THE PHOTOGRAPHER 15 --by Rose

(Image source: www.gettyimages.com)

Udeme was laughing as Duncan had been tickling her on their way to see Bode. Noticing her initial depressed mood, he decided to do something funny to help his friend but he quickly took his hands off her as they stood facing two stern looking women. Udeme had recognized Adenike immediately and understood her visit was quite official. The other woman looked familiar and very unfriendly. Duncan who was quite uncomfortable with the situation excused himself, explaining the reason for his exit to no one particular. He wasn’t totally lying, he had to see the caterer on Nadine’s behalf.

Nike briefly paused at the door as she looked Barrister Edwards over. Poor girl, she thought. Your friend has ruined any chance you had with him. She wondered if exposing Nadie’s plan to Udeme was the wise thing to do. She had to think that over but she pushed the idea away. Considering her harsh attitude towards Udeme, the girl won’t even listen to her twice but she had to be warned before it became too late. She would come up with a plan, one that wouldn’t involve or hurt Udeme in any way, she had suffered enough. Adenike braced herself for her new task as Udeme’s savior; she greeted the girl and walked out the door leaving her astonished.

She stared at the retreating figure of Adenike Olagbemiro, the harsh head of department, who had stood staring at her for complete five minutes, she wondered if she was mistaken but she had seen something like pity in the woman’s eyes towards her. She shrugged, who wouldn’t pity her, she had found herself in a hopeless situation. On her date with the love of her life, assassins had attacked them and if not for divine intervention, one of them would’ve lost their lives. Thankfully, Bode was alright, she had something more dreadful to face. The woman who stared daggers at her, she now saw the resemblance; it was no other person than Mrs. Thomas who she’d seen many times in pictures.

Mrs. Thomas stared at the girl who almost got her precious son killed. She had the guts to bring in her husband to be, into the same room Bode lay. She was so disgusted at the sight, being tickled by her lover while her son was on his sickbed. For a moment, she wondered if she was doing the right thing not putting the girl behind bars because she had the power to do that. She felt so angry at the cheap whore her son had bedded, but she planned to keep her cool, she had made Nadie that promise. She would keep her cool, she wouldn’t expose her here, but as she stared once more at her son, who escaped death by slight chance, she was sure Udeme’s relationship with Bode was over.

“Good day Madam,” Udeme greeted politely but the woman completely ignored her. She swallowed and wondered what she had done wrong. She carefully placed the clothes she had brought Bode and some beverages he would take when he woke up. “Who are all those for?” The woman asked coldly, Udeme smiled trying to please the woman “For Bode Ma, I went to get him all these in preparation for when he is discharged.” She was silent for a while then uttered the abominable. “You can go, we don’t need your services and don’t think about coming back here.” It was like something hit her on the head, she felt numb all over, she couldn’t move or breathe, maybe she didn’t hear well, she mustered up some courage and looked straight into the pair of cold eyes that stared at her suspiciously. “Madam, please I don’t understand.” The woman did the unthinkable; before she could say Jack Robinson, she felt the coldness of the Glucose powder she had brought for Bode and immediately she broke down. “Please if I have done anything to hurt you, please forgive me,” she begged but the woman couldn’t be pacified. “Stand up, leave and stay away from Olabode Thomas or you’ll have a lot to regret about.” Udeme had no choice but to comply with the woman, who for some reason hated her so much. She felt her heart thudding louder and her brain was pounding harder, how could she be so cruel? She saw her future with Bode being shattered to pieces. She was very helpless and weak. She needed to find help soon.

Nadie spotted Udeme from where she stood and smiled mischievously, from where she was. She saw the look on the girl’s face and gosh, she looked miserable. She chuckled softly as she made to leave, obviously, her planned had worked. They had borne fruits, she was impressed with herself, it was now a surety that she could get whatsoever she wanted in this life. That thought excited her, she just couldn’t wait to be with him. But something else crossed her mind, Adenike, the nosy lady from Bode’s company who had threatened to expose her plans to Duncan and the whole world. She wondered what she could do to eliminate her biggest threat. The woman was quite confident in herself and fearless and this made Nadine very afraid. Suddenly, the euphoria she had felt earlier disappeared completely. Adenike still had the upper hand in this battle; she knew everything about her and could expose her at anytime, what if she had told Mrs. Thomas the truth? “Oh my god,” she whispered desperately, that would destroy everything and her plans with Duncan who served as her last resort should anything go bad would all crumble to pieces.

She rose up feeling nervous as she made back to the room where Bode lay, praying and hoping her secrets where not spilled. If her plans followed the right course, she would dump Duncan immediately and eliminate Udeme, she didn’t want any threat to her happiness with Bode. She had already planned her future with him but for now she had to place her stamp permanently in his mother’s heart, after which she would think of a good way of dealing with Adenike. She was ready to fight to the death and pay with her blood. No woman could take him away, she remembered how he made love to her and told her beautiful things, how he looked into her eyes when taking pictures of her and how he spoiled her with gifts, she was sure he was the one; Bode was the one for her and she remembered the saying ‘fight for love’.

“Hello Mama,” she greeted as she walked into the room. The woman who was cleaning up the mess on the marble floor smiled at her prospective daughter-in-law. “Nadie, you missed that evil friend of yours.” Nadie pretended to look surprised. “Can you imagine she actually walked in here with a man tickling her?” Nadie smiled now understanding what may have taken place, she had called Duncan earlier to bring Udeme to take over from her. “That should be the fiancé Mama, he is tall right?” the woman nodded quickly and stood akimbo with new found surprised, this girl was totally being honest. “You see I told you, Udeme my friend isn’t a very honest person,” she continued, the woman had nothing more to say as she sat speechless.

Mrs. Thomas’ phone rang a couple of times before she picked, while Nadine wondered who the caller was. She was still thinking of Adenike. But she couldn’t get anything from the phone conversation, as the woman spoke in Yoruba throughout. She sighed and wondered how she would cope with a Yoruba speaking mother-in-law. Her worries about Adenike had dimmed. “It was Chief Thomas, my husband,” the woman informed her while Nadine smiled politely. “He’s taking his vacation abroad, I told him the situation of things, he was quite furious but I was able to calm him.” Nadie wondered if that was a good thing. She rubbed her temples, she had to get some rest so she could be awake at night to watch him. “Nadine, I have to go now, take care of your husband to be, I will be back tomorrow morning and meanwhile Chief is interested in meeting you on his return.” This made her inside to tickle. Nadie didn’t believe it, her plan had worked faster than she could imagine. But she had another problem apart from Adenike, it was Bode himself. She would be a fool to deny any love he had for Udeme, he really loved her. She had to destroy that love but in her deepest of hearts she knew it would be very difficult almost impossible as she had painted Udeme black once in his eyes but it backfired. She sighed and focused on her current achievement. “Thank you Mama,”  she greeted as the  woman left the room.

She turned and smiled at the unconscious man that lay by her side and smiled. “Now you are mine, it’s me and you against the world.” Her phone beeped twice and she picked it up to see two different messages from two weaklings she despised. She ignored the messages from Duncan and Udeme. She was awaiting his full recovery as he stirred a bit, then opened his eyes dreamily and whispered “Udeme” and went back to sleep.