Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve: Date Night

“Hey, hi. Good evening I almost thought you weren’t going to make it.” Evans greeted me in a slightly nervous tone as I walked through the door to join him at the table he had reserved for us. 1 smiled and immediately glanced at the Rolex strapped around my left wrist, clearing throat rather awkwardly

“I was supposed to meet you for dinner at eight, and if I’m to believe this thing ” I said and slowly tapped the watch with my right index finger. “It’s only just a quarter to eight, seven forty–five, and 1 believe that means there’s still about fifteen minutes to go until the agreed time and a couple more. before I can be rightly judged for showing up late, so…” I smiled and clicked my tongue while holding a questioning stare at him.

“Er, look, I did–I didn’t mean to be a, uhm…” He began, but stuttered terribly. He cast a quick glance in my face but quickly broke eye contact with me and instead filled himself with half a glass of water and emptied it down. “Back to what I was saying.” He said it in a more confident tone and cleared his throat a reflex gesture, showing he had everything under control.

I watched in uncertain awe, not uttering a sound.

“I’m sorry for that. I was a bit nervous.” He confessed and stretched himself to full height with his hands dipped in his trousers pockets. “Thank you for coming out here on time. Come here.” He smiled and opened his arms wide enough to accommodate a hug from me and about two or three other people of my size. He planted a peck on each side of my cheek and even reclaimed my seat, causing me to flush. Such a gentle man.

He turned around to take his own seat, and no sooner he sat down when I asked him the question that crept to my mind as soon as I walked in through the door to find him already seated. What time did you come here?” I asked and raised my index finger as a signal for him to hold on a bit longer while I added another question to the already unanswered question. “How long have you been seated here?”

“Isn’t that supposed to be one and the same thing?” He asked with a quizzical look on his face, but smiled as I shrugged my shoulders while possibly trying to think of something to say to him. “It’s fine. You don’t have to overthink when you are around me.” He said it in a manner and stretched his hands on the table to take my left hand and give gentle squeeze.

My gaze did not leave him.

“Do you mean that?”

“You know that I do. In case you are still very curious arrived only five minutes or so before you, so it’s all good. I’m happy I made it here first at least. He said that, and the waitress arrived to take our orders. “What are you taking?”

asked, going through the menu.

“Let’s start with a bottle of red .‘

“Yes, that would be fine.”

And soon, our drink was served.

wanted to ” we both said at the

“You go first,” he said

same

“No, I think you should, and don’t tell me, ladies, first.”

“Welt, I insist.”

“Okay Evans, I want to thank you for everything you said to me the other day. I finally found the courage to speak up to Thomas, and I have finally decided to go for the mayor’s position.”

“Really? That’s great news. We should drink to that.”

Earlier that day, just before I went out of bed, I had taken off the ring on my finger. It was the second time I had taken it off ever since the wedding, and this time, I knew I was never putting it back.

I’m proud of you, Regina, but will this not cause a reaction?

“Yeah, it will I knew what I signed up for. Thomas would rant and talk well as everyone else, but I don’t care about that. I don’t even think I have a family anymore. My son doesn’t even want to talk to me; he is more like my daughter now. Can you imagine Thomas talking about me to his family? Oh my God, doing it again.”

“Doing what?

“We were talking about Thomas on our first outing. I just need to get it all out of my chest.”

“It’s okay, you can let it all out. I understand. That’s why I’m here to support you.

“Thank you so much, Evans. You’ve really been a good friend.”

“Yeah, friend,”

“I’m ready to order now. This wine makes me hungry. Do you think they put something in it so we would have to order?”

My words seemed to crack him up as he chuckled. “How could they possibly open a bottle of factory- sealed wine and put something in it in such a short time?”

“Yeah, you never know everything is possible.”

“Get me the same order as her.” He told the waitress winking at me as I ordered for the prawns.

“What about you being a vegetarian I expected you to something like, ‘Give me full plate broccoli and perhaps bowl of zucchini.” He teased me.

“No, thanks. I’m not vegetarian. That was only me trying to test your of humor and sarcasm, and I must say, you have a pretty handsome brain . I love my meat hot and spicy.” I winked, and I caught his contagious smile. The waitress returned minutes later with our orders.

“Thank you.” We echoed and dug into the meal.

Chapter Twelve Date Night

“Stop doing that.”

“Doing what?”

“Looking at me that way.”

“What way?”

