by Umari Ayim

Episode 11

Jude In The Office, Tokunbo’s Plan And Richard’s Twin

– Read Episode 1 of the compelling story HERE.

– Read Episode 2 of the compelling story HERE.

– Read Episode 3 of the compelling story HERE

– Read Episode 4 of the compelling story HERE

– Read Episode 5 of the compelling story HERE

– Read Episode 6 of the compelling story HERE

– Read Episode 7 of the compelling story HERE

– Read Episode 8 of the compelling story HERE

– Read Episode 9 of the compelling story HERE

– Read Episode 9 of the compelling story HERE

 

I barely hear the knock before the office door swings open. As Richard walks towards me with a slow confident gait, I fight an urge to reach for my mirror to check if my lip stick is smudged from snacking on the chocolate bar I smuggled out of the kitchen this morning.
“Good afternoon,” Richard says, pushing his hand into his dark brown pants as he draws to a stop in the middle of the office and looks around.
I use the opportunity of his distraction to pick the broken pieces of chocolate on my Mandarin collared fitted red shirt. Mission accomplished in two seconds flat, I lace my fingers on the table and try to pull off the serious executive look.
“Good afternoon.”
Hands still in pocket, Richard looks back at me. “So, how are you finding this place?”
“I like it.”
Richard nods, pulls out his hands from his trouser and approaches my desk. I am almost sure he is heading for one of the empty seats opposite me until he rounds my desk and stops before me. My swivel chair turns under the guidance of his right hand so that I am facing him. Reaching for my arm, Richard pulls me up to my feet and props me up against my desk.
“Your friend is quite expensive,” he says, popping the top button of my shirt open.
“Jude?”
“Yeah.”
Pop.
I look down to see the top of the red lace brassiere Sarah forced on me yesterday. When I look back at Richard, his eyes are glowing with appreciation.
“Nice.”
I swallow as another button pops open and manage to ask, “So are we hiring him?”
The only indication that Richard heard my question is the slight raising of his left eyebrow. Right now, his two hands have become weighing scales as my breasts balance on them. I am assaulted by a myriad of sensations as his thumbs work their way to my hardened nipples and begin to move in circular motions.
“I already hired him.”
I fall back from cloud nine and blink at Richard who is watching me with an expression that is as cool as it is clinical.
“I think I have seen you with him before.”
I gasp and nod, as Richard gently uses his knee to part my thighs. My knees almost buckle but the desk behind me manages to hold me up. I place my hands on both sides of my hips and brace myself against Richard’s sensual assault.
Through the glaze, I see Richard lower his head towards me and my lips part automatically.
“He will not be reporting to your office,” Richard tells me, his mouth only inches away from mine. “He will report directly to me.”
I nod again, desperate for the conversation to end and for Richard to finish what he started.
“So,” Richard says, stepping away with a nod. “That is what I came here to tell you.”
What?
Doing my best to breathe slowly, I pull my shirt together and try to button it, but my fingers are too numb to push the buttons into the buttonholes.
“Here,” Richard says, stepping forward. “Let me help you with that.”
He is on the last button when a knock sounds on the door and we both turn towards it.
“Good afternoon,” Jude says immediately he walks into the office. The expectant smile on his face becomes uncomfortable as he looks from me to Richard.
“Good afternoon Mr. Jude,” Richard says, giving me enough space to walk with unsteady legs to my chair.
In his black shirt and black pants, Jude exudes enough mystery to match Richard’s overwhelming presence, but Richard has his height to thank for added advantage.
Jude looks directly at me and tells me he came to thank me for recommending him to the firm, and then he thanks Richard and leaves with an,
“I will see you guys tomorrow.”
“I hope he justifies the fee he is asking for.”
I work on straightening my blouse and then look up as Richard begins moving away from my chair.
“I am sure he will.”
With a few strides, Richard gets to the door and just before he pushes down the ornately carved silver handle, he turns to me and says,
“And…err…nice lingerie.”
He gives me a stunning smile and closes the door gently behind him. When I pick up my compact mirror from my bag to check my make up five minutes later, I realize that the answering smile I gave Richard is still on my face.

