#Sophia_and_Ekene_ (part 2)
Sophia hoped for a nice outing in Asaba but little did she know that a huge surprise awaits her on the horizon.
Ekene was expecting Sophia on a Saturday evening as agreed but Sophia decided to create a scene.
She touched down on Friday evening.
Filled with joy amidst fantasies, she had decided to use flight to shorten her journey and surprise Ekene – he was not informed.
He was to be informed on arrival.
But Before Sophia booked her flight to Asaba on Friday, she had gained adequate knowledge of Ekene’s routines to avoid any form of vacuum that may emanate from her secret arrangements.
Ekene had informed Sophia on Friday afternoon that he had closed from work earlier in a bid to prepare for her arrival on Saturday. He had gone to the market earlier and will be indoors for the rest of the day.
He was overtly exhausted owing to work stress and some other run-arounds.
Sophia presumed the coast to be clear as she touched down in Asaba airport on Friday evening in a grand style. She felt a bit nervous whilst dialing Ekene’s number..
He picked and she broke the news recklessly..
” surprise! surprise! guess who’s in town? Sophia! reporting from Asaba airport!….”, Sophia had announced like a journalist.
Ekene seemed hugely surprised at her revelations. She flooded his inbox with pictures of her current location followed with a video call but Ekene declined the video call sighting insufficient data – for the very first time.
Then Ekene, beckoned on her to exercise a little patience as he will be with her shortly.
He seemed happy but sounded like one with an ulterior motive.
Sophia couldn’t decode as she was walloying in fantasy.
Sophia waited and waited, and yet Ekene failed to show up as promised.
Trouble began when she tried calling again and his number read “switched off or unavailable at the moment.”
At first, she owned it to a network failure but subsequent attempts proved otherwise as it began reading number ‘busy’.
whilst waiting in despair, and all attention buried on her phone, her eyes figured someone as she took a break from the phone.
“it can’t be” she murmured involuntarily..
The figure altered course as it became clearer that they both knew each other.
indeed! it turned out to be Sophia’s University crush – Obyno who just returned from Bangkok, Thailand a week ago.
He came to Asaba to oversee an engagement and had come to the airport to pick up an associate but was late on arrival – the supposed associate had resorted to another alternative due to his lateness and misinterpretation of events.
Sophia once had sleepless nights crushing on this Obyno guy back then in the University and he was very much aware.
Then, Sophia was entirely surplus to his requirements – he was the ‘girls’ man.
Obyno still maintained his status but things have changed for Sophia. It was more of a casual coursemate reunion but it seemed Obyno was still dwelling in the past judging from his actions.
They looked so excited as they became so loud whilst exchange pleasantries. It was normal at this juncture because years have gone by.
Sophia lied that she was waiting for her aunt in a bid to resist Obyno’s demands. He was already in for a sit out and so on – all in the name of old time sake. Not bad any way!
Obyno persevered but Sophia won.
He drove off reluctantly after they had exchanged contacts.
Sophia was back to reality. And yet no means of Ekene.
She still believed all is well somehow. She dialled his number and found him on another call.
She waited for some minutes he didn’t call back. She dialled his number again, it rang several times but he never picked. And he never returned her calls.
Then it dawned on her that something was amiss, and maybe her sudden arrival had complicated things for him, and he was trying to fix things up to avoid tragedies.
Or, maybe, he had decided to pay her back for all the promise and fail in the past.
Although it seemed so childish but never to be ruled out as humans could be so unpredictable irrespective of what was at stake.
Again, could it be that something had happened to him on his way to pick her? the thought of that scared her hence she dismissed it entirely.
With Obyno out of sight, and Ekene nowhere to be found, different thoughts ran through Sophia’s mind but one thing was very clear to her at the moment – it seemed Ekene had a skeleton in his cupboard hence working round the clock to cover it up.
Her instincts doesn’t lie to her all the time.
But she was ready to listen to his excuses and damn any shit at all. She couldn’t stop fantasizing – the more Ekene delays to show up, the stronger it becomes.
On the other hand, she felt slightly weak at the way and manner she had dismissed Obyno – A one time crush and a young man of immense capabilities but..
“it’s never too late”
she chuckled albeit bitterly..
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