Africa – 21stcenturybelle

The Dice#10

Some friends are worse than enemies. If you find a good one, keep them close, for they are diamonds.

The weekend came faster than she expected. Good thing she had a date with Emma. Dunni did not know how much she had missed their time together until Emma showed up with their favourite wine, Barefoot Bubbly Pink Moscato. Dunni had ordered the ice cream and masa, and some grilled spiced meat popularly called suya.

Wearing a mini jeans skirt and a yellow fitted tee-shirt, Dunni slotted the USB drive into the Samsung TV and settled to watch the Matrix.

It was an intense two and a half hours film. Anyone seeing them would have thought they had exams to write after the movie.

“Gosh! That was so my movie!” exclaimed Emma. There should be a sequel.

“Yours truly is a Nigerian. If the film does not have part 2 or 3, then it is not complete. The film is okay as a standalone.” Dunni argued.

“Well, I still feel there should be more.”

“You could write to the producers,” Dunni teased.

“I just might,” Emma replied, seriously thinking of it.

“Wow! Now I have to face the not so nice part of driving home when all I want to do is go straight to bed. “You could sleepover but don’t know how many husbands will let their wives do that.”

“Definitely not Greg.”

“I am surprised that he has not called you all this time.

Emma laughed. I warned him not to monitor my time out. He had the kids to himself and will see me when he sees me.

“Hmm, is that the boss lady speaking or Emma, the docile wife,” Dunni teased.

“Boss lady, sometimes we mothers and wives need the time to let down our hairs and be girls again. We get too bogged down with our roles as wives and mothers and forget who we are, what our dreams were and who we wanted to be. Then the kids are out, hubby has made a good career. In contrast, we have either gotten stuck in a flexible career or remain sit-at-home mums feeling defeated, and that the world is our enemy.”

Dunni looks on thoughtfully.

“Aww, should not have said that,” Emma apologised.

“None of what you said is wrong. It makes a whole lot of sense and useful information for the future when I fulfil my mother’s wish of taking on the MRS title,” replied Dunni.

Emma looked at Dunni with remorse. “I have to ask you for forgiveness before I share this with you and I don’t want you to be offended. The last time you called me, I was a little bit off because I had allowed someone to mess with my head. Don’t ask me who but I was told to be careful of you being a single lady and all…. The possibility that you may have something to do with my husband. An affair or a love child whatever. I was stupid to let that get to me,” she grimaced.

Dunni sat stunned at Emma. “You believed that crap about me?” asked Dunni, disappointment was written all over her face.

“I am sorry, Dunni. She had shared the story of two friends we knew who used to be really close, and the other friend had her children for the friend’s husband. Every time her friend asked her who the father was, she never said, and they were tight friends. All the while, the two women had kids for the same man only that one was married and the other was outside. They were tighter friends than we are. I don’t think it was the intention of the friend to go after her friend’s husband. Just that stuff happens, and I shudder to think such should happen to us.”

“It is depressing that you could think that of me. I would protect what we have with my blood, Emma if it means me going out of your life for good I will do it before such evil befalls us. How can you even think about it? That I will go after your husband. This is crazy. You have messed up with my head too. Gosh, good for you to share but bad for us to still be close friends.”

“What do you mean?” Emma stuttered, seeing the angry look on her friends face.

“I mean, our friendship is over. I can’t come near you or your husband without me thinking that somewhere you may have thought I could cause a rift in your home. I am not that friend and trust has been broken the moment you believed I could betray you.”

“You are joking, right?” Emma asked, shocked at Dunni’s reaction.

“No, I am not, I can’t be friends with someone who finds it so easy to think the worst of me. If you don’t mind, I think I need to be somewhere now.”

“I am sorry, Dunni.”

“Apology accepted. We can be acquaintances, but we can no longer be close friends.”

Emma felt Dunni was taking this out of proportion, but nothing she could say or do at this moment will change her mind, so she grabbed her bag and car key and left.

Dunni did the same as soon as Emma was out. She drove around aimlessly until she found herself in front of Moses house. What was wrong with all her friends? Her mother stopped mounting pressure on her while her friends had picked the baton even her gate man appeared not to be left out!

The Dice#9

Dunni stood up from the sofa to get to her desk when she caught sight of a gorgeous caramel skinned lady dressed in a knee-length navy blue suit. She was about 5 feet, 8 inches tall with long box braids cascading down all the way to her waist.

The fact that the lady was with Moses piqued her interest. She wondered if there something beyond work as she watched their interaction. The way Moses’s eyes lighted up and the grin across his face like he was practically eating from her hands increased her curiosity. Suddenly she remembered an idea to run by Ola.

Moses stopped holding the mystery lady by her arms as he introduced her.

“Becca Williams meet Dunni Adesida, one of the principal partners. Dunni, Becca Williams, MD La Forte Designs. She is the interior designer who handled the Lekki Horizons Estate. I met her yesterday at Akin and Anu’s function. I think it would be nice if she handled the Awoyaya Gardens Project.”

Dunni stretched out her hand to shake Becca warmly and smiled at Moses neither agreeing nor disagreeing with his proposal. She excused herself to Ola’s office, leaving Moses with his guest. There was no way Becca or whatever she was called would handle her project. She already had a reliable designer. Moses could use her for his project but not hers. She fumed still in that state when she got to Ola’s office.

