LOVE DON'T CARE

Chapter 20

Song for the chapter: Fame by Adekunle Gold.

"Everybody says don't change
But how will I grow?
I'm scared to do the things I want,
But people don't know.

Mide

It was one of those meetings at my Dad's advertisement company and as usual, Emerald was at her eloquent best.

The first time I heard that she was working here, in the same company that my brother worked, I was astonished because In the past, Dayo had always restricted himself from mixing business with pleasure but it seemed like everything had changed around here.

"Three days ago when the Italian investors came over, what each of us had in mind was the prospect of making their business get bigger and sell faster here in Nigeria."

She paused and walked around the room. "And with this proposal here by my team and I, it is assured that we would ace this deal like we have done to the others." She said with a tone of finality and everyone whispered amongst themselves until my father cleared his throat.

"Thank you for that wonderful proposal Emerald. You may please have your seat."

"Thank You Chairman."

"Well, go ahead with the plan. I trust your team with this project so don't let us down." He turned to me. "Mide?"

"Yes sir." I answered, resisting the urge to roll my eyes as I already knew what he was going to say. "Thank you for coming here on such a short notice. I need You to supervise them with the accounts."

I nodded my head. "No problem Sir."

My Dad got up immediately. "Okay then this meeting is over." He walked out of the conference room and I walked closely behind Him as I busied myself with my phone.

"Ayo." I heard someone call out but I ignored and continued walking. Everyone knew better than to call me that. It was a nickname reserved for only my mother and that didn't sound like my mother's voice so maybe it was another Ayo.

"Mide." I heard the same voice call out again but I ignored it still.

My father excused himself to go make a phone call and I continued typing away on my phone. It was Friday and I was making last minute plans for my date with Munachi.

I felt someone hand on my shoulder and I turned around. "Hi Mide." Emerald smiled and I cocked my eyebrows at her and she removed her hand. "Sorry. I've been calling your name but you didn't answer."

"Forgive me, I was so engrossed with my phone so-" I paused and stared at her. "Wait you were the one who called me Ayo?"

She chuckled. "Yes. I was surprised that you didn't hear. Even Chairman didn't hear me too."

"Can we just stick with Mide and not Ayo?"

"Oh..of course." She chuckled nervously.

"So is there anything you wanted to talk about?"

"Yes." She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Well I was thinking, if we were going to work together to achieve such a huge project, that we should at least have lunch or just anything at all to talk about the whole process." She suggested.

"As much as I would love that, I also have my own business to run so here is what we are going to do." I bit my lips and stared at the ceiling and when I had though of a perfect idea I smiled. "I'd send my PA every time there's something you need to talk about and he'll report everything to me."

"Oh I can work with that." She said with a tone that sounded like she was disappointed but nevertheless, I knew I was doing the right thing.

"Emerald how are you doing today?" My dad asked as he walked up to us.