Scars (Romola 2)

19: Lolade's First Time

He raised his head at the soft rap on the door. He quickly changed the internet tab from Facebook to the excel sheet he was supposed to be working on and placed his hand on his head.

"Who is it?"

"Naomi."

What could she possibly want? "Come in."

She opened the door, then handed him an envelope that bore Pilliard's logo.

"What is this for?" He opened the envelope.

"Those are the names of the candidates for the second round of the accounting interview.

"Why are you showing me this?"

Naomi pulled the visitor's chair backward and sat down, crossing her legs. "Weren't you supposed to call someone?"

"Who?" Olumide raised a brow.

He had no reason to show interest in Romola. The search he had done on Facebook had confused him more than before. He would rather have found her himself than reach out to someone else, especially not a long-time friend of his father.

"Miss Ibikunle didn't show up for her interview."

Olumide cleared his throat. "That's not my fault. She decided to leave on her own."

Naomi shook her head. "I assume that you didn't call her."

"That's not my job. Why didn't you do it?"

"This would be signed by next week. I just wanted to make sure she had a fair chance like everyone else on this list." Naomi grabbed the envelope out of his hand.

"Shut the door on your way out."

He leaned into the chair and began to scroll through the Facebook page of Romola's old account. The pictures were sparse in the first few years after she opened the account and had ended about a few months before they met. There was no clue as to where she was now. Even worse, her Instagram and Twitter accounts were now defunct.

He'd been thinking about Romola since the day of the interview. He had so many questions. Now, Dami, his informant, wouldn't pick his calls. Life had been so much easier when he believed that she was dead.

***

The girls in her room fawned over Lolade's cuteness but Romola could see Ifeoma eyeing her sister at every moment.

"Lolade, sit." Romola patted her mattress. She had returned from the bathroom in the main building and found Lolade grinning at one of her roommates.

Her sister shook her head before leaning into her room mate's hand.

"Let her rest. You're too serious sometimes." Lydia, the oldest occupant of the room, said.

Romola picked her towel and wrapped her hair in it. hair. Her eyes caught the large wooden bread tray at the centre of the room. She bent to pick it up. Someone grabbed her wrist. She raised her head and met Ifeaom's beady eyes.

"Your sisters are always coming here? Do they pay rent with us?"

"This is Lolade's first time.."

"I meant the other one. The fair one."

"Oh sunbo." Romola's lips pursed.

She hadn't heard from her sister since their last fight. Had Sunbo not run out of money yet? "Don't worry she won't be visiting anytime soon."

"I hope so and please, return this child to where you got her from. Landlady will not find it funny when she sees this child here."

Romola nodded, rolling the circular tray across the room to the corner where she kept her belongings.

She still hadn't decided what to do with Lolade. At the store, it had been a lot of work to stop Lolade from crying. It had taken a lot of pleas to stop the Yaba store manager from reporting to Iya Tobi. If he had done that, the woman would have two strikes against her. Iya Tobi was still mad about Hadassah's visit to the Itire store. No doubt, Bisi was the spy that spilled.

She walked to the electric cooker installed in one corner of the room. The pot of rice was already bubbling over.

"Who is cooking oh?"

"It's me." Edidiong got off her bed, the lower bunk to Ifeoma's bed, knocking her nail polish off her bead so that the hot pink paint stained Romola's bed sheet.

"I'm sorry Romy." Edidiong grabbed a small kitchen cloth and tried to dab the paint away.

"Stop. Just get your pot off the cooker."

Edidong knelt beside her and took her pot off the red burning rings. Romola turned to grab a pot from the shared kitchen cupboard. the shelf. Her back arched upwards as she bent over to place a pot on the stove, when Lydia appeared, pushing her pot aside. The water from Romola's pot splashed on the floor.

"What's wrong with you people this evening?" Ifeoma eyed everyone.

"Abeg." Lydia dropped her kettle on the stove with the finality of a bomb dropped on a flower pot. "I'm after Calabar. And I have to pour hot water over my yam before I fry it."

Edidiong nodded at Lydia's words, putting her index hot pink nail to her lips. "It's true.. I forgot."

Romola's shoulder slumped as she dropped her pot back in the cupboard. She and Lolade hadn't had a good meal to eat today. Her budget for the day hadn't included Lolade's meal and she didn't want to push the store manager's kindness by requesting for food. So, they had snacked on Gala and coke instead.

Romola stared at the kettle.

Lydia would take her time as she loved to enjoy every part of the process of cooking. She sat close by sharpening her knife in preparation to skin the yam. There was no telling when Lydia would be done. It was better to get an already-made-meal.

"Lolade. Come. let's go and buy yam."

"No need na. I'm frying. If you want some, I'll make for both of you.."

"Thank you." Romola smiled. "It might take you a long time and Lolade is really hungry. I don't want to stress you. "

"Just say you don't want my food." Lydia held the yam tuber down by its neck and let the knife slice through.

Free food from Yetunde had taught her a big lesson. Lydia meant no harm but she couldn't help but wonder how gullible she'd be in Yetunde's hands. All of the things Yetunde had done to her, just because of Olumide. But Yetunde had poisoned her before she got with Olumide.

She didn't even remember what her time with Olumide was. Her mother had beat the memories out of her in the keke. For the times she could remember, it was just bits and flashes.. So far, she'd managed to ignore them until she'd seen him at Pilliard.

Her sister's hand slipped into hers and Lolade 's grip tightened. "I'm ready."