"Or you have someone waiting for you somewhere?"
Ara looked up at him. She couldn't quite understand what Prince Ire meant by that. Of course, she couldn't tell him she was planning on meeting Ayoola. She wasn't sure how he would take it. So instead of saying anything, she returned back to her food. "No," she said, cutting and playing with the potatoes and plantains in her plate.
Prince Ire looked at her. He wasn't expecting her to tell him about who she was meeting. He knew it would be hard for her to say, and he didn't even want to hear it. He could sense she was angry and she wasn't hiding it, but that wouldn't make him go back on his words. He was a man of his word, especially now that he had gotten Florence involved.
Suddenly, Prince Ire felt silly and stupid, wishing he had not given Ara such a serious punishment because he couldn't control his emotions. Prince Ire knew Florence would make the task even more difficult for Ara, and now he wasn't sure if he was in his right senses when he was saying all that, knowing Ara would not be able to finish the whole work alone by evening.
Prince Ire whose mind was no longer on the food he was eating chewed the plantain in his mouth before opening his mouth to talk. He really didn't like the fact that Ara wasn't responding or trying to say a word or two to him. He saw that she was still playing with her food and decided to initiate a conversation with that. He stopped eating his food and stared at her hoping she raised her head to look at him. "I guess you are not hungry."
"Yea, you guessed right." Her voice came out cold but she tried not to make it too obvious. This time around, Ara still did not look up, replying with her head down and made sure Prince Ire felt the coldness in her voice hitting each note with annoyance for him to feel it. Prince Ire understood, immediately giving up. He wouldn't change his mind anyways, so he resumed back to his food.
Aramade pushed her plate away. "If you will excuse me sir, I would like to start my work immediately sir." Her head was down all through.
Prince Adedamire wished she could just raise her head and stare at him, but she still did not. He was a bit worried but he wasn't showing it. He masked up his face with his serious and stern look like he doesn't give a damn. "That will be better if you are not hungry. Go get your job
done," he replied coldly. Ara walked away, leaving Prince Adedamire alone at the dinning. He watched her leave, then later took his phone from the table and began typing.
•••
Still in the kitchen washing back the pots and everything she used in preparing breakfast, Sewa felt her phone vibrated on the kitchen cabinet. She took a napkin, cleaned her wet hands and picked up her phone. The name she saw made her raise her brow up. A text message from Prince Ire. She wondered what was wrong that he couldn't call and decided to text her instead. She quickly clicked on it before getting herself into trouble for not doing whatever the text says.
Go assist Ara. You are just helping because you like assisting people. Got that? Delete message now.'
Sewa read the message over and over again. She raised her brow wondering why she got a message from Prince Ire of all people to assist someone. No one could answer her, granting her mind to wander and thought of many reasons. Then she smiled. She couldn't understand what was going on, but if the Prince had instructed her to do so, she needed to obey. Again, she wondered why Ara was working in the Prince Quarters when he never allowed any worker to be added to them until Ara came. Sewa immediately stopped herself from thinking anything else.
Grace who was outside the building doing her daily chores had her phone in her Jean back pocket. She was to make sure Prince Adedamire's compound was well taken care of and to make sure everywhere was well neat and smelling nice. The song she fixed for her text messages came in and she knew immediately she had a new message. Excitedly, she dropped
the long broom in her hand and quickly seized her phone with her hands covered in rubber gloves, hoping it was the alert she had been expecting.
Staring at her screen, Grace realized it wasn't an alert but a message from Prince Ire. She hissed, feeling disappointed, but knew she shouldn't delay checking what the message was all about.
Immediately she clicked on it.
Go assist Ara. You are just helping because you like assisting people. Got that? Delete message now.'
•••
Florence called in some workers to assist in getting all the curtains removed for her. She stood there supervising and acting like a big madam with her index finger pointing here and there. Ara stood close at a corner, resting her back on the wall as she watched the young workers trying to get the curtains that seemed difficult to remove for minutes. Ara was a bit calm knowing washing machine was available to make her work faster and easier so she wasn't really bothered.
Florence pointed her finger to a corner this time around. "Remove that as well."
"But that's not a curtain." One of the young workers said, thinking Florence thought she pointed to a curtain, but he regretted it. The deadly look Florence gave the young guy made the guy wished he said nothing and immediately decided to apologize. "I'm so---"
"My friend will you shut that smelling mouth and do as I say! Idio.... Jes...sus! My Jesus!" Her scream brought all eyes on her as she landed inside the extra large washing bowl curtains were thrown into while trying to run away from the creature staring at her. Everyone couldn't hold their laughter as they all gave themselves a quick pause from what they were doing to watch the scene before them, cracking up so loud. They thanked the friendly creature trying to make a new friend and decided to fall in love with Florence.
When you glow too much.' Ara thought, enjoying the humor added to her already messed up day.
"Bingo, Bingo..." Prince Adegoriola, the fifth Prince ran towards the Dog who was still trying to lick Florence despite her protest. Prince Goriola burst into a loud laughter the moment he saw the position Florence was. "Seriously, don't tell me you are scared of Dogs too. Why is everyone scared of Dog? Sorry anyways." Prince Goriola apologized, still unable to get over the funny moment. "But I guess Bingo likes you already." He joked, picking up his Dog which was not too big or too small close to his body like a baby.
His effort to cheer Florence up and get her smiling didn't work. The angry and embarrassed Florence who was already out of the extra large washing bowl gave Prince Goriola a stern look, telling him what he already knew. "I don't think the Prince would like your Bingo roaming around his house."
"That's because he's yet to meet him. I'm sure he would fall in love with him at first sight," he disagreed.
Ara's laughter got everyone's attention this time. She wondered how the Prince who had not fallen in love with a human being like him would easily fall in love with an animal. Her thoughts run wild with different smiles and a laughter that brightened up her face, erasing her worries for some minutes. Suddenly she realized she was the only one still laughing and kept quiet.
Ara couldn't escape the dirty looks Florence threw at her for having the audacity to laugh at her. She didn't care others laughed at her, but knowing Ara witnessed what happened and have laughed at her made her feel like exploding with anger, become invisible and beat the hell out
of Ara.
The laughter made Prince Goriola noticed Ara. He walked up to her at the corner. "Didn't know you are here too. Meet my baby, Bingo. Bingo say hi." Prince Goriola held one leg out of the Dog's legs waving it at Ara. Even Ara was scared of the Dog moving slowly into the corner. The Dog's tongue coming out irritated Ara but she smiled like she cared about Dogs. "Hi Bingo," she managed to say, making eye contact with the fuming and jealous Florence, who out of annoyance and the fact that Ara wasn't running from the Dog shouted. "Remove every cloth you see now! Every damn cloth! Everything! And lastly, do me a favour and stop stretching your long necks like giraffes."
"What's wrong with her?" Prince Goriola sounded worried staring at Florence once again. "Sometimes, she's scary."
Florence hit her leg on the washing bowl again while moving about in anger, pretending like nothing happened, but Ara saw her and just smiled, replying Prince Goriola instead. "I think she needs your help."
"What! I reject it by the blood!" Prince Goriola shouted causing both of them to laugh out loud.
That laughter got Florence more angry again. Even the small Prince never stood to chat with any worker. He was always himself. Why Ara?