"Everyone listen up!" Henry's thick voice boomed as he barged into the meeting room. "I have got good news!"
Today he was in full cover. Everything he was wearing was covering his body.
"It's about Joe. And thankfully there was a group called We Roar Group. Established before mine was but as of 2023, the group was no more."
"Thank God!" Bisola heaved out.
Henry turned to her. "I was disappointed you were doubting Joe's sincerity."
"Henry, it was rape and I got scared."
"Do you believe Joe would have done that? Because right now, I don't have an answer. I just want to hear your opinion."
"Henry, let's not..."
"Tell me..."
Bisola sighed and didn't say a word as we stared at her. "I do. It's just..."
"I heard you are going out with his best friend."
"Yes."
"You didn't bother to hide it."
"Because I don't see anything wrong in it."
Henry scratched his forehead. "I'm in no position to tell you who to date or not. I just hope you are happy with him and don't compare him with Joe."
"Henry! I wouldn't do that..."
"I'm not done talking. I want you to know that Joe would never do what he was accused of. I trust him. Now back to what I was saying, some of the guys here and I have been researching the guys that came to lodge in the hotel. We have their names here. The boss is dead, so we talk with some of the guys we discovered. The third guy's name isn't a real name. I'm guessing that's what he went by in the group. If we get the second one, then torture him, then probably lead us to the third one. If it's not the third one, then it has to be the first one. One of them knew Joe and poisoned him. That's all I have to say.”
"What led to the death of their boss?" I asked.
"He was shot by an enemy I guess," Jasper said.
"Probably over a disagreement as usual," Seun said with a chuckle.
"One more thing, Bisola, I need you to go into Joe's room for the first time after all these years since his death. There can be clues. If you can't, let me know. I need his cell phone. It could be here or probably taken by those guys."
"Yeah, I will go."
"Remember I told you Aminat said she saw a small cell phone with him," I said.
"True. But Joe might have taken it with him too and it might have been stolen by the murderer. Bisola will just have to go in there soon so we just have to be sure.
"Sure. I will."
"Is that all?" I stood up.
"Yes, why?" Henry asked.
"Finally going to my boyfriend's house."
"I heard you have been going out on a date with one mysterious guy, don't you think we should know him?"
Are you my Mum? "Not yet."
"Tosin," Jasper came over to me and cupped my face, "I don't know the guy, but if he hurt you in any way, tell me to kick his ass for you, okay?"
"I won't hesitate. Thank you, Jasper." I gave him a brief hug and dashed outside in a hurry.
"Hey!" Mrs Lizzy yelled as I bumped into her.
"Sorry!" I grinned and hugged her. "I gotta go."
"Wait," she held me back. "I have been wanting to thank you again for talking to Samantha. She's been a blessing to me and regardless of what she found out, she never treated me like she didn't know me, instead, she whines, complains and shows me love like a daughter does to her mother. I'm so grateful again, Tosin."
"No problem. How is she?"
"Fine. Moving on from the loss of Mr Babatunde.
"That's nice."
"Tosin! Hold up." Bisola shouted, running down the hallway with Toyin.
"Mrs Lizzy, I have to talk with my friends."
"Alright. Have a great time with the guy," she said without glancing back.
I didn't tell her that, did I? I must have worn the excitement on my face.
"Are you coming back home?" Toyin asked me.
"Of course. I'm not sleeping over for the first time knowing about his house."
"You know his house already?"
"He sent me the address which I will send to you guys later."
"Okay, great. Tomorrow afternoon, I need you two to come with me to Joe's room. Henry says he wants an update tomorrow night. I can't do it alone."
"Sure, I will be right there with you," I said.
"Thanks." Bisola smiled.
"One more thing, Tosin," Toyin eyed me with a smile.
"What?" I frowned at how she was giving me that weird look that showed she was up to something.
"Bisola and I decided to give you a small gift," Toyin grabbed my hand and put something in it before she closed it.
"A gift?" I opened my hand and what I saw shocked me. "A condom! You mean this is a gift? What were you thinking?"
"You are visiting him for the first time in his house, so anything can happen!" Toyin winked.
"You've gotta be kidding me."
"Bisola and I thought it was a good idea."
"Put it in your bag. It can come in handy. You can't have unprotected sex with him."