Ola looked up and could not hide his smile when Dunni walked in. He had wondered how long it would take her to barge into his office complaining of the new designer Moses had just recommended.

“I did not know we were shopping for new designers. I thought we were happy with the works of Exquisite Interiors and Bubbles Interior designs.”

“You will have to ask Moses. I don’t think there is any harm in introducing one more designer considering the number of projects we have to execute. He was introduced to her and requested she bring her portfolio. Who knows we may need her soon.”

“She won’t handle any of my projects,” Dunni announced Ola to disagree.

Moses strolled in whistling the song baby, now that I’ve found you by Alison Kraus. She knew the song as it was one of the soundtracks in the list of songs in his car.

Dunni rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “Moses be serious. What have you found, a good designer for our projects or what?”

“She is the one,” Moses replied dreamily clasping his hands together.

Both Ola and Dunni turned to look at Moses like he had grown a horn or something.

“What do you mean she is the one,” Dunni tried to keep her voice regular, she could barely breathe as she waited for Moses to say something.

“I have finally found her. The one I have been looking for,” Moses answered.

Dunni busted out with a peal of forced laughter that sounded strange even to her ears. “See you when you get back from La la land.” She turned to Ola, “talk to him. I will not be there when it all falls like a pack of cards.”

Moses kept whistling with this look on his face Dunni had not seen since he dated Sophie Adams in his third year at university. That was the only serious relationship Moses had been in. She was not privy to why they broke up. His other relationships have been less intense. Moses breaking up with Sophie had led to her break up with Benji. She was spending more time with Moses knowing he was shaken from the break-up and wanted to help.

It was one of the worst moments of his life since they had become friends. Her heart ached for him in that period, and she felt she owed it as a friend to be with him. Benji, for some reason, had always seen Moses as a threat even when he knew Moses was involved with Sophie. She had to keep telling him then that Moses was only a friend and nothing more. Dunni called off the relationship when she could no longer take the badgering. Benji has trust issues, and Dunni could not deal with it. He was one of the few guys that got on with Moses and Ola, but somewhere along the line, he had let jealousy ruin what they had.

Moses and Dunni got closer during that season of their lives. She had not had any relationship after Benji, she still felt stung by his betrayal. It was barely a month after Dunni broke off with Benji he started dating another girl in her dorm. There has been no one after Benji. She just could not find anyone she connected with.

For a weird reason, she found herself comparing all the men that came to Moses. None of them measured to him. She wanted someone who understood her like Moses.

Dunni sat behind her desk, lost in thoughts. She was not sure how she got there. She worried that Moses may get hurt with this new relationship. At a time, she had to reprimand herself not to take Panadol for someone else’s headache as was commonly said. Who knows it may not work out like all his other relationships? Moses was a grown man she could not be worrying for him like she was his mother.

Searching for a drawing pen, she got busy on her project with a little frown on her face. Not sure why she was bothering her head over Moses relationship.

The Dice#6

Dunni woke up with a start, reluctant to leave the source of her warmth. The cleaning lady was at work at the far end of the reception, working her way towards them. The smell of antiseptics making her feel sick.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty.”

Dunni sat up, abruptly wide eyes. How did she get into Moses’ arms? The event of the night before all coming back.

She covered her face too shy to look at Moses and groaned, “Did I just turn you to my bed?”

“And Pillow but not complaining. You were as light as a featherweight. Looked like you have not added a single kilogram since we left school, and that was how many years now.”

“Go away,” she playfully slapped his arms.

“It’s not like adding weight will get me a diamond or transform into money. I am happy the way I am,” she defended.

Moses turned her face so he could see her eyes, “you are beautiful the way you are and more beautiful each day”.

Dunni could feel the sincerity of the words. Even though she was plain without makeup and waking up from sleep, she looked everywhere, but Moses, wondering why the words were having such an effect on her. This was Moses for crying at loud.

He turned her to face him again. “Never forget that.” The moment was broken, he had gone big brother on her. She always hated it when they treated her like their little sister.

“And you never forget you are one hell of a guy. Can’t wait for the girl to come and take you off me,” She laughed nervously.

“You would not be the death of me. One minute you get me thinking I am the only girl in the universe. It is bad enough you keep using me to practice. I know the girl is out there waiting for you. You do not have to prove your dice is right.”

Moses sighed. How was he ever going to convince Dunni that his feelings had nothing to do with his dice and he had always loved her? There could never be any other woman for him. It just happened that his dice that was never wrong should never have been cast that night.

Dunni kissed him on his forehead and walked over to the Nurses reception, to find out about the surgery ashamed that she had slept off.

Eyes opened wide. Moses whistled. “Should my hopes be up?”

“Silly, that’s what you get when you go big brother on me,” she stopped halfway and turned back to face Moses arms akimbo.

“What should I do to get out from the brother zone to the boyfriend zone?”

“To get out of the brother zone, stop treating me like your little sister. You know I always hate it when you and Ola did that, and I still do. I am one of the three senior partners at the firm.

And the boyfriend zone? He asked masking the hope in his voice with humour.

“Never!”

“Oh, he clutched his heart like someone who has been shot.

Dunni rolled her eyes and walked away, laughing. Muttering how incorrigible a grown man like Moses could be but secretly loving the playful side of him. While she was profoundly serious, Ola and Moses were too playful to a fault, but they could work to the bones. She loved what she had with them and would protect it fiercely. Even it if it meant never giving her heart to Moses.