CHAPTER SIXTY.
Adele went to work the next day and her colleagues were elated to see her. Kelly even brought her a box of chocolates as a gift to get her to recover quicker and she was very grateful to her.
Her morning had gone smoothly, but after lunch break, her head began to ache unexpectedly. She couldn’t do anything and her temperature was high. Grace was furious, but had no choice but to let her leave the office early. She passed by the health care unit to get consulted before heading back home.
She was about to call Jamal and tell him that she was not feeling too well, but she remembered that she was mad at him because he did not call back the previous day as promised. She had been waiting all day and for the better part of the night for his call, but it didn’t come through and even when she called at night, his number didn’t go through. She was disappointed.
She had gone to bed with her heart and with a million thoughts running on her mind.
She thought of the possibility that Jamal was back to his former self. Cold, distant, nonchalant, unromantic, cruel, thoughtless, insensitive….
“Ahhhh!” She screamed as she tossed around on the bed.
She didn’t know what to think at that moment.
She had a bad headache at work because she had been thinking all night.
Two hours later, she had still not been able to fall asleep. She kept thinking about Jamal and looking at her phone, hoping that he would call or text, but none of that happened. She had tried his number a couple of times again that afternoon, but it wasn’t going through and now she was beginning to get worried. She picked her phone to call grandma, but before she could dial the number, the door bell sounded. Adele quickly jumped down from her bed and flew to the living room at the speed of light. When she got to the door, she held the knob and made a quick prayer in her heart.
“Lord, please let it be Jamal.” She prayed and opened the door. The moment she saw Jamal, she crashed into his arms and burst into tears.
Jamal, who was totally confused about what was going on, just held her in his arms and calmly stroked her back as she sobbed softly.
“It’s okay baby. You can tell me what happened, I’m here now.” He tried to comfort her and she looked up at him, her face soaked with tears.
“You scared me.” She said as she disengaged herself from the hug and walked into the house.
“I did?” Jamal asked as he followed her, not forgetting to lock the door behind him.
“You said you were going to call back, but you didn’t. I waited all day and night, I even tried calling but your cell wasn’t reachable. I was just about to call grandma to ask if she has heard from you.” Adele explained in a very worried tone and Jamal couldn’t be more excited.
He was happy that Adele was worried about him. That was a pretty good sign.
“I’m sorry I didn’t call. Something came up and I had to leave the country immediately…”
“Leave the country!” Adele asked aghast.
“Yeah, not to worry I was just in the neighboring country for some urgent business matter that needed my attention.”
“How then, are you here?” Adele asked, perplexed.
“I was in a meeting over there when Sean called and told me you left early because you had a serious headache, I had to let my right hand man take over and fly home immediately to see you.”
“What the hell, Jamal! You flew all the way from another country to see me just because you were told I had a headache?” She asked, aghast and Jamal nervously scratched his head.
“Uh… yeah. I got worried. I had to come home and see you.”
“Jamal I can’t believe you.” Cried Adele as she sat on one of the couches in the living room. Jamal did the same by her side. “That was an outrageous thing to do.”
“No it wasn’t. Your health is more important Adele. It was needles for me to stay because I knew I wouldn’t bring myself to focus on anything anyone would say. I asked Chris to ride on. He’s a good businessman, he will handle the issue just well and report back to me.” He explained and Adele just kept looking at him as if he had lost his mind.
She still couldn’t believe he had just flown from another country, leaving a business meeting behind just to come and see her because he was told she had a headache.
That was wild.
She had been craving Jamal’s love and now that she was finally getting a taste of it, she wasn’t sure if she could handle it.
The guy loved very hard!
“Now, enough about all of that. Tell me, how’s your head? What did the doctor say?” He asked, placing his palm on her forehead to feel her temperature.
“The doctor said it was nothing serious. Just a normal headache. No cause for alarm.“
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am. So there was absolutely no reason for you to have flown all the way here in a hurry. Jeez, I’m totally freaked out right now.“ She lamented and all Jamal did was smile.
“You will get used to it.” He finally told her and she shook her head.
“I’m not sure about that.” She flatly denied it.
A brief moment of silence went by and Adel turned to look at Jamal who was looking at her like it was his first time seeing her.
“What?” She asked, giggling and Jamal shrugged.
“Nothing.”
“Then why are you staring at me like that?” She asked with a shy smile.
“Because you are too beautiful for me to not stare at.”
Adele blushed hard.
“Jamal.” She finally called after mustering the courage to look at him again.
“Yes, love.”
“I want to know why you never wanted people to know about our marriage. I want to know why you treated me the way you did. Grandma told me there is a valid reason and it has something to do with your father and Danielle. I want to hear it all.” She demanded in a serious tone.
Jamal heaved out a heavy sigh as he rested his back on the chair rest and stared up at the ceiling for a while, before looking at Adele again.
“It was about time, anyway.”
“Sure.” She nodded and Jamal inched closer to her to start his story.