 

***************************

As soon as I hand over my gurgling happy son to the nanny, I rush to take a quick shower and have a short conversation with my reflection.
“I am excited about getting Jude to work for Richard.”
My reflection has other things on her mind and waves my statement away with an unconcerned hand.
“Richard will be home soon,” she says, wriggling her brows at me.
“Yeah,” I tell her, rubbing my body dry with my towel.
“I am looking forward to seeing him.”
My reflection picks the small bottle of Gucci Rush on her counter top and holds it away from her neck before pressing the nozzle down. I twist the cap of my body cream open as I watch the spray of perfume fall over her in a light shower.
“Never forget the pulse points,” she tells me, lowering the perfume bottle to the inside of her wrists and spraying them. She repeats the action on the hollow of her neck, the middle of her breasts and the insides of her lower legs. “They make the perfume stay on longer.”
I look at my own bottle of the same perfume for some seconds before picking it up.
“And…”
I look up again as my reflection holds the bottle behind her ears, “behind your ears.” She stops to wink at me. “Another pulse point and you know, he will be moving his face there in the heat of passion.”
I giggle and shake my head at her. “You are really something.”
“Don’t just stand there laughing,” my reflection says with a low hiss. “Use that perfume as I showed you.”
I am happy to oblige her. I spray the perfume generously over my body as she stands smiling in satisfaction. We agree that the short fitted black dress with clinched waist that I have never worn will be a good choice for tonight. I rush to my bedroom and pull the big black suitcase containing the dresses I have been receiving from my fashion conscious mother in law. When I finally find the dress, I struggle into it, one eye on my gold wristwatch.
I am just walking to the bed when Richard opens our bedroom door.
“Hey,” he says, eyes narrowing immediately as he takes in my outfit. “Is someone going for a date?”
I shake my head, feeling suddenly bashful.
Richard throws the jacket in his right hand on the bed and walks to meet me, a smile on his face. Dropping a quick kiss on my lips, he pulls me to the sofa where he pushes the foot stool away with his legs. Sitting down on the sofa, Richard settles me on his laps and reaches to pull down the sleeves of my dress. I pull my hands free from the dress and begin to tackle the buttons of his shirt.
Richard’s eyes are dark with intent when he moves his hand to my back to search out the clasp of my brassiere. I am breathless with anticipation and reaching to pull his shirt tails from his pants when Richard’s phone begins ringing earnestly.
Oh no!
I try to distract Richard from the ringing phone by moving to the buckle of his belt, but he is already tilting sideways and pulling out the offending phone from his pants.
“Hello Tokunbo.”
I turn to ice and listen to Richard ask his ex if there is a problem. Because my face is at Richard’s neck, I can hear Tokunbo’s voice but I can’t make out the meaning of the high pitched sound coming from the phone’s ear piece.
“Fine, do what you think is right,” Richard says, his eyes returning to me and his hand on my back continuing its ascent to the clasp he was working on. I barely feel his fingers as the clasp comes loose. His hand pauses again as he tries to concentrate on the conversation with Tokunbo.
“Sure, I understand.”
More listening, and then Richard looks into my eyes.
“She is here with me.”
I frown at Richard, wondering what he could possibly be discussing about me to Tokunbo.
“She is here with me?” I ask him as soon as he ends the call.
Richard sighs and stands up from the sofa, lifting me up as he does. Placing me back on my feet, he holds on to my hand until we reach the bed.
“What was that about?” I ask, resisting his attempt to pull me close to him.
“I don’t understand your question.”
“Tokunbo asking about me.”
“Oh…” he says, rolling over to meet me. “It was nothing.”
“It is not nothing.”
“She just asked me where you were.”
“Why?”
Richard shrugs and says, “I don’t know.”
I wear my anger at Richard’s offhand manner on my forehead and he gets the message.
“Are you upset?”
“Yes.”
“Ugh,” Richard groans, throwing his hand over his eyes. “Please don’t tell me we are going to have an argument.”
I begin to sit up but change my mind when Richard finds his way under my dress. Then he slowly begins to kiss me, his hands working me to an excitement that slowly reaches a fevered pitch. When we can no longer stand the torture, we remove the barrier of our clothes. The evening passes slowly and it seems like forever before it all ends.
“I can’t remember working through several positions like today,” Richard says, a teasing look in his eyes. “You are becoming quite the wildcat.”
I smile and trace a vein in Richard’s neck, remembering our discussion.
“So, let’s argue,” I tell Richard, dropping a kiss on his jaw even as he groans.
“No, please let’s not.”
I find another spot on his jaw and kiss it. “We have to talk about that telephone conversation.”
“Can’t we just forget it?”
I deliver another kiss and say, “no.”
“Okay, arguing with kisses in between can’t be a bad idea,” Richard says with a smile and moves his weight away from me. I follow him, settle at the curve of his armpit and let my fingers run around his chest in small circles.
“What did Tokunbo say?”
His eyes on the ceiling, Richard captures my hand with his own. “She wanted to know if you were around me at the time of the call.”
I lift my head up and look at Richard. “Why would she want to know that?”
“I don’t know.”
“You should have asked to know the reason behind her question.”
“I didn’t think it was a big deal.”
I lower myself back to Richard’s chest. “Fine, I want to know what the entire conversation was about.”
Richard tells me about Tokunbo’s fears over Jude’s appointment.
“She wants to investigate him.”
“Why?”
“It is just something she likes to do with every staff we employ.”
“But it is not her place to investigate someone I brought in,” I abandon Richard’s chest and push up on the bed until I am sitting against the pillows. “Or is it?”
I don’t wait for Richard’s answer before moving to another question.
“Is that why she wanted to know if I was close to you?”
“Maybe,” Richard says with a shrug.
“I am upset,” I tell Richard, one hand pushing back the cover so I can walk to the bathroom.
“Hold on,” Richard says, stopping me and sweeping back to his chest. “Why are you upset?”
“Because you are allowing Tokunbo act like she is my supervisor.”
“Tamisho, she just wants to verify Jude’s qualifications.”
“And she is going about it in a sneaky way.”
“How?”
“She is confiding in you about her plans, while trying to hide them from me.”
Richard nods as if reflecting on my words. “Okay, maybe she was wrong.”
“Maybe?”
Richard gives me a what-did-I-do-this-time look.
“She was wrong,” I tell him with a frown. “There is no maybe about it.”
Richard loses interest in the conversation and gives my breasts his full attention. In the next ten minutes, I forget all about Tokunbo and her machinations and fall into rhythm with Richard’s expert lovemaking.

