Ola would have been up very late, if he were not rescued by the amplified voice on the megaphone calling Muslim faithfuls to the morning prayers coming from a mosque nearby. He managed to mumble some few words of thanks to God for the new day, before dashing into the bathroom. That morning bath was unusually quick as he could not wait to be out, partly to get dressed in no time but more importantly to drop Kemi the usual early morning text. And then, he remembered they had not spoken for over eighteen hours. That was the last motivation he needed as he rushed out of the bathroom and made for his phone.
"Good morning, baby," he got out as soon as the voice on the other end of the line came on.
"Yeah, good morning."There was an unmistakable curt edge to Kemi's tone that he could not miss.
"Anything the matter?" he asked.
"Why?" she asked in return.
"There's something about the tone of your voice, dear."
"What about my voice?"Another question? Ola though shrugged it off.
"There's no excitement in it. Like you're not too happy talking to me."
"So you really think I should scream for joy for bothering to call for the first time in how many hours? And besides, you hardly call this early in the morning, so maybe I'm just not used to it."
"Oh dear! So, this is about yesterday. I'm sorry though."
"Dunno"
"I'm sorry, sweet. I really am sorry. My phone's battery was dead for sometime and I couldn't charge it until I was home. And then, I called but your line was busy for a long time..."
"But I did call back when I was through, and you didn't pick up?" She interrupted.
"I'm sorry about that. I was watching a football match when...," Ola began to explained but Kemi cut him short mid-way.
"I thought as much. So, I was here worrying my head stiff about you last night while you were busy with some stupid football match, right?"Ola was at loss for an immediate response to Kemi's sudden outburst. He had not known this side of her character and that left him all confused. But he nevertheless kept his cool.
"Dear, I wasn't watching the match when you called..."
"But isn't that what you just said?" Another interruption from Kemi.
"No. You didn't allow me to finish my explanation when you cut me off."
"Okay, now I'm listening."Just then Ola remembered he was already at odds with time. He had to set out for work immediately or he would be late.
"May I talk to you when I get to work, dear, please? l should have left the house by now. If I stay another ten minutes, chances are I'll run into early hours traffic jam."
"No problem, do whatever feels right for you..."And to Ola's surprise, the line went dead just before he could at least give his goodbyes. Could there be more to this reaction than just his failure to call last night? "But I called," he argued with himself. He had never seen this side Kemi had just revealed. She had always been a quiet listener. Something had to be wrong somewhere. He almost dialed her line again but changed his mind. He could always resolve the issue when he got to the office. But one thing he knew he had no control over at the moment was time. He had not more than ten minutes, unless he wanted an undesirable date with being stuck in the traffic. So, he began dressing up as quickly as he could help it.
You May Yet Read The Previous Episode: Love You Another Day Episode 8 (You don't want to miss anything)
* * *Bukky knew all was not well with Ola the moment she saw him walk in, from where she was sitting at her desk. There was a look of worry all over his face. She resisted the sudden impulse to get up immediately and go to him to find out what the matter was. But she could not help as her eyes followed him until he disappeared into his office.
Even though she had told herself she would keep a little distance between them, but the mood she had just seen Ola in was too much to ignore. She had to find what was eating him up. And there was no better time for that than now when she had not got engrossed in the day's work. She allowed some few minutes to elapse. And when she felt certain no one was taking interest in her direction, she got up, picked up a file from her desk and crossed out of her cubicle. The file in her hand was just a cover, should anyone be watching. Not that she cared about the gossips within the walls of the firm, but anything was better than giving room for gossips to fester.
Bukky felt she was in the clear as she made the walk from her cubicle to Ola's office at the tail end of the floor, as no one seemed to care about where she was heading. But just as she was two cubicles away from Ola's desk, Segun Jacobs emerged from nowhere and they almost bumped into each other. She was ruffled out of her wits momentarily by the unexpected meeting.
"Morning, beautiful. But I'm not sure Ola is around yet," Segun greeted but the tease in his voice was evident.Bukky regained her composture just in time to respond to Segun Jacobs' mocked greeting.
"Morning, handsome." The disdain in her voice was at its height. "I can't remember telling you I was in search of anyone, by the way. So, where would you say that name popped out from?"
"Oh! Pardon my assumptions."
"You don't need my pardon. Maybe you should just learn to answer only questions you're asked," Bukky retorted.She was glad at having the last shot as she swaggered past Segun, like he was not there at all, and made her way into the office, much to the chagrin of Segun Jacobs, who stared on helplessly.
