32

YES, it was him, she saw the beautiful man as he gracefully walked in, looking all sweet and dashingly handsome, and oh! He wasn’t alone, beside him was the clingy and rude girl, Amelia, she had locked her right arm around his.
Hold on, were they just called the power couple huh? Indeed.
“Wow! Power couple?”, Mico mouthed and bursted into laughter.
Jasira scoffed, still staring, all occupants of the table were staring at the duo making a grand entrance.
Within seconds she studied them, he wasn’t even smiling, waving at the crowd or something like that, he just maintained a straight face. It was Amelia who kept smiling broadly and waving at the crowd with her left hand.
After few minutes of staring, she looked away and fixed her gaze somewhere else.
“Why the hell is he here? Why did he come? Who invited him huh? Damn it!”, she cussed.
Jeremy and Amelia were finally ushered to their table, Mr Redford, her dad was already sitted, together with about two more men.
“Hey, Dad”, she called happily and went over to him.
“My darling”, he said and got up, and gave her a side hug, “welcome”, he added.
“Thank you Daddy”, she replied.
“Em, meet my friends and business partners. Mr Gibson, Mr Brown”, he said as he called out thier names, pointing at them.
Amelia smiled and greeted them, then she walked back to the other side of the table and settled down close to Jeremy, he was already sitted.
Then Mr Redford turned to him, and they greeted.
A waiter approached their table instantly and dropped a bottle of wine, uncorked it and poured into two glasses for the duo that just arrived. They began sipping and chattering over the drink.
The master of ceremony few minutes later declared the party to begin, and it started with some activities.
Upstage a group of choreography dancers were entertaining the audience as they danced to a hit song by Tagged.
Fifty minutes after they had settled down, Zoey approached their table.
“Hello”, she called smiling, and talking Amelia abruptly turned to her and screamed out.
“My gee! You made it”, she squealed and got up.
“I made it baby”, Zoey replied laughing and they embraced.
“Kisses kisses”, Amelia said pointing at her cheeks and Zoey laughed all the more.
“Okay”, they brought their faces closer and brushed their cheeks against each other, making a kissing sound with their mouth.
“Sit, sit”, Amelia said and motioned her to the only empty seat beside her, and they sat.
Happily, she sat down and then greeted the other men at the table, starting from Mr Redford, and finally to Jeremy.
“Wow! So the shit is true”, Zoey whispered to her as she poured herself some wine.
Amelia turned to her.
“What shit?”, she asked, there was an amusing expression on her face.
“He really came, Jeremy really came. You dragged him along huh”, she replied in a whisper and Amelia laughed.
“I told you. He has been acting sweet now”, she said and bared her teeth and Zoey laughed.
“Ahh! Lucky you babe”, Zoey said and sipped some wine.
At this juncture, the dancers entertaining the audience at the stage left and the master of ceremony came in and cracked some jokes, they all laughed.
Then he announced he was about to open the dance floor for couples to come in and dance.
“Oh my! You gonna dance?”, Amelia asked turning to Zoey.
She shrugged her shoulders.
“Can’t tell, I do not have a partner you know?”, she said and Amelia bursted into laughter.
“One gonna come around once the dance starts, you are in a party”, she said.
Soon the lights on the dance floor went off, and only coloured lights came on, shinning down on the floor from different positions. And then, slowly and softly, the song came on and some couples went on to dance.
It wasn’t up to five minutes, a young cute looking man came up to their table and to Zoey.
“Shall we my lady?”, he asked, smiling.
Zoey smiled and glanced at Amelia, who shrugged her shoulders and nodded her head.
“Yeah”, she replied and stretched out her left arm to him and he took it, and together, they moved to the dance floor and joined the other couples dancing.
“Whoo!”, Amelia sighed and looked at Jeremy from the corner of her eyes, hoping him to make a move or something. Yeah, why not? Aren’t other couples going to dance? Isn’t he seeing them huh?