****************************

 

My mother in law rocks.. Toju on her knees and makes loud cooing sounds as he pulls at the cream pearls on her neck. I wait for her to finish making faces at her grandson and tell me the reason for her visit. As usual, a large lemon green plastic bag is sitting beside my chair. There are new bottles of perfumes and more toys for Toju.
“So how are you finding work?”
I smile at the slim, well dressed older woman sitting opposite me.
“It has been good so far.”
“Great,” Mrs. Abidemi tells me with a wide smile, looking down to loosen Toju’s grip on her drop pearl earrings.
I look at the television where a movie is playing on mute as I continue the waiting.
“I wanted to share a little secret with you.”
I turn away from the television to find Shadda standing beside my mother in law. I give her a casual glance and the tiniest smile before looking at Mrs. Abidemi.
I nod to tell Richard’s mother that I am all ears, watching Shadda settle down in the sofa beside her.
“Richard is a twin.”
Elbow resting on the arm of the sofa and fingers tapping her chin, Shadda nods at Mrs. Abidemi.
“Richard is a twin?”
“Yes.”
I blink in surprise at Mrs. Abidemi. “Really?”
My mother in law nods slowly, a sad look on her face. All of a sudden, she looks every bit her age.
“He died just a few days after his first birthday.”
I notice the trembling of her lower lip and realize that my mother in law is doing her best to control her emotions.
“He was such a sweet child,” Mrs. Abidemi says almost in a whisper, her eyes growing distant with memories. “The doctor said it was cold…”
I am lost and look to Shadda for help, but she is watching my mother in law, her head still in that constant motion of nods.
A raw sound of pain escapes my mother in law’s throat. “He died three weeks later,”
I say the only thing I can manage, “I am so sorry.”
Mrs. Abidemi nods and looks down at Toju who has grown more thoughtful. Reaching out a small hand, he pats his grandmother’s perfumed cheeks. The action pulls a smile from Mrs. Abidemi, and then she continues her story. Halfway into her recollection of the past, I have a feeling my mother in law is not telling me everything.
“Of course she is not,” Shadda says with a head shake this time.
“Is there more?”
My mother in law looks at me in surprise. “More?”
I nod in answer. “I feel like you want to tell me something but you are holding back.”
Mrs. Abidemi answers me with a long uncomfortable silence.