I shook my head in disbelief. "I have only been dating him for a week, not months!"
"But you've been friends for like two weeks or so."
I grudgingly put the condom in my bag. "I have to go.
Those girls never ceased to surprise me.
__________________
Five minutes after being led to Jeremy's House by the GPS, I parked carefully before I got down. I scanned for the number of his house and when I finally saw it, I smiled. Today, as usual, I was in my best outfit. Ever since I met him and knew he was a fashion designer, my way of dressing had drastically changed. If it was left to me, I would wear anything I felt like, attractive or not, but deep down, I knew I was trying to impress him.
I crossed to the other side of the street and looked up at the three storeys buildings. Briefly, I knocked on the gate and a security man appeared, looking me over.
"Hi, please, is Jeremy home?"
"The new tenant?"
"New tenant?" I frowned.
"Yes. He's a fashion designer, right?"
"Yes."
"Come on in, you must be Miss Tosin."
I entered and saw the man locking the gate back. All this is for security purposes. "He is not around now. He dropped his keys. His apartment is the first on the left." The man gave me the keys with a smile.
"Thank you. When did he say he would be back?"
"Today of course. He said he needed to attend to something important."
Well, I wasn't expecting that and he didn't bother to call or text me. "Thanks," I said and walked away.
Jeremy's apartment wasn't very large but he made sure it was attractive. The living room was all painted purple. There was a plasma TV, big cosy couches with pillows, the floor was tiled and a table was at the centre of the living room. Everything was in order and clean.
I walked to the kitchen and everything was perfectly set. Was Jeremy a lean freak? I mean, he is a guy, and it's rare for a guy like him to be this clean! I had lived with guys for a long time and I knew how lazy they could be in terms of cleaning, including Jasper. The only clean freak I knew was Charles, the albino dude. He was a clean freak. There was no time when I entered his room that it wasn't in order. Perfectly set.
"Okay, maybe he was new after all."
"Who's new?"
I got startled and I placed my hand on my chest. "Jeremy?"
His smiley face turned into a grin. He enjoyed it. I didn't know he was at my back as I was too into my head accessing the whole kitchen and analysing why he was so damn neat.
"I got you!" He moved closer and engulfed me in a hug. "Welcome to my home, babe."
I smiled and smelled his usual scent. "I didn't know when you came in and you scared me." I frowned.
"Sorry, I thought it was going to be fun. But I enjoyed it. I'm sorry." He kissed my pouty lips.
"Have you seen my room?"
"Not yet. Just got in. Are you new here?"
Jeremy held my hand and he led the way. "No, why?"
Everything is too clean! "The security man said so."
"Don't mind him! He's the new one here. Besides, he whines a lot." He opened his room and what I saw baffled me.
"What's the look? Come on in." He pulled me in.
The room like I was expecting to be like the rest of the house was in a disarrayed manner. The bed was still looking okay, but the floor and clothes were everywhere.
"Your room?"
"Sorry about that. Shouldn't have brought you in to see this. You see, I was in a hurry this morning to deliver some clothes," Jeremy kept explaining as he began to quickly clean up, feeling nervous.
Part of me enjoyed seeing him uncomfortable because of me. "Jeremy," I sat on his bed, "don't sweat it too much, I'm not going to judge.
He breathed out and dumped the clothes in the wardrobe before coming to sit next to me." I'm sorry you had to see my room this way on your first day here."
I leaned closer and pecked him. "It's okay."
At past two in the afternoon, Jeremy and I sat on the big couch, watching Titanic. I sat between his legs, as my back rested on his chest while he stroked my hair. The way he was running his hand through my hair was making me enjoy the movie the most. Since I never got to watch it before, watching it with Jeremy was making it more enjoyable. Funny how people fall in love at first sight. I mean, I fell in love with Jeremy at first sight. And I must say, the saying is true.
The painful part of the movie was that the guy named Jack Dawson had to die which brought a bit of tears to my eyes. I was rarely the type to cry in movies but this? This was exceptional.
"Don't tell me old Rose is going to intentionally fall off the ship?" I asked in alarm.
Jeremy laughed. "Of course not. She threw the diamond into the ocean. I thought she wouldn't have it anymore. You know, this movie teaches us that life is too short to hide your feelings."
