Loving Lola

Arriving Africa

Aldean

Immediately I stepped out of the plane, the warm air hit my face and I grimaced silently because this would be the weather I would live in for the next three months.

"Helloo Nigeria!"  I heard Damien hail immediately behind me.

Since he was a child, he had loved travelling around the world and had sometimes dragged me along with him.

He had been beyond happy when I had requested him to accompany me to Nigeria.

He accepted immediately, using this as an opportunity to find inspiration for his photography as he had mentioned earlier in the year that he would like to get serious with travel and street photography.

All business class passengers including myself and Damien were asked to join a queue to get stamped by officials. I could see that there was no fast track base, even for Nigerians.

We were shown to baggage claim according to our position on the queue.

Damien and I picked our luggages and we were shown to the waiting area, but from my  peripheral vision, I could see a lot of people waiting outside the hall, through the glass doors, and holding placards and paging boards.

I beckoned to Damien that instead of going with the others to the waiting room, we should check if our aide would be outside.

He willingly complied. So we busted out of the group headed for the waiting room and stepped out of the glass doors.

I was still looking around to see if our names were on any of the boards when I felt a nudge on my side.

"Over there Al"

I saw a young woman with a paging board having our names on it.  I secretly wondered how Damien could have seen her so easily with those very dark shades.

Satisfied that our decision had been helpful, we walked in her direction.

All of a sudden, she crossed the driveway without checking if a car was approaching and a car was coming towards her.

I was about to warn her but she literally sprinted the last three steps as one so she got out of harms way.

"Welcome to Nigeria" she said as she shook us both.

"I'm Lola Williams and I work with Skyview hospital at the medical laboratory to be precise...."

Having been in an accident as a child where a car had hit me, I grew up being conscious of crossing roads, but our aide did not show any care about her safety while crossing.

I still felt the need to advise her about the dangers of it when I felt her stare at me expectantly. I immediately remembered we were introducing ourselves.

"I'm Aldean Schmidt"

While I scrolled through my email, the vehicle arrived and Miss Williams introduced the driver and we got on our way after loading the luggages to the trunk of the SUV.

I actually felt parched from the hot weather and Miss Williams had apologetically mentioned earlier she couldn't get us refreshments, so I couldn't complain.

She started explaining to us the information we would need to know, including where we would live, which I was already aware of.

To my relief, she mentioned that there was water and from there she went on talking endlessly, handing a map to us inbetween.

I could tell she was a little nervous as I could see her fidget but not obviously.

She turned around facing us fully and was the first time I saw her face properly since we'd arrived.

She had a soft face with high cheekbones with large brown eyes and her nose, was perfectly perched on her face.
Her plump lips, slightly open, complimented her rounded chin.
Her hair while was between chestnut and auburn was packed in a ponytail away from her face, but with some delinquent curls falling beside her ear.

She blinked and chuckled and sat in her seat properly.

My face warmed up at the thought that she'd seen me staring at her.
In order to get rid of the flush quickly, I redirected my attention to the emails that had stacked up during my flight.

The only email I was happy to see was from Dylan Cook, my personal secretary, who had been on sick leave for two weeks due to the acute allergic reaction he had after our quarterly company dinner, telling me he would arrive Nigeria by saturday, which was two days away.

"You are truly a workaholic" Damien said scolding me.

"How can you work in this condition. Aren't you exhausted?"

"That's a perk of being the top director at Schmidt holdings" I replied sarcastically.

"Woah"

It seemed the sound came from Miss Williams.

I looked up from my computer and saw we'd arrived.

I could understand why she was mesmerized. The island was quite mesmerizing and had eye-popping edifices. A high end residential area which held top individuals of the country.

When dad had heard of the development of the artificial island some years back during a flight to China, he'd invested in the Ocean parade towers, and had gotten two plots of land and built a seven bedroom house on the the property.

"This is a beautiful island Al" Damien said to me while looking out the window.

We got to the house and got off the vehicle.
I went immediately to the trunk to get the luggages. As I opened it, I heard a loud thud!

Author's note:
Hello dear readers,  chapter three of "Loving Lola" has been published (not edited yet) but please do enjoy and let me know your thoughts.

Thanks,
Dena xoxo~