Both of them were hesitant to go get the door. Even Amanda’s panic attack was about to kick in. It was then Nelly realized that Amanda also suffers from that too.
“Ding! Dong!”
The person might have grown tired from knocking so the still anonymous individual decided to use the doorbell.
Were they to pretend as if no one was in there? Nelly contemplated more than a hundred thoughts in less than a second.
“I’ll get the door. I’ll do it.” Nelly volunteered herself.
“Are you crazy? Do you want to get us both killed?” Amanda countered Nelly’s idea.
Nelly insisted on getting the door:
“You would never know Amanda, it might just be someone looking for directions, someone lost. Or it might be a delivery, a misplaced one.” Nelly said all of these in whispers.
“Delivery? Can you hear yourself?!” Amanda used her own hand to hush her mouth. She noticed she was beginning to raise her voice a little.
“Why don’t you go to the back, Amanda. I know you are scared so I need you to go to the back. If anything happens, you can either choose to run away or to call the police,” Nelly said to her.
“Call the police? We can’t even speak the local language!” Amanda countered.
“What do you suggest, that we run out through the back door?” Nelly asked. “Don’t you think someone who wants to hurt us will have our whole apartment surrounded?”
“There must be someone you can call. Someone who knows how to speak the local language.”
Who came to mind? Sandra. Nelly immediately thought of her Boss and friend, Sandra. But Nelly didn’t want to bother Sandra just because of some odd feeling or because someone was at the door.
What if she ends up wasting Sandra’s time? What would Sandra then think of her?
Nelly did not want to look like a pest. She still wanted Amanda to either go to the back where she’ll escape from or call the cops, if the need arises.
What terrified them the most was that the person still kept on knocking and ringing the bell. It was as if the still anonymous person would never leave without them opening the door.
“I mean, it has taken so long, why wouldn’t he or she just leave?!” Amanda was letting her voice rise again.
“Nelly?! It’s me…it’s me, Amon. Are you still up?”
Finally, a voice. It was their charming and pleasant looking neighbor, Amon.
“Phew!” Nelly and Amanda breathed a huge sigh of relief. Now Amon was going to get some chiding for making their hearts skip like that.
“What on earth is wrong with you?! Are you trying to give us a heart attack?” Nelly shouted at Amon.
A confused looking Amon presented a photo to Nelly. “I just wanted to give you this, that’s all. You dropped it on your way out this morning. I’m sorry I am late. I had work to do and I’m just returning.”
“Then why didn’t you bring it to her in the morning! You just wanted to scare the shit out of us?!” Amanda exploded from behind Nelly.
“That’s not what I wanted, I’m sorry. I’ll be leaving very early in the morning so I felt it’ll be best to give it to you tonight.”
Amon was so calm in his speech. He was smooth and eloquent in English. He spoke as if he had been to any English speaking country before, but he hadn’t.
What he held out to Nelly was a childhood photo of hers with her mum in it. Nelly was so grateful that Amon decided to return it.
“Thank you, A…”
“Amon. It’s Amon.”
“Thank you, Amon. This photo you see here means the world to me. It means everything to me. I don’t know if there is ever anything I could do to repay you.”
“There is,” Amon smiled seductively.
“You jerk! How dare you make such a demand just because you returned the childhood photo of my friend!” Amanda charged at Amon.
“What demand? Is asking for a cup of coffee too much?”
Amanda was calm now, she thought Amon was requesting something sexual. She quickly apologized to Amon.
“It’s nothing, Amanda. Maybe something was wrong with the way I said it,” Amon smirked.
He was still standing outside but then Nelly ushered him in. He sat with them for a while, drinking hot coffee.
He was funny and intriguingly Interesting. Even Amanda who was hostile to him from the onset laughed at all the jokes he made.
“I’d like to take my leave now. I still have a lot of work to do before tomorrow,” Amon said as he stood up to take his leave.
Once more, Nelly thanked him for returning the photo.
“I had to. I saw the picture had two pretty women in it.”
Nelly smiled, though it was forced. She wasn’t moved by compliments any longer. That’s how she had become.
Ash decided to heed the call of Katty Landers. He saw her text and drove down to the address in it.
“Why did you invite me here?” Ash asked Katty who was already sitting at the bar in a club, sipping some one the finest wine.
Katty was saucy, she didn’t even speak to Ash until she was done. “What are you saying?” She asked afterward.
“Why did you ask me to meet you?”
“Is that how you say thank you to a friend?”
Ash was surprised. What on earth did he have to say thank you for to Katty? He could not fathom. Most especially, he didn’t know when he became friends with Katty. He felt her addressing him as ‘friend’ was manipulative.
“You ain’t going to say thank you?” Katty asked with a deceptive smile.
“I have nothing to say thank you for. Now if you brought me here just to make me watch you take your drink, then I’m going to have to leave.”
“I did a lot for you!” Katty insisted.
“You didn’t!”
“Sit, let me enlighten you.”