MUNA

PART 29 : SHOWTIME

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye.

★ ★ ★

Occupied with observing her audience's attention to her, Muna was far from suspecting that she was herself becoming an object of some interest in the eyes of Nico.

Muna delivered the chorus with a perfect pitch and it didn't take long before her audience began to sing along with her. Someone walked up to her on the stage and showered her feet with some cash.

She thanked the person with a warm smile and continued with her performance.

♪ "We're heading for something
Somewhere I've never been
Sometimes I am frightened" ♪♪

For a moment, Muna forgot she was doing this whole thing against her will. Well, she'd agreed to do it eventually but still, she was in uncharted seas and couldn't believe how much she enjoyed herself.

She decided to be more entertaining, as she took out the microphone from its stand and made her way into the crowd in a fluid way that made her seem like a regular diva.

From the corner of her eye, Muna noticed someone descending down the stairs and onto the ground floor, but she couldn't tell if it was a lady or a man. Their outfit wasn't exactly descriptive of their gender. Anyway, she held her own and continued her performance.

It was Audrina.

She had decided to get closer and hopefully make Muna easily spot her in the crowd. Even though she didn't have any plans for an escape yet, she wanted Muna to know she didn't abandon her.

She found a free plastic chair and pulled it out from the table it was close to. It might be a man's world, but men were easily controlled by women.

Muna seemed to know how to make eye contact with her audience and break it the moment they felt glued and she was now getting the same attention from some females too.

Abandoning her timorous side, Muna was swerving her way through the crowd with moves that looked like chasse, her hips swaying left and right, always to the rhythm of the song. She was doing this too well.

Definitely, she'd been threatened to make this professional, because she was doing everything too well, Audrina thought.

She looked around and tried to find Folake. Maybe she could be of help with figuring out how to access the backstage.

She got up after no success at finding her and decided to find a way to the backstage herself.

Then Muna spotted her and stopped singing.

Everyone immediately followed her line of sight and landed on Audrina too, or so she thought. Audrina stood still, found Muna's gaze and froze.

She made a heart with her two middle and index fingers and blew Muna a kiss. Muna nodded and smiled at her.

Audrina missed that smile. She smiled in a way that made her want to kiss Muna right on the spot. Or the lips. Whichever was closer.

Muna's heart was beating a lot more stable now and she silently said a prayer of gratitude even as she rounded up the song, her eyes still fixed on Audrina's.

Just then, Nico walked on the stage.

"A round of applause for our diva!"

They both turned their eyes towards Nico.
"Now, she will be back for another special number. I hope you are having an amazing night?"

"Yeahh!" The crowd responded vigorously, and then the pianist started playing something in the background.

"What the fuck!" Audrina muttered to herself.

Nico's voice was followed by a resounding applause, which shook both Muna and Audrina out of their subzero mode.

Muna turned and walked back to the stage, then gave a curtsy, took a bow together with Nico and they exited the stage. The curtain dropped behind them. She wondered why Audrina looked so surprised when Nico came on the stage. It was almost as if she knew him.

But Audrina did know him.

Audrina was dumbfounded. Not because of the moment she had just had with Muna, but because of the man Muna had just walked off the stage with.

He was her uncle.

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