Hard Man

6

"Shit, Des! This man is a busy person. You can't just say hi, and expect him to respond to you. I'm not a celebrity, but I don't even respond to those kinds of messages. You need to state your purpose!"
— Ify

xXx

It was one of those rare weekends where she had the whole day off. She was in her room, scrolling through Instagram and happy to be alone when she heard a knock on her door.
Knowing it was Ify, she quickly pushed her phone underneath the pillow, and pretended to be asleep.
Her door was open, and she could only hope Ify didn't try the knob. Even before completing the silent prayer, she heard Ify twist the knob and open the door.
Des kept her eyes shut as she felt her flatmate approach the bed.

"Des!"

She didn't answer.

"Des!" She felt Ify's touch on her lower back. "Chioma!"

Des jumped at that. It was shocking to hear her name tumble freely from her flatmate's lips since she had never told Ify before. Here in Abuja, no one ever called her that.
She looked up at Ify in surprise, but her friend was too incensed to notice.

"Why have you been in your room since?" Ify asked. "I don't even see you anymore!"

"I was sleeping," she replied lamely.

"That's a lie! What's going on? They're showing your boyfriend on TV, that's what I came to tell you."

"My boyfriend?" Des echoed. "Who?"

"The General. He—"

"He's not my boyfriend please," Des fired hotly.

Ify stayed quiet for a few seconds. "I take it he hasn't responded to your text?"

Des hissed, and laid back down.

"You said he was online the day you sent the text on Insta."

"I don't want to talk about it, Ify," Des stressed, turning away from her. "It's embarrassing."

"It's really not," Ify answered. "This man is a busy person. Do you know how many messages he gets in a day?"

Des sat back up, daring to hope. "So what are you trying to say?"

"How many times did you text him?"

"Once."

"Omg, and you think he saw it? Were you at least comprehensive enough?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your message. Were you comprehensive enough?"

"What? I only said hi."

Ify's eyes widened. "You said hi?"

"Yes."

"Shit, Des!" Ify threw her hands up in the air. "This man is a busy person," she chided. "You can't just say hi, and expect him to respond to you. I'm not a celebrity, but I don't even respond to those kinds of messages. You need to state your purpose!"

"What should I have said?"

"Hello. My name is Des. I agree to the deal, and I'm ready to start on it. Message me, so I'll know what steps to take. Or something like that."

"Really?"

"Yes!"

Des started to rethink. Hope flared inside her, and she felt like he probably hadn't seen the message. She shouldn't blame him too much.

"So what should I do?"

"I'd say message him right now," Ify answered thoughtfully. "But why I'm here is because I saw on TV that he'd be attending one event. You could show up?"