The Dice#19

Dunni stood by the aisle, reading through the composition of the coconut shampoo and conditioner available. Unfortunately, they no longer supplied her favourite brand. She was wary of changing hair and body products and wished she was among the lucky few who switched products at will with no adverse impacts on their skin or hair. She could not say the same for hers as there was a visible difference when she changed. She stuck to what she knew and devised a creative means by looking for products with a similar composition to the one she used.

 Dunni was so engrossed that she failed to notice the young girl who bounced and threw herself at her. They both landed on the ground. The little girl cocooned in the safety of Dunni’s arms whose feet were sprawled at odd angles. Dunni was more than glad of her choice of clothing today. A skirt would have been disastrous.

The fiasco was a sight to watch as items came tumbling down with a loud noise. I grimace at each item calculating the estimate of the cost and the final bill. Someone had to pay, and the supermarket won’t be the one paying the bills.

Dunni heaved a sigh of relief. Glad she had saved the girl but was further surprised when she saw who it was.

“Toni are you okay?” She fussed over the child, feeling every part of her body to check she was not hurt.

That was the scene Tade met upon his arrival. He was aghast to see Dunni kneeling over Toni frantically checking her face and hands. He felt the tight contraction in his heart again. Dunni could easily pass for his daughter’s mother.

He cleared his throat to attract her attention.            

Dunni turned to look at him suddenly becoming conscious of her sorry state. “It was a minor accident, but I think we will be okay.” She managed a small laugh.  Dunni was not sure if it was a good thing seeing Tade. She was beginning to accept that whatever she thought of the chemistry between them must have been a figment of her imagination. Welcome to the reality highway where life happens.

 Tade looked at the bruise on her forehead. “I think that thing on your head says otherwise. I’ll take you into the hospital just to check.”

Dunni tried to convince him she was fine.  The earlier she found her way home, the better for her before she made a fool of herself, but he won’t hear any of it.

“Okay, let’s go,” she gave in reluctantly not without realising that was the same thing Moses would have done. Why did she always have to bring Moses up? she thought to herself. Shaking herself from her self-induced Moses trance.

 She suddenly let out a yelp of pain like a wounded dog, and gingerly took her right foot off the floor.

 “I think I am hurt,” she stated the obviously meekly.

 Tade got down to one knee to observe the leg. “We will need to take you into the hospital. Please keep the feet still.” Turning to check his daughter, “Buttercup,” he could not get a word in as the girl was chirping away how Dunni saved her from hitting her head on the floor and asking him how cool that was?

 Tade looked back and mouthed “a thank you,” while Dunni’s grin was punctuated by a grimace from the pain on her now swollen ankle.

 Tade came over and asked, “May I?” Not waiting before lifting and gingerly carrying her like she weighed nothing. She was so embarrassed being carried out of the store like a toddler.

 Sensing her discomfort, he talked her through soothingly, asking questions to keep her talking and focusing on him.

 They were almost at the door when one of the store attendants made his way to them to ask for a refund for the broken items.

 Tade closed his eyes, and anyone could see he was visibly calming himself. “Can I see your manager? And if you could make a chair available, I will put the injured lady down whose medical bill should be paid by your store.”

 The battle on the store attendant face was comical, but no one found it funny. The fear in his eyes turned to confusion, replaced with uncertainty and the gradual sag in his shoulders. Eventually, he said they could leave and settle when next they came.

 Tade was irritated yet gritted, “thank you and went out of the store looking out for Toni.

 He placed Dunni in the backseat of his lamborghini, so her feet rested on the seat while her back to the door.

“What is your car’s registration number and where did you park? I will arrange for your car to be taken to your house.”

Dunni reeled out her car details while Tade spoke to someone on the phone to meet him at the hospital to pick up her car keys.

 They drove in silence joining the light traffic leading to Adetokunbo Ademola street.

 “If you don’t mind, I will get the nurses to bring out a wheelchair, so you don’t put pressure on the feet.”

