My heart rate accelerated, I tried to tap on the icon for any information that could lead to the sender but there was nothing..
“Nora, are you okay.. you look like you’ve just seen a ghost ?” Jessica’s voice rang through my head.
“Yeah yeah I’m fine.. just got a funny message.. Will you like something to eat ?”
Isn’t like I don’t trust Jessica, I do, even more than myself, but this is so risky that I’ll hate to drag her into it.
So I went on to tell her the regular story, I don’t want my history with him to affect his working with me, I wouldn’t want him to compromise his decision because of our history together.
“Are you the one asking me that question? Of course I want to eat.. As a matter of fact I’m not going back to my house today I’m snuggling in on you until you tell me the secret to your new found beauty. Don’t get me wrong you’ve always been beautiful, but now.. you look exceptional.”
“Awwwn please stop making me blush.” I said flipping my hands playfully.
Catching up with Jessica was what I had ever imagined it to be, she updated me on her life and life’s of some of our friends including my sister Emma who is now engaged to Jake.
After she had gone to bed, I quickly gave Juliette a call.
“I received a funny message that said I know your secret, do you have any idea who the sender might be ?”
“No I don’t, but like I said earlier, someone has been digging up things about you and even went as far as consulting someone at the conference to describe what you look like.”
“That’s absurd. I can’t even think of anyone who would go to that length.”
“I’ll keep my eyes out and if I get a clue I’ll let you know. Just act like nothing happened, the person who sent it is definitely there with you and will be looking out for a reaction from you..”
“Alright thanks, how’s the website going ?”
“Well I spoke with him and they’ve been working really hard, and hopefully by tomorrow they’ll give it a try out.”
“Get me contacts on who can do this.., I want every bill board that Jake and the shareholders looks at to have the website on it.. flyer’s, phone ad’s.. Everything that’ll convince them, and of course humans. I’ll get their schedule and location, by Monday I want everything rolling.”
“Yes ma’am..”
The next day I and Ray was going to see the new site.
There will be lots of walking so I wore trousers and a pitch colored top, and sandals heel.
I didn’t have any snickers with me and it was too soon to order one, so I made do with what I had.
“Are you going to work or going to seduce all the men there ?” Jessica asked the moment I got downstairs.
“Stop exaggerating, it’s only an outfit.”
“An outfit with the intention to kill..”
“Kill who ?” I asked raising my brows.
“You tell me, I have no idea..”
“Cause no one is getting killed or whatever..”
“Alright alright, I’ll be going off later.. but I’ll be back just so you know..”
“Alright Jess, a little bit of noise will be appreciated in this house..,”
“So you mean to call me a noise maker ?” She asked feigning annoyance.
“Sorry I meant tse tse fly, cause you’re always buzzing.” I said quickly walking towards the door.
Knowing her she’ll probably throw her shoe at me for messing with her.
Ray had requested we meet at work first before driving down to the location together.
He was already at the entrance when I arrived, he had jeans on, with a blue shirt and a pair of snicker. I hopped into his car, and he drove us to the location.
“You look a little bit different today, did you change something ?”
“I have no idea, you’re the one seeing me, so tell me do you think I changed something ?”
“Do you always answer questions with questions ?”
“I won’t know.. Do I ?”
“See you just did it again..” he said pointing his fingers at me.
“Well I guess you’re right. You should focus on the road thou before you get us both killed.”
He rolled his eyes at me not altering any more word.
I tried to observe him to see if he would give anything away regarding the text I received.
However he was so composed.
But if he isn’t the one, who is ?
“We’re here..” Ray said as the car rolled to a stop, it was a very large piece of land that I could barely see the end from the beginning, when we arrived, there were already workers already at working on it.
We both got down and someone came introducing himself to us, I don’t quite recall his name however he was a middle aged man with pot belly.
He took us round the field showing us various spots the structures will stand.
“This is where the workshop will be built, with high quality materials that can stand explosion.” The man giving us the tour said.
Ray and I nodded following behind him.
“Here we’ll build an hotel, a five star hotel that will appreciate the view of the company.”
“You didn’t tell me all of these..” I turned looking at Ray.
“I have really big plans for the project words can’t explain it that’s why have brought you here to see for yourself..”
I didn’t know what to say or how to react, but one thing I knew is it was a great plan.
“… while here we’ll have a football field, basketball court, and tennis court,” the man continued, pointing to different sections of the land.
I nodded, impressed by the scale of the project. “And what about security?” I asked.
“We’ll have 24/7 surveillance, motion detectors, and a team of trained security personnel,” Ray chimed in.
The man nodded in agreement. “Yes, we’ve taken every precaution to ensure the safety of our guests.”
By the time the tour came to an end, my legs were already sore.
I was limping around looking for something or somewhere to support myself.
I should never have worn heels, I stood leaning my back to a tree trunk, watching as the man showed Ray around.
I shot my eyes a bit just enjoying the cool breeze on my skin when suddenly his voice interrupted.”Hop on my back ..”
My eyes snapped open “, huh !!”
“Hop on my back,” he repeated, “you look like if I asked you to move any further you’d fall to the ground.”
“No thanks..”
What’s this man even thinking ? Does he think me a puppet ? and as he says hop on my back I’ll just do it without hesitating.
I mean what does he take me for ?
