As soon as the meeting was over, Cyril walked over to Amaka and placed his hand on her arm ‘Are you okay?’ Amaka nodded.
‘He’s acting like a** hole. You worked very hard and your design was the best in the group.’ Amaka tried to smile ‘Cyril, you don’t have to say that…’ ‘I’m also saying it, Amaka. Your design was the best from last week.‘ It was Felix, their supervisor. ‘Tolu is not usually like that. Maybe he had plans that’ll have to be held back until we are done.‘ He squeezed Amaka’s shoulder softly in consolation before addressing the entire team. ‘Guys, though we’ve been slow, we have all been doing very well so no matter what happens, let’s always remember that. However, we need to do better to meet timelines which is very important in this business. Alright then, back to work.’
Back in his office, Tolu couldn’t even consider sitting rather, he paced back and forth wondering what in the world possessed him to act the way he did to Amaka. The worst part was the fact that he couldn’t explain the emotion that had enveloped him and made him so upset. Her mistake was as bad as he had implied but she was also new to the system and it wasn’t fair to call her out like that. He felt bad but it had already been done and there was nothing that he could do about. He forced himself to sit down and he tried to get on with his work.
Amaka saved the fashion house design for the last to be done that day. She had missed her lunch and after the meeting with Tolu, she didn’t have an appetite. When she was done with the day’s assignments, she began to re-do the design carefully. Few minutes into it, someone collapsed into the chair beside her. It had to be Cyril. Only him sat down that way. ‘Amaka, you haven’t had anything to eat today. You’ll eat something this night?‘ ‘I don’t know, Cyril. It depends on when I’m done.’ ‘You know what? I’ll wait for you so we could go and get pizzas after this for dinner. I know you love the stuff so it’ll cheer you up.‘ Amaka smiled. ‘Cyril, are you sure?’ He looked serious when he said ‘I’m positive. I definitely won’t let you go home alone.’ Amaka nodded ‘Thanks, boo. Oya, scram so I’ll finish this in time.’
She was done in an hour after carefully going through. She got up and moved to show it to Cyril. He complimented her saying it was much better than before. Before heading to Tolu’s, she stopped at the bathroom. She had decided not to put anything on her face that day so there wasn’t anything to be done. She simply ran her hand through her weave, re-tucked her oversized shirt into her jeans and moved to his office nervously. On getting there, she knocked and he gave a reply so she entered. He was taking a call so he motioned for her to sit. As soon as she sat, she began to look at anywhere else but at him until he was done.
She showed him the design and he looked at it for a long time before nodding. ‘Good then.’ He turned over to his laptop while she sat there watching him perhaps waiting for a dismissal. ‘Anything else?‘ Tolu asked, without looking away from his laptop. Amaka stood up in confusion. Why was he acting strangely to her? ‘Good…Goodnight, sir’ and she left his office. She stood by the door for a while before walking away. Was this his way of pushing her away for getting too close last weekend? ‘Obviously, it meant nothing at all to him‘, she thought. She felt tears welling up in her eyes. She was walking towards the staircase when she heard her name.
She turned and found Tolu walking towards her. As soon as he caught the tears in her eyes, he flinched. ‘You’ll be going home now right?’ She nodded. ‘Amaka‘, he said while talking a step closer to her. ‘I’m your boss so I’m allowed to scold you when you go wrong. I’m a boss so I’m not allowed to stay up all night with a beautiful employee connecting over snacks… If you saw me as your boss, you would know this too right?‘ Amaka didn’t say a thing. He took another step closer ‘Do you realize that you shouldn’t see me as anything other than your boss?‘ She nodded. In a split-second, she shook her head. He took a step closer, she could see the struggle in his face ‘You don’t?‘ She shook her head. She was too close to the wall and he was too close to her.
His lips were only few inches from hers ‘If you don’t see me as your boss then, how can can I see you as an employee?‘ He barely finished his question before kissing her. There were no words being said or questiobs being asked. Just two people so immersed in themselves that they couldn’t see beyond each other. If it wasn’t for the siren sound that indicated that there was power, they might have gone on. As soon as he heard the sound, Tolu moved away slightly. He was still close enough to hold on to the wall and have her hold on to him. It took him a second or two to recover himself. He kissed her briefly once again and he walked away without saying a word.
Amaka stood there watching him go and trying to get her breathing back to normal. Just then, her phone rang from within her pocket. She pulled it out and saw ‘Cyril‘ boldly written on her. ‘Oh Gosh!’, she exclaimed. she had forgotten that he was waiting for her. She immediately picked the call to inform him that she was on her way.
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