Chapter Five

"I heard some girl had a meltdown in here." Tash was saying as they moved across the room. Sheenah's steps faltered. Was she supposed to tell Tash that she was the girl? But what if she'd ask her what had happened, she honestly had no idea what had triggered her panic attack. Had it been the glares? The crowd? Or something else?

She decided to not say a word about it. Tash would ask questions that she had no answers to. As they were moving across the room, Sheenah kept her head down, lest the people recognize her or worse point fingers at her. The thought alone, although utterly ridiculous, terrified her being.

The stretch was long, one needed to move from one end of the room to the furthest end, exit through the entrance and then use the verandah outside in order to get access to the balcony. Sheenah vaguely wondered if the reason Reigner had taken her to the balcony without a view was because he hadn't wanted her to cross the room all the way in her state, with all the eyes on her. She instinctively smiled, and then frowned.

"And this is it!" Tash declared, upon their arrival. "Beautiful isn't it?"

"Yes. Very." Sheenah was entranced. The view was magnificent. In the new balcony, there wasn't another slightly taller building that was blocking the view. Instead the skyline was vast. The night sky oozed radiance from the city lights. Wind brought with it a mixture of smells. Cars honked below and there were sounds, of laughter, chatter, some yelling and calling. It was busy, and slightly noisy yet strangely calming to her. She loved what she was seeing.

Sheenah took a deep breath, breathing in all the aromas and smiled. "This is magnificent."

"I told you. There's always something magical about a city at night. Always."

Tash's phone rang and she moved aside to answer. After a while, she left, not before informing Sheenah who just nodded absently, lost in the city's bright lights. Her peace was however disturbed almost immediately after her friends departure.

"My harshest critic. Hi." She recognized the voice instantly and could tell that he was smiling.

"Look I didn't mean what I said. It was just me blabbering nonsense."

"Of course you meant it. I saw..."

She was ready to protest when he decided to stop his teasing. "hey I'm kidding. It's fine. Really. You don't have to apologize or anything." He smiled again, "and like I said. He quite likes constructive criticism." He grinned fully. Sheenah almost rolled her eyes. They both leaned on the railing and observed the view, nothing blocking them now. Sheenah was squinting her eyes at something far off and Reigner looked at her keenly.

He held his breath at the sight. She was beautiful; with high cheekbones, brown eyes that you could get lost in, full beautifully curved lips and short black hair that accentuated her long slender neck. He looked her up and down briefly and her tall height seemed to be the icing on the cake that was her. Before his staring could become creepy, he decided to speak, "how do you like the view?"

"It's beautiful." He agreed, looking at her. He was pleased. She was calmer now and he wondered what had triggered her meltdown earlier on. He however dared not ask.

"So, the awesome artist to all this beautiful pieces." Sheenah mimicked Lilly's voice. Reigner laughed and his laugh was smooth, silky unlike his voice.

"The one and only." He mock bowed. He had a boyish charm.

"The pieces are lovely."

"Yeah. I noticed you couldn't keep your eyes and hands off them." He teased. He seemed to love doing that. Her expressions each time were worth the tease. They thrilled him.

"I..." She was horrified and slightly embarrassed. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that. Read the sign too late." She grimaced in an attempt to smile.

"What happens now? Do I have to buy it? You know, break it pay for it?"

"If it's damaged yes." He was serious now.

Sheenah hadn't anticipated to come out of the exhibition with an art piece, but it was her fault. She had to own her mistake. Nobody needed to take home a damaged art piece just because she couldn't keep her hands to herself. If the piece was damaged, which she believed it was, she would buy it.

"But no worries, they aren't that expensive. Someone like you could definitely afford them." He grinned.

She kept quiet until Reigner thought that was his cue to leave. "So art huh?"

"Interesting right?"

"I wouldn't know. I don't know anything about art."

Reigner took it upon himself to explain his work to her. Sheenah smiled, as the conversation flow became normal and quite interesting. She was not big on art and everything, but at that moment, she enjoyed listening to him talk about how different brush strokes made different effects on a piece. He was obviously passionate about what he was doing, judging by how he was speaking with so much energy, eyes gleaming like stars. Sheenah observed how he lightly laughed when she frowned, a sign that she wasn't understanding what was being said and admired how he calmly and gently explained something to her again.

