Chronicles Of A Runs Girl - S01 E18

2 years ago

Chronicles Of A Runs Girl - S01 E18

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 18

I could do nothing but wait and pray. If Johnny wasn’t here, I’d have run.

The man took the lady away and the sister followed them. I kept watching as he put the two women into a car with a driver waiting. He closed the door and continued talking to her through the back window. I prayed.

“Omoge, take, for the Shawarma” Johnny said and he handed me some money. “I’m going inside with Sanji. You remember Sanji? He used to come to the house.”

I didn’t remember Sanji. We greeted like we knew each other, anyway.

He left with his friend and by the time I checked again, the car was gone. I looked around just to be sure. What would I have done if they had come to beat me up?

When it was my turn, I paid the Shawarma man and told him to bring it inside when it was ready. I just wanted to be with Johnny.

He was at the bar with his friend but immediately he saw me he switched his attention to me. I told him they would bring his food when it was ready and he asked me about mine. I told him I wasn’t hungry and I gave him his change.

“Baby, there’s something you’re not telling me,” he said.

Sanji, thankfully, choose that moment to excuse himself. I took his stool at the bar, ready to endure twenty minutes of Johnny probing.

“I need a job,” I said.

“Have you finished school?”

“No. But I need a job. A part-time job. Or I can change to a part-time student.”

“No. What kind of job are you looking for?”

“Anything. I just need to be making money.”

“Anything is nothing. Do you have a CV?”

“No. Not yet. Will you help me write one?”

We sat and talked about my prospects of getting a job while still in school. He didn’t ask me why I needed a job now, but I knew he understood and he was probably thinking of ways to help me with money. But I didn’t want charity, just like I didn’t want to keep sleeping with men for money. I wanted my own money. Money I wouldn’t be ashamed of. Money I could pay tithe on.

“I was going to tell you something tonight,” he said, “I might as well tell you now that you’ve said you want a job. I’m going into partnership with some guys. We’re opening a wine bar in Lagos.”

Johnny can use the toilet one hundred times when he’s drinking. He excused himself for the first of what I was sure would be many times and I sat there slowly feeling the pieces of my life coming back home. His partners were based in Abuja, one was Italian and the other was a Nigerian who just returned from the UK. They had already found a suitable place in Ikoyi and if things went well he was going to move back to Lagos permanently.

Even if he didn’t get me a job at his wine bar – because he wasn’t sure that kind of work would be right for me – he said he might need a PA to help him with his schedule that was going to get busier. He also joked that I could even move into his house and be a 24 hour PA. A joke, but I knew he meant it and he was only testing my reaction. About my phone he suggested that I just get rid of the thing and stop disgracing myself with ‘old-model phone.’ He told me he would buy me the latest BlackBerry once shops opened tomorrow. I tried to decline the offer but he told me to “Shut up and watch my drink” while he went to pee.

Thank you, God. Thank you God, thank you God, thank you God!

Then I saw the man from Eko Hotel walk in. He walked through the bar peering at people sitting at the tables as if he was looking for someone. I wanted to hide but something told me it was time to come clean. My prayers had just suddenly been answered; I’d just been given my second chance, it was time to make all amends. I would confess everything to him and let him know that the woman he planned to marry hadn’t tried to poison him.

He saw me and I waited as he made his way to me. I checked that Johnny hadn’t finished.

When he got me I was ready to open with apologies. He leaned in and spoke into me ear.

He said: “If you ever pull a stunt like that again I will make sure you live to regret it; you and your fat friend.”

I watched his back as he walked his swagger walk out of Marocaine.