Like you

would devour me.”

“I bet I would,” He said casually and sipped from his glass of wine.

“You need to delete that thought.”

“And why would I want to do that? That’s like the best thought I’ve had in years,”

“Oh please, speaking of which, you’ve never really told me much about yourself.”

“Well, there is nothing much to say about me. I’m a medical doctor, cardiologist specifically.”

“Wow, that’s good. What about your family?”

arex

“My parents both reside in Japan, it was their dream country when they retire and I guess they are living it. I bought a house here three months ago.”

“So what about a wife or any love interest?”

“I’ve not dated anyone after my first relationship went in shambles.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“I would rather not. Besides, we have plenty of time right? Cos I don’t intend on going anywhere.”

My eyes fell on him as he spoke, his words felt real and I hid away the smile that crawled to my lips. He had somehow created a new feeling that now dwells in me. I was glad I had found peace in myself after all these years and he made me see that.

“You can take as much time as you want.”

Chapter Thirteen: Bate Night

Chapter Thirteen: Date Night II

In about a few minutes into midnight we finished our meal and headed to the parking lot as we made

to

“I a great day today.” 1 said.

“Me too. Would you be free by next weekend?” He asked as they walked out through the door.” Preferably Saturday afternoon.”

“Uhmm… ” I tapped my index finger on my left cheek and pretended to be in deep thoughts.

“I don’t know if that’s a bad day but 1 was thinking If you could spare some time to come talk to the children at the club.” He quickly interrupted my thoughts.

“Oh yeah, the Club.” I muttered under my breath and whistled lightly.

“Fine. I’ll be there for those kids. I’ll cancel all i

plans for that day. Just hold on,” After which I

pulled call through to my personal assistant.

“There goes one.”

“Let me drive you home.”

“But we both came with our rides.”

“I can come back for mine later.”

“I want to make sure that you get home safely.”

“C’mon Evans you worry too much and besides I’m a big girl literally. I can handle myself.” I opened

the door to my car.

“See you around.”

“You really are a hardened but to crack. I like it.” He smirked.

“Bye Evans.”

The next day, I was seated in my office when I heard a knock.

“Come in,” Jane pulled the open.

“What is it Jane?”

“There is someone see you.”

“Last I’d checked the schedule for , I don’t expect any visitors and have no scheduled

appointment so I’m a bit surprised.‘

“He said it is important that he sees you.”

“What did he say his name ”

”

“He chose to keep it anonymous.

“Okay let him in.

I gasped in surprise and excitement when Evans entered.

“Ok Evans it’s you! The anonymous guest. “I tried to hide the excitement but it was clear now that I

was happy to see him.

“Were you expecting anyone else?”

“1 sure wasn’t,” I walked over to him as I went in for a hug. Even If I tried so hard to not let him in, I could not deny the fact we shared a very strong chemistry. I pulled away from him and his eyes caught mine again and I looked away smilin

“You know you have such a pretty smile and I feel extremely blessed each time I see you do that.” He added flatteringly when he noticed my cheek slowly rising.

“Great place you have here.” He said as he looked around the office. The office was truly phenomenal and offered some sort of psychological calmness to almost everyone who stepped in. A TV set hung on the wall along with a few photos. It was Angela’s idea. She it was better it spoke volumes of my achievements although I did not really fancy it. An electric screen was placed just beside the TV set and on it was displayed the top profile cases I had worked on, the estate and large deals I had sealed in the previous years.

“Thank you.” I said in honest appreciation and pinching myself to stay calm and composer surprised to see you here and happy too. How did you know my office?”

“You are popular now so your office location wasn’t so hard to find.”

“What brings you here?”

“I was passing by and I thought it’ll be nice to drop by and at least say hello or hi or perhaps, something a little longer.” He replied.

Is it a bad habit to stay up in the office and chat with a lover?” He questioned but quickly choked changing the topic. Perhaps he had gone a little too far with the lover‘ description. “I was in the neighborhood and thought to stop by and I wanted to know how the campaign was going?”

“Pretty slow. When I first saw this picture I thought it would be easy but from here it’s pretty choking. No fundings, no…

“No funding? That sounds so .”

“I know right. Thomas has all the access to all the money. I didn’t even know what I was thinking when I agreed to do this.”

“Hey, slow down, don’t be too hard on yourself. I know that you got

“But how?

can’t do this without the money.”

“That should not be a problem. I would help with that.”