Chapter 4
We arrived Isadora’s house, there was no light; she stopped at the front of her gate.
‘’Oh Darlene, I’m sorry for hosting you in darkness in my place’’, Isadora smiled looking at me.
‘’that’s no big deal, after all the power crisis is all over the country’’, I tried to let her know it was normal.
‘’I know…’’, Isadora began, ‘;’…But a prince like you shouldn’t be ushered into darkness especially on your maiden visit’’, Isadora defended.
‘’Talking as if I’m not a Nigerian’’, I rolled my eyes.
‘’Silly boy’’, Isadora joked as she alighted from the car and walked toward her gate.
I thought maybe she wanted to knock for security man to open instead of honking, I was wrong for I saw the woman I was already head over heel in love with opening the gates by herself. I was still surprised when she walked back to the car, opened the driver’s door and sat down.
‘’Why is your face like you just saw a ghost Darlene?’’, Isadora asked on seeing the surprise look on my face.
‘’I thought you had a security man’’, I began confusingly.
‘’You are funny’’, Isadora chuckled and drove through the gate into the compound.
‘’Welcome to my humble abode’’, Isadora announced as she came down from the car.
‘’wouldn’t you do something?’’, I asked Isadora with a smile.
‘’Something like…’’, Isadora began with a confuse look.
‘’Something like this…’’, I turned off the car’s ignition.
‘’Oh Darlene…I completely forgot, you know being with you always mesmerize me’’, Isadora giggled.
‘’Women…’ I teased her.
‘’Wetin we do again?’’, Isadora rolled her eyes in a funny way before erupting into a fit of laughter.
‘’I can see you are having a good time at my expense’’, I joked.
‘’Common Darlene, not like that. Let’s go inside, I am freezing’’, Isadora pulled me inside her apartment.
‘’Hope you are not planning of kidnapping me’’, I joked.
‘’It will be an absolute pleasure to do that to a handsome prince charming like you’’, Isadora reciprocated the joke.
We both laughed over it, I sat down on the conch while Isadora went to the back. Few minutes later, I heard her grunting followed by the sound of a generator set. As if on a clue, everywhere flooded with light.
‘’And there was light!’’, Isadora exclaimed as she came into the sitting room.
‘’ You are such an amazing lady I must confess’’, I complimented.
‘’And you’re such an amazing young man’’, Isadora blushed.
‘’ So what’s next, I feel hot!’’, I began.
‘’Hot? In this cold weather?’’, Isadora was surprised.
‘’Yes that’s me. I hardly feel cold except when I’m sick or feverish or…let’s say when my temperature drops’’, I replied her.
‘’that’s nice, unlike me that feel cold at every given opportunity’’, Isadora joked.
‘’Given opportunity?’’, I asked confused.
‘’In mean I easily get cold’’, Isadora rolled her eyes.
‘’Silly girl’’, I teased her.
‘’Ehn…I gree’’, Isadora surrendered her hands up in the air.
I smiled, but was forming unimpressed outside.
‘’You can deceive others with that look but not me, so stop forming. I know you are smiling inside of you’’, Isadora laughed as she walked toward her bedroom.
‘’How did you know?’, I called after her.
‘’Because to me, you are easy to read like a book: Though I don’t know about others’’, Isadora’s voice came in.
Her reply left me speechless, of course not many people could read me like she said. Among the few who could read me are my mother and sister: And now possibly Isadora. I remember in my higher institution days, my campus friends usually call me a rock, following the notion that I was hard to read or predict. But then, I doubt if humans could be predictable like…In a sense that someone else can predict or guess right exactly what was on someone’s mind and their thought at such moment.
‘’Are you busy thinking of how to kidnap me for yourself this night?’, Isadora’s voice jolted me back from my thought.
I turned toward where her voice came from to see her standing few meters from me, hands on her hips putting on a bum short with a white singlet, her long natural hairs flowing down to her shoulders.
I…I…Emmm’’, I stammered not knowing what to say at that moment, for the sight of Isadora stole my breath away.
‘’Cat got your tongue or are you really a stammerer?’’, Isadora joked before adding, “…Even if you are a stammerer I wouldn’t still mind”.
“I am not a stammerer…”, I began, “…But the sight of you alone stole my breaths away, I couldn’t think straight. You stole away every words that I wanted or would have said”, I held my mouth wondering if I’m the one that just spoke those words.
“Seems like someone is in love”, Isadora teased as she tossed me a towel.
“To do what?”, I asked her ignorantly.
“To use as napkin for yourself”, Isadora rolled her eyes as she laughed out loud.
“You just love teasing me”, I joked.
“Common Darlene, off your shirt and run to the bathroom”, Isadora pointed to her room door.
“But that’s not the bathroom but your room”, I corrected.
“I mean the bathroom is located inside of my room, take the right when you enter you will see it”, Isadora smiled.
“Don’t you have a visitors’ bathroom?”, I asked her.
“You are not a visitor Darlene, you are my boyfriend…no fiancé…no, husband!”, Isadora laughed at her own jokes.
“Okay then, you won”, I shrugged as I began undressing in front of her.
“Must I see your nude?”, Isadora asked with her hands on her face.
“You asked me to undress didn’t you?”, I asked her.
“Yes I did”, Isadora replied.
“That’s what I’m doing”, I grinned.
“But I didn’t ask you to show me the package, only the label”, Isadora chuckled.
“Labels ke? Brand ni? Because I don turn to goods”, I rolled my eyes.
“Abeg go bath jor, you dey smell”, Isadora called after me as I left the siting room.
“Ehn…I gree, and na the smelly man you dey love scatter:”, I replied her back.
“But at least he smells nice”, Isadora laughed while I joined her.