King

Chapter 4

Leah is seated at home, in her living room, reading a magazine when she heard a knock on the door. She waited for some seconds as took a sip from her glass of orange juice, before she stood to open the door. As she opened the door, she saw her two friends Esther and Simi. Instantly her friends shout.

"friend!" Esther and Simi shout. And Leah shouted back the same thing but with a pout on her face. They pulled themselves into a tight hug and remained like that for a while before Leah spoke up.

"you guys are being over dramatic, especially you Simi" she says as she struggles to speak. Simi pinches her and they both hug her tighter. "okay, that's enough hugging" she says as she tries to pull herself out of the hug and after much struggle she succeeds. "thank you for not killing me with hugs" she said to them and they laughed.

"one would think that we have not seen or heard from each other in forever" Leah said to them as they took their seat.

"oh, but it's been ages darling" Simi said, using a British accent, and added a smile at the end of it.

"look at you, you guys look good" Leah says with so much cheerfulness, she felt truly happy to see her friends.

"you look better" Esther said.

"don't mind her, she con dey whine us" Simi said.

"how can you still speak this English and still do a good British accent?" Leah asked, still confused as to why her friend would always like to speak pigin, when she could speak a better and clearer English, even do a couple of accents.

"it's called talent baby. Something you guys don't understand. But you, you my friend, you have started to grasp the meaning of the concept. We've heard about your tale now. Dating in America, engaged in Europe. Then wedding in Africa, honeymoon in Asia" Simi said, hailing Leah.

"that's me" Leah cooed.

"show us the ring" Esther urged, latterly begging with her eyes for Leah to show them her engagement ring. Leah stretches forth her left hand and then shows them. "it's beautiful" Esther said with so much admiration, the glint was in her eyes.

"it is. But I would have expected that if you made the guy fly all the way to London just to propose, leaving his business behind, then he would have bought you a much bigger rock" Simi said, in a playful-serious tone.

"Simi!" Esther called as a caution to Simi, so she would stop speak and watch her words. Simi gave Esther a "what?" look. Leah scoffed and spoke, just wanting to end any more talks from Simi.

"I told him I wanted something simple".

"really? Now I know that your simple is a very expensive diamond ring. You think I've not seen that thing in the market" Simi said, without envy or any displeasure but was just amused by her friend's definition of simple.

"well you can't blame my fiancée for taking no for an answer" Leah said with a hint of pride.

"hmm, Jude money. Jude spending" Simi cheered.

"that's my boo" Leah said with a smile as she waved her hand in the air. They laughed for a while and Esther only spoke again after their laugh had died down.

"speaking of, have you seen Jude... and have you heard?" Esther asked.

"yes to both" Leah answered.

"so, what did he say?" Esther asked.

"well, I busted into his office, all flared up, you know me" Leah said and they nodded, then she continued. "he explained that dad just wanted him to fill the space, that it was temporary" Leah said, as she started to explain her visit to Jude the previous day.