The phone on Alero’s desk was ringing shrilly as she rushed into her office. She hurriedly dropped her bag on her desk and dived to pick it up before the call could disconnect.
“Hello. Alero Bekere’s office.” She struggled to control her panting breath.
“Hello.” And just like that, Alero was transported to the very first time she heard his voice and she reacted exactly the same way.
“Mr. Adeniran.” She smiled into the phone.
“Would that be me you’re referring to?” he asked in an affronted voice.
“I...Banjo then.” She said on a sigh of surrender. It was just too early to get into one with him. He had proven during the party and on subsequent phone calls in the following week that he did not back down quietly.
“See! So what’s good?” he teased.
“Good? I’m...alright I guess.” Alero stumbled around for a response, blushing like a school girl and exasperated with her fluster.
“Why are you calling me at work? And so early too?” she asked.
“I needed a pick me up. It’s looking to be one of those days.” he responded.
Alero frowned a little. “When...How long have you been at work? You are at work aren’t you?” she asked.
“I am. We had a bit of a crisis, nothing that can’t be handled. I’ve been in since 6am or there about.”
“Wow! Life of a CEO I guess.”
“Well, that’s my mum really. I’m just the COO remember.”
“Titles, Titles!” Alero joked as she smiled into the phone. They were both silent for a while.
“Hey...” he started.
“Do you...” she began.
They both stopped and huffed out a laugh.
“You go first.” he said. “Ladies first and all that jazz.”
“I can’t believe you just said that!” Alero exclaimed in mock indignation. “I really need to get off the phone.” she said regretfully. “Some of us just got to our desk when you called.”
“Sure. Thanks for cheering me up.” he said. “Are you by any chance free for this weekend?” he asked after a short pause.
“Why?” Alero asked.
“Typical! You’d answer a question with another question.” he remarked.
“Typical what?” Alero queried. “Look...”
“Ally, just answer the question.” his voice sounded husky over the phone.
“I’ll need to check my calendar.” she snapped. Why did she suspect he was laughing at her?
“Okay. Do that. We’ll talk later.” he said, this time his mirth more apparent across the line.
“Why are you laughing? I need to...”
“Have a great day Ally.” He interrupted and clicked the phone connection off. He was not fast enough to stop Alero from hearing his guffaw of laughter as he cut the connection though. She dropped the phone back on its cradle with conflicted emotions.
She wondered if her wellbeing could survive Adebanjo Adeniran. The man always managed to leave her in knots more often than not.
She booted up her computer and dove headlong into her day. She had too much to do to spare all that time thinking about Mr. Adeniran.
Emily paused in surprise as she walked into her office. There was a flower arrangement on her desk, a rather conspicuous, expensive looking, and real-life flower arrangement on her desk. It could not be a company thing. It was not that they could not have given her one if they had to, but that was just it! It was not her birthday and she had done nothing to garner such a sweet gesture.
She stepped closer to her desk, the door swinging shut behind her as she dropped her hand bag and satchel on the desk all the while staring curiously at the flowers. There was a card so she plucked it from the blooms and opened it.
‘Thanks for a memorable day. Would you do it again?’ The card read and it was simply signed ‘Kenneth’ with a mobile phone number under it.
Emily collapse to her seat as her knees gave way. She knew she must have the most ridiculously wide smile on her face but she could not have stopped it from blooming at that point.
She had been in awe of how informed he was on almost any topic she had thought to bring up during their lunch...date? Had it been a date? It had felt like one, but when she had not heard anything from him all of last week, she thought that she had let her imagination run away with her as usual.
She twirled the card and debated in her mind whether to call him or not. Who was she kidding? She was going to call him. It was more a question of ‘when’ not ‘if’. She searched her hand bag for her cell phone and when she found it, she saved the number on the card into it. She kept the card in her desk drawer and began to organize herself. Try as she might though, she could not settle into her rhythm. Finally, she gave up and dialed his number. He picked on the second ring.
“Hello.” His voice sounded sharp and a bit distracted. Emily found herself wondering if it had been a good idea to call so early into the day.
“Ah...Hi. It’s Emily. I can call back.” she stuttered into the phone.
“Don’t you dare hang up on me now.” he said with a smile in his voice. There was a brief moment of silence but before it could get awkward, he continued.
“You called!”
Emily smiled. “I got the flowers. They’re so beautiful so I’m not going to say ‘you shouldn’t have’.”
“Good, good! Glad you are enjoying them.” There was another small stretch of silence. “So?” he asked.
“So?” Emily responded a bit nonplussed.
“Would you...do...go...” It was him stuttering now and Emily smiled wider.
“Yes, I would.” She decided she had best put him out of his misery. She heard him sigh over the line and her smile widened even more into the realm of ‘foolish’.
“Where would you like to go?” he asked.
Emily twirled a strand of her hair in her hand as she tried to think of an appropriate place to suggest. As her silence lengthened, he suggested.
“Okay, you know what? Since we did the seafood the other time, let’s do...Chinese?”
“Chinese sounds good.” Emily agreed.
“Soooo I’ll call you with details?” His voice was beginning to sound distracted again.
“Sure!” Emily agreed. There was a smaller pause.
“Alright. Enjoy your day.” he said and the line went dead so abruptly that Emily took it away from her ear to look at the display screen just to assure herself that she still had a network signal on.
She shook her head wryly. Men! There was no understanding them.