Chapter Fifteen

"Olamide would move in to my room. So.. That'd cover things up" Ayo said.

Aminat felt like..

"Oh yes! So.. The rooms would be complete for everybody" Yemisi concluded and Aminat hanged her head backwards in fear and inconvenience.

How would she even live. She feared of stopping breathing. Someone she couldn't even stand his presence without burning her cheeks. Would they be sleeping on the bed? And sometimes she'd roll into his arms? She thought aloud.

I go stand by you like kung fu

Ayo laughed at the lyric of an young afro beat singer that TV was playing. Aminat gaze shifted to him but she tore it when he nearly caught it.

"Does kung fu stands by someone?" He laughed harder and Ayoola joined him while others only blushed a smile.

"Yeah. He fights and stays by his woman" Yemisi finally found a reply.

"So..?" He laughed suspiciously at his mum. He already knew where she was driving at.

Before his mother could reply him back, they heard a car drove in.

"Tracy!" Temmie declared after peeping out from the window.

Yemisi along with her two daughters stood up to welcome the Christmas guest. Ayo didn't budge as normal. Aminat could not stand up for the fear of seeming to be nosy and she doesn't even know the guest.

When she decided to look polite, she made attempt to stand but a hand stopped her with a grip on her thigh.

"The other people that'd be using the room will back soon. Let me help you with packing" he offered and Aminat's heart stopped beating for a second.

"Y- you don't need to stress yourself. Go and rest" she shuttered, sounding like a year old baby that just started learning to talk.

"Ohh. You don't need my help right? I should fuck off right" he tried to paint her black and Aminat shook her head violently like she wanted to fall it.

"Noo! I just don't wanted to put you through much unnecessary stress. It's my pleasure to have your help me actually" she lied. Ayo helping her to pack her things would be on of the weirdest moments.

"Shall we?"

She led him to her room and he slumped on the bed. A call drew him out of the room and Aminat quickly reached for her pants and bras before he comes back.

Unfortunately, she couldn't find all but a pair. He came back to the room, waiting for her to pack her remaining things.

She kept doing some unnecessary things to avoid embarrassment. When she was tired of loitering around, she tested him with a red bra she loved to his view.

When Ayo's attention caught the bra, he snatched it, pressed and examined it. Aminat wished the ground could tear and swallow her up.

"Your breast is this big?" He frowned but his wife's mouth was zipped.

Before she could reply or stop him, Ayo's hand went up to her shirt and raised it up to his clear view. The end of his lips went up in interest and licked his lip.

"Hmm.. That looks yummy" he laughed and Aminat covered her mouth, laughing.

Marriage had some disappointment. No man before would dare to come close to her boobs let alone raising her shirt up.

"Wait!.." He stopped as of he remembered something.

"Your pants?" He asked and Aminat helplessly went for it.

Tracy's voice drew closer and he rolled his eyes in boredom. Her questions would kill him.

"Where's Daniel?" Tracy squealed in excitement. It's been long they've seen each other.

"I don't know. We left him in the sitting room but he's no longer there. Maybe he's in his room" Ayo heard Yemisi replied.

They're going to check his room and find nothing there. He smiled broadly to himself while Aminat returned with her under wears and quickly stuffed in the bag before he woke up from his daydream.

"I'm done" she declared with a sigh and slump her butt on the bed.

"Please if that they're at the passage" he pleaded and she obeyed.

She peeped out and saw them at the entrance of his room. She threw her head back and said;

"It seems they're looking for you. Let me tell them that you're here"

"Don't!" He exclaimed, jumping from the bed towards her. "Don't do that. I'm avoiding her actually. I can't shout" he hissed and closed the door gently.

"Who's she? Your girlfriend?" Aminat tried to know why he was avoiding her so much.

"Hmm! She's my girlfriend. You don't know?" He replied with a savage tone dominating his voice vividly.

"My mum got us married and would welcome my girlfriend heartily like that? Wait.. Where were you hiding when God was distributing brain?" He pouted and Aminat couldn't help but admire the shape of his lips when he did that.

But Ayo mistook his wife's silent for anger. So he went closer and pulled her for a hug. Aminat finally had what she had been waiting for; to feel his sweet fragrance body against hers.

"I'm sorry" he apologized before a planting a sweet kiss on her forehead.

"It's fine. I wasn't pissed actually" she wrapped herself with a smile to remember his embrace.

"She's my maternal cousin actually. She'll give me a lot headache if she gets to see me" he rubbed his palm on his forehead frustratingly.

"Ohhh. I see" Aminat pouted unconsciously, pushing the bag to his side.

"I should carry that?" He pointed to the bag with a less of an irritated frown or a disapproval frown.

"No!.." She shut him loudly. She quickly reached for the bag and dragged it to herself  lazily. He could not quickly process her reluctance was because of her nervousness.

"You're a witch?" He frowned again stopping at his phone. Aminat felt slapped by shock right in the face. His pause even contributed more to her uneasiness. She slowly shook her head, trying if that would move him.

