Previous Engagement (Nigerian)#2

Chapter Three

I am feeling breathless as I almost fall and Ibukun holds on to me. "Keep calm, Ola"
I nod multiple times as I try to stand straight. People are staring as they pass and Ibukun starts to guide me towards the elevator.
"Get the fuck out" she yelled at the junior secretaries in the elevator as she held on to me and I looked away. They all scurried out and Ibukun led me into the elevator. She let go of my hand and I stood straight and adjusted my suit. We stood separately in silence as I stared at the elevator door. There was a beep when the elevator came to the 8th floor. It came open. We walked towards my office at the end of the hall filled with interns in their cubicles. As I walked back with my head high and Ibukun walking quickly behind me, the interns that stood around or walked by hurried along. Some of them greeted and some just gestured by bending their head slightly.
I was about to trip again when one of the interns caught me spilling the files he was carrying. "Are you okay ma'am"
"Yes, yes thank you ?" I said as I put on a confused face pretending like I had forgotten his name.
"Charles" he reminded me as he let go of my arm
"Yes, Charles, thank you" I say looking at him then down at the files that were spread on the floor. "I am so sorry"
" no problem ma'am"
      Ibukun pats me on the shoulder before nudging me forward. She opens the door to my office for me till I walk in then she quickly goes ahead to close the blinds that covered the glass wall that made my office visible to anyone who passed by. Closing the blinders made the office a little darker than it was.
   "What the fuck" I yelled at the top of my voice as I paced around my office angrily. I flung the black Red   Bottom heels on my feet away. I take off my jacket and fling it on the floor not looking to see where it landed. I bend a bit as I feel myself run out  of breath "I can't breathe"
        "Ola calm down, Ibukun said dropping the file on her tummy to reveal her almost visible growing baby bump "calm down"
       "Calm down, how dare you tell me to calm down, that bastard" I yell as I point to nowhere in particular "that bastard"
    I tried to let out the words but I can't. Instead I fall to my kneels and tears start rolling down my face.
    I stood up and walked angrily towards my desk filled with documents.
    "What are you doing, wait wait o let me carry the laptop away" Ibukun yelled as she rushed to carry the laptop that escapes my anger by a millisecond as I pushed everything off the table. I swirled left and right as I pushed everything off, screaming and  crying. Ibukun stood aside watching me as I displayed my anger
      "Ola take a deep breathe" Ibukun said loudly with a certain calm to her voice. "I am so sorry"
    "He is getting married to someone else, Ibukun" I say calmly as I fell to my chair. "He is getting married to someone else"
       "His loss" she said
"What do you mean by his loss, what loss"I said looking at her as she walked towards me. I can't help myself. I can't control the tears
    She wrapped her hands around me and drew me closer to her. My head was now on her tummy as I cried. 
     "I have lost so much and you don't know how much more I am going to loose because of this" I said between sobs as I cried. My head still on her tummy.
   "Just let it out if you have to" Ibukun said as she started to pat and rub my back.
     No matter how much she told me sorry I couldn't help but cry. There was no one I could talk to except her. I had no one on my side except her.
   My phone started to ring ,somewhere. I had thrown it away during my tantrums and I couldn't figure out where it was.
      The room fell silent as I stopped crying so as to figure out where it was. Ibukun looked at me and nodded that was when I realized she had been crying to.
      Our friendship had not always been so tight. When she was introduced to me as my secretary, she simply always did what I told her till the day she had asked me out of no where "Are you happy?" She asked as she stood by the doorway to my former office which was way smaller than the current one that would fit 6 of it. Other new recruited lawyers had cubicles to themselves but I was given an office.
   "What did you say to me" I asked her with an irritated voice. 
   "I am happy if you ask me, but are you happy" she said again as she walked into the office uninvited and sat down opposite me. "See, I have been working for you for a year, that means I have seen how your life works in a year especially on holidays. I mean you and I are most likely age mates or maybe you are a few years older or younger" she said with a shrug as if she were waiting for me to confirm what she was saying but I just sat there looking at her calmly. Thinking about the guts she had.
   " There you go again with that calm look of yours, I have never seen a more expressionless face. You have no friends and it's Christmas and you are in the office even though you have a family because you make me send them gift cards and cakes, no acquaintances. Nothing"
     I looked at her and sat up in my chair. I smiled a bit before biting my lower lip like I unconsciously do whenever I am angry or faced with a difficult situation.
     "Are you done?" I asked her.
"Not yet. See I have seen you cry in your car from time to time. And I think you have a lot on your chest to let out" she said lifting both her eye brows up. "So I decided to talk to you about this. Would you like a drink".
      She brought out a glass of wine from her bag and two red cups.
       I couldn't do anything but be impressed by her guts. Even though I didn't open up to her that day. We just sat there and talked about random things.

" and just so you know I finally had the courage to talk to you because I had another job offer not from another company because I mean this is the best law  firm in the country but from a junior partner. I wouldn't have done this if I didn't...." she said before drifting to sleep as we both lay down drunk on the floor of my office that day.  And she's had my back ever since. Five years later and here we are.

   "Mom heart, Mom heart" Siri said as my phone kept ringing. I started to cry silently again
"Do you want a drink?" Ibukun asks me

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