Chapter One
The air of excitement building up in the house was threatening to reach a crescendo. It was going to be an evening like no other in a long time. The house seemed in a prepared state to receive the August visitor who was showing up earlier in May. Looking around the house, it would not take more than the first guess for anyone to figure out that there was a special feel about the apartment. Everywhere in the house, things were placed where they should be. The previous day had been spent ensuring nothing in the house was out of place. Even the volume of the home theatre systems was so adjusted to do some justice to the cool atmosphere as Joe's 'More and more' track played on mellifluously. The house was ready.
But Ola Johnson would not know, if he was ready. Though he shared in the unseen but obvious excitement in the air, yet he was not certain how it would all turn out. He was not supposed to be at home. He was supposed to be at work, so she would not be expecting to meet him here, as earlier arrangement was. But he had had to change his mind on second thought about an hour back, took permission to leave the office and dashed home. His returning home earlier than normal was not borne out of springing a surprise. It was his curiosity to catch the look in her eyes when they would meet for the very first time that had got the better of him. He knew there was no telling if the ubiquitous traffic on Lagos roads might not get him stuck should he had to wait till normal office closing time. For him, that was a risk too much to take. He had not bothered to inform her of the new development before leaving the office and he was not ready to own up to that even at the moment.
As he lay on the couch, a lot of thoughts were messing with his mind. He could not stop wondering at what her reaction might be at the seeming surprise of his being home. Wouldn't she see it as a deliberate act to pull a fast one on her? Was she even as excited as he was about this first meeting? She had to be, he tried to convince himself, after all she was the one who had fast-tracked their meeting date. Ola was jolted from his thoughts wandering, thanks to his phone's ringtone. He reached for his phone where it was on a stool beside the couch and behold he was greeted by the beautiful smiling face with which he had saved her contact picture.
"Hello," he said into the cellphone, "...yes, 16, Dennis Adewale Crescent...," and listened again to the sweet voice from the other end of the phone. "Oh, my dear, someone should come out for you soon. Please, just hold on for a couple of minutes."Ola was a little bit unnerved at the realisation that she was at the gate downstairs already. He rose to his feet, took a look around the sitting room for the umpteenth time and that was when his eyes caught a piece of paper lying somewhere on the floor underneath the glass centre table. He snatched it up, straightened his shirt and headed out of the house to welcome the object of love that had captured his heart. The wait was over.
___________ ___________ ____________ ____________
She lowered her phone, put it in her hip pocket and turned to face the 'okada man' who had brought her.
"Oga, please no vex, someone should be out in a while," she said apologetically in a flawed attempt at speaking pidgin English.
"No problem"All of a sudden and out of the blues, the extent of what Kemi was walking into caught up with her once again. She wondered if she was really standing there at the gate of a stranger, for a visit, all the way from her base in Osun State. Was she doing the right thing? She tried to reassure herself nothing was wrong with her being there. Someone had to make the first move, at least. And besides, she just could not resist the urge to meet the real face behind the voice she had been talking to for almost six months anymore. She loved the feel of his voice. There was an appealing accent about it. Though she knew what he looked like from his pictures, but pictures would not compare to meeting him flesh and blood. But what if he was a maniac? She immediately countered that thought with a mental judgement that his voice was too soothing for that of a maniac. And she tried not to imagine that her assumption of his person merely from the tone of his voice could be wrong. She laughed off the thought to jump back on the 'okada' and inform the rider to take her away, back to the park. No way that was happening having come this close to meeting him. And besides, in not too many hours, she would have the opportunity to draw her final conclusion about his person. And even before that, she had an added advantage of learning a little about him from that younger brother of his who was expected to receive her before his arrival from work.
Only one person knew she was coming here, Tolani, her room mate and friend back in Osun State where she was discharging her NYSC duty and service to her Fatherland. She brought out her phone to inform her she had located his house. But the "number you're trying to reach is..." was the response she got. She cut the line before the automated voice could finish off. She again gestured to the 'okada' rider begging for his patience. Just then from a corner of her eyes, she saw someone coming out of the gate. She immediately concluded he had to be the person Ola just mentioned would be out to receive her. Ola's younger brother, but the uncanny resemblance was just too much.
"Good evening," he got out.
"Good evening"
"I'm sorry but you should be Kemi, right?"
