*Little Black📓 Book*
*Episode Four: In Those Heels*
I was obsessed over my boss. If this wasn’t clear before, I am putting it out there now. In a short while, I had crossed the line from crushing on him to full obsession. I worshipped the air he breathed. I woke up every morning thinking about him. I made a customized t-shirt with his name on it. I had post-it notes where I wrote my name and added his just to see how it would look when we eventually got married. Each time I went to pick his laundry, I kept his clothes awhile with me just to have his perfume fill my room. Every love song reminded me of him. Everything he did was good; even if he committed murder today, I’d probably blame the person he murdered.
He was the god of my universe and I, his humble minion and lover.
But you see, obsession is a really bad thing. You never know that it is consuming you until it ruins you. It’s often a blissful journey of a life that exists only in your head. It has different stages, however. For me, I was at the point where I had begun to imagine things.
It kicked off on a normal day at the office. Not so normal though. There was some renovation on our floor and my boss didn’t feel like doing anything worthwhile, even though we had lots to iron out. He told me he was going out to relax at the poolside since it was a hot day. I told him we needed to work on a report he was to present at a seminar the following week. He grumbled, I stood my ground. He ordered me to follow him to the poolside.
An hour later, we were almost done with the report, sipping on margaritas under a huge blue and yellow canopy. The area was mostly deserted with only a family of Arab tourists chilling off at the end of the pool.
“I think I’ve found the one, Anna,” my boss said from nowhere.
“One what?” I asked.
“The one. The woman I want to spend my life with.”
“Oh.”
Something in me stirred. For some reason, it hit me that this person he was referring to was none other but me. Crazy, yeah. I know. But like I already told you, my mind was not in the right place. I was lost.
“D–n, she’s beautiful. You need to see her. Natural exquisiteness. She is gorgeous, Anna.”
His eyes were rich with emotion and he was staring straight into mine. He was talking to me. I was the one!
“It’s the effortlessness of her beauty that gets me. The naturalness. Her hair… I just want to run my fingers through it.”
I touched the base of my neck to feel my hair. It wasn’t all that but if it was to him, then…
“I want this woman, Anna.”
Aww, I want you too.
“No, this is not like the other times. I need this woman in my life like I have never desired anything before. I can’t stop thinking about her even though I watch her every single day.”
My head began to swell in a sweet way. He said ‘watch her every single day.’ People, he was talking about no one else but me.
“And yet…” He put his hands behind his head and stretched out his legs before him on his lounger. “Yet, the old demon surfaces.”
His eyes lustfully followed a group of four girls who had just come to the poolside, all dressed in bikinis. I frowned at them. Why did girls have to dress so desperately?
He was still staring at them when one of them shamelessly caught his eyes and smiled at him. He didn’t smile back. His interest dropped. He turned to me.
“Yeah, old things don’t easily pass away like that, not when the world is still rife with tempting offers.”
My heart sank. He caught my disappointment.
“Do you think I should settle down?” he questioned.
I scratched my neck. In the past I deflected questions like this but after what he just told me about his mystery woman (AKA, Me, the One), I wasn’t going to shy away.
“Yes, you should settle down, sir.”
He laughed. “Why?”
“Well, if you say you’ve found the one…”
“I have.” He straightened out his swim shorts and I forced my eyes away from the lower part of his body.
“When this woman finally takes her place in my life, I’ll take a bow from this life you’ve known me to live.”
I smiled without realizing.
“Why are you smiling?”
I quickly wore a straight face. “I… nothing.”
“Okay. Could you Google Zara for me? Find out what she’s been up to these days?”
I kept my straight face but I was mad at him inside. What on earth could he possibly want with that woman after the way she treated him the last time she stopped at the hotel? Was he a sucker for pain? Didn’t he see that no matter how much he tried (and he had tried quite a few times) that Chizara Achusim was never going to have his time?
I understood that he was a man with these strong urges, just like other men, and coming round to finally settling down would take time. I was ready to wait for him but to watch him get his heart broken by Zara was something I had to stop. The woman was mean. You know her type—spoilt, from a rich family, heiress to excessive wealth, fulfilled mogul of a flourishing hospitality business, a PhD holder and finally, the proud owner of a body made for sin. All of that nonsense got to her head and with it she treated men, including my boss, like shit.
But to him, she was a conquest. She had to be had at all cost.
“Sir, she’s in Paris for some fashion show,” I relayed to my boss what I had gotten off the web about Zara’s latest activities. She had this blog where she kept updates of her goings-on to her faithful followers.
“I initially arranged for the manager to represent me at that boring annual hotel convention in Abuja but I think I just changed my mind. Anna?” He sat up. “We’re going to Abuja.”
“We?”
“Yes. But you’ll need a makeover, though.” His eyes were all over my body. I felt n***d. No, that man stripped me n***d with those eyes. “You can’t rep me looking like this. You need to come out of the closet. And no, I’m not referring to your sexual orientation.”
The lesbian thing again?
“There’s a sexy woman beneath all this. Bring her out.”
“But sir…”
He dismissed me with a wave of his hand. I hated when he did that but at the moment I had bigger issues on my mind, like how I was going to become feminine in two days. To me, even if I had a year, it would not be enough to become the type of woman he wanted.
He sensed my fears.
“Anna, you won’t need to lift a finger or spend a dime. It’s all on me. Just enjoy the treat and unleash your inner Barbie.”
