Paper Hearts | ✓

✍ Chapter Three✍

Three | Nnamdi

Fall in love with someone who makes you glad to be different— Sue Zhao

~•~

Nnamdi walked out of his air-conditioned office, he winced as a blast of hot air hit his face. He stepped into the elevator and headed to the fifth floor.

Working as a consultant for Crystal Ltd. had changed his life, he never knew his parents —he had been very young when they left to find greener pastures— and had lived his whole life with his grandmother. The old lady had tried her best to provide for him but she didn't have enough.

Tired of being an object of ridicule fuelled by a burning desire for adventure he had left the village. At 16 he had come to the city heavy hearted and alone with no hope in sight.

He stepped out of the elevator and signed as the memories of his past flooded him.

He had resulted to doing menial jobs with one aim in mind, to return to school. At 18 he took WAEC and JAMB and he got admission to study computer engineering in the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu (IMT).

With help from one of his supervisors, he got job with a company that dealt in the repair of technological gadgets. When he had felt that the job wasn't worth his certificate, he had continued job hunting.

He had come in contact with Engr. Desmond through a friend and he was determined never to return back to the life of poverty he lived in the past. He took care of his grandmother but still had that gnawing feeling of rejection.

"Good morning sir," Linda Kelechi's secretary greeted him.
He walked past her completely ignoring her greeting.

"Well looks who's here, the one and only Nnam," Kelechi hailed as his friend stepped into his office.

"I've told you to stop calling me that, it's archaic," Nnamdi scoffed.

"Sorry oh, you're always so dour," Kelechi smiled. He knew his friend always hiding his feelings, he could be described as the strong silent type.

Kelechi sat on a swivel chair behind a huge mahogany desk which held a few files, his Mac laptop, phones and a framed picture of his fiancee Nadia.

A large screen TV hung on the cream wall above the medium sized LG refrigerator. The entire floor of his office was covered with a brown plush carpet and behind him was a large french window which overlooked the bustling city of Enugu.

It was almost like Nnamdi's office except that his office was smaller and the walls were painted blue.

"So what's up? This one you came to my office today am I safe?" Kelechi said after offering him a seat.

Nnamdi laughed. "Sure you are. How have you been? Are you still hearing from Nadia?"

Nadia was Kelechi's fiancee, she was currently in London studying in one of the universities for her master's degree.

"You know Nadia and her complaining. The weather is too cold, the food is too bland," he rubbed his face. His fiancee was such a character. "She's fine though," Kelechi added.

"How about you, have you been bumping into any beautiful ladies lately?" Kelechi asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Wait what? I don't know what you're talking about!"

"I was there now, after the conference meeting three days ago when you bumped into, what's her name again?"

"Kemi," Nnamdi mumbled.