I Love You, Jemima V 2

Two: Just Like Magic

Two

Just Like Magic

He had two glasses of champagne in one hand with the familiar boyish smirk on his handsome face and I could begin to feel my blood pressure rise merely by gazing at his lips.

"Come on, Charles; what do you think I am? 12? I wasn't going to run," I realized I'd been slouching and rose to an upright position.

He drank me up shamelessly before realizing that he'd been gazing and offered me a glass.

"You look lovely, Jemima." He said before leaning a bit to plant a kiss on my cheekbone. I almost wanted to cry out in delight at the expensive yet spicy fragrance of his perfume. He smelled like heaven.

"You don't look too bad yourself." I smiled before taking the slender glass from him, flinching as our fingers touched.

"Oh! This old thing?" He jested with a foreign chuckle that I found very interesting.

"Do you...," I gestured at the door I'd almost fled from, "do we uhm, go in?" I asked.

"Thought you'd never ask." He took a mock bow and pleaded for me to move out of the way so that he could perform his gentlemanly duties of pushing the door open for me. The boy hadn't changed one bit.

"You smell nice." He breathed under a muffled breath and I pretended not to hear as I walked into the beautiful room.

Thankfully, there were a few people present in the room so I felt my nervousness go down a notch.

"Nice place," I confessed while taking the seat he'd pulled out for me.

"It's my favorite place at the moment ." He smiled before taking his seat and I couldn't help but shiver as memories of how he took me to his "favorite place", back then, came rushing in. "I have a habit of inviting you to my favorite places don't I?" He asked like he'd read my mind.

"Was I that obvious?" I asked, looking away as a form of hiding my embarrassment.

"Err...Kinda." He chuckled and raised his hands to signify a waiter. "Still hate the color pink?" He leaned over to whisper and I couldn't fight the urge to sniff hard.

"Very much do." I gave a weak smile.

"White wine then?"

"No, I'm not doing alcohol at the moment."

"Really? Why? you're...expecting?"

I tilted my head and kissed my teeth as I nodded with a feigned look of pain. "Yeah," I started to rub my belly, ", the father doesn't want me to keep it though." I sniffed dramatically and watched as he played along, feigning a sad look.

"That's too bad, what are going to do now?" He puckered out his lips.

"I'll just have a glass of juice," I responded sadly.

"No, I'm talking about the pregnancy, what are you going to do about it?" He squinted his eyes at me like he was genuinely concerned and it was at that moment that I realized how much I'd missed this man sitting right in front of me.

It was the fact that he hadn't changed not one bit, he was still the bubbly and playful, and lively young man I met several years ago. It broke my heart that we had gotten here.

"Maybe you should tell me because you're the one with the daughter," I said and immediately regretted my words.

"Did I mention—" he was interrupted by the waiter. "Oh!, I'll have a glass of red wine and I think the lady would have your best organic fruit juice...you should try their peach and apple combo, it's heavenly."

"If you say so." I smiled at him before nodding my head at the waiter.

"Do you want to try their steak and mashed potatoes too?"

"No," I politely declined. "My house-help should be making dinner as we speak."

"Oh! I almost forgot you run—she runs one of the biggest chains of restaurants In Lagos; she is the embodiment of food. Apologies." Charles said playfully to the waiter as she placed his order.

"You've not changed one bit," I admitted as the waiter walked away.

"Good thing or bad thing?" He looked up as a little boy.

"I think it's a good thing." I smiled.

"Wish I could say the same thing about you, to be honest, but I could barely even recognize you that first time; you've changed a lot...don't get me wrong, you look BEAUTIFUL!, I'm not even joking."

"Well," I smiled, "I know."

"Now, I can say you haven't changed." He chuckled until the waiter came over with our drinks and our eyes met while he filled our cups.

"That reminds me, how did you know about my daughter?" He popped out as soon as the waiter was gone.

"Okay, okay." I raised my hands in defeat. "I admit, I might have cyberstalked your life. Shoot me." I said before picking up my glass of juice, moaning afterward. "My God! This is so good!"

"Told ya!" He shrugged. "Anyway, I've never been so happy to have been stalked my entire life." He giggled. "I mean, if it makes you feel better, I've don't my fair share of cyberstalking myself."

"Oh! I'm surprised!" I rolled my eyes as flashes of how they kept calling me day and night on my various numbers came rushing in.

After a moment of silence, he sighed and said the words I'd been dreading all evening: "Well, I can't believe how much I've missed you...how much I've missed... this; us."

I wanted to beg him not to say those words but the words: "Me too", came flowing out of my lips like water.

There was another moment of silence and I almost begged the walls to cave in on me as I feared what was going to come next from his lips.

'What the hell am I doing here?'

'Am I even sensible at all?'

'I cheated on this man and I'm here exchanging jokes and laughing casually like he's an old course mate!'

'God! I must be insane!'

'He caught me naked with his...' I sniffed back the tears that were threatening to drop as I rose to my feet and said, "I don't know what I'm doing here, Charles. I...I have to go. I have to go, I'm so sorry." And just when I was about to turn, he gently pulled me back to the chair and placed his hands over mine.

"Relax, Let's talk. It's the least we can do."

And just like magic, I relaxed.