"So.. Why are you like this?" He asked with a shrug for almost each word.

Her racing heartbeats made her to feel like sobbing. She shrugged, expecting him to move out. But he was there, staring frustratingly at her. She tried to a few breaths and she got him by staring back at his arm's tattoos. A lion, a rose and some names inscribed with beautiful fonts.

Tattoo drawing was not a normal thing to see on bodies in West Africa. Especially at Western Nigeria. Though some young people like celebrities, rich boys and some distinguished I don't care about what they say people have succeeded in permanent tattoos drawing without wanting to clean it off. This are always reflected on their public outings especially at interviews.

The Yoruba's, a popular tribe that dominated Western Nigeria believe that owners of tattooed bodies are set of are of immoral people that the society should reject. Even some religious converts claim that they'd burn in hell. And it's cannot be unclean.

Aminat's father, a popular certified Alhaji in the town would disown a child that would draw images and words on his/her skin twice. But he married her to a Christian family, would he be able to tolerate more things again? Aminat wondered aloud.

Probably Ayo might want her to draw tattoos too on her skin sometimes to come. Would her father react negatively or he will follow the marriage value that implies a bride belongs to her husband completely once he marries her legally from the bride's parents.

Would she too wants to have tattoos when he asks to draw it? She stared at his arms again and she admired the tattoos. That means tattoo drawings are beautiful. But she wasn't sure it would fit her.

If I get to the bridge I'd cross it. She concluded in her mind.

The questions about Alhaji, she left it unanswered and sighed. Her sigh woke her husband  from his Instagram scroll slumber.

"You're still here!"  His eyes popped out in shock.

"Yes. Waiting for you... To leave the entrance.. So I can pass" she picked her words.

"You sure?" He asked a strange question that startled her but she wasted a second before nodding thrice quickly.

He slowly vacated the room's entrance and she walked out, with her steps colliding into each other. After hearing the slamming of the door, she heard the girl that was called Tracy emerging out of one the rooms.

She giggled in her mind she remembered her husband was just at the door. It'd be a no escape for him.

"Daniel!"

Tracy knew how to call him Ayo or Tlay though, but the calling him Daniel and him responding back would inform a stranger that they're relate.

"Welcome. You've finally decided to the stars and spend Christmas here"

Every word seemed forced. Aminat felt pity for the lady immediately. She won't like if it had been her.

"Save that" she let out a loud, ear deafening laugh and Aminat rushed to his room but stopped at the entrance.

It was dark. But with a blue dim light that'd make you see the figure of a human if one is with you in the room. He didn't switch off the TV, he was watching a football match before his mother called him to the sitting room.

As their voices were going low, Aminat knew he might appear and get astonished with her pause. She forced her foot into the room, butterflies feasting in her stomach as the temperature of the room welcomed her warmly.

Her eyes landed on the bed but she quickly removed  it, not wanting to think about how the  closing of the day would be. 

She had rushed the arrangement of her clothes into the wardrobe with the fear of he's coming now.

What  chilled her system most was his sweet fragrance gracing the room buoyantly. Especially the bed which alone, made feel sleepy but she made sure resisted the urge.

She went to the right side of the bed and sat gently and comfortably on it. She could see that he always sleeps at the left; the laptop, his second phone and other electronic and fashion accessories gave reasons.

Slowly but steadily, the bed seduced her more before she crashed her body wholly on the cozy, soft mattress. A thought of him entering the room scared her and she flung herself up from the bed restlessly.

She felt her forehead with her palm, swiping the sweat with her bare hands. She wasn't surprised. Her restlessness would make her slump and faint if she wasn't careful.

Swiftly at once, the door creaked and he went in hurriedly. Aminat's expected nervousness was devoured by curiosity of why he looked so disturbed. She adjusted and watch him thrust the phone between his head and his shoulders.

"Wait a minute, Amy" he panted and reached for his laptop. He bent down and his eyes scanned it carefully.

Amy's name made Aminat to remember that Ayo is equal to Tlay. His stay in the house does not in anyway regard him as a celebrity. He was just living low key as a son, a brother but less than a husband.

"Holy crap! You've seen it too?" He bit his lower lip frustratingly.

"That means I'll have to get back to Lagos then to Dubai soon... I'll call you later though.. Thanks for the update.. Bye" he rushed and threw the phone on the bed. Their eyes suddenly clashed but Aminat quickly pretended as if she was at a portrait of him at four years that Yemisi hung on the wall.

Her eyes darted to his Samsung phone on the bed and she got amazed. She was expecting an iPhone at least. That's what rich men use.

"You use Samsung?"

"Yes" he replied with a bored look which Aminat feared would bring up a huge  bang of sarcasm.

"On rare days right" she continued.

"No. I use Samsung everyday. Rather, I use iPhone rarely" he sighed, supporting his waist with his hands.

"Why?!" Her insistence irritated even herself. She was ready to slap herself if her lips won't  blabbering.

"You know the nearest police station?"

The sarcasm slapped her so hard that she turned her head back, twisting her lips.