THE REAL ILLUSORY

Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"Here she comes" Mark said as Nicole walked down the stairs.
 
"Hi" Nicole said waving at Kate and Doctor Richards who sat at the dinning table.

She walked over to Kate and gave her a big hug. "Hey Katie" she said. She stared at Doctor Richards with an awkward smile on her face. "Hey" she weirdly said waving at him. "Hey Nicole, how have you been?" He asked. "I’ve been good....how are you?". She asked as she sat down next to Mark. "I’m good" he replied.
    Mark opened up the food and said "wow babe this smells really good" Nicole placed her hand on his and said "Thanks babe".

"So what are we having?" Richards asked.

"This is what we call Egusi soup in Nigeria" Kate answered quickly.

"Wow I don’t think I’ve ever eaten this" he said.

"Don’t worry you’ll love it" Nicole replied.

"Okay, so where are the cutleries?" He asked.

Kate, Nicole and Mark started laughing really hard because he didn’t know they were about to eat without any cutlery. "Why are you guys laughing?" He asked feeling really confused. "There is a bowl with water in it right before you" Kate said. "Yeah so?" He asked. "Rinse your hands in it, cut out a little bit of the garri and then dip it in the soup and eat".

"What?!" He said loudly.

"Yeah bro just do it.....it’s really nice" Mark said after he rinsed his hands and was about to eat.

"Mark it isn’t healthy" Richards said.

Mark took out a little bit of garri and scoop a lot of the Egusi soup "wow this is amazing" he said licking his fingers. "Bro just do it.....there’s a first time for everything " Mark said to Richards. "Okay fine" Richards said. "Wow it’s really sticky he said putting his fingers in the garri. Kate and Nicole laughed at Richards as he struggled to take out a little bit of garri. "Nicole record this" Kate said. Nicole took out her phone and started recording. "Dip the garri inside the soup" Kate said to Richards."whoa okay I’m going in" he replied. Kate, Nicole and Mark started chanting "Do it! Do it! Do it!". Immediately he tasted the food, he was silent for some seconds and then he said "best international dish I’ve ever tasted." "I knew you’d love it!" Nicole screamed.

"Honestly it’s my first time eating a Nigerian meal" Richards said.

"Wow really,
"I’m just glad you enjoyed it" Nicole said.

Minutes went by and they all enjoyed their meal, making jokes and talking about past experiences they had growing up. As they talked, Nicole received a text but she didn’t respond to it. After a while she received another one and Mark turned to her and said "babe seems like someone needs your attention". She smiled and said "I’ll text that someone later". Mark smiled and held her hands.

"So Nicole tell us about Nigeria" Richard said.

Mark looked at Richards trying to give him a signal not to ask her about Nigeria. Nicole was a little bit hesitant but then she said " well.....Nigeria is really cool, a lot of hard working people.....You can’t be lazy and survive in Nigeria". Mark thought to himself "she doesn’t talk about Nigeria when I ask her to but why the sudden change of heart". After a while Richards asked "so was there anyone in Nigeria you fell in love with before meeting Mark?" Mark sat up straight and stared at her with a lot of curiosity. Nicole doesn’t like talking about Michael who was the only person she fell in love with "No there wasn’t " she replied. Richards insisted saying "Come on Nicole there must have been at least one person ".

"I don’t want to talk about it" Nicole replied.

"You don’t want to talk about, so there must have been someone" Mark replied.

Kate noticed Nicole wasn’t feeling comfortable with the discussion so she said "Hey guys why don’t I talk about my crush in Nigeria" Mark immediately replied "No I want Nicole to tell me about hers.......what are you hiding? You never talk about Nigeria, why?......Answer me!!" Mark screamed. Richards noticed his friend was getting angry so he said "You know what? It’s my fault Nicole is a private person and we have to respect that.....so let’s change the topic".

"Nah.....I want to have a conversation with my girlfriend..." Mark replied.

"Well in that case we’ll be on our way" Kate said packing up her jacket and her purse. "Sorry guys" Mark said as he got up to walk them to the door. "Bye Nicole....." Kate said as she got to the door. Nicole didn’t respond but sat down in silence. "Please don’t be hard on her, she’s a very fragile person and don’t force her to say anything she’ll tell you when she’s ready" Kate said as she hugged him goodbye.

"Alright man take care....and thanks for dinner" Richards said as he gave Mark a handshake.

"We need to talk about this once and for all babe" Mark said to her.

" Why?.....there’s nothing to talk about". She replied.

"You keep saying that, you shut me out every single time....how do you think that makes me feel?"

"It shouldn’t make you feel bad.....we’ve been together for a long time you should know I’m very private"

"Very private......"he said as he picked up his phone walked away.

    She sat in silence as tears rolled down her cheeks "why did you come back to my life, everything was going fine until you showed up......why did you come back?" She said to herself as she cried bitterly. She walked to the couch in the living room and laid down because her head felt heavy.