Chapter 9:- Why Does She Keep meeting Arrogant guys?

Damilola paused by the door for a moment as a pensive thought crossed her mind. "I hope this works," she mused to herself, then turned back and walked towards the director's office.

"Ma'am, what do you think about me working for you to pay the fees?" Damilola asked tentatively.

The woman stared at her in silence for a moment, and just when Damilola was losing hope, she finally spoke. "That would be acceptable, Miss."

Damilola was taken aback. She hadn't expected her proposal to be accepted so easily by the woman.

Here she was, one year after graduating, planning to join the dance group supported by the school. Today was the audition, and she had little time for rehearsal.

She hurriedly made her way to a nearby bookshop to buy a novel for her boss as part of her many errands and tasks. Approaching the attendant who was seated near the entrance, Damilola politely asked for the book she needed titled 'The Luggage'. She had heard a lot about the book and had informed her boss about it last Monday, and the woman had agreed to buy it today.

The attendant checked the inventory and directed Damilola to a section of the bookshop where she could find the book or any other of her choice if it wasn't available. Damilola made her way to the indicated section, murmuring to herself about why her boss couldn't read books online when the world had gone digital.

After searching for a while, she caught a glimpse of the book on the top shelf of a bookshelf opposite her, but it was too high for her to reach. As a former ballet dancer, she was accustomed to standing on her toes, but ballet was no longer her main focus, so maintaining balance was a challenge. She attempted to jump to grab the book with her hands, but all her efforts were in vain.

Just as she was about to give up, she felt a warm breath on the back of her neck and a strong arm reaching out for the book with an unexplainable closeness and warmth. Someone was behind her. She turned around out of curiosity, her palm inadvertently resting on the broad chest of a man as her eyes slowly rose to meet a pair of beautiful blue eyes that looked at her with an air of arrogance.

Damilola was captivated by the man's eyes and couldn't resist staring into them. Not only his eyes, but his entire face caught her attention. He was incredibly handsome, and she began to doubt if Richard, whom she had thought to be the most handsome person she had ever met, could even compare to this man before her.

In fact, she started to question why she was comparing everyone to Richard now. This man's smile was so familiar to her. She couldn't help but gaze at his handsome face, which seemed to be perfectly shaped by the hands of the Creator. He had dimples on each cheek that were revealed as he smiled at her, and his eyes remained fixed on hers without blinking.

Damilola was entranced by the man's presence and didn't want the moment to end. He was dark-skinned and much taller than her. Lost in her thoughts, she heard a deep masculine voice say, "When you're done drooling, could you please get your hands off me?"

Embarrassed, Damilola stammered, "I am so sorry," feeling utterly mortified as her words struggled to leave her throat.

She removed her hands from his chest and quickly stepped away from him, almost forgetting the book she had come to buy as she rushed towards the exit of the bookshop. However, the man's magnetic voice spoke up again with a smirk on his lips.

"The luggage, huh? Sounds like an intriguing book," he said, examining the book with interest.

"Yes, yes, it is. I came to buy it, and that's the last one. Thank you for helping me pick it up. It was quite a challenge getting it from there," Damilola said, stumbling over her words and pointing towards where the book was.

She wanted nothing more than to escape from this embarrassing situation she had created.

"Thanks for helping you? Who says I helped you? I got it for myself, Miss," he retorted.

Damilola was dumbfounded. How could someone be so shameless?

At this point, she cared little about her image as she had already been embarrassed. It wouldn't hurt to embarrass him in return.

"Hey, give it back. I saw it first, and I was planning on taking it," Damilola shouted in anger.

"Planning on taking it?" the guy scoffed, repeating her words as he walked away, leaving her hanging and heading towards the bookshop attendant to pay for the book.

Damilola couldn't take it anymore, and she ran after him.

Why did all the handsome guys she met have to have such terrible attitudes? This was exhausting.

When they reached the bookshop attendant, he said, "Hey, I'll take this. How much is it?" He stared at the bookshop attendant.

The bookshop attendant started smiling and blushing. She probably hadn't seen someone so handsome before.

Damilola couldn't help but frown in anger. Why weren't people's names written as 'idiot' on their foreheads? It would make it easier to identify them.

Damilola walked to the front of the guy and began to speak to the bookshop attendant.

The bookshop attendant's smile vanished as soon as Damilola obstructed her view of Mr. Handsome. She became rude towards Damilola.

"Hello, Miss. I came earlier to ask for this book, and you directed me over there. Do you remember?" Damilola said, trying to hold back her annoyance.

"Of course, I do. I definitely don't have amnesia," the lady replied rudely, but she covered it up with a fake smile.

Damilola was infuriated by the bookshop attendant's attitude.

"What on earth was wrong with this woman? Can't she conduct herself properly in front of a man? Trying so hard to get a guy to notice her?" Damilola thought to herself.

The cashier, still staring at the guy, said, "Mr. Handsome here brought the book here first. I'm sorry, but that's the rule. There is no evidence that you had the book with you first, miss."

Damilola stood there, mouth agape, as the bookshop attendant collected the cash for the book with a shy smile, completely ignoring Damilola.

Unable to bear the disgust any longer, Damilola stormed out of the bookshop in anger.

She ran as fast as she could to the nearest bookshop, which took her 30 minutes to reach as she had waited for a cab at the previous bookshop but saw none.

Finally, she arrived at the nearest bookshop and waited impatiently for her turn.

On her way back to the dance studio, she spotted a cab.

An hour later, she rushed back to the dance studio and headed straight to the top floor where the auditions were taking place. She was 30 minutes late.

She hoped there would be many people at the audition, and it would take a while before her turn.

Damilola barged into the audition room, where a guy was performing.

If it were to be ten years ago, hundreds of people would have been here for the auditions and it would have taken days, it would have even been shown on TV, but right now, the groomers dance group was no longer in the spotlight.

They had their spot taken away from them by the rippers 10 years ago.

It was a huge blow to the groomers and they couldn't come back on their feet for ten years after that year.

Gradually, the dancers who came for auditions to the group depreciated embarrassingly.

Right now, there were only about 20 people here for an audition.

They tried still putting their auditions on air but very few people viewed it.

Everyone were only interested in the new stars, 'the rippers'

Damilola walked sneakily into the audition room through the back door. 20 people is enough to cover up for her late coming.

Focusing on preventing the director from seeing her, she lost concentration, and hit a training bar, which made her miss a step. Making her land violently and loudly on the floor, drawing the attention of everyone in the dance studio to her.