The Woman

Chapter 2

It was not until Kazia was out of her car, in her house and collapsed exhaustively on her couch did she realise how late it was or early the next day but she was too tired to care. It was one of those days, it was every day.

She felt her phone vibrate in her bag that lay by her side, her first instinct was to ignore it, rush into the shower and bury herself in her pillow afterwards but the part of her that always imagined the worst case scenario reached into her bag and pulled out her phone.

"Irene? Do you have an idea what the time is?"

"Hello to you too and it's..." There was a brief pause then she heard her best friend's voice again. "Yep! It is a couple minutes past one."

"And you are calling me now why?"

"Because I thought time was inconsequential in our friendship but it seems I was a fool." Kazia couldn't help but laugh at her eccentric, over the top, melodramatic best friend.

"I have missed you Irene, so much."

"You wouldn't if you found time to call me, what's hard about telling your assistant to fix me in-between you shaking hands with CEOs and signing deals." Kazia heard her take a deep breath. "I really miss you too and I hate not being able to reach you when I have hot gist to tell you and I most especially hate reaching your assistant when it's you I want to talk too, gosh! She is too nice!"

"And that's a flaw?" Kazia laughed as she kicked off her Louboutin pumps and lay fully on the couch.

"Not really but that perkiness gets on my nerves a lot when I have called a billon times in a day. Of course I am exaggerating but I miss my best friend, I miss calling you to talk about absolutely nothing and everything."

"I am sorry."

"I know it's not your fault and you are doing what you love which I admire but......anyway that's not why I called."

"So what's up?"

"Nonso asked me to marry him!" It came out as a squeal but Kazia heard her clearly and soon it was as if the exhaustion escaped through the pores in her skin as she joined her best friend in a screaming match.

"When? How? Give me details! Tell me everything!"

And Irene told her everything, from the cliché ring in a cake to the beautiful poetry he read to her and then the party at home where she showed off the ring to her closest friends and her sisters.

"I am so happy for you dear, you deserve this, and you finally have your fairy tale."

"I know and he is great. He is so nice to me and my mum loves him, you know my mum; she likes very few people but somehow she loves Nonso and why wouldn't she, he is amazing. I wish you could meet him in person."

"I wish I could to but each time I book a flight to come back to Enugu something always comes up. I haven't even seen my mum in over a year, if not two."

"Well you have to find time and come back because my wedding is in June and this is January so you have a really long time to clear your schedule and because most importantly you are my maid of honour."

"Really?"

"Don't act surprised, who else would I have asked if not you, you know me better than anyone does."

"Well I am honoured to be your maid of honour, maybe I will consider making you mine."

"And when will that be K?"

And there was the exhaustion again draping over her like a dark cloud. There was a prolonged silence between them and Kazia tried to extinguish it with her most carefree tone.