EPISODE || 6

I'd just reached for my phone when I heard a beep.

It was a text message.

Mandy was its sender.

It was obviously addressed to me.

.

I opened the message and it read…

"Hey baby. I'm sorry I've kept you waiting for so long. You already know I'd never deliberately leave you hanging, yeah? Indeed, you look everything like I'd imagined, in that fine suit…"

At this point, I immediately took my eyes off the screen of my phone and began to scan everywhere.

The content of Mandy's text message says it all.

She was somewhere near.

She had to be somewhere near.

She just had to have been.

"How else would she have known what I looked like?" I thought to myself, as my eyes kept going from pillar to post.

I didn't have to look too hard.

From a short distance, I saw two head lamp flashes.

I somehow didn't need to be told.

I began to walk towards the car.

A move I honestly had no idea what had birthed it.

It was not as though I knew Mandy owned a car.

It had never came up in any of our discussions.

(Even though an Uber would have been the next best assumption "WHY THEN WAS IT PARKED SO FAR AWAY?" Had been the counter thought, in my head.)

Nothing in our discussions had ever given me a clue that Mandy might have owned a car.

But there I was, as though in a trance, walking towards a car I'd assumed its two headlamp flashes was signaling me over.

.

I got to the car and walked over to the drivers side of it.

The window of the driver's side wound down, revealing a beautiful young face.

She was on braids, a crop top and a smile that broadened by the second.

"Moshood right?" She asked, with a smile.

I nodded my head, reciprocating her smiles.

"Baby is that you?" I asked, half way into leaning in for a kiss.

My approaching lips met a resisting finger.

My heart skipped seventeen beats.

"I must be getting way ahead of myself already" I thought to myself.

Then I was to hear what was to leave me apologizing for the next five plus minutes.

.

My phone began to ring at that instant.

Mandy was my caller.

I looked at the lady on the wheels and again at my phone.

The lady on the wheels wasn't holding a phone, so there was no way she could have been the one that'd dialed my number.

With utmost shock, my gaze met with her smiley face.

I picked up the call.

"Hey baaabyyyy. I am assuming you've met Olivia yeah?" Mandy asked, excitedly.

"Where are you?" I asked, unsure of how to react to what had just played out.

Mandy chuckled and said Olivia would be driving me home to her.

She said she couldn't wait to see me.

She ended the call afterwards.

.

"I am truly sorry Olivia. I'd thought you were…"

"It's fine Mosh, I understand". Olivia said, her smiles still broadening by the seconds.

I apologized about eighteen more times before we pulled up in front of a massive gate.

.

Olivia's hunk soon commanded the gate opened.

.

The compound was indeed a sight to behold.

It was vast and beautifully decorated with various flowers.

The atmosphere smelled differently.

The lightening in "here" could easily make anyone have assumed night for day.

At intervals, I'd see people in sets of twos, walk pass.

They were on uniforms (not the military kinda).

Everything about "these" was alien to me and my demeanor didn't even hide that fact.

Mandy didn't tell me about any of these.

This was too much to have skipped ones memories na.

.

"Shall we?" Olivia asked, motioning towards the entrance to the massive building.

I took a deep breath, rearranged my suit, then I nodded, in response to Olivia's question.

"After you my dear". I said.