 

“I think my husband did something…”
I sigh when another silence follows her words. “Okay?”
“He belonged to a group then,” Mrs Abidemi stops and I notice the hand she is using to restrain Toju begin to shake. “A very weird group.”
“What did this group do?”
“They were business men but when they met in our house every Wednesday, it was always at midnight.”
“They held meetings in your house?”
“Yes.”
“At first my husband denied they were doing anything odd but..I started hearing weird noises…”
“Go on.”
“Like they were chanting or something.”
Mrs. Abidemi looks down at her black low heeled pumps. “I think they killed my son.”
“How do you know this?”
“Roland…” Mrs Abidemi begins to say and then stops to explain who Roland is. “Richard’s twin…he fell ill shortly after those meetings began.”
My son..can’t forget…hospitals…became rich…blood money
“You think your husband used your son for money making rituals?”
Mrs. Abidemi raises shocked eyes to me and looks around as if Richard’s father is hiding behind one of the sofas.
She finally says ‘yes’ in a subdued voice minutes later.
“Why?”
There is a flash of defiance in Mrs. Abidemi’s eyes. “We used to live comfortably. Then one week after Roland’s death, we move to a bigger house and he buys two cars.”
“Did you ask him for the source of his wealth?”
My mother in law does an impressive snort. “My husband is not the kind of man you expect truth from.”
I am shocked by the next thing my mother in law says to me.
“I put a curse on them.”
“You put a curse on who?”
Her eyes still in that distant place, my mother in law hugs Toju to her chest as if trying to shield herself from the onslaught of memories. I watch my son make a face and squirm until his grandmother releases her hold on him.
“All of them…the night Roland died, I took his body behind the house and stood under the moon at midnight. I pronounced a curse on anyone who had a hand in the death of my son.”
My mother in law tells me how her husband’s friends begin to drop dead one after the other.
“It was when my husband fell ill that I knew he killed our son.”
There is more. The curse would turn around and affect Richard too.
“I became desperate and sought the help of a powerful spiritualist.”
The spiritualist was able to stop the curse from taking Richard’s life and that of his father.
“But he warned me that only the blood of a virgin could put an end to the curse.”
I know this is when I come in. I ask Mrs. Abidemi how she found me.
“It was the spiritualist…”
Shadda helps my mother in law out, but I am the only one that can hear her.
“I showed you to the man. It was about time.”
Visibly relieved from emptying herself of years of resentment and pain, my mother in law tells me she is grateful for the time I took to listen to her. We spend a little over ten minutes discussing baby formulas and then I wave goodbye to her at the door with Toju on my hips.
I ask Shadda about the curse when I am back in my bedroom.
“Why did it affect Richard too?”
“The earth is not round for nothing Tamisho.”
“Okay, you just added to my confusion,” I tell Shadda with sigh. “What does that mean?”
“Everything goes round, including decrees from the mouths of mortals.”
“So in effect if you send a curse out, it comes back to you.”
Shadda nods and says, “Invariably.”
“Same with blessings?”
“Yes.”
I sit on the bed and ponder Richard’s past. Shadda tells me how he never recovered from the loss of his brother.
“He became a sullen child.”
At the end of the evening, I solve a few puzzles surrounding Richard’s family, but I know this feat is not enough to understand the man I have fallen in love with. There is more to Richard. There is always more.

 

–

To be continued…

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Umari Ayim is the author of ‘Twilight at Terracotta Indigo’ and ‘Inside my Head’ both winners of the 2011 ANA NDDC Flora Nwapa prize and 2012 Poetry prize respectively.

Umari blogs at www.umariayim.com and tweets from @umariayim