The Woman

Chapter 10

It seemed as if sleep had taken a permanent vacation out of his life, Raymond thought to himself as he powered his MacBook air. It was a few minutes past one and he knew he should be resting because he had had a long day and had an even longer one today but somehow sleep always seemed to evade him. He walked over to the mini fridge in his room and took out a bottle of water which he quickly gulped before he returned back to his bed to pick up his MacBook.

He made his way downstairs to the dining area, that was where he stayed when he wanted to get some work done. The house was dead silent and he knew his mum had gone to bed. Sometimes when he came downstairs he would find her watching her favourites shows on Zee World or Telemundo but not tonight. He was grateful for that. He found a seat by the corner and got right down to work. The case he was currently working on was coming to a close so he was working on his closing argument and if the blank notepad that had been staring at him for the past hour was any indication he was stuck.

Somehow Kazia popped into his mind and he found himself smiling like a love struck teenage boy, he took one look at his open MacBook and decided to google her. Her company website popped up and he saw videos of a few interviews she had done over the years and decided to click on one and then another and then another. He smiled proudly as he watched her speak about the business he had grown from scratch to the empire it was today, in some videos she was giving lectures while in others she had one on one interviews. He felt his heart swell with pride and he just didn't know why.

"Won't you go to bed?" He slammed his MacBook shut at the sudden sound of his mother's voice behind. He didn't know why he did it, it was not as if he was doing something wrong.

"Mum! Why are you awake?"

"Nothing, just couldn't sleep. I should be asking you."

"I had some work to finish up."

"Was that part of it?" She asked pointing to his recently shut MacBook.

"Yes...No...Maybe..."

His mother looked him over and without saying a word she walked into the parlour to put on the TV. He opened his MacBook once again to resume his 'work' and just then his mother called out to him. "Your fiancée has been trying to reach you all day, maybe you can make out time and talk to her today, tomorrow or sometime in this lifetime."

He looked over to where she sat and slammed the laptop shut again.

() () ()

They had just concluded another session with Dayo and his attorney and good progress was being made. Dayo had thought he found a loop hole in the employment contract but Raymond had quickly countered it and it seemed this will soon be far behind them. It filled her heart with so much glee but her excitement did nothing to quench the throbbing headache she seemed to be having from the moment she woke up this morning. She had had a glass of water before the meeting and it seemed to have dissipated but now as she was waiting under the hot sun for her driver it was back with a vengeance. She redialled his number several more times and he didn't answer. She was so close to cursing him when Raymond appeared beside her.

"I thought you had gone a while ago." She felt the usually skip in her heart each time she saw him.

"Yeah, I should have but I don't know what's delaying my driver."

Raymond glanced at his watch then looked into the distance as though deep in thought, he seemed to do that a lot. "Where are you going? I can drop you off, I have about an hour to kill before I have to be in court."

"Oh no! Don't worry. I'm sure he'll soon be here, it's probably traffic or he stopped to buy fuel. He shouldn't be long now."

"Are you sure?"

"Affirmative!"

"If you say so." He gave her a light pat on her back then walked away. Her phone started to ring and she looked at who was calling.

"Musa, what the hell? Where are you?"

"Madam na road safety o. I know even understand, they say make I follow them to their office, that e be like say my license day fake. Na where I dey na na."

"What? See Musa I don't want any long story, sort yourself out and get my car out of there." He was about to say something else but she didn't listened instead she angrily cut the call.

"Raymond!" She called from across the parking lot just as Raymond was approaching his car. "It seems I'll need that ride after all."

() () ()

The car ride had been mostly silent accept when Raymond had received a call from his fiancée and just hearing him talk to her on the phone made her cringe. She distracted herself by replying a few mails but the more she looked at her screen the more she felt like her eyes were turning. Blinking a couple of times she tried to focus on what she was reading but it didn't seem to be working. She knew something was wrong and just resolved to take a tablet of aspirin when she got back to her office.

"Are you ok?"

She turned to Raymond the moment she realised he was talking to her. "Yeah! Just a little tired."

He brought out a bottle of water from his briefcase and handed it over to her. "Just in case you need it."

"Thanks." Kazia took a sip before closing it and placing it in her bag. They returned back to the silence as he did some work on his IPad. In a short while she got to her destination. She was contemplating asking Raymond to take her home but then she felt he had already done enough and simply came out of the car. "Thanks for the ride!"

"Anytime." He too had come out of the car and they both stood in front of it, again not saying anything but it was obvious there was much to be said. "Have a great day."

"And you too. All the best in court today."

She turned towards her office building and as she made her way towards it she felt faint, the sun seemed to be glaring directly into her eyes and her head felt heavier than a bowling ball. Her body suddenly seemed to be vibrating and she couldn't take any step further.

"Kazia?" She heard Raymond call from behind her but his voice seemed to be farther than it actually was and everything felt more distant. "Kazia?" She heard him call again and she turned to the direction of his voice. Her bag fell from her suddenly weak hands and she heard the contents empty onto the ground.

He was now walking towards her in long panicked strides and just as he reached her, she felt her body give up all strength and the last thing she remembered was falling into his arms, the sun against her face and the sound of her name from his lips.