Inner Barbie? What the heck was that?
I picked my laptop.
“Make reservations for the convention.”
“Reservations? We’re not staying at our branch?”
“No. I know the hotel where the convention is holding is booked but that’s where I want to stay. Do your magic.”
I nodded and began walking away.
“Anna?” He stopped me. I turned. “Just a little heads up. Zara will be staying at one of the penthouse suites at that hotel. I know you don’t like her.”
He had his poker face on. Handsome devil. I knew what he was suggesting. Yeah, I could read his mind like that. Isn’t that what couples do? I smiled. All my fears about Zara were allayed. He didn’t want her anymore. He just wanted to get even and who better than me, to enact it.
Silly, spoilt thing! She didn’t know what was coming for her.
* * * * * *
The convention was to begin the day after the next and so far, things were going well.
He gave me the day off to take care of myself. I had woken up early and commenced on Operation Displace Zara.
First of all, I dialed her office and asked to speak with her, claiming I was calling from the hotel hosting the convention. I got her secretary, instead, who confirmed that Zara would be attending the three-day event and would still be staying at the penthouse suite reserved for her. When I was done with that, I dialed the hotel next. Using a fake voice, I canceled the reservation, claiming I was calling from Zara’s office. Having accomplished that, I called ten minutes later in my real voice and asked if there was any reservation for my boss. When the concierge heard his name, she naturally stumbled over herself and offered the penthouse suite to him.
Genius! I could imagine the look on Zara’s face when she waltzed there in all her pride and discovered she had been overthrown.
At this point, it was some minutes to ten and I had just finished breakfast. Someone from our hotel’s salon was knocking at my door. They had come for me. I was ushered downstairs like a queen. First, I was given a full spa treatment and after that, I was taken to the hair salon where the entire transformation took place. Hours later, I stepped in front of a mirror and didn’t recognize myself. I almost ducked away at my reflection. I could swear I was looking at someone else.
Oh my! He was right, there’s a Barbie in every girl.
I could hardly sleep through the night, high on excitement. I remembered thinking before I dozed off, that I could conquer the world of men.
But I wanted just one man – and he wanted me.
* * * * * *
The car was waiting and so was my boss. I had never kept him waiting before but I was a nervous wreck. Somehow, my million dollar makeup didn’t look so smashing when I woke up the next morning. I had to call one of the salon girls to redo it for me and she took forever to appear. Next, I was panicky over the tight, short skirt I had on. God knows that before this time, I didn’t know I had a sizable bum and full hips. I wore the skirt and gbam! I was all petite and shapely. Didn’t even notice it the day before while trying it on. I guess it was the fact that I had to face him that was making me all jittery. I can’t recall how many times the salon girl told me I was looking okay. Her name was Fatima, by the way. She became my friend later, just because she believed the boss and I had a thing and she wanted to get in on the action too.
“It’s too short!” I whined for the eighth time.
“It’s not,” Fati answered for the eighth time.
“Let me wear something else.”
“No, this is fine, Anna. Abeg, knack these heels on and be going. Oga will vex that you’re wasting in his time.”
“I know.”
My phone was ringing. He was calling. I answered. He was mad at me. I apologized and said I was on my way down. The moment I ended the call, Fati picked my new designer handbag and pushed it over my arm. I had never carried any of those things before. I always carried a backpack around. Fati showed me how to hold it.
“There’s a small makeup purse I put inside there. You don’t need to do much.
Just compact powder, lipstick and mascara.”
“Oh God, these eyelashes itch.”
Fati slapped my hand away from my eyes.
“Don’t scratch!” She pushed me to the door. “Let’s be going.”
Thank God she escorted me all the way to the reception and through the door that led to his private parking lot. There, she left me and my luggage and wished me well.
“I want all the juicy details when you come back o.”
Like I was going to tell her anything.
I pushed open the glass door and stepped out. The sun hit me. Part of my senses returned and I recalled him talking about his mystery woman’s natural beauty.
Alarm bells! O ye gods, what have I done?
I turned around to glance at my reflection at the mirror. Oh no! Fati had overdone it! I looked overly made up. What was I going to do?
“Anna?”
I made a slow turn. It was the chauffeur. Even he could see that I had guffawed. His eyes said that much.
He took my luggage and left me alone. I wanted to hide behind him all the way to the car but he was gone in a jiffy.
Then I looked up… and I saw Him…
His door was open and he had a leg out. I stared at the leg, at his shoe, at the ground. I didn’t want to look up. What would he think of me?
But I couldn’t help myself. My eyes traveled all the way up and met his face…
The perplexity in his eyes, the surprise, as it slowly turned to a smile. A smile that undid me.
Still I had to walk, no matter how wobbly my feet went or how sweaty my underarms felt. And the worst part, he wouldn’t stop staring.
D–n the stilettos! They made it so hard to keep any type of composure. How did these girls do it?
He was still staring.
I was almost there. I could pick out a whiff of his perfume. I could almost hear the words waiting on his lips; words that will tell me how beautiful I looked, how stunning, how gorgeous, and then everything will be okay. All my nervousness will disappear. And maybe he’ll even kiss…
Was that the sound of my right stiletto about to disgrace me?
Oh God, no!
I lost my balance and in a blink I found myself flat on the ground, staring up at a not-so-clear blue sky.
…………………………….
