64

JEREMY looked at the envelope, and then at the guard, then he glanced over at the gate where the mailbox was positioned.
“From the mailbox?”, Jeremy asked and he nodded.
“Yes, the mailbox”, he replied.
“I see. So have you studied what is in here?”, He asked.
“Certainly Boss”, he replied.
Without saying a word, he took the envelope from him and then walked into the mansion.
As soon as he got in, there was Nathan already descending the stairs he had gone up to drop Jeremy’s stuffs in the room.
He bowed the minute he got to Jeremy and then continued moving. Quickly, Jeremy scurried up the stairs and straight into his room.
As soon as he got in, he dropped the envelope and phone on the dressing table, then began taking off his clothes.
First, he took off his tie, t-shirt, shoes and then his trousers, he was now just in a white singlet and pants.
Then he began contemplating which to do next, whether to go have a bath, or just sit and quickly check out this envelope, for it was now preoccupying his whole mind.
He knew definitely that it wasn’t business related, anything business related was normally done through the emails, text messages and calls, but from his mailbox, nah, he just knew it had no connection with business, nor family.
And there and then, he resolved to quickly check it out before going to freshen up.
So he walked over to the dressing table and grabbed the envelope, and tore it open. A neatly folded white paper fell out and he looked at it.
Then he bent over and picked it up, opened it and began reading through the lines of this paper.
It was a letter, professionally typed and printed, it wasn’t handwritten.
He finished reading and the next thing, he bursted into laughter.
“What kind of a maniac had written this huh?”, He questioned in between laughter, tossing both the paper and envelope aside and reached out for his phone.
He dialed a contact and it was picked up instantly.
“Boss!”, The person at the receiving point hailed.
“Come over here this minute”, he instructed.
“Okay boss”, and immediately, Jeremy hung up.
He sank into the seat in front of the dressing mirror and soon enough, there came a knock on the door.
“Get in!”.
The door opened and Nathan came in. He locked the door behind him and walked up to Jeremy.
“You sent for me”, he said bowing slightly.
Jeremy was mute for a second, saying no word to Nathan as he stared into space. Suddenly, he spoke out.
“You remember the company we were seeking to partner with, the shoe producing company?” He asked and turned to him.
Nathan nodded.
“Sure boss, I do”, he replied.
Jeremy simpered.
“I just received a letter from them. I don’t even know whether to call it a letter, a business proposal, a business strategy, or a business threat, like I’m confused”, he said.
“What exactly did they say boss? We were supposed to receive an email as regards to our request a long time ago”, he said.
Jeremy nodded, happy for Nathan’s understanding.
“Good you know. I had even forgotten we made a proposal to them, it’s not like we are the ones at the loosing end anyway, they are”.
Nathan nodded in concurrence.
“Sure boss, sure. We only reached out to them for partnering not because we needed anything, I mean, we are the ones that had already been made, we have the fame, the growth, the resources, yet they took so long in giving us a reply”.
“And you won’t believe what reply they gave us Nathan”, Jeremy said almost interrupting him.
“What boss?” He asked with his eyes wide opened.
“The idiot! I mean, the idiot CEO, said that partnering with us is a good idea but for it to be granted, I have to get married -“.
“Huh!”.
“And not just get married, but be married to Mr Redford’s daughter”, he said and laughed.
“Huh! That is ridiculous”, Nathan exclaimed.
“Who does that? Get married because of a business deal? Well to hell with him and his business deal”.
“Someone we are trying to help”, Nathan said.
“Like it’s amusing to me, I find it funny”, he said.
“You know what Boss?” Nathan said and Jeremy looked up at him, “I am suspecting someone behind this”, he said.
“Who?”, He calmly asked.
“Mr Redford”, he spat and Jeremy smiled, like that was exactly the same person who had come to his mind as well, this was the handiwork of Mr Redford’s, and none other.
The old man really wants him to marry his daughter, hmph, exciting isn’t it? By force huh?
“I guessed so too”, he said.
“Woah! So the business deal with the company is automatically terminated, right boss?”.
“Right, terminated, except they change the direction with which they are approaching”, he said.
Nathan nodded.
“Alright boss, okay”, he said and then turned to leave.
As soon as he left, Jeremy let out a weird laugh and reached out for his phone, picking it up, suddenly remembering the text Jasira had sent earlier on.
He tapped on the text and quickly, his eyes moved through the lines of the brief text, and he smiled. It was an apology text.
Immediately, he put a call across to her.
***
Jasira laid sprawling on the bed, she had just finished having dinner and was now dejectedly looking up at the ceiling.
It’s been like five hours since she sent that text and yet, Jeremy hasn’t returned the text, is he that angry with her?
She was still in thought when her phone rang and she slowly turned over, then reached out for it.
Looking into the phone, her eyes widened in astonishment, glistening with happiness. It was Jeremy calling.