SHADOW OF THE PAST

08 The Plea

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@Habib Yogurt

Femi stepped into the yogurt outlet and gave the table a mild tap. He had been saying 'hello' more than five times to Zoe who sat down staring into space. The sound of the tapping brought Zoe back to reality. She had been imagining if she could confess her love to Femi in such a manner.

"Good evening sir." Zoe greeted looking startled and Femi took his seat facing her, and the waiter came over to get their choice of yogurt.

At first, Femi hesitated to order for his own choice of yogurt, his mind was practically fixed on how to get home on time to check up on his wife. But Zoe kept insisting he must order for his as well.

"Add Fura to mine," Femi instructed the waiter and Zoe requested for same. "What were you thinking of that made you not to be aware I was here?" he asked gawking into Zoe's eyes.

"I was thinking about the future." she lied and Femi laughed so hard.

"Future? Why worry? God's got you. And by the special grace of God I had promised to sponsor your education." he encouraged her to smile, and she feigned a smile in return.

After they were being served by the waitress, Zoe picked the spoon and dug it into the chilled yogurt mixed with Fura. She only lick a spoonful of the yogurt and started thinking about the daydream she was having earlier. She couldn't believe that she had been daydreaming about expressing her feelings to Femi. How she wished she was bold enough to express her feelings to him.

"So, you said you have an important discussion to have with me." Femi broke the silence licking his yogurt.

"Yeah..." Zoe drawled feigning a smile. She doesn't have enough courage and wasn't bold enough to express her feelings to Femi, she thought of what she could say instead. "The...the exhibition was great," she said shining her white, fine, set teeth, still feigning a smile.

"Oh, am sorry about that. I knew you must be very angry with me. I ought to be there to grace the occasion as planned...but, something came up." he said and Zoe wonder if it was his wife that had prevented him from calling her or visiting her since he left with her the day his car broke down on the way to their house. "What of mum? How is she?" Femi asked fetching more yogurt inside the medium-sized container with his spoon.

"Mum is fine," Zoe replied packing another spoonful of the yogurt with her spoon into her mouth romantically. Femi started a conversation about work and Zoe pretended she was listening.

Suddenly, there was a terrible wind that blew heavily across the street where the yogurt outlet was situated. Then there was rain. It fell as it had never fallen before. For hours, it poured down heavily and Femi kept on checking his time hoping the rain would stop soon so he could go home to check up on his wife that has just been discharged from the hospital.

Femi was expecting the rain to become lighter so they could be on their way as it was getting late already. The thought of the distance between the yogurt outlet to Zoe's house and from Zoe's house to his own house seemed too long in his eyes as the rain kept on pouring down heavily.

They waited for a long time, hoping the heavy rain would stop, but the heavy rain kept on pouring and it refused to stop. Femi checked the time on his wristwatch.

"This is 10.30 pm. And it seems this rain is not going to stop anytime soon." Femi observed and Zoe sighed heavily.

"I'm so sorry for inviting you over when you ought to be at home with your wife by now..." Zoe apologized and Femi held her hand.

"Everything in life surely happens for a reason...let's just focus on ourselves for now, and how to get you home first," he said, dropped Zoe's hand back gently on the table, stood to his feet, and walked up to the waiter that served them earlier and asked him to borrow him an umbrella to use it as a shield to get to where his car was packed. The waiter went into a small room, came out with an umbrella, and handed it over to him. "I will return it once I get to where my car is packed. I do not want my sister to get wet by the rain," he said and the waiter complied.