When A Woman Wants.. - Episode 5

 

DEBBY
“I shouldn’t have gone ahead with the plan”

“Damn right! You shouldn’t have”

Debby shook her head; she really wished she had talked to her best friend instead of just doing what her mother asked.

“You should have called me.” Vera stated. Debby could sense the undertone of disappointment in her voice . “Now you are stuck with some classless ring in between your fingers. What is that thing even?”

She grimaced at the ring on Debby’s fourth finger as she placed her head on the table at which they were sitting.

Vera was her best and only friend. She was also her photographer at LA VOGUE. She was not in the country for some time and had just flown in all the way from Vegas. All Debby had to do to summon her was take a photo shot of her hand and forwarded it to her and Vera came in the next day. 
Vera had her hair plaited in a five corn row. Tying several colors of hair band to the end of each braid which was reaching below her waist. A pair of big round diamond earrings dangled on each of her ear lobes while her face was hidden behind a pair of Fendi Sun glasses. She was all dressed in a white jumpsuit. 
They were at EBETICUS, a bar at LA Vogue.

“This is a terrible mistake babe! What happened to that dream of yours; diamond ring, get married to the baddest boy on the block

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/when-a-woman-wants

. What will happen to your career! You just gonna give ‘em all up for some Doc!” she hissed. Shaking her head in a total disappointment.

Debby hung her head sadly and regrettably.“What do I do now Vera?” Debby asked

“Babe, what do you want?”

“I can’t give Francis the life and love he wants and he can’t give me the life I want. However, my mother wants me to have a secured future and who knows what the future holds truly..?”
 
Vera shrugged, unconvinced. Busy sipping from her cocktail drink.

“I will need to take my future in my hand Vera, and between you and I, you know how much I love the bad boys and Francis isn’t one. Vera, I think I need to be more careful so he wouldn’t get hurt. He at least deserves that, right?”

There was no response from Vera and Debby looked up to see what has gotten Vera’s attention.

A shirtless man was seated by the pool side, leaving his toned abs in display. His arms were behind his head, making his biceps look bigger. Water was dripping from his gorgeous body which could mean he just had a swim. There was a butterfly tattoo at the center of his back.

“Oh my God, that is one fine glass of champagne” Debby found herself drooling
“Hey!. That one is mine, you should not forget the ring on your finger” Vera retorted without moving an inch. “Last I checked, you were engaged to a doctor.”

“I have no idea of what you are talking about.” Debby drawled and removing the ring from her finger which she quickly hid in her purse. She stood up, straightened her short blue backless gown as she advanced towards the man.

 ROSA
“Oh common, pick your call Debby”

There was a beep sound at the end of the call to Rosa’s disappointment.  She has been trying to get across to Debby for the past twenty minutes and she refused to pick up.

“I...I I’m still unable to reach her Mr. Francis. Would you like to wait for her?”
The doctor looked at her, his face expressionless as he jingled the bunch of keys in his hand impatiently. He glanced at the wall clock, sighed, face still expressionless.

“Okay. I can do that.” He replied, moving to the nearest couch and settled down, throwing his keys on the table.

Rosa debated for a while whether to sit down with him or to go into her room. 

“Why don’t you sit, after all I met you here and you were doing something. Please don’t let me disturb you Linda”

She almost shouted “Its Rosa!” but she changed her mind and sat down the couch nearest to her which was adjacent to where he sat. Truth was,she had something doing earlier, she had been trying to come up with a plot for her book and she was having no luck with that until she heard the doorbell ring and found him by the door. She was surprised to see him, it was just a week after the whole hospital charade and he hadn’t come over to Debby’s place. Instead, Debby has been the one coming and Rosa had stayed alone in the house for some time. Seeing him shouldn’t have surprised her like it did, the truth was, she had been thinking about him quite a lot, ever since the hospital.

The T.V was on but they were both quiet, what could they possibly talk about. Rosa watched as he doodled on his phone pad, tapping the air with his foot.

The atmosphere was getting more uncomfortable for her and she couldn’t concentrate on her book. Probably it would be best for her to leave...

“I forgot to thank you for the other day...”He started and stopped.

She was confused. “I beg your pardon.”

“I came home and messed the whole kitchen up and you helped clean it .Thanks.”
Rosa wanted to laugh but she cautioned herself. The man was finding it even more difficult than she was. Did he just thank her for doing her job? Well at least he was making effort.

“You are welcome Mr. Francis” She replied with a smile. “I’m just doing my job, you needn’t thank me.”

“Please, call me Francis” He said politely.

“I will call you Francis once you start calling me by my real name which is Rosa” She retorted sharply.
His gaze flew directly at her and something got stuck in her throat.

“I thought you are Linda” he laughed. “I apologise Rosa”

His laughter seemed to lighten everything up in the room. Even his face grew warmer and he looked even more radiant. Her heart melted.

“You are forgiven , Francis” She replied.

The silence struck again and she hated it, she wished they could keep on conversing.

“So, how long have you known Debby?”
“Well, almost a year now...I helped her change the tyre of her car when she had a flat tire and she was running late for her photo shoot...”

Francis stared at her in disbelief, his lips twisted in a smile.

“You changed a tyre..?”

She nodded, feeling proud of herself, for the first time since she did that.

“I can totally imagine two ladies by the road side, changing a tyre” he remarked, smiling.

“It was pretty easy for me. I read a lot and I learnt a few tricks. I bet I can change a tyre better than you can” she teased. 

He grinned. “Kudos to you mademoiselle.” He took a look at the wall clock. “I need to be on my way Rosa”

“Alright Francis. Nice talking with you”

“When are you coming?” he demanded

“Anytime you want me to come...”

“Alright, can you come tomorrow? I have a small party at my house at 12pm. My...Urm...Actually, it’s going to be a meeting of not more than ten people and I could use some help. That was the reason I had to come see her”

“Alright Francis, food and drinks for ten and I will be there tomorrow morning to get the parry ready” she replied jokingly.

“Okay, thanks. Bye.”

She waved as he left in his car.

The house was lonely again but deep down, she was excited.

Read " Synder-Ella " by the same author ( Tobi Loba )

. They had talked and joked and laughed together. For the first time. For some reason she was really happy for having taken this job and was looking forward to the next day.

She settled on the couch and positioning herself properly, she turned over the page of her manuscript which was lying on the table. She stared at the blank page as she remembered her supervisor’s statements.

"Give me something so twisted and complicated. I don’t believe all these happily ever after crap! Go to the forest, get yourself beaten by a snake, even if you die, you will have something to write about! Get your hearts broken! Snoop into the lives of other people! Get arrested! Do something formidable and write about it! Else you are repeating this class!” She had said to the whole class.

Then she remembered Francis laughter, she never heard him laugh before. His laughter was genuine and soothing. The coldness and the mystery she has seen in the picture in his house were immediately replaced by warmth. Perhaps she could write about that.
That was a crazy idea. Where did it come from? How could she write about someone she barely knew?
However, she could start with the whole hospital charade and then she could get several ideas from there. Tomorrow was her class and she could not afford to go empty handed.  She had to start from somewhere. She took her pen and began to write….