CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Stealing Glances
I watch Marcus’s lips part in surprise as he saw me step out of my car in front of the hospital. The band were scheduled to perform there for the little children in the paediatric wing. We wanted to bring Christmas to them since they can’t go out themselves to experience it. Also, to give them a little gift, spend time with them and show them some love.
“I thought your parent were coming for Christmas” he asked as he walked towards me
“Lost a family member few days ago, so they couldn’t make the trip” I replied
“Oh my God! Are you okay?”
“Yeah, where are the others?”
“Inside, setting up the eqiup...”
“Then, let join them” I stated and stride into the hospital with Marcus behind me
I looked at myself inside the mirror in Marcus’s guest room to admire myself. He is hosting the others and I for Christmas dinner. After we had a fantastic time with the kids at the hospital, I came back to his house to help prepare for the dinner and also, I can’t go back home after the performance without Alice asking me where I was going.
I was not prepared to answer her questions. I know she tried her best to get Kylian to come spend Christmas today but I am not going spend Christmas in a foul mood, so I left the house before any of them woke up
I adjusted the brooch on my $5,000 slim sleeved, sliver Armani gown and properly set my 12 inches black bow straight over my shoulder.
Never in my life would I thought I would wear a gown worth millions of naira but here I am doing that. I usually call people who do that wasteful.
I should feel guilty for being a hypocrite but I can't because I look at myself in the mirror and I fucking love the woman I am seeing.
So confident!
And beaming with life
I wore my heels and walked out of the room. I moved toward the direction of Marcus's voice and the moment I entered the dining room, all mouth exclaims in amazement at the sight of me including that of Marcus. I smiled to him and the chefs he invited for tonight’s dinner
“You looked beautiful” he complimented and I swear I was blushing.
“Thank you” I replied softly, then the bell rings
“That must be Joy and the other… come, let go welcome them” He held out his hand to me
I smiled and placed my hand in his. He opened the door wide for ecstatic Joy, happy Fatima, excited Adebayo and indifferent Abdul. Fatima was in a lovely jumpsuit while Joy adorned herself in a sleeveless gown. The guys were dressed casually including Marcus
“Merry Christmas!” Fatima and Joy yelled
“I could swear we said that to each other already” Marcus retorted with a bright smile on his face as we exchanged greetings. Then, Abdul looked at me in astonishment
“You looked beautiful, Bewaji” Abdul complimented me
“Yeah, she does” Marcus chipped in as he looked at with a soft look. Then, he closed the door behind them
“Thank you”
“Wait guys” Joy stopped the others from walking away “Can you guys see what I am seeing?” she continued after she had every body ’s attention
“You mean how they look good together” Fatima stated
“What!” Marcus exclaimed
“Come on, you should look at you two, welcoming us together like a couple” Adebayo interjected
“Oh my god!” Marcus groaned in his thick british accent and walked away from us
“Seriously, if you were not married, I would ask you to take him” Adebayo said to me and I bursted into laughter
For some weird reason, I kept imagining what it would be like if Marcus was my husband and not Kylian. I found myself stealing glances at him as we eat.
He is hot, sexy, hansome, rich, cares a deal about me, pays special attention to me when he was with me, always making me feel important, listening to me when I talk, doing things I wanted to do with Kylian with me.
The only two difference between him and Kylian is the marriage certificate and the fact that I fuck Kylian. I am pretty sure sex with Marcus would be good too... maybe even better.
So why not him? I mean right now, he is the better man.
My phone pings and I picked it to see an instragram notification. I clicked on the notification and it was a picture of Frances in front of a mirror at Disneyland but behind her was Hakimi, Tchaga and Kylian. I scoffed loudly, so this fucker would rather spend Christmas with his friends than spend it with me
“Everything okay?” Marcus asked me
“Nothing is okay” I blurted out in anguish
“What is the problem” Joy inquired sitting upright
“How did make your husband love you?” I asked
“What!” Joy said joking and laughed, then stopped when nobody joined “Oh my god, you are serious”
“Of course, she is serious, I have always told you to read the room before you react” Adebayo scolded
“What is the problem” Fatima asked
“I have tried everything to make my husband see me but it is like I am not here for him, like I don’t exist. No matter what I do, he just does not see me” I let out as my heart beat in agony “So what did you do to make your husband see you?”
They looked at each other and Adebayo started
“It is different for so many men, what we see in women— what we fall in love with, varies from men to men. In my own case, what attracted me to Joy was her brilliance?”
