The Club Of God Fearing Men- 14

His fingers danced across the keyboard as he typed his proposal. He had been working on it for two weeks now and still hadn’t managed to come up with something satisfactory.
‘Genesis,’ someone rapped on the door to his office and stepped in.
He looked up, his brows creased in concentration.
‘Rita, what is it? I’m busy…’
She strolled forward, perching on his desk.
‘You’re always busy these days. We haven’t even gone out for our usual drinks in a while. Is it because of that new church you’re attending?’
‘What new church?’ How did she know he was now attending church?
‘Somebody saw you and told somebody that told me,’ she leaned forward, giving him an easy view of her pockmarked cleavage.
‘Gossip. Is that what you people come to work to do?’
‘You’re Mister Popular na. What do you expect? Anyway, what do you say? Drinks tonight? On me…’
Rita had been coming on to him since she began working in the company a year ago and once at an office party, he had shared some sloppy kisses with her in one of the office’ cubicles. He’d considered taking her on at a time before he found out that she had been sleeping with another colleague at work. His interest had dissipated then, restricting their relationship to sharing drinks once in two weeks.
Her offer to have drinks with him was not a surprise but his date with Lola was slated for that evening.
‘Not tonight, Rita. Some other time.’
‘Are you blowing me off?’ she frowned.
‘No. I just said some other time. I have things to do later today,’ he glared at her. ‘Now, did you need something?’
Eyeing him, she slid off his desk, rearranging her dress. ‘Oga said the lady handling the catering for the seminar is around.’
‘And?’
‘He wants you to discuss with her since you’re the one in charge of the statistics.’
‘Seriously?’ Genesis scowled. Since when did he handle food affairs for this company? ‘Why didn’t he pick a female staff to handle this?’
‘You’re the one with an idea of the number of people who registered for the seminar na, so…’ she grinned, enjoying his discomfort. ‘Anyway, she’s in the waiting room. I’ll direct her to your office, okay?’
Genesis nodded, groaning inwardly at the meeting ahead. The caterer was probably some illiterate woman who would not understand simple English. He’d have to talk with Oga about getting a woman, maybe Mrs Nneji to handle the catering aspect of programs like these.
He heard the door close quietly behind Rita and he returned his attention to the laptop before him. He could only hope he discharged the caterer woman soon. First, he’d find the document that contained the list of people who’d registered for the seminar…
Almost immediately, there was a small rap on his door again.
Undeniably, the caterer. ‘Come in,’ he said, his eyes still on his laptop.
‘Good day sir.’
He paused, all his senses coming alert. The voice sounded familiar. Slowly, he raised his head and gasped when he saw who lingered at the door.
‘You?’ the words were out of his mouth before he knew it.
She blinked, obviously caught by surprise at seeing him there too.
‘You…you’re the caterer?’
‘Sorry to disappoint you,’ the words were clipped as she said them. Almost as if she were hurt by what he implied.
‘No…no, I don’t mean…argh, never mind. Just…come in and take a seat,’ he stood, gesturing to the chair on the other side of the table.
He was struck again by her gracefulness, her poise…her. How long had it been since that encounter at her house? Since he started purging himself of her?
She wore a long oxblood gown that swept across her feet, her toes peeked out beneath the gown, and he marveled at how she could look so delicate and strong at the same time. She wore her hair up in a bun and small gold hoops dangled from her ears. He could tell she wasn’t wearing any make-up except for the shiny gloss on her lips that made him want to suck on it.
Jeez! He blinked, taking his eyes off her.
‘Can we get to business now…sir?’ she had a serious look on her face, like she was oblivious to the effect she had on him. How could one woman affect him so even after avoiding her for weeks?
He sat, clearing his throat. ‘You can drop the sir…Abbey.’
‘Why?’
‘Because it makes me uncomfortable,’ he blinked. ‘Because I’m no sir to you.’
Instead of answering, she opened her bag and took out a mini laptop setting it on his desk.
‘You…you didn’t tell me you were a caterer,’ he said.
‘Last I checked, we didn’t know each other that well,’ she flipped open the laptop, avoiding his eyes
He heard the accusation in her voice and felt the guilt rushing at him. ‘How…how are the girls?’
‘What do you care?’ she looked at him now, ‘Listen, can we just cut to the chase and not pretend you actually care about anything that concerns me? I’m here for business. I hear your former caterers moved so I’m being called on to replace them. Tell me what I need to know about this seminar. How many people are you expecting? Any dignitaries? The sooner we get this over with, the sooner I get out of your face.’
She said he words in a rush but he heard every one of them and they felt like tiny darts aimed at hurting him. He knew he deserved it. He’d been a jerk, leaving her house like he did and never calling, not once, to even know how the girls were, or keep his promise to them.
Even though at the time it had seemed like the best thing to do, he now saw it as it really was from her point of view. A selfish bastard.
‘Abbey…I’m sorry,’ he couldn’t go on without telling her that.
She held up a hand, ‘don’t. Just…don’t.’
He heard the tremor in her voice, heard her take a deep breath before looking straight at him.
‘Business, please. Give me the data I need to cater your event.’
He couldn’t argue with her and he didn’t blame her for not wanting to have any personal discussion with him. He deserved it.
‘Okay. We have fifty registered people…and six dignitaries.’
‘What about the staff?’ she was typing on her laptop as he spoke.
‘Er…lemme check that.’
Sorting out the catering didn’t turn out to be as boring as he’d thought. He had to admit Abbey knew her onions; she took him through the process step by step, reminding of things he’d forgotten that would be necessary and once again he found himself enjoying her company even though it was only in the business capacity.
Their planning took almost an hour and by the time they were done, it was lunch hour.
‘So in conclusion, we should have everything at the venue by ten a.m?’ she asked, as she slapped the laptop close.
‘Yes. Ten is fine because we have the first break scheduled for eleven-thirty.’
She nodded, zipping her bag.
As she stood, she stretched out a hand, ‘a pleasure doing business with you.’ She said.
He took her hand in his and even though the gesture was impersonal, he wanted to take her hand to his lips and kiss it, or place it against his cheek.
Jeez!
Shaking himself out of it, Genesis scolded himself for slowly turning into a mushy rat. He released the hand before he did anything stupid.
‘Well…goodbye,’ she said, turning to leave.
He didn’t know how it happened; how one minute he was standing behind his table, separated from her and the next he was standing beside her. He was so close to her he could feel the heat emanating from her body and he liked it.
For a moment he forgot where they were.
‘Have lunch with me,’ he breathed. ‘Please.’
She was a few inches shorter, her head stopping at his shoulder. She took a step back, breaking their closeness.
‘I…I have to go,’ she said, quietly.
‘Abbey, I’ve been a jerk. Please let me fix it…have lunch with me now.’
He saw her eyes flick at the door, her only way of escape but she couldn’t get to it without getting past him.

‘Please Abbey,’ he pleaded.

To Be Continued

Mimi A.