57

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN.
Adele decided to go grocery shopping on her day off. Her colleagues called to ask how she was faring, including Grace and she was shocked. Grace had asked her to report to work the next day unfailingly and she had accepted.
When she parked her car in the driveway, she checked her purse to make sure that her credit card and shopping list was intact. She wanted to shop for groceries so that the next time Jamal came to her house, she would be the one to cook for him.
“Cook for him?” She voiced out her thoughts and scoffed! “I am not supposed to be anticipating something like that! Why am I even welcoming the thought of bringing him to my house again?” She asked furiously. “He hurt me, I hate him and we are never going to be together again. Period!” She said to herself as she opened the car door and stepped out of it. She then closed it and swung her hand bag on her left arm and walked into the grocery store.
She went straight to the chicken section and began looking around with a foolish smile on her face. The previous night was the first time she had ever eaten food made by Jamal and it was very delicious. It was then she remembered that she had failed to ask him who taught him how to cook so well.
“It should be his mum.” She speculated and later shook her head very hard. “Tss… no! Jamal and his mother have the worst relationship ever. There’s no way it could have been her who thought Jamal how to cook.” She spoke absent-mindedly, forgetting the fact that she was loud and there were people around her, listening to her one-man conversation. “Could it be grandma?” She asked as she stopped on her tracks to think. “Grandma and Jamal have a great relationship, it’s definitely her. Yeah! Grandma taught Jamal how to cook!” She said almost joyfully and the people around her were now looking at like she had lost her mind, but she had not realized that yet.
“But… he always looks so mean and uninterested in learning anything from anyone, how then was grandma able to convince him to learn how to cook?” She asked rhetorically, her gaze plastered on the packets chicken before her. “Huh?”she asked pointing at the chickens. “Answer me all of you! How did Grandma convince Jamal to learn how to cook you all so well?” She asked yet again, but their chickens did not reply and she was disappointed. “Bad chickens! Bad, bad chickens!” She said and looked away from the chickens and that’s when she realized she was actually causing a scene. Everyone around her had stopped their shopping and were looking at her like she had lost her mind.
Some were shaking their heads in pity, while others were trying hard to suppress their laughter.
Adele had never felt so embarrassed in her life before.
“Should we call nine-one-one?” A teenage guy asked, concerned and Asked quickly shook her head.
“Oh my God no! I promise I’m not crazy. I was just thinking out loud. I’m sorry for the trouble.” She apologized as she sauntered away from the chickens and that side of the store as a whole.
“Goodness Adele! This flippant mouth of yours is going to put you in trouble one day.” She scolded herself, hitting her lips with her palms over and over again and that still earned her confused stares from the people around her.
She finally shut her mouth and her thoughts and focused on buying the things she came to buy.
When she was done shopping, she cleared the bill and went over to the driveway to put the things in her car. She opened the car boot by pressing a button on the car key in her hand and went over to it to pack the things in it. When she was done packing the stuff, she closed the boot and turned around and yelped in fear when she saw Danielle standing before her with her arms crossed over breast and an eternal frown masked on her face.
“My Goodness Danielle! You scared me!” She scolded as she rubbed her chest, breathing hard.
“Well, you didn’t have a heart attack and die, so I didn’t share you enough, next time, I will.”
“Excuse me?” Adele asked surprised.
*Excuse you!” Danielle fired, taking another stylish pose.
Adele scoffed when she finally understood what was going on. Danielle had come to confront her about Jamal.
“What are you doing here, anyway? Why are you standing in front of me like I owe you money.”
“You don’t owe me money, but you definitely owe me something more valuable than money.”
“I highly doubt that.” Adele denied, shaking her head.
Her heart wasn’t pounding anymore. She wasn’t scared of Danielle. She was ready to give the girl a piece of her mind and enough trouble is she asked for it.
“You’ve got some nerve you know…”
“And you’ve got some nerve too, Danielle. Following me around? Really?”
“I’m not following you around!”
“Then how do you explain this? All of this?” Why the hell are you blocking my way in a parking lot? What do you want from me?” Adele asked, trying hard to keep her voice at bay. She didn’t want to gather a crowd.
The last thing she wanted was any sort of public humiliation.
“I want you to leave Jamal the hell alone!” She warned.
“But I’m not holding him! I don’t have a leash around his neck, do I?”
“Well not physically, but emotionally, you do!” She accused Adele and shook her head.
“What the fuck are you talking about, Danielle? Because I honestly don’t understand. Why don’t you just come clean? Tell me what your problem is!” Adele spoke out and Danielle was taken aback.
She did expect Adele to attack her so fiercely.
She had judged Adele to be a quiet girl, who rarely had anything to say. The kind of girl who didn’t know how to defend herself against an oppressor that’s why she had decided to confront her in public. She had no idea was capable of bashing her as such.
“Go on, I’m listening.” Adele urged and she loosened her arms from her chest and gave her a fierce look.
“Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? You left your husband for an entire year because of a small misunderstanding. The man suffered for one whole year and I was the only one there to comfort him, and now you want to come back into his life like nothing happened? How dare you!”
“How dare I? I should be asking you that question, Danielle, how dare you try to put this on me when you are in fact, the root of all my problems?” Adele scolded in rage. “It was because of you that we lost our child! You knew I was pregnant but you didn’t leave the man alone. How dare you try to act like you are the victim here?”
“Because I am the victim, goddammit!” Danielle insisted and Adele looked at her in awe. “I am the victim! When you left, I was happy because I thought I had finally gotten an opportunity to make Jamal mine. For the past year, I have done all I can to make him notice me, to make him fall in love with me, to make him want me, to make him choose me over you, but all my attempts have been futile! He didn’t even look at me for once. You were the only one he ever thought of. That is so unfair!” Now she was crying and Adele was amused.
She felt the anger in her heart subside upon hearing all what Danielle had just told her. She felt satisfied that she had not had a good year either. Even though she(Danielle) had not suffered as much as she did during the past year, she at least had a rough year in the hands of the same man who caused all her suffering.
“You look really, really pathetic right now, Danielle, but I don’t feel sorry for you. You deserve every bit of pain and suffering you are going through right now. That’s your punishment for making me lose my child and it’s not going to end anytime soon!”
“I don’t care! All I want is Jamal. Get the hell out of his life! Leave him for me!” Danielle scolded, attracting onlookers, but at that moment, Adele cared less.
She stood upright on her feet and inched closer to Danielle who was in tears.
“I’m still very mad at Jamal. I haven’t forgiven him yet for what he did to me. I’m not going to forgive him anytime soon and that means, I don’t want him in my life anymore. Jamal is the one running after me, it’s not the other way round. But let me tell you this, Danielle, I have a lot of influence over Jamal and even if I don’t want him, even if he has to end with some other woman, I will make sure that woman isn’t you. I gave you one year to make him yours, but you failed. You failed woefully, now your time is up. You will never get Jamal, ever! Mark my words.” Adele firmly deciphered and walked away from the raging girl.
She went into her car and drove away, leaving Danielle who began bawling her eyes in public, caring less about the fact that people were looking at her.