Naina?" She called, knocking on her office door.
"Yes, come in," Naina replied, ushering Renee in.
"What's up?"
" I need your help," Renee replied, taking a seat.
"With?"
"Marie needs me to drop off the papers for the Hunderson case at the Pearson firm and two of the firm partners want me to accompany them to our branch in Ruiru. Would you be a darling and deliver the papers for me?" She asked, displaying her infamous puppy dog eyes.
Laughing," yeah sure. I don't have much to do right now anyway," she agreed. Even without the puppy dog's eyes, she would still have agreed to help her as a thank you for always helping her.
Taking the papers, she headed out. Luckily for her, the Pearson firm was not that far from her firm and she happened to spot it in one of the many drives with Lily or when she was walking towards CBD.
It's been two weeks since she started her attachment at the firm. And so far, things have been good. Even for her brother, who has been able to maintain sobriety so far despite the withdrawal symptoms eating at him. Naina couldn't have been prouder of him, and she hoped that he would overcome.
Getting to the Pearson firm, she went directly to the secretary to drop off the papers and head back.
"Hello," she greeted. "These papers are from Heather firm. Please hand them over to Mr. Keith," she added, handing the documents to the secretary.
"I will take them," a voice rang from behind her.
Turning around, she was face to face with Christian, well more face to chest, since Christian was at a height of 6ft while she was at 5'8.
Inwardly groaning, she greeted him. She should have known that the woman had something up her sleeve when she asked for her help even though the Pearson firm was hardly ten minutes away. And this was confirmed when he spoke.
"Renee called to inform that someone was bringing in some documents and I came down to meet them, which was not hard to find ,considering that," he explained, pointing at the documents she was holding in front of her.
Looking down at what he was pointing at, Naina figured he was talking about her clothes. She was dressed exactly the same as when they met at the firm only this time, her braids were flowing down her back with a few braids tied loosely at the back of her head to keep the braids in place.
She was embarrassed at seeing him again in the same attire as last time and if it was that she couldn't voice out her thoughts, she would have asked him to go home with her and that she had a closet full of other clothes.
"Um… Yeah, right. Here," she finally said, handing him the papers and making for the door.
Reaching up to her and holding her arm, he asked" are you free tonight?" sending jolts down her arm, making her snatch her arm back.
She wasn't exactly free tonight. Lily's gallery was finally having an open night and Lily managed to get both her and Rick tickets since Nixon refused to go, and she didn't want to miss it.
But thinking about the question, she recalled the few times in the past year that someone asked her that and how the same lie flowed, without meaning to use it. The line came out," Not really. Loads of work to do," finishing with a forced laugh, she left without giving him time to respond.
*****
"You made it. Thought you were gonna bail on me," Lily said, giving her a hug as she entered the gallery.
"Was a little busy at work. Where is Rick?" Naina asked Lily.
"Gonna be late," Lily answered. Then added," this is the piece i was telling you about."
Looking at the bright-colored art, Naina couldn't understand what was so fascinating about it. But she didn't voice out her thoughts, just let Lily go on and on explaining the art to her.
"My boss is calling me. Look around, I will join you in a few," Lily said, heading in the direction of a group of ladies whose dressing screamed loaded.
Moving around, Naina caught herself entranced in a painting of dark water and a man struggling to stay afloat using a small plank of wood as a huge stone tied to his leg pulled him down.
"What does art say to you?" a voice asked slightly above her head.
Turning around, Naina was met with a good-looking Christian, dressed in a white dress shirt and black pants, a great contrast to the slacks he had been wearing earlier in the day. He had shaved off the stumble that he had been spotting earlier. Naina wasn't sure whether he looked better with the stumble or shaved. Probably both.
Not wanting to be caught staring, Naina immediately turned back to the painting. The little action brought a smile to his handsome face.
Feeling a little embarrassed to be standing next to a clean person, while she probably smells like sweat from today's work. But in her defense, if she went home to take a shower, then she would have been unable to make it back on time due to the Nairobi evening traffic.
"Nothing aside from what I can see," she finally answered.
"Thought you were busy tonight," he commented.
Standing right behind her. Naina could feel the warmth emanating from him. And his close proximity was making her nervous and reminding her of the fact that it'd been a while since she was this close to the opposite gender.
"I am. I am at the opening night of the gallery to support my friend. Why are you here?"
"The owner of the gallery is a friend of my mother. Came on her behalf. Was actually asking you to come with me here," he replied.
Not having anything more to say to him, Naina opted for silence, which Christian was happy to comply with.
"Christian West," a lady from the group that Lily headed to called giving Christian a hug.
"Hello too, Simone," he greeted.
"Look at you all grown up. Who is your lady friend?" She asked, turning to Naina.
"Hello sweetie. Am Simone this one's Aunt, what's your name?" She asked, not giving Christian a chance to talk.
"Naina,"
"What a pretty name. Isn't Christian? We should hang out sometime. Have you ever spoken to his mother? Am sure she would love you, you look like such a darling…" Simone rambled.
"Hey," Rick tapped her shoulder, saving her from Simone's onslaught.
"It looked like you needed saving,"
"You are my hero. Why so late?"
"Had to make sure Nicky would be okay,"
"How's he doing?"
"Still shivering. But at least he ate more today than he has in days. And he was really excited to have his friend over."
"His friend? He doesn't have a friend around."
"Yeah, he said he was his high schoolmate. Pretty great guy if you ask me,"
"High school!" That itself had Naina shocked.
They had worked so hard to get him off the drugs, but that name seemed to threaten to destroy all their efforts.
"What is the friend's name?" Naina asked, hoping and praying that it wasn't his supplier.
"Derrick," he answered, clearly not aware of Naina's turmoil.
Naina felt as if wind had been knocked out her lungs just by that name.
"What's wrong, you look like you are going to puke or something?"
"Derrick is the drug supplier," she heaved.
"Shit. Am sorry I didn't know. Let's head home and make sure nothing went wrong," he said, cursing.
"No. Lily will be sad if we both leave. Stay here, I will go handle it".
"Okay. Call me if you need me,"
Quickly stepping out of the gallery, she tried to locate a cab.
"You won't find a cab here. I will take you home," Christian said behind her.
" I heard your conversation," he added.
"Okay," she agreed, not having the strength nor the time to argue or chastise him for listening in on a private conversation.
Thirty minutes later, Naina is sprinting through the open door and up the stairs to her brother's room with Christian hot on her tail.
Getting to the room, she finds drugs strewn around the bed with her brother laying on the floor.