LET ME LOVE YOU

chapter 8 - an air of despair

Aya

"I thought we were to be called back mid-July?" I Asked my amiable agent, Susan oyawale, referring to the set of a Mary holiday as I pushed a bunch of red grapes into my mouth.

"No, Mid-July is when season two is expected to hit the screens, you guys were supposed to go back on set since last month but this una Director abi producer underestimated the whole thing, now there's barely a month left to shoot 30 freaking episodes!" she replied from the other end of the phone, as usual, sounding frustrated. She's one of those people who are obsessed with doing everything perfectly without a single mistake, she's very much a handful but that's exactly what someone like me needs.

She stresses over the littlest things, but at that point, she had every right to rant. A Mary holiday is scheduled to have 3 seasons, we've successfully done season one, which alhamdulillah made a lot of amazing waves on the trend table, now we're on to season two. each season contains 30 episodes, we took a minimum of 2 months shooting season one as they were a lot of things I had to learn, we shot it in Lagos, banana island to be precise, now the upcoming season is to be shot here in Abuja.

Lemme put you through a bit of what a Mary holiday is all about. My character, Mary Naya is a half Nigerian and half British spoilt brat, Daughter to Nigeria's former Vice President, Bankole Naya and a full British money monger, Stephanie Naya. All that filled Mary's head was money, power and wealth as she had lived in London all her life, she turned into such a rebel that nobody was able to tame her, just until her paternal grandmother, a no nonsense Yoruba woman made the decision to have Mary flown to Nigeria so she could stay with her for 3 months. The chaos is unmatched I tell you, it's a combination of comedy and small action, hectic to the max but it's absolutely worth it, we've won 3 AMVCAs so far, and that's just for the first season.

"Anyways, let's get to why I called you," Susie spoke "Pepsi wants a one year partnership deal with you"

I immediately choked on my grapes "pep What? Say that again I don't think I heard you well"

She bursted into laughter "you heard me just find the first time sweetie, the Pepsi brand is interested in working with you and they've offered a whooping 10 million naira"

As soon as she closed her mouth, I started screaming as loud as I could, I didn't know how to stop but I wasn't regretting it, just until Hafeez ran inside my room like a dog chased him.

"What happened? Are you okay?" If I'm not mistaken, I saw fear in his eyes.

"Uh...nothing I'm just talking to my agent" I replied, slightly embarrassed.

"Is that the reason why you were screaming?"

"She told me some amazing news and I didn't know how to express my happiness" I defended.

He shook his head and gave me a look "when I say you don't have sense now you'll start keeping malice" with that, he scoffed sand turned around to leave, which I was so very thankful for because one thing I couldn't do in the whole wide world was stand Hafeez. On a normal day, I would've followed him to drag the matter to January next year, but I was way too happy and excited for that. Hafeez is just a fresh thorn in the neck wallahi, so mean and annoying, and he never even smiles, kamar wani gunki.

Ever since we got married, that's a month and 2 weeks ago, the situation had always been the same. There isn't a day that passed by without him being mean to me while I annoy him to the max in return, we're always fighting and arguing like some sworn enemies. I must admit though, I enjoy it sometimes, it's very entertaining to watch the veins in this neck pop out like they're about to burst, he gets angry and blows up so easily like a balloon, and it requires the slightest thing to act as a pin that will burst that balloon. He goes from 'I swear to God I will kill you' to 'please leave me alone' within the blink of an eye.