Paint Me (GXG) ✒️

15

By the next morning, I was feeling better and had woken up on the better side of the bed. I woke up early and was already in the sitting room, busy with one social media to the other; when Fareedah walked into the sitting room, itching at her eyes. "Did you have a goodnight?" she had immediately asked, as she made her way to the kitchen.

I nodded with a wide smile as I got up and followed her. "Yhep. You? Seems like you had a really good night," I joked, causing her to chuckle as she downed the cup of water she was holding.

"Seems like you woke up on the better side of your bed today," she said with a chuckle as she immediately washed the cup she had used.

I nodded with a smile as I leaned on her kitchen table, watching her. She still had her black silk satin bonnet on her head. Her slim figure being obvious from the slightly transparent gown she was wearing. Her body swayed whenever she moved, singing rhythms to my eyes.

"So, what do we do today?" she had asked, causing me to look away from her body and back at her eyes.

"Huh?" I had asked, not hearing everything she had said, but only the end of the sentence.

"What do we do today?" she repeated herself, causing some sort of realization to hit me, like I had originally heard the old sentence.

I shrugged. "What do you want to do?"

She chuckled. "I never know," she said as she began to walk back to the sitting room, gently taking her seat. "I usually spend my weekends in my phone and watching television, so..."

I smiled as I sat down next to her. "So basically, you just enjoy your alone time?"

"It is always alone time for me."

"Oh," I mumbled, then keeping quiet. The moment the next question popped in my mind, I knew to keep shut. But, I still went ahead and asked, "Don't you go home some weekends and spend time with your family?"

It was like all the colour on her face drained, she became so pale. She didn't need word, before I got it that her relationship with her family wasn't a sweet one. Remembering how her dad had spoken about how he wanted his kids to have a normal life, I immediately assumed her relationship with her family was good. But, it seemed like it wasn't at all. I wondered what they had done to her. "So, what should we do?" she had said, acting like she hadn't heard my question.

I nodded, understanding what she meant.

We sat for a while, both not knowing what to say next. After a while of simply not saying anything, Fareedah stood up and turned on her decoder and televison, as she asked, "So, what would you like for breakfast?"

That moment, something popped in my mind. "Oh my, how about we start our cooking class?" I asked with a smile as she sat down back.

She nodded as her lips spread into a gentle smile. "That is such a good idea," she replied as she checked her wall clock for time. "Since it is still so early in the morning, we can step out later in the afternoon and look for some sort of market to buy things from," she said as she changed the station, looking for what she wanted to watch.

I nodded, as I leaned into the chair, joining her to watch the movie she had put it in.

...

I don't know how, but somehow during our movie watching Fareedah had ended up leaning on me, causing her head to rest on my shoulder. We had been like that for a while, which had made me unable to move for a while. I didn't know if she was already at sleep, considering how silent she had become, but the movie was coming to an end. I didn't know if to tap her gently, or simply wait till she woke up.

The movie soon came to an end, causing her to suddenly sit up as she looked at the time and mumbled, 'let me go get set'. With that, she stood up and walked into her room. While, I sat there with the realization that she knew what she was doing when she had her head on my shoulders, and not sleeping. My lips spread into a gentle smile as I picked up the remote and began to go through the stations, looking for something to occupy my mind. I still had the cloth I had on since the day before, and that made me uncomfortable, but that was my fault. I should have thought about it and carried something along.

I had sat for a while, already on another movie when Fareedah walked out, looking fresh. We were only going to the market, but she dressed like she was going for an outing. She had her hair tied up in a black scarf, while she dressed in a black midi bodycon gown. She held a black handbag and she dropped a black slipper by her door. "Do you want to freshen up?" she had asked as she walked by, causing a certain type of fresh breeze to. She smelt like fresh flowers on a chill and breezy morning. My nose couldn't help following her as she walked by, causing me to sniff as my lips spread into a wide smile. "She smells so good," I muttered to myself.

"Do you need something to freshen up into?" she had asked me again, drawing back into reality and causing me to nod.

"That will be lovely," I told her.

She nodded and went into her, returning with an off-white bubu (oversize gown). "It hasn't been worn before," she said to me, causing me to nod as I collected it. "I will be waiting her for you."

I quick freshened up and met her in the sitting room, and from there we went out.

I wasn't an expert with Abule Ijesha, but I knew a bit of my way around. I knew that not far from Bamgbopa – where the UNILAG female hostel was, there were these men that sold foodstuff there. I also know that close to the UNILAg front gate, there were foodstuff sellers there also. So, I was kind of a little confused when Fareedah unlocked one of her vehicles like where we were going was far. But, I didn't argue with her and got into the car with her.

"So, where are we headed?" she asked as her gateman opened the gate for her.

I chuckled. "I thought you knew," I had said, smirking a bit and causing her to frown.

"Huh?" she replied.

I shrugged. "I thought you knew, and that was why you told me to get in the car."

"No, I don't. But I knew it would be sensible to drive there," she said with a frown, letting me know things were going to turn out bad if I didn't stop.

I didn't want to further the rising argument, so I simply nodded. Didn't change the fact that I knew that, it was still a walk-able distance. I stayed calm and silent during the ride, simply guiding her and stopping at places I saw that had whatever we wanted.

...

By evening time, we were back at Fareedah's place. We had bought things for white rice and stew/ I figured it was going to be the easiest way to start the entire class.

We were in the kitchen offloading all the things we had bought. Fareedah dealt with the rice and dried foodstuff. She said she couldn't handle the smell of turkey, so I had to deal with that. When I saw her putting the tomatoes and pepper into a bowl, I said to her, "Do not let the seed of the pepper touch your hands, or else you wouldn't be able to sleep from now till tomorrow evening." She nodded. "So, remove the top and leave it at that. Any one that is looking or feeling soft, dispose." She nodded again as she got back to work.

I began to wash the turkey, as I also used one eye to watch her. It didn't take her long to finish washing the pepper and tomato. "Transfer them to the blender – which we also had to buy," I told her, causing her to nod.

I faced what I was doing, rounding up washing the turkey and putting it in a pot. After that, I went to blend the tomato and pepper, basically taking over while she watched. I started with washing the rice and putting it on fire. After letting the turkey boil. I began to fry my groundnut oil in a pot – which she already had at home, alongside cooking utensils. I then added a sachet of tomatoes, letting it fry a bit before I added my seasoning and salt. After that frying for a short while, I added my tomatoes and pepper, alongside my turkey stock. I then fried the turkey.

Soon enough, I had put everything on fire. Explaining that we had to wait for a while. She nodded and we both made our way to the her sitting room.

I occasionally went to check on the food. When it was done, I had called her to the kitchen, rounding up the class and explanation. After that the food was serve and we sat to eat.