“You don’t have to be shy, besides no one is here aside us, you’ll probably have a swollen feet by the time we get to the end of the field.. so just accept my offer.”
“I’ll rather have a swollen feet than have you carry me around..”
I took of my shoes and stormed off barefooted.
“There are alot of sharp objects around, you’ll hurt your feet..”
“Why do you even care ? Isn’t like it’s your feet I borrowed to walk around.”
“Alright if you say so, do as you please..” he said raising both his hands in surrender.
“I’ll quickly rush down to supervise the work..” the man who had given us the tour said .
Shaking his hands, “I’m sure we can find our way out. Thank you very much..” Ray said to the man before looking behind his shoulder to see what I was doing.
A water drop landed on my arm and I looked up only to see the weather was now cloudy.
“It’s about to rain, we have to start going so we won’t get trapped here.” Ray said urging me to move faster.
I nodded following behind him, ignoring my sore feet.
“Ahhhh..!” I winked in pain as something pierced deep into my right feet.
“What happened ?” Ray rushed getting on his knees.
“Something pierced my feet, it hurts..” I said crying out.
He held the feet on his palm observing it to see what had pierced me..
“Hold on I found it, this will hurt..”
Without further warning he pulled out the object.
“Ahhhhhhhh !” I screamed, it was a tree branch with pointy ends that had stocked deep into my flesh.
“So sorry baby girl.. you should have just taken my offer earlier..”
The name baby girl rang in my head, that was what he called me, baby girl..
Baby girl this
Baby girl that..
I didn’t like being called a baby, but hearing him say it, was a turn on to.
Then, he was the sweetest person I had ever come across, but now I don’t know what to say about him.
“Thanks,” I said quickly pulling my legs off his grip.
“You can’t walk in this state, you’ll infect the injury. Hop on my back I’ll carry you..”
“I understand you’re trying to help, but I’m really fi…”
Ray didn’t wait for me to complete the sentence, he just swept me off my feet, carrying me in a bridal style and started walking.
“What are you doing Ray, put me down..”
“Nope, if you had listened to me from the start you won’t have been in such a situation.”
I hit his chest really hard, however instead of him to feel pain I was the one in pain. It felt like I had just hit a rock.
“Wtf man.. did you were iron plate in there..?” I asked feeling his chest with my palm, rubbing it down to his stomach.
He chuckled,” I should sue you for sexually harassing me..”
I quickly put down my hands in shame.
“Don’t mock me with my problem..” I said turning the other way.
The rain that had been gathering in the cloud all this while started pouring.
Thou it was just past 5pm or so, but it immediately looked like it was past 7pm.
“Damn it, what do we do ? We’re still very far from the beginning of the field..” I said wrapping my hands around his neck.
The rain made my hijab stock to my skin and I quickly buried my face in his chest.
“Look, I see light ?” His voice called out.
Raising my head from his chest, “Where ?”
I followed the direction of his eyes and noticed there was indeed light coming from what looked like a little house.
“We should go there and wait out the rain ?”
“We can’t just go to people houses, what if they don’t welcome us ?”
“Of course they can’t be that cruel”
I nodded, feeling the absolute unessacity to argue with him. At this point that house producing light was our last hope.
Ray walked really fast and within few minutes we arrived at the house.
An old man came out accompanied by an old woman which I assumed was his wife.
“How may we help you ?” The man in his old cracky voice asked.
“We were in the neighborhood, however while returning back the rain started and we had to cut our journey short.. I was hoping you could let us just sit and wait out the rain here.” Ray explained.
“So sorry about that dear, come in, come in, my wife will make hot tea for you and your wife..”
I started coughing uncontrollably..
“We’re not..” I was going to say not husband and wife, but Ray pinched me shutting me up.
“That will be really nice, my wife is drenched and cold from the rain..”
Why does he have to say wife ?
“Ahhh, that’s true, I’ll get her a dry towel, you can place her down now.” The old lady said.
Embarrassingly, I pushed Ray requesting him to place me down, however he held on even tighter
“As much as I want to put her down right now, I can’t, cause she can’t walk ..”
“OMG, I’m so sorry.. there’s is this handsome man in the village square who is also crippled, everyday I see him I keep praying he finds someone who’ll love him. Seeing you both I’m certain he’ll find his match soon.”
I opened my mouth in shock, how did this old lady draw conclusion that I was crippled all from she can’t walk.
There was no point saying anything, I just jumped down from Rays arms, surprising both the old man and woman.
But the old lady’s expression was priceless.
“Actually ma’am I can walk perfectly, I just had a little injury that’s why he’s been carrying me around..”
“OMG I’m so sorry to have drawn such an absurd conclusion. Please come in, I’ll get materials to tend to your wound.”
The house was a small yet felt like home, there were images on the wall of people who I assumed were their children, a fire place and a kitchen that could be seen from the living area.
She gave us dried towel and a cup of tea.
“What brought you both to this area, we don’t get alot of people throttling this path..”
“We were hoping on purchasing a property around here..” Ray quickly said.
“Wow that’s really nice, is a really good investment..”
Turning to Ray, “it doesn’t look like the rain will be stopping anytime soon.”
“Well you both can sleep over if it doesn’t stop we have a spare room that you can both share. The bed isn’t that big thou, but it will fit you both perfectly..”
Share ???
Fit ?
What the fuck have I gotten myself into this time ?