Taking Chances – Episode 42

*****EPISODE 42*****

 

Jide sat impatiently in the parlour, his eyes glanced at the clock for

 

the upteenth time this evening, it was way past seven, the awards dinner was slated for 8pm, he was neither headed there nor had he even left his home and Daisy was taking a lot of time showing up. Was she doing more than just dress? He wondered.

 

A push from him had roused her from where she had lounged, concentrating at the

 

endless stream of series Mnet had to offer, he hadn’t been sure if she had forgotten

 

about the event or had decided not to attend again. When he had reminded her of it,

 

 

she had simply replied him with an ‘oh’ and headed for her room muttering incoherent words, now she was yet to surface.

 

Everyday came with new surprises about her, it was obvious that she had other traits that were gradually unfolding, twas better too that she laid all the cards for him to peruse, it wasn’t possible for a person to be all that charming, they had to be a dent somehow, dents she was finally portraying.

 

Yesterday had ended with no argument of any sort, whatever had done the magic? He wondered. For she had seem calmer and replied him as civil as

 

possible. Today, he hoped they wouldn’t get back to being enemies, he wouldn’t like that one bit.

 

He glanced at his watch this time, it was 7:30 prompt. unconsciously, he sprang up to his feet.

 

‘Am so running late’ he muttered, prancing about.

 

Was this a common habit with women? Taking so much when it came to dressing up for an occasion? What was so hard in the act anyways? Hadn’t it taken him just few minutes to suit up to perfection as he was now? But then again, this happened to be the first time ever he was waiting up for a lady to dress up, obviously marriage came with so many new experiences. Maybe he should see this from a lighter note, he should be grateful for little things like this that life had to offer. Jide smiled now.

 

Just then, Daisy surfaced. Her perfume preceding her entrance and turning Jide’s attention her way.

 

‘So sorry for keeping you waiting, I had some cloth issues’ she apologised and came forward.

 

‘Sure…sure’ Jide stammered, his anger dissipating.

 

He thought he had never seen a female prettier than the one before him, feeling of pride constricted his heart and he felt happy that the lady standing over there was actually HIS wife.

 

Daisy stood now staring askance at Jide, she had thought he would be angry at her for wasting so much time, instead he just stood there staring at her.

 

Truthfully, She had had cloth issues as usual, whenever there was a place to go, she never could decide which was the perfect cloth, it was a thing with her. Brenda and mama always teased her about it. Another issue was that Jide hadn’t been exactly specific on the kind of occasion

 

it was. Judging it to be a dinner that required gowns and stuffs like that, she had settled for a Chanel dinner piece – a long fitted pink coloured, turtle neck gown,

 

 

embroidered with fancy stones at the neckline, it looked ‘harmless’ upfront, but the back proved otherwise, for it had a lacy opening that ran ‘dangerously’ down to stop just a little above the required. Peter had called it the ‘seduction touch’ and they had laughed over it.

 

This night however, Daisy had not set out to seduce anyone, it was far from her mind, but since this happened to be one of her favourite gown coupled with the fact that she couldn’t decide on something else to wear, she had finally settled for it. But now, with the way Jide was staring at her, she couldn’t help but wonder if she hadn’t gone over board with picking the dress.

 

‘What? am I under or over dressed for the event?’ Daisy asked confused, her eyes scanning her gown.

 

‘No, no, its fine, its a dinner party afterall’ Jide replied ‘…and we are running late too’ he added, suddenly realising the time. ‘Sorry, My fault’ Daisy said and started for the door.

 

That was when Jide saw the flipside to the gown.

 

‘God have mercy!’ he muttered under his breath before following behind her. Out in the compound, before they drove off, he commended her looks and a blushing Daisy replied him with a charming ‘thank you’.

 

*****************

 

Adamu greeted his employers with a mock salute as they drove through the wide open gates, there was no way he could have noticed the thick cloud of anger and unspoken words that hung above them, Daisy sat immobile,

 

nursing the hurt of her recent discovery, while Jide drove, his eyes glancing at her every now and then, wishing he could find the right words to soothe the moment and apologise for whatever wrong he’d done

 

again. Joyce was definitely going to hear from him come Monday, was the recurrent thought in his head.

 

As soon as the car rode to a halt, the door flew open and out came Daisy hurrying towards the house in a mad haste, her hands

 

raising up her gown to allow easy mobility, while stream of hot tears rolled down her cheeks.

 

Soon, Jide was out of the car, running and calling after her.

 

Adamu who was about to retire into his little niche, shook his head at the drama that just played itself, then muttering to himself, he entered into his room.

 

 

The once promising night had finally ended on a sad note, compounding issues that had seemed resolved hours ago, Daisy’s suspicion had finally been proven right, Joyce, Jide’s secretary had gone ahead to spill

 

every beans left in the basket. And now, all Daisy wanted to do was crawl to her room and start all her self-pity tantrums over again. *************

 

The night had started out lovely, people had dotted and warmed up to Daisy easily, even Jide’s dad. The oldman had been so nice, apologizing for his son’s actions and for other things Daisy didn’t quite understand, yet she’d accepted the apologies nonetheless.

 

Some of Jide’s employees had gone out of their way to make her

 

comfortable, asking her how she was? How she was coping with Nigeria? Why they hadn’t seen much of her after the wedding? If she could come around to the office one day? And so on and so forth.

