CHAPTER 15
Banjo dug out his phone from his pocket and peered at the display screen before accepting the call while motioning at Olly for some quiet.
“Hello?” Alero’s voice came over the phone.
“Hey babe.” Banjo said in a deadpan voice while his expression showed the strain of holding his laughter in check.
There was a pause on the line and then her voice came over even more tentatively. “Hello? Can I speak to Mister Adeniran?”
“Mister Adeniran speaking.” His smile was clear the phone. “How are you doing Alero?” he chuckled.
He heard her sigh and mumble something under her breath. He did not see the momentary scowl that marred Oliver’s feature before it cleared away.
He could almost hear her struggling to bite back a caustic comment. Eventually, professionalism won out and she cleared her throat mildly before saying.
“I am well Mister...”
“Ah! Ah! Ah!” Banjo reprimanded playfully. “My name is...” He waited for her to fill it in.
“Good morning Banjo. And how are you?” She said with drawling sarcasm.
“I am well, better for having heard your voice.” He responded.
“Whatever!” she said and Banjo guffawed with laughter.
“So to what do I owe this unexpected but not unpleasant surprise?” he asked.
“I wonder if we could fix a meeting sometime in the coming week. The preliminary sketches for the renovations just came in late yesterday and...”
“Tell me you’re not spending your weekend working.”
“I...Really Banjo! You’d complain about that?” she asked in an exasperated voice.
“It’s the weekend for a reason. Let yourself relax? Relaxation? Letting your hair down? Is that a concept you might be familiar with?” he asked in teasing tones.
“I...know how to relax!” she fairly shrieked over the line.
“Okay. Tell you what? You’re at home I hope?” When she grunted a response that sounded affirmative to him, he barreled on. “So what if I swing by and we look over the drawings and then head out to lunch or something?” he suggested.
The line was quiet for awhile and then she asked. “When you say lunch do you mean tha...like a business lunch?”
“Alero, can we hang out after we look over the drawings?” Banjo asked directly. The woman was making him work for this.
“That won’t be necessary Banjo. Bes...”
“Alero, I thought we had become friends of some sort.”
“Well, yes we are...”
“Good! Friends hang out Ally. Hang out with me. Make my Saturday special.”
The line was silent.
“What say you?” he asked surprised at how nervous he was by her continued silence.
“Sure. I’ll hang out with you Banjo. As a friend.”
Banjo felt a small frown mar his expression but he straightened it out. “Okay then, friends. I’ll be by in an hour or less.” he said
“Okay. Till later.” The phone disconnected in his ear.
He put the phone away from his ear slowly. He wished he could understand this woman and what made her tick.
“Sorry Olly. We’ve got to reschedule this visit. Duty calls.” Banjo said as he hefted himself out of the chair he had been lounging on.
“Duty or pleasure? That was Alero right?” Oliver asked, trying really hard not to sound as out of sorts as he felt.
“Duty and pleasure. The girl is...a hard nut to crack.” Banjo said wryly as he hustled his friend through his house to the front door and grabbing his car keys from the TV console on his way.
“When you say ‘nut to crack’ what exactly do you mean?” Olly asked as he allowed Banjo hurry him out.
“It’s one step forward, four steps backwards with her.” Banjo answered cryptically.
“One step what?” Olly asked planting his feet to prevent Banjo’s inexorable push out of his house.
“Guy move! I have a date!”
“With Ally?” Olly eyed him skeptically. “Is it serious then?”
“Not as serious as I would like but then I need to get moving.” Banjo pulled a surprised Olly out and slammed the door shut behind them. He did a light jog to his car and as he opened the door to slide in, he turned to Olly who stood where he had left him staring open mouthed at him.
“Sorry bro. I’ll make this up to you okay. Need to go get this girl.” He grinned like a little boy and slid into the car and drove off in a spray of gravel bits.
As he drove through the gates, he looked at Oliver, still standing in front of his door, hands in pocket and staring after him.
He wondered again if Olly liked Alero more than he had let on and if he did, why had he left it so long to make his move?
Well, he was making his, now, no matter what Olly’s issue with it was.
Alero slammed the pencil down on the sketch pad that she had been diddling on. Her concentration was shot to pieces as she waited for Banjo to get here. Some less nervous part of her mind remembered that he had not asked for her address.