"Funny, maybe life isn't short. Maybe it's we humans that have limited time. Time will always be there, but for humans, it's short."
"You have a point. So, tell me, love, was it drawing you wanted to do from the beginning?"
"No. I love drawing but never pictured doing it for a living."
"Why?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. Some artists find it hard before them and I needed to do something to help the family. Drawing might be a slow process to help the family. I thought I was just going to finish high school with good grades and get admission into the university. Graduate well and get a nice paying job. It's not how I thought it was going to be. Life after school was hard. Most of us didn't know that."
"So what brought the change? You are earning a living by drawing and you aren't in the uni."
"Let's say I got lucky. Found someone who helped me out." The image of Henry flashed across my face.
"That's nice. But who?"
"My friend's friend. Busola and Toyin's friend."
"He's into drawing too?"
"Well..." Was Henry into drawing at all? "Yes." I didn't know if he loved drawing so much or wished he could draw but if I didn't reply on time, Jeremy would know something wasn't right.
"There are still nice people in the world."
I nodded. "Yes, babe." Henry could be nice at times.
"Tell me about your high school life. What club did you join? Take my question as a way of getting to know you more."
My heart skipped at the mention of high school. I didn't know if I wanted to tell him. If I didn't, Jeremy would find me suspicious because he already told me about his’. He was the captain of the football team and every girl liked him.
Who wouldn't like a guy like him? Smartly dressed, handsome, always a gentleman, caring and charming.
"Well, high school days weren't interesting," I said simply, hoping he wouldn't ask further.
"Well, I want to hear why it wasn't."
"Just nothing much," I said quickly.
"Okay, I will take that as a clue that you don't want to tell me. It's fine. I just feel communicating would help us get to know much about each other and..."
I looked at him and saw the sincerity in his honey eyes. He had a point. If I wanted to make this work, I had to be truthful with him. Just a high school story alone. I took my eyes off him and stared into the past. The past I didn't like thinking about. "Sometimes ago..."
And that was how I started. I started with how friendless I was to getting bullied and feeling intimidated and insecure. The work of wearing a hoodie, having my besties stand up for me, and making a new friend which was Victoria. Most of what I told Jeremy was just me dumping my feelings on him. The painful feeling of being in high school.
From there I stopped having control over what I was saying and said everything that had hurt me for the past eleven years and some months in high school. From being a junior to being a senior plus the conflict that was happening at home. The beating, the insult, the struggles, the fight and all that.
Everything began to play in my head afresh and my eyes pricked with tears. The feeling of being rejected and humiliated was something I didn't know I was still healing from. Talking about it made me realise that.
My eyes moistened as tears rolled down and I sniffed in. God, I hated this feeling. I thought I was strong. "I want to stop talking." I sobbed.
I didn't dare take a look at how Jeremy was taking it all in because I was afraid of how he viewed me now. An adopted daughter with a broken home.
Jeremy lifted me and turned me to face him. I couldn't look at him so I looked down ashamed.
He lifted my chin and said, "Look at my eyes."
I met his eyes and tried looking down back but his strong fingers held my chin up.
"You shouldn't be afraid to look at me, instead you should be bold because you survived it. I didn't know you went through that. You act all strong like you didn't go through that. I'm proud of you." Jeremy kissed my forehead. He pulled me back and looked at me for a while and I became nervous. Was he mentally scrutinising me?
"What is the problem?"
He closed his eyes and exhaled. "Nothing. You don't tell people about this do you?"
"No. Only Toyin and Bisola know."
"Not even Victoria?"
"No, not even Vicky."
"How are your parents now... Adopted ones I mean... If you don't mind me asking."
"If you are asking if they are peaceful with each other now, the answer is no. They are not."
"I think..."
My phone rang and I was glad it did. I picked it up and said. "Hello, who is this?"
"Gideon!" His voice was panicky. "I think your mother is being abused! I'm sorry I had to say this but I don't know if you knew about it."
"Did something happen?"
"We were just talking on the phone and the next thing I heard was the sound of beating and loud voices."
"Thank you, Gideon." I hung up and saw Jeremy giving me a questioning look.
"He hit my mum. And I promise today will be his last day. He may rot in jail," I said angrily and took my keys before heading out.