He made no move, as he just glued his eyes to his phone and she fumed within her, rehearsing how best to ask him for a dance, so as not to get him provoked.
Meanwhile, at Lord Lucario’s table, Mico was already up, stretching out his right arm to Jasira, asking her for a dance.
“Boss J? Shall we do this?”, he asked, smiling broadly.
Jasira snorted and glanced at Lord Lucario who seemed to be uninterested and then bursted out laughing.
This didn’t deter Mico, as he was well determined to do what was in his mind; to ask his boss for a dance.
Jasira, shocked at his guts, decided to try it. She has never danced all her lifetime, she had only watched others danced. Now, she was willing to try it out with Mico.
“Okay”, she smiled and gave him her left arm and he took it and she stood, together they moved to the dance floor.
Amelia was already getting infuriated with the whole thing, and impatient with Jeremy, she decided to make a move. She smiled and turned to him.
“Um… J darling I…”.
“Shall we dance?”, he asked, interrupting her.
She looked at him with a start, shock written all over her face, and her mouth was ajar as her remaining words was left hanging in the air.
Ahhh! Jeremy, what the hell is going on? He has been acting all sweet now.
She smiled.
“Yeah”, she replied shortly, smiling.
He got up and took her with him, and they moved to the dance floor.
Amelia was beside herself with happiness, she was more than happy.
They danced, while others who weren’t dancing, sat on their seats and happily entertained their eyes.
They had all danced for like thirty minutes when the master of ceremony grabbed the microphone again, and requested for a change of dancing partner.
“Let’s mix it up for you guys ok? You are all looking too comfortable, now turn to your left and meet a new dancing partner, let’s do this”, he said and the cheers that followed was so defeaning, as every dancer left their dancing partners to get a new partner.
At the instant Jeremy turned left, he grabbed the first lady he saw, she was actually stranded, her dancing partner had already left her.
“Huh!”, the lady gasped and instantly looked at the man who had grabbed her in the face, and jeez! She gasped again, it was Jeremy Petersons.
“You?”, her face went sour.
He ignored her and continued dancing, seemingly looking uninterested in her, but just focused to have fun, to dance.
The fact that he totally ignored her got her pissed off and she tried releasing herself from his grip, ready to discontinue with the dance.
“Let go off me”, she said in her firm voice and that was when he turned to really look at her, and jeez! His eyes widened in astonishment. It was his beautiful lady, it was Jasira.
A huge smile appeared on his face immediately, as he bared his white sparkling teeth smiling broadly. She frowned, what was that for?
“Oh my! So you came for the party huh?”, he asked and spinned her.
“None of your business”, she replied carelessly and made a face. He laughed. Jeez! She wasn’t gonna escape the conversation this time.
“My beautiful lady”, he said softly, “you look so beautiful that I couldn’t even recognize you”, he said.
Huh! She actually thought he knew she was the one and that was why he had grabbed her, she didn’t know he wasn’t aware of her presence even.
Well, she rolled her eyes.
“Do not forget your fiancee is here”, she said and he laughed again.
“Is that jealousy I sense?”, he rhetorically asked.
“None of your business either”, she replied again. They continued dancing in silence for a while, and then he broke the silence.
“Why can’t you drop down this ego of yours a little? It’s too high for me don’t you think?”, he asked.
“I do not know, I do not care to know either”, she blurted out.
He smiled.
“Hmph. Tough Jasira, but not tough for me”, he said.
She said nothing to him in reply, but just danced.
“There is no escaping for you today, I gotcha”, he said and winked.
They danced the rest in silence and minutes later, the song went off, and the master of ceremony came on stage to announce the end of the dance.
“Thank you for the dance honey”, Jeremy said to Jasira and bowed. She scoffed and walked away hurriedly, heading for her table.
“See you later”, he said and then turned to head back to the table as other dancers began walking back to their tables.
Amelia walked up to him immediately, giggling. And together, they walked up to their table. Zoey was still yet to arrive.
