HAPPILY EVER AFTER: my love story

VI

   He made a video call and I accepted. My eyes bulged out, this guy was a specimen to behold, I think he just finished working out because he was sweating and he had a towel hung over his shoulder.
His face was cleanly shaved, his blond hair fell above his left eye giving him an evil and sexy look.
I wasn't aware that I was staring at him until I heard him clear his throat, ''like what you see?'' He asked smirking, he baritone voice felt so beautiful in my ear. ''What? Uhm… what were you saying?'' I stammered feeling embarrassed that he caught me ogling at him.
"You don't look so bad yourself, with the help of a few beauty cream you'd have the skin of a runway model," he said.
"Hey dude, no body is messing with my skin, got it!" I replied getting annoyed.
" 'dude'? Wow, I really missed my little tigress, I won't forget how you put me in my place that day I said I hated blacks, " he said chuckling
" good for you," I replied sarcastically. "so did you send me 500 dollars to get a phone so that you can throw annoying comments at me?"
" no babe, I just wanted to show you the real me, I'm not Scott Mills, he's my assistant, I'm Jade Kale, your prince charming.''
"I'm sorry, my what?" I asked in surprise.
   "I know you are a maiden in distress, in your case there's no evil step mother or dragon or magical curse but you fell into the hands of a fraudster. I was just using Scott's account, he loves the attention girls give him. Anyway back to you, we were having a conversation until someone tampered with it and I had to let it go, I couldn't get in touch with you. I even had to Google you but I didn't see what I was searching for, rest assure, that guy will never bother you again, Scott made sure of it. So... I was able to go through some of your conversation on Facebook but whatever you guys talked on WhatsApp, I can't access it. I'm sorry for whatever he might have made you do, and I'll try to remedy it as much as I can. ''
I was dumbfounded. Right here on my screen was the person I was dreaming of, to me he was my saviour, although the appearance was different, turned out my 'saviour' was conversing with me using the image of his assistant.
"Aren't you going to say anything, jump maybe, get excited and act goofy?" he asked.
I smiled and said, ''no, all those things don't move me any more.
   I'm fine the way I am right now, there's no need to compensate me,'' I said shrugging.
''No, I insist. Please, allow me to do something for you, I really want to do it.'' He said pleadingly. ''And you have, you got me a new phone and I still have a lot money left, I'm really grateful for that,'' I replied, placing my hand on my chest to show my sincerity. But he was not having any of that, it was obvious he really wanted to help me. "Fine, if you insist, do whatever you want. I really don't want anything from you but if you're going to be stubborn about it, go ahead, surprise me," I said.
"Oh, I love surprises. But don't worry, I promise you'll love it," he said smiling.
"Whatever makes you sleep. Can I go now, I'm really exhausted, all that walking around to get a quality phone is really really tiring and I want to make lunch, I'm starving," I said.
"Are you making food for lunch?" Jade asked waggling him brows.
"No, I'm playing badminton for lunch," I replied sarcastically.
"You don't have to be so sarcastical," he said
"And you don't have to be so dumb," I retorted.
    "I can't wait to tame that fiery spirit in you," he said smiling. "Well good luck to you. You're way over there and I'm right here, the distance between us is wide enough to contain millions of people, oh right… it does. Sorry to burst your bubble but this fiery spirit ain't going nowhere honey," I said smirking.
''Are you sure about that? Scott, please hand me those documents. I'm going to carefully show you each of these papers and you tell me what you think they are, you ready?'' He asked and I nodded in agreement, somehow I think I had lost the ability to speak. Scott brought the documents and placed them out, the camera was turned to the direction of the documents, they were 6 of them. I heard Jade's voice saying, ''tell me what you see". "I see an international passport with my name and photograph on it, I also see a boarding pass with my name on it, traveling from Lagos State to New York City on May 6th... Wait, What? How could you assume I'll be able to fly down there within such a short period of time, in case you're forgetting, today's April 22nd. I have exactly... Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday..." I said counting with my fingers, "Two weeks to get ready and I'm not even sure if my parents will let me. How could you do this without even asking me?" I asked in annoyance.
    So many things went through my mind, I don't have money to prepare, will my parents even let me? Where do I even start preparing? As if he could read my mind, Jade turned the camera to himself and said, "you don't have to worry about anything, I will mail everything to you. Even if it costs me a fortune, I'll make sure it gets to you in 3 days. You have an examination to write in two months and I'll prefer you come now so that you have a lot of time to study, I have made arrangements for some private tutors that will coach you to write a successful exams. I'll send you more cash to start purchasing the basic things you'll need, every other thing would be made available when you come. Results would be published a week after the exam and school resumes 3 weeks later, so if my calculations are correct, school resumes in 3 months. I know this is quite a lot to absorb within a short period of time but you have to help me out here, you really need to act fast. You can tell your parents that the scholarship board have arranged some kind of temporary accommodation for international students coming to write exams and that when you get admitted, you'll stay in the dormitory. By the way, I applied for New York University." He explained.
   He was right, this was too much to absorb. "I think my head is about to explode, I need to sleep on it, I'll give you a reply tomorrow, I need to calm down and break down everything you've said to me for the past 30 minutes. Please." I said weariedly.
" Ok. But do something for me, you said you're parents may not permit you, go ask them, make it in a way they won't get suspicious, if they agree, let them know about the scholarship, tell them that it covers tuition, accommodation, health insurance, feeding, transportation and other miscellaneous items. Try to make them agree, you don't have much time." He said. "Okay, I promise." I told him.
With that, we ended the call. I forgot I was hungry, I sat down on my bed replaying everything that just happened on my memory. I didn't even know if I should jump up in happiness or I should be sad, my last encounter with this guy 2 years ago didn't work out well, although he has seemed to clear my doubts concerning him, I was still wary. I didn't know what to think at the moment.
When I went to the kitchen, my sister was standing behind the gas cooker, ''what are you cooking?'' I asked her.
''I've been craving pepper soup rice'' she replied
'' but we ate that yesterday in the morning,'' I said
'' that was with ntong (wild Basil), I want to make it with ibat (dried fish). Anyway, forget about that, what did your darling say?" She asked wagging her eyebrows and smiling foolishly.