"So you are just an artist? No other occupation?"

"Nope. Just that."

"How do you survive then? I mean do you guys even make enough money?" Once the words left her mouth, she bit her tongue and internally groaned. God, she sounded so ignorant.

Reigner chuckled before answering, "we make more than enough money. How much do you think the piece you saw cost?"

Sheenah remembered the piece, the one with the woman and the crying child. "I don't know, around thirty thousand." She answered doubtfully.

"Jaber no, that piece goes for a hundred thousand Kenyan shillings. Cheapest price."

Sheenah's mouth was agape and Reigner laughed at her reaction taking a moment to admire her beautiful face. God, she was gorgeous.

"You kidding right?"

"Not at all." He smiled sweetly, showing pearly white teeth.

"Wow. That's wow in a bad way by the way," Sheenah clarified in a scolding tone which had Reigner chuckling. "and here I thought I'd buy it at a fair price. Being damaged and all." She teased.

He laughed his silky laugh.

"-Or perhaps since you are more captivating, I might sell it to you at a fair price. Being damaged and all."

Sheenah tried keeping a straight face but ended up failing. There was just something about this guy that both terrified and intrigued her. "That'd be corruption Reigner."

Reigner sucked in a breath. His name sounded so damn good coming from her mouth. He shook his head, to clear his wayward thoughts. "It doesn't matter. And this is Kenya." He shrugged.

"Ouch," she held her chest. "that hurts, especially if you are a patriotic citizen like me."

They both smiled. And started staring. Each wondering what was so enthralling about the other. Eyes trying to see and maybe reach for the other persons soul.

Reigner thought, or rather knew that there was something more to the gorgeous woman standing in front of him. How could someone that beautiful have eyes that dim? Her eyes were supposed to sparkle, and he was hell bent on knowing what or who dimmed her sparkle. She was like a mystery book, with too a captivating cover and God help him if he wouldn't open the book and read it.

Sheenah saw somebody that scared her. But she also saw somebody that made her heart race. At least this time in a nice way. Everything in her was screaming at her to run away, to extend her walls in both length and width, then why did she herself want to climb over them and peek through? She felt he threatened everything that she had worked so hard to hide, but she somehow wanted to show him her vulnerabilities, God forbid he uses them against her.

Trrrg!

They continued staring.

Trrrg!

Reigner groaned, broke their eye contact before reaching for his phone. This gave Sheenah a moment to breath in deeply.

"Okay. I'll be right there."

Sheenah was a little bit disappointed. She still wanted some more time with the man. When Reigner looked at her, she smiled, but he somehow still saw the hurt behind the smile.

"Work sucks." He smiled, "but everyone's complaining of neglect, and we wouldn't want me loosing my job now would we?" He cheekily smiled, the kind of smile that lit up someone's whole face until they glowed, and Sheenah was awestruck by the epitome of male beauty in front of her.

"So I'll see you." It wasn't a question.

So it wasn't a wrap for them. She smiled and her eyes shone for a second before going back to their normal dimness. "Yeah." She answered rather quickly.

And they both laughed.

***

"Girl, that's some hot dude." Tash was dragging Sheenah from the picture that she was observing, to their group.

"He isn't bad." Sheenah shrugged pretending to be nonchalant.

"What's wrong with you? 'He isn't bad'!" Tash mimicked Sheenah, "girl, that guy is a whole other level of sexy. Damn!" She looked behind her.

They made their way to the other two, where they found Lilly and Kendy laughing.

"Where were you, you disappeared on us." Sheenah said quickly, to prevent Tash from being the first one to speak.

"I was around." Kendy said at the same time as Lilly replied, "I was with Vincent."

Tash laughed, before remarking, "next time, be more specific on who you're asking Abigail."

"Call me more that one more time and I'll cut you open." Sheenah warned, which had the girls laughing.

"Your surgical duties aside," Kendy jumped in, which made the the girls laugh. "who was the guy in your arms all night?"

"He wasn't in my arms." Sheenah said defensively but Kendy just rolled her eyes, still waiting for an answer.

"Reigner." The other three- Sheenah, Lilly and Tash answered. Kendy just looked on, expecting elaboration.

