A Love Bargain

021: Finally, a day was fixed.

Pearl

All through our drive back to my place, it was mostly quiet and thanks to that, I had enough time to ponder on our conversation at the restaurant.

At first, the drive to the restaurant was me, thinking about the moment we shared at the gallery. But that was erased from my mind after listening to the things, he said about not believing in love and whatnot.

Not even going to lie, I was sad, then disappointed, irritated and finally, it got to a point where the whole thing sounded funny to me. I knew his type, the type that after a bad breakup, will hate on love and the gender of the person that broke their heart.

The way he had been acting, finally made sense. A broken heart was what turned him the way he was and finally, what Peter said made sense.

Then I became curious, really curious, I wanted to know the story but I knew he wouldn't open up just like that. It would take time, yes, but I had all the time in the world.

I was going to wait till he was ready to open up to me.

"Here we are." He announced as he slowly brought his car to a halt, in front of my apartment building.

I sighed and then, turned to him. "Thank you for today."

I glanced around the premises, trying to know if Kelvin was hanging around, somewhere. The fact that he now, knew where I lived still had me worried. Who knew what he would do next? Appear inside my apartment?

"Are you looking for something?" He asked and my gaze travelled back to him, his, darted out the window behind me. 

"Just checking to see if Kelvin will show up from nowhere." 

"Your ex?" He questioned, his gaze drawn back to me. "He still comes around?" His brows quirked up, forming lines on his forehead.

"It's very annoying because he wasn't even supposed to know where I live," I sighed

"So, how come he knew that?"

"That, I don't know!" I threw my hands out in exasperation.

"Maybe you should involve the police at this point, I know a few?" He said with worry laced in his tone. "I can contact one for you--"

"Nah... I mean, I can still handle it, I guess," I huffed, swerving my face forward and then back to him. "When am I meeting your mother?" I changed the topic. To me, there was no need to involve the police in this case. "You've been the one helping me, when can I play my part?" I asked.

Before he could reply, his ringtone filled the car, causing him to pause. He picked up his phone from where it was.

"Speak of the devil," he smiled at me, before focusing back on his phone.

With my eyes fixed on his phone screen, he picked up the call and tapped on the loudspeaker button. He held his phone in his hand with his gaze on it.

"Onyekachi Anderson Phillips."

A woman's voice came, crashing through the speakers and he cringed at that. I, on the other hand, chuckled silently. Not his mother announcing his government name.

"Mommy," he dragged and then slightly rolled his eyes. His whole demeanour changed into that of a little boy.

Cute, I smiled.

"Did you lie to your mother?" She asked, her voice not wavering

"No Mom, actually, I am--" he paused, glanced at me and then back to his phone. "When would you like to meet her?"