"Yes," she returned wondering at the accented voice. It was similar to the one she was used to over the phone, if not the same.
"Oh great! It's an honour to meet you after all those talk about you.
"It is an honour to meet you too," she said in reply taking his outstretched hand for a handshake. "But hope all you've heard about me aren't so bad."
"Bad? No way! All I've been told were lovely stuffs. And I've just confirmed that myself now."
"Hmm... OK o"
"Why don't we go inside, right away?" he said with an attempt to pick up her bag.
"Okay. But please do you have a hundred naira note on you. I need to pay the okada man. He doesn't have change for the one thousand naira note I offered him."
"Oh, no problem," he said as he searched in his pocket and handed the okada rider a hundred naira.
"Thank you oga. May God bless you," said Kemi to the okada rider as he mounted his bike.
"No wahala, my sister. Thank God," the rider returned before zooming off.
"He is such a nice man. He's very polite and reasonable unlike what one gets from most okada men," Kemi said.
"A reminder that there are still good men in Nigeria, you see," he said meeting her gaze with a warm smile.Kemi would not know if that remark was an attempt from him at a joke but she smiled at it nonetheless.
"So, shall we go inside now?"
"No problem"Ola was enjoying himself. He didn't the confusion in Kemi's face. He was certain she was wondering about whose personality he was. He resisted all temptations to state the obvious. He picked up Kemi's bag and would have nothing of her resistance to stop him, as he led the way into the compound.
"I can tell you're very tired now."
"You can say that again. It's surely been a long journey from Osun."
"Oh sorry, maybe you wouldn't mind a massage after all," he said with the smile still playing on his lips.
"Maybe. But I don't know anyone who can help with that now," said Kemi. "Or d'you know anyone who might help?"
"Wait until you tell him. He should be too willing to help with that."
"Who?"
"Oh c'mon, don't pretend you don't know who." he said turning over his shoulder to look at her.
"OK o"
"Yeah, and he should be home with you soon."
"Wait a minute, I've wanted to say this the first time I heard you speak. You look just like him and the voice too!" Kemi said as they climbed the stairs.
"But I learnt you two haven't met, how come you can tell we share so much resemblance"
"Yes, it's true we haven't met. But I shouldn't miss him in a crowd from what I know of him from his pictures."
"And are you so sure you haven't missed him already?"
"You can't possibly be him, can you?" Kemi queried with an alarming edge to her voice.
"Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not."Ola had been blown away immediately he set his eyes on Kemi for the first time outside. What he knew of her looks in photographs was nothing compared to what she was in person. She would rank in his top ten most beautiful women he had ever met. If what he had felt for her before was love, then he had no word to describe what seized him at the sight of the angel that showed up at his gate. It had taken him all the efforts in him to suppress the rapturous feeling that had enveloped him. And that was when he had decided on the game to play he was his own younger brother. The game was working well, even though he could tell Kemi was trying hard to put two and two together.
"Please, don't tell me you're Ola after all."
"I can't remember saying I am he," Ola replied with a rather sly smile as he opened the door into his apartment.
"Please, don't do this to me, please," Kemi pleaded.
"You worry too much, angel. Why not come in?" he said holding the door for her and as she stepped inside, he added, "Maybe it's time I confirmed what you've been suspecting already." His smile turned into a grin.
"Oh Ola, you're something. But why do this to me?" Kemi said throwing herself happily into his waiting open arms.
"Yes, I'm something. And hope you aren't disappointed with the something I am," Ola replied staring lovingly into her sparkling bright and warm eyes.
"Hmm... Let me see, maybe I... I think I like what I see," Kemi confessed with a grin.
"You think?" Ola teased.
"Oh, I'm sorry, dear. I love what I see about you already."
"Really?"
" Yeah"
"Then show me just how much..."The kiss that ensued as they were locked in that warm embrace was one that Ola immediately knew he would always live to remember. He just could not believe she was there with him, flesh and blood. She was that angel that had rocked his world for more than a year. One he had loved from a distance, until that moment.
N.B: "LOVE YOU ANOTHER DAY" would be a weekly series. Endeavour to be here next week Saturday for the next episode. But until then, keep visiting LOVEMILLS.COM for more gripping love and relationship topics.
I'll love to always see you around...