"You don't know Reigner?" They all asked, leaving Kendy more perplexed.

"What? Is he Sauti Sol that I'm obliged to know?"

"No and yeah, he is not Sauti Sol, those guys are a bomb." Lilly said this more to herself than the group. "but he's famous in his own rights, I mean you are here because of him."

"Wait," Tash jumped in. "I thought we were here because of your friend, is Reigner your friend?"

Sheenah smiled discreetly, she loved how the conversation had entirely shifted from her. If she kept quiet through the whole banter, they wouldn't notice her and she wouldn't be a topic of discussion. Easy!

"No and yeah." The girls groaned. "We are here because of my good friend, Vincent. He's best friends with Reigner and was the one who invited me." Lilly clarified.

"Oh, he was the guy you were trailing with all night." Tash said.

"Are you sure you two are just friends?" Kendy asked doubtfully.

Lilly appeared annoyed, and looked at all of them. "How did the conversation shift from Sheenah and her man to you questioning me about Vin?"

Sheenah groaned and wanted to choke Lilly when all eyes turned to her. She smiled and at that moment wished she was somewhere else other than here.

"Spill it."

She looked at Tash before saying, "spill what? There is nothing between me and Reigner. He was just keeping me company." The rest of the girls looked at her, like they were saying 'really?'.

"What?" Sheenah asked but got 'nothing' as response. She seeped her drink and settled for comfortable silence, with her mind on a certain someone.

***

The night came to an end. The exhibition was fun and successful and everyone was leaving. Lilly had gone to say goodbye to Vincent and Sheenah, Kendy and Tash waited for her, each engrossed in their own thoughts. Sheenah looked around, like she was trying to find someone. Would he come and bid her goodbye? She wondered.

"Are you looking for someone?" Kendy asked, observing her wandering eyes and her uneasiness.

"She's waiting for her man." Tash teased. Sheenah wanted to deny that Reigner was her man, but when she realised that she actually loved the sound of it, she just smiled and shut her mouth. What was happening to her?

***

Friday morning Sheenah woke up very early, it was some minutes to six am and she wasn't sleepy anymore. She sat up, scrolling through her phone. Since her friends were all here with her, she didn't even have a message or a missed call. She had few friends and a very small circle. She logged onto her Instagram account, scrolling through. It was few minutes past six when she got bored. The girls were still sleeping, so she decided to go for a run. Better start the fitness training she needed.

She changed into suitable clothes and left. She didn't like running while listening to music. She loved how, while running, she could get into her thoughts without fear. When they got too much, she could increase her speed. And when she couldn't take it anymore, her tears would mix with her sweat and the exhaustion and the pain and muscle cramps would somehow calm her. She started with a jog and steadily increased her speed.

Mombasa was beautiful, just like the people.

Reigner.

She shook her head, the guy was messing her up. And she had only known him for what, few hours? She increased her speed.

Derrick.

It had been long since she last talked to her brother. Was he okay? Did he miss her as much as she did? She wondered how law was taking him. She really should check up on him more. She again increased her speed.

Fred.

God, she loved that man. He was so nice and caring that sometimes she wanted to just pour herself to him, but he was old, and that would be too much baggage for him.

Speed.

The girls.

Those three were everything to her, they were family. 'Then why aren't you open with them?' That voice in her head asked and she shut it off by increasing her pace.

Her thoughts and emotions began resurfacing more. Each time they tried getting into her head more, her speed increased until she reached her limit and stopped. She took deep breaths and screamed, until her lungs hurt. Everyone around looked at her as if she was crazy, and she shut her eyes tightly, tears and sweat mixing. When she was calm enough, she ran back to the hotel.

Sheenah arrived in the hotel lobby, dripping in sweat and a panting mess. She breathed in deeply and looked at the clock, it was quarter to nine. She took a seat and urged herself to calm down, she wasn't going to the girls with a tornado of emotions and insecurities and questions. After breathing in and out repeatedly, she stood, ready for the facade. The girl who had it all together.

She took a step, then heard her name.

She looked around and saw the one person who seemed to be effortlessly good at ruining her composure. The one who loved teasing her.

"Reigner." She whispered softly.

Why did he have to find her all sweaty?