Amaka was oblivious to the anger on Cyril’s face for the rest of that day because she was floating on a cloud. Even his refusal to eat from the cake didn’t perturb her.
She completely believed his half-baked excuse of having a queasy stomach not minding that he was a eating a lunch of beans and plantain while telling the lie. Throughout the rest of the day, she remained her calm and normal self but within her, she was a bundle of emotions just barely controlled.
How was she going to react to Tolu? Were a couple of gifts enough for her to forgive him? What was the point of the gifts? Did they mean that he was sorry or did they mean that he wanted more with her? Over and over, she asked herself those questions and by late afternoon, she had come up with a perfect plan. She knew she had to wait until office hours were over and she did not mind.
As the rest of the guys were packing up and preparing to leave, Amaka sat on front of her laptop pretending to be very busy. She didn’t quit the act until everyone had left. Not even when Cyril had stopped by to say good bye. Thankfully, he hadn’t offered to stay back with her. Exactly one hour and thirty minutes later, she got up from her desk and headed to the kitchen with her plan in mind. She cut out a massive slice of the cake making sure to avoid any inscription on the cake. Unfortunately, she had to cut it with ‘Tal…’ clearly visible. She placed it carefully on the plate with a fork and some of Tolu’s juice from the fridge and off she went.
Tolu had looked at the time twice in the past thirty minutes wondering why Amaka hadn’t yet shown up. As soon as he heard the knock on his door, he smiled to himself and took a while before saying ‘Come on in.’ In walked the beautiful face that he was expecting to see. She walked forward with a tray and placed it on his desk with his favorite juice which was always available for him in the office. So she had noticed? ‘Good evening’, she said. ‘I was just about to leave and I thought to drop off some cake for you.’ He feigned surprise ‘Today’s not your birthday, is it?‘ She laughed ‘No, I had this sent to me today and I wanted to share it.’ ‘So you get cakes sent to you for no reason at all?‘, he asked while picking up the fork and motioning for her to sit.
Amaka sat down, taking pain to keep a straight face. ‘Not at all… but today I did.’ As Tolu bent his fork to take a bite of the cake (or so it seemed), he paused ‘Did you say an unknown admirer sent you this?’ She nodded. He pointed at his cake with the fork ‘You didn’t see the inscription?‘ ‘No’, she said as innocently as ever. ‘The guys had started cutting the cake before I joined them. All I was left with was Talk… so the sender remains unknown.’ ‘Wow.’ Tolu said jokingly ‘Sucks for that guy. He takes out the time to send you a gift and he can’t even be given due credit. Well, sorry Mr Unknown because I’m about to tuck into this delicious-looking piece of cake.’ Amaka struggled with the urge to laugh. What an actor! As soon as he began to eat, she stood up to leave. ‘Okay, I’ll take my…’
Tolu looked up at her ‘Can we at least talk about what happened before?’ He stood up, took her hand and sat her down on one of the couches. ‘Amaka…’ ‘See, sir. There’s really nothing to talk about. I know what you want to say and it’s okay. Of course, you can’t have anything to do with me because I’m an employee of yours and of course, kissing me was a mistake. I understand and I agree with you.’ He looked at her with as much seriousness as he could muster. ‘You’re wrong. Kissing you was not a mistake. I wanted to do it then and I still want to do it now.‘ She looked into his eyes saying ‘You don’t have to try to make me feel better, Tolu.’ He paused. ‘My name‘, he said before kissing her.
It wasn’t about his words anymore. He wasn’t going to stop until he had convinced her with his kisses. Just then, the door was shut with a big bang and Tolu was roused from his trance. He turned around to find Anita standing by the door with an expressionless face and he felt a slow web of guilt begin to form within him.
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