“Oh really!” Joy muttered with smile. He looked at his wife with this soft bright smile
“Yeah, first day of med school. You just stood up and answered the question we were all sweating about”
“Oh! Those were good times I tell you” Joy said to us as she tilt her head upward to sip from her wine glass
“But that was it for me” he stated to me “At that moment, I knew I had to make her mine”
“And he did” Joy chipped and everybody bursted into laughter including myself, momentarily forgetting my own issues
“For me, it was Fatima’s cooking” Abdul added
“Cooking?” I asked in confusion
“Oh yes!” Fatima let out, holding the wine cup up before sipping from it
“We were betrothed to each other when we were like four” Abdul continued “So, we were always going to be married”
“People still do that?” I questioned
“Oh yeah!” Marcus nodded with so much enthusiasm
“We were always going to be married. I mean a lot of Arab men and women are bonded to each other because of duty and not love. So, I was always going to be married to her, love or no love but tasting her food for the first time when I was seventeen, bought her the sole occupancy in my heart” Abdul said with a lovely smile
“Wow! So you fell in love with her cooking” I asked with astonishment
“He said it reminded him of his late mother’s” Fatima reaffirmed
“It is different for people, some might be beauty, some sex, some riches. There are different reason why people fall in love” Joy chipped in “I even heard that a man fell in love with a woman because her heels were clean. People fall in love because of all kind of weird stuff”
I held my head and groaned loudly internally
“Have you tried studying what might interest him?” Adebayo suggested
“How can I do that when he won’t even stay with me?” I groaned loudly
An envelope of uncomfortable silence fell into the room
“What do you mean stay with you, you two don’t stay together” Marcus asked in confusion breaking the silence. I shook my head in response
“You never told me that”
“That was because I was embarrassed” Now, I am feeling stupid for starting this conversation
“I will love to ask you some questions, is that okay?” Fatima asked and I nodded. I probably shouldn’t let this people into my life but I am dying inside
“How did you meet him?” She started
“Through my parent” I mean the first time I saw him was in my parent’s living room
“How long did you two dated?” She asked again
“Less than a month” I answered
“Less than a month?” Joy exclaimed loudly. Fuck! I feel stupid
“Enough, Joy, What we are not going to do is judge her for her choices. There are lot of people who have been with each other for a decade and still end up breaking up, no offence to you, Marcus” Fatima shuts Joy down
“None taken” Marcus retorted wittily
“You are not telling us everything, Bewaji and I totally understand that” Fatima muttered “I mean from the little you told us, Joy is already judging you”
“I am not judging her, I am just surprise that she will marry a man you knew for only a month” Joy tried to defend herself
“And what do you call that?” Adebayo teased her. Joy sighed and raised her hands up in resignation
“I am sorry, Bewaji, if I was judging you” She apologized flatly
“It is fine, I was stupid for doing that anyway”
“Don’t do that, either right or wrong, you made a decision for yourself, don’t ever let anyone make you feel small for doing that” Fatima cautioned
“I was not doing th…” Joy, now looking offended, blurted out
“Stop talking, darling” Placing his hand on hers, Adebayo shuts his wife down. Joy scoffed and sit back
“Now, I am sure you knew something like this was going to happen” Fatima continued.
Truthfully, I didn’t know this was going to happen but when I did found out, I had a chance to pull out but I stayed in, so yeah, the jokes is on me
“It does not necessarily mean your decision was wrong, you took a risk, you gambled. Everyone in this room have had to do that at one point in our lives but when it comes to gambling, you need to know when to stop” Fatima let out
“Stop, you mean divorce” I scoffed
“Wait, calm down… Do you think you would get a return on your gamble?”
“Honestly, I don’t know… when I think I am one step forward with him, I find myself ten steps backward” Fatima looked at me in the eyes intensely and a cold chill ran down my spine with the way her cold eyes were scrutinizing me
“I think you know” She said in a soft voice. She is right, I know. I have tried everything to be closer to Kylian, but he just won’t see me other than his baby factory
“No, I don’t think I am ever getting a return”
“Then, can you endure it?”
“I don’t think she can, isn’t that why you went all rampage on Kylian Mbappe’s billboard months ago” Joy said in a low voice. OMG, they recognized me “Yeah, we know” she affirmed with a smirk
“If you divorce him today, will you be okay?” Fatima asked
“I am in love with him, I won’t be okay”
“I am not talking about emotionally, I am asking if you will be okay financially” Fatima clarified
“I have a prenup, I am not getting anything if I divorce him now”
“She is a divorce attorney, I am sure a prenup won’t stop her from getting you what you need” Marcus added
“You don’t understand, if I divorce him now, we are not going to court”
“You are not telling me everything, so I don’t know what advice to give you” Fatima Stated “But you know what you have to do”
TO BE CONTINUED NEXT SATURDAY 9.00 PM WAT
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