 “Thank you, was all she could think to say. Dunni was so used to being strong gratefully that being the recipient of such care and devotion was doing a number to her brains and heart. She was grateful not to have been carried into the hospital in the same undignified manner as she was taken out of the store.

After a couple of hours at the hospital, Dunni was more than glad when it was time to leave. She had undergone so many tests she was beginning to think maybe she had contracted a disease and was not aware.

She did not see Tade until it was time to leave. Toni was already fast asleep at the nurses’ station.

 “Has she been checked,” she inquired.

 “Toni is with no bruises or broken bones. I think you took it all.”

 This elucidated a small smile from Dunni.

 “I am more exhausted from the tests and checks than the actual fall itself.”

 Tade chuckled. “You sure? It is better to be safe than sorry. You may feel differently tomorrow when you begin to feel the aches and pains from the fall.”

“I hope not,” Duni stifled a yawn that Tade did not miss.

“I need to get you girls home.” He liked the ring of it. The girls he thought to himself.

                ********

Fifth evening in a role Tade spent with Dunni. He first went on a neighbourly mission, at least that’s what he convinced himself he was doing.

 Tade loved the look of shock and awe on Dunni’s face when he told her he made the amala and ewedu soup with goat meat himself. The awe will be etched in his memory for an awfully long time. The way her lovely eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open gave a new meaning to sexiness. He thought of doing things to her that will mark her as his which had nothing to do with obtaining a license certificate to take on his last name. He was going to need a cold shower as an anecdote tonight. This girl was doing things to heart, he thought was no longer possible.

 The look of wonder as she savoured the dish was priceless, but he knew it was time he took his leave as all the restraint he had been holding was departing with the speed of lighting.

 “Being an invalid suck but you’ve made it something to look forward to,” she joked smacking her lips with satisfaction.

He stared at her lips…. and jumped out of his seat like one stung by a bee.

 “I have to go now,”

 “You only just came, she whined obviously wanting him to stay.

 “I have a patient to check,” he fibbed. It was for a good cause.

 He cleared the dishes and let himself out.

What do you think you are doing? The voice of guilt in Tade’s head spoke. Your wife is barely cold in her grave, and you are thinking of another woman. Get a grip on yourself and leave her alone. You will hurt this woman just like you’ve done to every woman that has crossed your path.

Not knowing why, he was in a hurry to leave when he just came. Dunni watched him through her window, noticing the droop in his shoulders and how he hung his head in defeat.

She wondered if he really had a patient to see or was wary of her presence that he could not wait to be far from her.

 “You will get hurt girl,” she told herself, but nothing she said could make her heart not beat for him. Infatuation or love, she could not get him out of her head.

 Tade had not planned to go back to Dunni’s place, but he did the next and the next day. And each day he came with a dish he prepared and left like a man being chased by a thousand demons leaving Dunni confused and heartbroken. She wanted more with Tade, and no amount of reason and guilt trip she tried could exorcise Tade from her head or heart.

She wished she had someone to talk to about her feelings. She was going crazy thinking of Tade who she thought did not feel the same way about her. Dunni would have called Emma, but she was still miffed at her and did not take any calls from her. Moses was far away in China. They rarely spoke. There were missed calls and chats on the phone, but the time difference did not help. He was having some issues with the project and has been a bit stressed of late. She did not want to add her heart problems to his buffet of other problems.

Amanda would have a field day with her predicament, being she was the one who first suggested she dated the widower. Dunni tried a small smile. How time flies.

She had totally forgotten that episode. Hmm, someone needs to eat humble pie. She was not going to Amanda with her heart troubles.

She wondered how pathetic her life was—a minimal number of friends in her inner circle. Moses and Ola made up for more than a hundred friends, but she could see the tunnel she dug herself in by not expanding her circle of friends.

Dunni picked her phone against her better judgement to buzz Moses and decided against it. She had not told him of her ankle in a cast. She had warned Ola not to mention her sprained ankle to Moses. He would bombard her with calls she needed to avoid, and her head was in a mess not to blurt out her silly heart problems.