After some sessions of discussions and gist,I left Adeola’s house in the evening and drove back to Lagos. On thatSaturday evening after reaching home, Henry called me on phone.
HENRY: hi Onihaxy
ME: hello sir, happy weekend sir.
HENRY: same to you Onihaxy, Are you in Lagos presently?
ME: yes sir
HENRY: ok, can you come to Lekki tomorrow?
ME: eeeehm, ok sir. Hope no problem sir ?
HENRY: not at all, just that grandma, Betty and I had a discussion recently and I’m sure that Betty had informed you already because she told me that she did.
ME: yes sir,
HENRY: so, I want you to come around so that we can brainstorm together. I should be at home from 3pm downward because I will be living Abuja on an early morning flight.
ME: ok sir.
Immediately after Sunday service at 11am, I drove to Lekki directly from church and I was able to arrive at my in-law’s house at few minutes past 2pm. I met Adebimpe, Sarah and Daniella at home. Daniella was with her mummy in the living room while Sarah was outside the compound sweeping the surroundings. Bimpe tried to offer food and drink to me but I lied to her that I was fasting because I never trusted her. Daniella left her mum and came over to play with me and telling me stories about the house and her school while Bimpe was busy staring at us.
Around ten minutes past three in the afternoon, we heard a car horn from outside, Adebimpe told me that it was henry and few moments later, Henry came into the house. Daniella ran towards him, bimpe also stood up and hugged him and I also greet him too. “Onihaxy, you are welcome. I am glad you came earlier than my arrival, how have you been?” he said to me as he dropped her bag for bimpe who later carried the bag upstairs.
HENRY: *** hand shake****Mr Onihaxy, you are welcome.
ME: thank you sir. How was your trip?
HENRY: it went well. Like I was telling you on phone yesterday, the whole family had a conference call to deliberate on the issue on ground between you and my sister and I feel you need to be carried along.
ME: ok sir.
BIMPE: **came down from the stairs to join us in the living room***
HENRY: **turned to bimpe** have you entertained MrOnihaxy?
BIMPE: thank you oooo, I wanted to entertain him and he refused. He said my meal can never be as delicious as that of his wife?
HENRY: Mr Onihaxy, don’t say that again, even Betty can attest to it that she can never cook a meal as delicious as my wife’s meal. I have even caught her on several occasions learning how to cook from my wife in the kitchen. Mummy Daniella, is that not so?
BIMPE: Tell him and let him hear.
ME: don’t mind her sir. I just told her that I was ok for now.
HENRY: No ooo, I won’t take that ****called on Sarah and told her to prepare food for us*** so as I was saying Onihaxy, Grandma, Betty, my wife and I talked about the next move after her master’s degree program due to the fact that she was already engaged to someone here in Nigeria and they are expected to get married immediately she finish her studies.
ME: ok sir, Betty had already hinted me about it.
HENRY: but since she had already made her intentions known to us that you are the one he wanted to marry and not the other guy, I have no choice than to support her since she is the only sister I have.
ME: thank you sir, I so much appreciate.
HENRY: though you haven’t met our dad yet, but I believe you will meet him someday. I don’t want you to see him as been bad or evil but sometimes, people of his class would always want to associate with other people of similar class. Not because of wickedness or hatred for the lower class, but because sometimes, you have to mingle and rub minds with people of same or higher class to keep and maintain a status. But what most parents failed to realize is that, grown up children should be allowed to marry people they like irrespective of social class or backgrounds. You know why?
ME: why sir?
HENRY: it may take 50 year to build a fortune, but it takes just one night of robbery or fire accident to bring a millionaire back to square one. Sometimes, money may vanish and it will take only true love to keep the union going in the hard times.I have once been in this same situation before when I was in the midst of a strong decision, either to pick a lady nominated by my daddy or a lady I love.
ME: hmmmmmmm
HENRY: yes Onihaxy. I am so happy that I went for the latter; my marriage is a blessing with a cute daughter to show forth.
ME: *****see this mumu, cute daughter indeed***** thank you so much sir.
HENRY: I just want to ask if you are ok by the plan and if you are ready to quit your job as soon as the plans are concluded?
ME: yes sir, my job and career are nothing compared with the love I have for my lovely wife.
BIMPE: ****smiled**** point of correction, she is not your wife yet because you are yet to prostrate to me in the open and also, I am yet to receive tubers of yam from you.
HENRY & ME: laughed…….
HENRY: no problem, I am fully in support of you guys. Betty and I will first make a job arrangement for you over there and as soon as that is done, she will come to Nigeria so that you guys can have a registry wedding and you will both fly back to UK to continue your matrimony. But remember, I will not appear in the wedding neither will my wife appear at the wedding scene.
ME: thank you very much sir.
I spent more hours hanging out with the family while henry called his sister on phone and she spoke with us via loudspeaker. I resumed back to office the following week, we were having our usual Friday morning general team meeting when all the teams do come together for a general meeting to share ideas and discuss about the work process. It was also an avenue to strengthen inter-team relationships and settle any issue between or among various teams. The meeting was still on-going when Funmi suddenly bumped into our office unannounced; everyone was worried because Funmi won’t come to our meetings on a good day except when she wanted to complain about errors from the team and its member. She cut-in the ongoing discussion and took over the podium, she greeted everyone and we all responded to her greetings.
Funmi appreciated everyone for a good job well done and she encouraged us to work harder, she reminded us that the project would be ending in three weeks’ time.lastly, she shocked everyone by saying that the management and the team leads are watching everybody and there are 8 permanent vacant seats to be filled after the project and the team leads will be the one to nominate candidates for the management who will further do proper assessment on people nominated by the teamleads. She rounded up her speech and walked out of our office. While turning my head, I caught Benita staring at me and she was trying to smile at me before I turned my head away from her direction. “yes!!!!!!, God don catch her……..”
After the meeting, we all resumed our work and I was stylishly looking at Benita and I observed that she wasn’t too comfortable. Minutes later, she stood up and came to me with a file, telling me to put her through with the file and I was surprised. infact, the entire team was surprised to see her coming to me because it’s been long something of such happened. I ignored her but she refused to leave my table while trying to smile at me and I had no choice than to answer her. I was more surprised that there was absolutely no issue with the file; I just smiled as she walked away from my table and Immediately she left, the entire team members started clearing their throats “ hmmmmmhmmmmmmmm”. During break, I was about stepping out to the canteen when I received a call from Adeola, she said she wanted to speak with her mum. I asked her why she didn’t call her mummy’s line directly and she told me that her number was unreachable, I told her to hold on while I rushed to Funmi’s office. I handed over the phone to her while I sat down on the visitor’s seat in her office; they spoke for a while on phone before dropping the call.
ME: she said she called your line but it wasn’t reachable.
FUNMI: there is nothing wrong with my number; I don’t know why she lied about that.
ME: really?, that was what she told me oooooo.
FUNMI: well, I already got the message she passed across. That reminds me Onihaxy, you will be dropping me off at my house today.
ME: **surprised*** what happened to your car?
FUNMI: it developed a fault and it’s with my mechanic, or did you see my car at the park today?
ME: I didn’t notice it sha, no problems ma.
“chaiiii, which kind complication be this?”
“ what if Adeola comes unannounced again ?”
“ won’t I be the person she will catch tonight?”