ENIOLA: Beauty For Ashes

Chapter Fifteen

The sun was out in its merciless glory, threatening to pop the heads of all who dared to ply the roads with migraines.

In spite of the heat, Daniel refused to move from his spot in the store that overlooked Refresh Hospital. The rays of the sun pierced through the glass to play target practice on his head but he didn't care. There were more important things on his mind.

"Daniel!"

"Ohhhh make dis woman free me na" he grumbled and donned a fake smile before turning to her.
"I was asking you what you want to eat. What are you staring at? Is it a lady? You're already tired of me?"

"Ah baby no naaa. It's only you"

The salary from the pharmacy was not enough for Daniel and his loud lifestyle. He started running into debt and was dangerously close to running out of Mararaba till he met Madam Joy. She was the owner of a store he had walked into to wait out a heavy rainfall.
She was a beautiful woman in her early 60s with a husband who was barely around because he worked in another country and three kids who lived or schooled in different countries.
They hooked up a few times after that and when she gifted him a thousand dollars, he stuck to her like glue. It was all fun and games at first, till other parts of her began to pop up.

She was manipulative, jealous, irrational and offensive. He got tired of her but the money was too good to leave.
The fact that she had a store branch in a building directly opposite King's hospital was another reason he endured her excesses. His guys were not doing a very effective job of keeping tabs on King so he took on the task himself.

"I've sent my girl to order pizza and chicken wings. Is that okay for you?" she asked.

"Tell her to add ice cream" he replied and turned back to the window when she left, just in time to see King pull up at the hospital gate in what looked like a new car.

"Bastard"

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"I'm not eating this food"

"Why?"

"Bukola you don't want to talk to me. You are doing as if nothing happened. You're even cooking. COOKING! Ha! You can kill me oh. You can"

She hissed and dug into her food. He'd been following her around for weeks, shaken and very disturbed because of her reaction to his affair, or the lack thereof. Try as hard as he could, he couldn't get her to say anything.
She loved watching him squirm. It served him right for disrespecting their home.

"Say something! Haba nauuu this woman. Are you human at all? How can you see me having an affair and not say anything?"

She finished her food, washed her plate and went into the living room to watch a movie. He turned the tv off and stood in-front of her.

"Akin what is your problem? Allow me watch what I want to watch please. I don't have the energy for this drama"

"You must have oh. Bukola you must have. What kind of woman are you? I'm not leaving till we talk!"
He stood there, waiting for a response and got nothing.
"Abi you have your own cheating that you are doing? Is that why you're not bothered?"
She looked up at him.

"What did you say?"

"I'm asking you if you are cheating on me! Because I don't understand this your behavior fa! Are you sleeping outside?"

"Akintola Balogun"
"Bukola"
"You're a very stupid man. Do you hear me?"
He stepped back, shocked.
Insults weren't new between them. They quarreled almost all the time, to the point where, after almost forty years of marriage, it had become a norm.
But there was something about the way she spoke that felt dark.