his sister, Lara.  Then I just vanished into thin air, only it wasn't thin air it was some rugged, less than modest, dreamy/torrid rendezvous with Ugo, the Ex.

If the message was from Ugo, I felt the excitement and tingle, I guess, cheating partners feel. I loved seeing his name next to the green bubble. Not many people could say the one who got away came back. Almost no one could say the one that got away came back and they both escaped to magical Paris. 

The new message was from Lanre. Guilt.

"I'm coming over today, we need to talk. Need closure."

I slid to reply as advised by my phone.The cursor blinked mockingly as I searched for the right words. I could tell him I needed time but I hadn't seen him in about three weeks. I wish he never proposed to me that night. We would have had his birthday in a restaurant (not on the boat) with friends and had a simple dinner. We wouldn't be weird like how we were now. 

Suddenly, Maggie burst into my cubicle, excited, grinning and panting.

'Tiide!!!', she was out of breath. Then again she usually always was out of breath, as she always had the office gist and dirt.  'Tiide, you have a gift at the reception desk. I think we should go get it. It's from Lanre. Always sending gifts, making our boyfriends look bad!' She giggled excitedly. She stomped her heels on the marble floor in a little girly hop. Clearly, she had intentions of going with me to the reception desk.

'OK', I got up and followed her. She briskly walked a step ahead of me, the red outsole of her Louboutins distracting me. She hurriedly hit the elevator button like it was burning coal. I couldn't stop thinking about Lanre's message. Did he send a gift to appease me before coming over tonight? I didn't need appeasing, I was clearly the villain in this story. 

We got into the elevator, Maggie was saying something about how men don't buy stuff anymore once they get married, which reminded her about Funmi on the seventh floor who just got married in Abu Dhabi five months earlier and her husband was already cheating. 'If you knew all the cheating going on in this office, Tiide’, She paused dramatically ‘You'd stop watching TV and all those scripted shows.' she rolled her eyes. Then she started talking about Helen in Human Resources who was sleeping with three interns. I made a mental note to make sure she knew absolutely nothing about my private life.

As we stepped out of the elevator which was right opposite the reception station, I could see the hugest bouquet of white roses, forty stems at least, sitting on the desk.

Temi and Tobi beamed at me as I approached their desk. Everyone knew Lanre sent me flowers at work but never this huge‎. I blushed a little. 'Dear God, why is he doing this, I already feel bad as it is', I muttered to myself. 

Tobi, Temi and Maggie had engaged in a fit of ecstatic girl-chatter.

 'Read the card!',Tobi said as she picked up the phone ringing on her desk. ‘Good afternoon, Omicron group, My name is Tobi, how can I be of assistance today?’

She signaled hysterically at me and mouthed ‘Read it out’.

I picked out the card and read it twice mentally. 

The card read : "I apologize for never letting us get to the fifth year but I don't apologize for never letting us get to the fifth floor".

'Read it out!Is it Lanre??!' Maggie stared wide-eyed.

'Err..... ', I stammered. 

'Tiide', Tobi cut in thankfully 'Alec wants to see you at your desk. What’s in the card?!'

Alec was the Scottish hottie, Offshore Installation Manager, who surely reduced overall productivity ‎for the girls at Omicron. I admit, the green eyes were a bit distracting.

'Thanks guys!' I grabbed the flower vase and walked quickly to the elevator and got in before it closed. Saved by the bell, well by the phone. The people in the elevator stared at the flowers. I stared at the flowers too, unable to think clearly. Was Ugo serious about making us work? Why and how did I get into this?! O, dear Lord.

'Nice flowers, Tide'. Alec said as I approached. He called me Tide and I never tried to correct him, it sounded endearing.

'We will be going to Aberdeen for ‎about a week for a conference and you would be staying back for some training, just about two days . Greg is very impressed with your work by the way. He hardly is'.

' Thank you, Alec. How many of us will be on this trip?'

' You, Helen, and I'.

'Ok, great!’, I set the flower vase on my desk and stuck the card in the centre. 

' The conference is next week Tuesday.So I guess you'd be done by Friday. I guess I'll visit my family in Edinburgh that weekend. Any plans for your time in Europe?'. I glanced absent-mindedly at the huge bouquet. ‘Yes, most probably’.

To be continued…
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