She picked up the pencil in a nervous twitch and dropped it back on the desk. The jangle of the doorbell had her shooting up from her seat. She would have chuckled at herself if she had thought it at all funny. She made her way to the front door but her father had beaten her to it. She had not even realized that he was at home. It was a rare day that Doctor Bekere was not at his clinic during daylight hours.
She heard the rumble of their voices, her father and Banjo, and if she had been less nervous, she would have appreciated the depth and grit to those two voices combined, weaving with each other in conversation.
She reached the living room and looked at both of them standing just inside the door as they introduced themselves and sized each other up.
“Daddy, I did not realize you were still at home.” She called as she approached them. Both men turned to her, one set of eyes questioning and the other...staring.
“I was on my way out when I heard the doorbell.” he replied.
“Ah...I needed to go over a few things with...Banjo...eh.” She fumbled with an explanation.
“So he says.” Her father responded, his face a mask of bland amiableness. “I’ll be on my way then.” he said as he stepped out and shut the door behind him.
Alero released a pent up breathe she had not realized she had been holding.
“Hey! How did you know where I live?” she asked Banjo by way of greeting.
“I’ve never seen you dressed casually. You dress down nicely.” Banjo responded.
Alero shook her head in mild exasperation as she offered him a seat.
“It’s a compliment. You should say thank you.” Banjo said as he took the seat she had offered.
“Thank you.” Alero responded pertly. “What can I offer you?”
Banjo raised one eyebrow, a smile lurking around his lips. Alero sighed.
“By way of refreshments.” She enunciated.
His eyebrows went closer to his hairline and his smile peeped out a little more.
Alero harrumphed. “I’ll just go and get those drawings!” she exclaimed and stomped into her room.
Banjo relaxed into the sofa and looked around the room. It was a family room. There were pictures of her parents together, of the whole family, both candid shots and posed ones. He got carried away looking more closely at each shot.
“So here they are.” Alero announced as she walked back into the room with a thick roll of paper.
“How many kids are you?” Banjo asked.
Alero carefully dropped the roll on a low table and looked around the room at the pictures. “Four of us.” she replied and sat on an arm chair adjacent to his sofa. “Two sisters and a brother.”
“It must have been boisterous growing up.” he commented.
“It was, at a point.” Alero opened up the roll and laid it out before them.
Banjo decided that he could play along with her reticence for now. “So what do we have here??
?? he asked as he turned his concentration to the drawings before them.
After about an hour and some minutes, Alero rolled up the drawing papers with the necessary annotations and adjustments made on them.
“So on to other things. How would you like to spend the rest of your day?” Banjo asked.
“Ah...I was…a...”
“No, you’re not backing out!” Banjo shook his head.”A deal is a deal. Professional as you are, you should appreciate that philosophy.” He argued.
“I really don’t remember making a deal with you.” Alero retorted.
“You said ‘Okay.’” Banjo quoted. “In my books, that means you made a deal. With me.” he had a cheeky smile on his face.
Alero sighed as she stood to go keep the roll of drawings back. “It has to be some place laid back.” she said as she went. “I’m in no mood to dress up.” Her voice faded as she left the living room.
Banjo sighed partly in relief and partly in exasperation. He wondered why he was allowing himself remain here while she jerked him around. He could not remember ever working so hard to get a woman’s attention.
“And we can’t spend all day out. I’ve got other things I need to do as well.” she announced as she came back in.
“Did you spend some time in front of the mirror practicing that?” Banjo mumbled under his breath as he stood and held out his hand to her.
She eyed his hand and walked past him without taking it. “I hope you were not insulting me under your breath.” she commented as she opened the door and waited for him to step outside.
“Jeez, Lady!” Banjo exclaimed. “Let’s not do this today!”
Alero snapped the door shut. “What?”
“I like you.” He said it blandly. Alero stumbled to a stop as shock made her loose her footing. She turned to him in blatant surprise.
“I really like you a lot.” he shrugged. “Do you think it’s possible you could like me even a little?”
“I never said I didn’t like you.” Alero whispered, her shock had stolen her voice.