 

Daisy on her part had been so charming and jovial all through the evening, enjoying the attention she was getting, and even dared to flirt with Ade who had somehow found his way to their table just to spite Jide, and indeed she had enjoyed the look of anger and jealousy on his face. But she had done so only when she was sure Jide’s father wasn’t in close range. She didn’t want her father in-law seeing her as a flirt or irresponsible daughter inlaw.

 

A change of environment had really done her good, she had felt good and had walked gracefully to the stage when she had been called upon to present an award to one of the recipient, she had been announced as Jide’s wife then and had felt very proud when the search light beamed on her. Even Jide hadn’t missed an opportunity to introduce her so. But that didn’t mean they were even, and she had put it clearly to him but Jide waved it off and told her to ‘enjoy the evening’ he had even hinted on some ‘after party’ when they returned home. Daisy had tingled with excitement and expectation inspite of herself.

 

And so for the rest of the evening, she had easily put up an appearance that they were the best of couples, that was off course, until she sighted Grace. Everything had instantly turned bitter.

 

The juice she had opted for tasted sour to her as all the fight of days past played afresh in her memory.

 

It wouldn’t have bothered her much because she had finally decided not to let Grace bother or spoil her evening, not until Joyce staggered lightly to their table where only she was occupying at that moment because others had gone for a group

 

picture or something. Joyce had greeted her and complemented her looks,

 

wondering why Jide was treating

 

her unfairly.

 

Before Daisy could push further on what she had meant, Joyce was waving sheepishly to Grace and urging her to come over to their table, but the other woman had declined after eyeing Daisy.

 

Immediately, Daisy felt an urge to know more, to skim out information from the secretary who was obviously drunk, judging with the way she swooned yet drank more wine.

 

‘Do you know that lady?’ Daisy had asked.

 

‘Who?’ Joyce had slurred.

 

‘Grace’ Daisy had said, hitting the nail directly.

 

‘Yeah off course, I know her, who doesn’t?’ the other had replied with a foolish grin

 

‘I don’t really know, could you tell me please?’ Daisy had pushed further.

 

‘She’s oga’s girlfriend na, the one he was dating before he married you. You know, I wonder where you appeared from, we all thought he would marry her, not you’ ‘You all thought wrong then’ Daisy had shot back.

 

‘Yes! We all did’ Joyce had replied and broke into a laugh.

 

‘Hmm’ Daisy had said and shook her head, it was obvious alcohol wasn’t a good thing, the way it had rendered this lovely lady here was pathetic.

 

‘Do, does Jide…you know, still see her?’ she had asked after the secretary had ended her hysteric laugh.

 

‘Why Off course! I personally receive her calls and messages for Mr. Olukoya’ she had replied, then drew closer to whisper: ‘I even know my boss still sees her, and I wonder why. See! He has a lovely American wife like you at home, and yet he’s fooling around with her’ another hysterical laughter then: ‘but that’s what make them men, isnt it? They are hardly ever satisfied’ she completed and continued her fits of humourless mirth.

 

Daisy hadn’t been amused, the little info from the drunk secretary had spoilt everything. She had simply wanted to head back home.

 

Nobody would have guessed that little Miss Joyce was suffering from her own fair of heartbreak, a reason why she had indulged herself in more than required wine, even if Daisy had known, it wouldn’t have changed much.

 

 

All her suspicion had been confirmed, all the beating around the bush just to skim out this info from Jide had finally been let out open and from a very credible source at that, regardless of her drunken state, a state which meant she wasn’t exaggerating, why? Wasn’t it said that alcohol had a way of drawing truth out of people, and even though she wasn’t one to give in to gossip and silly office rumours, but this was too relevant to be discarded.

 

When Jide had returned later on, he had immediately noticed the mood swing in Daisy, all she had said was for him to take her home. And after a little research of his own, he had discovered that Joyce had been the last person she’d spoken with. He had instantly felt like hitting the loud-mouthed lady, but since it wasn’t a gentleman behaviour, he had pushed all grievances to Monday when work resumed.

 

And so he’d taken her home, oblivious of what she had heard or what he should be apologizing for. Daisy hadn’t even wanted him to talk to her, telling him to save his breath and just take her home.

 

Then, immediately the car had stopped, she had ran out. He had managed to switch off the car before hurrying after her, catching up with her in the hallway as she was about opening her door.

 

‘Daisy, could you stop and let us talk about whatever is the issue that has gotten you this upset’ he pleaded.

 

Daisy stood then and stared at him with a tear stained face, ‘we have nothing to talk about. All that you have been so scared to admit, Well I found out about it today!’ she retorted with vehemence.

 

‘Could you be clear here? Please’ Jide said walking towards her.

 

‘You’ve been sleeping with Grace all this while and you’ve been lying about it! Telling me she was only an Ex! But now I know better, you have been tripping big time! Hitting on her! Right? now I hate you and don’t want to ever see you! Ever!’ she said and entered into her room, banging the door in the process.

 

Jide ran to the door trying to stop her. What he heard was the clicking sound of her door locking.

 

‘Daisy! Daisy! Lets work this out’ he called out as he pounced desperately at her door.

 

But he got no response, no sound.

 

Slowly, he slumped to the floor, his hands on his head as he bemoaned his marriage that never seemed to be rid off turbulence once and for all. *************************

 

 

TAKING CHANCES