Subdued (18+)✔️ [A Nigerian Romance]

9~Usman

Usman was having a terrible day. When his boss had asked him to drive to the new apartment for some peace and quiet the previous afternoon, he had assumed the man wanted a few hours to himself. Now it was exactly twenty four hours and Mr. Onyekachi was yet to come out of the building.

He wanted to relieve himself and take a much needed shower, but he couldn't drive away incase his boss needed him. As if that was not enough, the Governor and his wife had been calling nonstop. When he'd asked Mr. Onyekachi, he'd simply said to ignore and Usman almost cursed the man. How could he ignore a whole Governor and his first lady? Granted it wasn't his state Governor, but he was still a powerful man.

As if his thoughts were reaching the man, his phone rang again. Usman wished he could eject himself from this situation. He waited for the call to end before immediately dialing his boss.

"Good afternoon sir. Sir, are we going anywhere today?" he asked immediately Mr. Onyekachi answered the phone.

"Why are you asking me that, Usman?" His voice was gruff.

"I've been waiting for you here sir."

"Here? Where?"

"At the new apartment."

"You've been inside the car the whole time?" Mr. Onyekachi's voice carried a note of incredulity.

"Yes sir."

"Why?" He sounded angry now.

Usman was at a loss. Should he tell the man that he'd waited because he hadn't given him permission to go? Somehow, he felt it would only enrage the man further.

"Incase you needed to go somewhere."

"That's why you spent twenty four hours inside the car? Is that place not hot for you?"

He was confused again. Should he say yes or no?

"Usman, please bring my key upstairs for me. You can have the rest of the day off," his boss said in a tired tone.

"Thank you sir. Sir, about the Governor and his wife, they keep calling," Usman rushed out incase the man decided to hang up, like usual.

"What?"

"The Governor, sir. Your father," he said like Onyekachi didn't know who his father was. "He's been calling since yesterday, his wife too. I think it's rude to keep ignoring it sir."

"I'll call them back. You can turn off your work phone for the day. I won't be needing you till tomorrow."

Usman felt like he could finally breathe as he stepped out of the car and locked it. "Thank you sir. I'm coming up with the keys." He realized a few seconds later that Mr. Onyekachi had already ended the call, but that didn't detract from his good mood. He turned off his work phone just as it began to ring again, hoping that his boss kept to his words and called the Governor back. He could only imagine coming to work tomorrow and having to deal with the pissed off man and his wife.

***

Aria was sure it was trash she'd seen him going out to dispose. So why was she standing at the bin and Kachi was nowhere near there. She waited a few minutes before retiring to her apartment. She was about closing the door when she heard footsteps on the stairs so she walked towards the top of the stairs and waited.

He looked exactly how she had seen him last, the face, the beard, the cold look in his eyes and his mouth was moving at a rapid pace as he spoke to someone on the phone. This beautiful man had a resting bitch face she concluded. Aria was happy she was not the only one who made him react the way he was now. She felt joy that being rude and annoying was his default setting.

"I'll call them back. You can turn off your work phone for the day. I won't be needing you till tomorrow," she heard him say before he pocketed his phone. He looked up then and their gazes held and he kept looking at her until he was on the last step.

Even standing on higher ground, Kachi was still very much taller than her.

"Why are you standing here?" he asked and she repeated the question in her mind because really she didn't know.

At first, she'd just wanted to confirm it was indeed him and she had confirmed that when she saw him walk up the stairs. She could have easily gone back in without him noticing her. But no, she had stayed. Now that they were standing opposite each other, she didn't know what to say to him.

"Is there a particular reason you're stopping me from going to my apartment?"

He really lived here then. She shook her head to clear off the trance she was in. "Sorry. I saw you take your trash all the way down. I just thought you didn't know there was a bin upstairs. I wanted to tell you about it."

"Where?" he asked.

"I'll show you."

"You don't have to show me. You can just direct me. Who empties the bin upstairs when it gets filled?"

"The landlord pays someone to do it. It's included in our rent."

"So where is it?" He was looking at her with that cold glare and Aria almost wanted to ask if he recognized her from the club. This was too intense for someone he was supposedly meeting for the first time.

"What?" she squeaked, then coughed to clear her throat.

"The bin."

"Oh. It's at the end of the hall. They empty it out every morning."

He stared at her for a few more seconds before he nodded. "Thank you." His eyes warmed a bit and Aria felt such immense joy. This man was going to break her heart, she could tell. She could already seeing herself doing crazy things to get his eyes to lighten like that.

"No problem," she finally found her voice.

Kachi immediately sidestepped her and continued walking, leaving her to stare longingly at him. She couldn't remember why she'd decided to stop liking him or what was so important that made her want to stay away from him. And at that moment, Aria didn't care. He was like a flame and she was the willing moth that was stupidly following it, knowing it would burn.

***

Fun fact, this last part happened to me. I crushed so hard on a guy and the first conversation I had with him was about where to dispose his trash. He smiled at me though and he was shirtless so maybe that's why my brain chose to misbehave and focus on trash, lol.

Anyway, it ended terribly so I always advise people not to meet their crush😂😂😂

If your own works out, then good for you. Me, I'm just grateful that the experience gave me a little bit of material to write about ☺️

Tell me how you felt about this chapter. From Usman's perspective, Kachi is an unpredictable man to work for. Did you catch that?

Thank you so much for reading. Please vote and comment. It would help this book get noticed ❤️