“I’d like for it to be more than you do apparently.” he responded wryly.
Alero smiled and then chuckled. “What do you want from me Banjo?” She decided to be as direct as he had been.
Banjo looked at her intently for a moment and then responded. “Would you...would you date me?” He laughed. “That sounded so juvenile!”
Alero could not have responded either way as she stared at him open mouthed.
“Shut your mouth Ally.” He put his fingers on her chin and gently pushed it up to shut her gaping mouth. “We don’t want you catching any flies.”
Alero blinked at the sensation his fingers on her chin caused. Why was this happening again? Didn’t she know better than to set herself up like this?
“What are you thinking?” He asked. “I can see the wheels turning in your head.”
“Why? Why would you ask me that?”
“Why not you?” Banjo asked a slight frown of consternation on his face.
“I’m not of your ilk.” Alero replied.
“What’s that? How would you know what my ilk is? You refuse to hang out with me or even give me a chance to get to know you or you know me.”
“To what purpose?!”
Banjo stared at her in surprise. “Why do a man and a woman decide to explore a friendship with a hope for something more?” he asked.
“Something more Banjo?” Ally asked.
“Yes, Alero. Something more.” He stepped closer to her and drew her into his embrace. Alero allowed herself to be pulled jerkily even as she felt something crack and then shatter inside her. She gasped as a moment of blinding clarity revealed what had just happened to her.
He had hurt her deeply. That first time that they had met, as incongruous as it sounded he had touched off some place deep enough within her that his snub that day had hurt her deeply, had wounded her to her soul. To have him chasing after her as he had been, and mean it, was a healing balm to the wound he had unknowingly caused all those years ago.
She allowed her being accept and revel in warmth of his embrace, of his need that was so apparent in the way he held her flush against him, of...
“I hope you both realize that you are standing entirely too close to each other and that we have nosey neighbors. At least, you should Alero.” Her mother’s voice interrupted her reveling.
“Mummy!” Alero gasped as she disentangled herself from Banjo’s embrace. Banjo reluctantly released her from his embrace and turned to look at the older woman who was standing beside a car, car keys in hand.
He bowed slightly at her as he grinned. She was so obviously related to Alero. From the pictures he had seen in the living room, he knew he was looking at Mrs. Bekere.
“Good...”he looked at his wristwatch. “...afternoon Ma.” he greeted.
“Good afternoon.” she replied, her head cocked at a contemplative angle. “And you are?”
He stepped forward instinctively pushing Alero a step behind him. Mrs. Bekere watched all these with a mildly amused look in her eyes.
“Banjo Adeniran, Ma.”
Her eyes widened in surprise as she looked more closely at him. Banjo tensed wondering what her recognition of his name would portend.
“I see. How do you know my daughter?”
“Ah...we kind of have mutual friends.”
“Maggie and Olly. I met him at their house.” Alero piped up.
“Oh.” Mrs. Bekere responded. “So you are...?”
Banjo mentally scratched his head trying to come up with an answer that would fit.
“My friend, Mummy. He’s my friend.” She was looking steadily at Banjo when she said this. Banjo returned the stare, searching her eyes for some meaning, some sign that she was saying what he wanted so badly to believe she was saying. She blinked and turned to her mother.
“And we are going on a date.” she finished.
“Ah!” Mrs. Bekere said and unlocked her car.
As she got in, she spoke over her shoulders.
“Have a great time.” When that did not elicit the expected response, she poked her head out of the window to say, “I’ll need both of you to move so I can drive out.” and she gunned the engine to buttress her point and the gateman rushed to open the gates.
Banjo gently pulled Alero to the side, his hands and arm over her shoulders. Mrs. Bekere backed out of the compound throwing a small polite smile at both of them. Alero stared at her mother in befuddlement.
“I like your parents.” Banjo said like he was making a public general announcement.
Alero looked up at him and back at the open gate through which her mum had just driven out, her look, patent disbelief and a dash of confusion.
“Come on.” Banjo coaxed his arm still over her shoulder. “Let’s hit the road and you can tell me all about the look.” he signaled her facial expression.
Alero cracked a smile.
“I think you must have bewitched my parents.” she stated.
Banjo smiled. ‘Major step forward.’ he thought.