Chapter 113

In the US, the next day was a very busy one for Mike, he was awakened by a phone call from Margaret. It was a call to remind him of the already planned final inspection. This made him happy, if not for anything, he would rest his head from the deal, awaiting the arrival at the other end. He quickly took his bath, thought of Cindy and gave her a call. He told her the urgency and requested she understood the importance of it to him. When he was done with Cindy, he went down to the lobby where he sat down to wait for Margaret who was to take that route so as to pick him from the hotel. Although Mike would have preferred going in a cab from the hotel, he felt he should take all that was coming from Margaret until he had succeeded in getting the equipments on board the ship. While he waited, he used the time to reach out to his office to let them know the way things were going on with him. It took quite along time before Margaret arrived, at some point, Mike felt that h had sat out there for too long and wanted to get back to his room. 

Margaret finally arrived the hotel, as soon as Mike spotted the SUV, he knew it was hers, as usual he didn't want her to step down, so he swiftly approached the car at the lobby. He opened the rear door and got in. As soon as he closed the door, the driver took off. Margaret apologized for keeping him waiting that long, she told him that she forgot the file where the  papers for shipment was, so it was important she got them as they wouldn't be rounding up with the shipping company without them. Mike understood her very well, he was even more than happy that she the thought of going back to pick it, as that would have been another delay on his side. The rest of the ride to the office was more of calls on both sides, it was either Margaret receiving one call or making one or Mike doing same. .

They arrived the office gate, Mike observed that the security followed the same procedure of stopping and scanning visitors vehicles on staff including Margaret's. The only different was that the interior of her car was not scanned. Margaret did not go to her office, she drove to the inspectorate office where she joined Mike and the officer in charge to handle the inspection. The inspection went successful, all the goods were intact with their entire components. They had to tick all accordingly, making sure non was omitted. At the end of the inspection, they moved to the shipping department which also was housed in the same premises. There, all necessary documents were signed, while Mike and Margaret waited for the forklift that moved the goods into the container to finish it's job. He needed to be there so that he would take possession of the the keys as he made sure everything had been loaded. 

It was indeed a very stressful one for both of them, they even had to take a break and had a light refreshment before continuing. At the end, Mike and Margaret drove to her office. Margaret took care of few clients that were already waiting when they came back, before they had the office space to themselves. She asked her secretary to allow her a break from seeing clients, so that she could give Mike the details of her expectation of him on the family visit. The visit was to be in two days from that day, and Margaret was good to go, she only needed to make sure Mike was too. 

"My family has a high expectation from me, she started. They strongly believed I am suppose to be married by now, or probably have a man I call mine. Truly speaking, they have never seen me with any man or make folk ever before. This makes them think that I probably have a problem with the male folk or I am a lesbian..."

Margaret was interrupted  by a call from the Mayor of the state, her attention was needed urgently and she couldn't help but respond. With that, she agreed with Mike that they had better talk this over at dinner on her place. They left the office and headed home.

Meanwhile, Olivia and Kelly were at the breakfast lounge again as planned, this time, Mira could not join them, she had gone to attend to some other business needs, so she went with Alicia while Olivia went with Chase. While they sipped their tea, Olivia reminded Kelly where he stopped the previous day. This made Kelly laugh at her level of curiosity to get the entire story. He had to ask if she wanted to write it in a story book. He continued;

When Chamberlain ended what he was doing, he returned Kelly's call. He listened attentively to his good friend Kelly as he took time to tell him his story. Kelly had first asked him if he was in a safe place and got his response before he started. When he was through, Chamberlain couldn't find what to say immediately, it took several 'hello' from Kelly before he finally spoke. He wanted to know who the said lady was, even though he had earlier suspect that it would be Pauline. All he needed was to be sure before he would talk. When Kelly mentioned the name, of course he (Kelly) never knew that his friend would know her not to talk of working for her;  Chamberlain took time to advice his friend about the dangers inherent in where he had found himself. He first of all told him he wasn't at fault , but in this case, there wasn't much he could do to free himself. He made him understand the kind of family he had got involved in. While he spoke, he never knew that Kelly worked for the Roberts, Kelly didn't tell him too, so the presumption was based on how a lady and a man would literal meet. He felt it was possible Kelly had done one deal with Pauline or the family and she took to liking him. He knew how handsome Kelly was, he could recall how any times girls fought to have him to their selves. Some time he wondered how Kelly managed to avoid ladies. 

Chamberlain finally opened up to his friend that he knew the Roberts so well that he was in the right position to advice him about them. As related to Pauline who was attracted to Kelly, he asked him if he was married, when Kelly said no, rather that he had someone he was to marry, Chamberlain told him to give it a deep thought before taking a decision. Kelly thanked his friend and promised to get back to him. When he dropped the call, he couldn't help but wonder how things could go this way for him. He felt nature had become unfair to him. All he wanted was a means of livelihood, it wasn't as if he doesn't perform optimally on the job, he wondered why out of the entire men in the city, he would be the one Pauline would spot out. He questioned if she hasn't seen men who were more handsome than him considering her level of exposure. All these and more ran through his mind as he sat in the car not feeling like going back to the office nor going home. He took his pack of cigarettes, selected one which he lit and smoked, allowing his mind to drift a little outside his troubles. He watched the ladies and guys who were playing on the Sandy beach with admiration, as it reminded him of Olivia. This made it worse for him, as he felt it was most undeserving of Olivia to be abandoned without a reasonable excuse. When he was done smoking, Kelly got into his car and drove to the office.

Pauline had got all she needed from Chamberlain as regards his conversation with Kelly, she armed herself with a good strategy awaiting his (Kelly's) return. Her office was positioned in such a way that she could see from her window when his car was in the lot or not, moreover, the CCTV in her office also helped monitor his in and out. Even though she knew her steps towards achieving her aim was not entirely right, but she was of the decision that it was her only way of winning Kelly's heart. She felt that being soft and pleasing towards him might give him undue advantage over her, thereby making him feel on top of the world. She also felt it might make him look down on him, and affect the job as she might lose the control of his position in the office. All these and more she had told her friend Jennifer too, when she (Jennifer) suggested she adopt a different approach. It wasn't as if Pauline was a bad lady, but she do not understand that "NO" is an option and that it wouldn't hurt if someone says so. Her family background and upbringing, also had its impact on her. She was trained to believe that she would have whatever she wanted, this had been working in her favour, as every door she had ever knocked on opened for her.

Olivia could only imagine what kind of person Pauline was and what she looked like.