She smiled

Another World

    Mama Joe was fond of Luke, and she encouraged their friendship. He was from a humble background.

Even though his perspective on life, God, and success differed from Frank's.

Chloe often looked forward to Luke's company. Most times, once he'd finished his class a few miles away from Chloe's house, he would walk to Chloe's. They would spend time together gardening.

They teased each other and shared, pondering about each other's family and the effect on their lives. Luke used the opportunity to ask her to cross-examine his level of understanding. She questioned him on his medical courses.

The most exciting subject to Chloe was Anatomy. Chloe knew she would have loved to be a doctor. But she had taken social science subjects in secondary school.

It would be a tight switch for her. Apparently, she was glad her friends could accomplish much more than she could.

Chloe soon developed ways of playing pranks with Luke. She found this funny, though she knew this did not always go down well with him. His blinking eyes always gave him away when upset.

One Saturday morning, he dropped by for breakfast at Chloe's on his way to his tutorial classes and test.

Unknown to him, she went into Luke's bag and took his Anatomy textbook for her usual pranks.

After breakfast, Luke headed out fast because he was running late. Not realising, he had left something behind.

Halfway to his destination, Chloe texted Luke to check he had all he needed. Only then did he discover that she had played her usual tricks on him.

He turned back, upset, running all the way, sweating and blinking his eyes. Chloe felt rather horrible for letting her dear friend go through the stress early in the morning.

Though she apologised again later, Luke refused to talk about the incident. His reply was,

"It's okay. Keep having fun! That's what you do."

Chloe learnt a valuable lesson. Even though it's okay to have fun, you mustn't have fun at the expense of another person.

Painfully, she later found out he was late for the test that morning.

Luke developed his relationships with others in the university. He is causing a strain that affected their relationship.

Initially, Chloe did not allow these relationships to change her by accepting his friends like hers. She raised no objections, nor appeared to be possessive of him.

Chloe did not want him to see her through the insecurity ravaging her existence. So, she withdrew a little at a time, from Luke and his friends.

Chloe pretended she was not going through an emotional roller-coaster. Acting actively outside but broken within in the absence of her dear friends.

She developed a friendship with a co-worker in her new job, where she worked as a team coordinator.

Femi was great at anything he did. In his expertise and to his credit, Femi knew how to turn on her female side. With him, she was ultimately herself. She soon lost herself in friendship with him.

There was no conflicting academic difference between them. Femi was already a biochemist. Chloe soon filled the vacuum Akin, and Luke had created with the attention Femi poured on her.

The annual three days team retreat seemed like a magical place to put all her troubles behind for a few days. It's aimed at improving the working relationship with the rest of the group.