The master of ceremony then announced the entry of The Royals for their performance, and a defeaning cheers from the crowd followed.
The Royals was a dance group of five boys, all siblings. They were good dancers and had made a lot in the entertainment world through their dancing.
“Oops”, Jasira sighed as she collapsed in her seat. What just happened? She has just danced with… Jeremy? The almighty Jeremy. Jeez!
She picked up a glass of water and began gulping heavily.
“Hey, how was it?”, Lord Lucario asked, turning to her and she sharply turned to him, almost spilling water on herself.
“Jeez! Dehydrating”, she replied, “where is Mico?”, he asked.
Lord Lucario sighed.
“He isn’t back yet”, he replied.
She rolled her eyes, he was big enough to take care of himself. After gulping in two glasses of water, she began feeling pressed.
“Ahh! I really need to make use of the ladies”, she said and got up, saw an usher and asked for the location of the restroom.
She was told, and then she went in.
She raised up her gown, sat down on the toilet seat and released her bowels.
“Ahh!”, she exclaimed, feeling satisfied.
After that, she stretched out her right hand and cut out some tissue paper from the tissue on the tissue rack, and then cleaned up herself with it.
She threw the paper into the toilet and got up, pulled up her undies, and dropped down her gown.
Then she turned to the toilet and pressed a button on it, and it flushed.
Having done that she walked up to the sink and turned on the tap to wash her hands, there was a mirror in front of her and as she did, she looked at herself in the mirror.
After washing, she took out a souvenir and dried her hands with it, then she sighed deeply.
Still looking into the mirror, she smoothened up her hair, dabbed her face with a souvenir, and smoothened down her gown.
Finally, she was ready to leave and she walked away from the mirror towards the door.
As soon as she opened the door, she saw a figure standing right in front waiting, and in a flash, the figure forced her back into the toilet and closed the door behind them.
“Huh! Who the hell are you?”, she growled and the figure looked at her.
“It’s me”, he replied and her eyes widened in shock, it was Jeremy.
“You are invading my privacy Mr man, what are you doing in the ladies’ restroom?”, she asked.
“It doesn’t change the fact that I’m still here. Told you I was gonna see you later right?”, he asked.
She said nothing, but just looked at him fuming, and then she turned away, about to leave and the unexpected happened.
He immediately dragged her back and pushed her to the wall, then pinned her down there.
They were so close to each other that she could feel his breath on her face, and even feared that he might kiss her.
“Let go off me”, she said, trying in vain to release herself from his grip.
He smiled, so charmingly and she went soft instantly, staring directly into his eyes.
Quickly, she realized herself and looked away, flickering her eyelids. She sighed.
“You look so beautiful, I even, I’m just realizing that”, he complimented looking her over. She was putting on a black gown, adorned with shiny pearls.
“And why do you love black? You seem to be putting on black whenever I see you”, he said and her eyelids flickered as she looked away.
“There has always been nothing special inmy life, right from the day I was born. I wear black because I am black, my heart is black, full of black emotions…”, she trailed off. She was already talking too much.
“Mmm”, he replied shortly and licked his lips. She turned to him angrily.
“What do you want? Why are you following me? Why can’t you stay off me?”, she rushed her questions and he laughed.
“I want you Jasira, I want your love, I want your heart, I want your attention, that’s all”, he said.
“And you think that is easy to give? With all I just said?”, she asked and he gave out that alluring smile again.
“If you set your mind on it baby, it’s easy”, he replied and she sighed and looked away.
He kept mute, smiling and looking at her, patiently waiting for a reply. Slowly, she turned to look at him.
“You do not know me, you can’t say who I am, my identity is a mystery to you. How the hell do you expect this to work?”, she asked.
“There is time for everything lady, and everything has a due process to follow”, he said.
“I… I don’t want you”, she sharply replied and just then, the door screeched open and they snapped their heads at it in horror, and the intruder entered.
It was Zoey!