Ex Gratia (#1 EX TRILOGY)

Chapter 12

Rich seemed to be stuck at first, because he had pursed his lips with his eyes bulging with surprise. Akoma felt the gentleman was thinking through the questions and so she decided to apply more pressure to get him to spit anything out. She hit the top of the table with her left fist and clenched her jaw. Rich glanced at her left hand and noticed her flexing it slightly, and then slowly she moved it out of sight to hide it behind her back. Akoma’s face tensed up as she took in a deep breath and exhaled loudly. She was obviously in pain.

Rich smirked and shook his head. “Sorry about that. It must have hurt.”

“That’s not important. Answer me!” Akoma asked and leaned forward pointed a finger at him. “If you lie, I will know. If you tell the truth and pollute it with even 1% impurity, I will know.” She leaned back and finally brought out her aching hand to massage it slowly. “I am listening.”

Rich sighed and crossed his leg, and the look of surprise was slowly replaced with a charm in his eyes that Akoma wished could disappear. She started to tap her foot impatiently. Rich stared at her thighs and blinked. “It’s weird how your skin is both smooth and spotless,” he said calmly. “You never played silly games when you were a kid?”

Akoma glared at him and wagged a finger at him. “Be very careful,” she said. “I permitted you into this house, and I can be the same person who sends you out without regret.”

Rich furrowed his thick brows and flashed a twisted smile on his face. “You should regret for sending me out. Come on, Akoma. I am the same Rich you’ve been talking to all month. What’s with the attitude and the interrogation? It’s me!”

“Answer the questions – and add the outstanding ones from the phone call. Remember?”

Rich rolled his eyes and rubbed his forehead with his hand. “All right. That’s fine.” He rose to his feet, squared his shoulders and started unbuttoning his shirt. Akoma raised her eyebrows in shock. Rich realized the reaction and kept an expressionless look on his face. “You want me to be plain, I will prove it to the very extreme by leaving nothing hidden.”

Akoma twitched her nose with contempt. “That doesn’t discomfit me in any way. You can take off your skin for all I care. I demand answers.” She folded her arms across her chest and looked away angrily.

“All right,” Rich said calmly. “Where do I start? Mm. First of all, I started relationships with women in my last year in the university. I say ‘women’ as plural because I did not have the luxury to consider carefully factors like taste and class and all – so I had more than one lady I was quite emotionally involved with for a while – until I chose one weeks after graduation. We stayed together for a year and things got bad; she left me for someone else who married her in two months. My second was a Muslim and it came with some conflicts regarding faith, so it was pretty short-lived – five weeks. My third and fourth ended because they were materialistic and had no ounce of love for me. I took a long break afterwards – about four years.” Akoma heard the sound of metal falling to the floor and frowned, consciously fighting the urge to turn her head and see what was happening on her blindside. “Until I met you – “

“When you put it that way with ‘until’, you make it sound like – “

“I am now interested in you?”

Akoma thought about it for a moment and slowly conceded. It was exactly what she was going to say. She shut her eyes and puffed. “Yes. Yes. That’s what I meant. Continue.”

She heard Rich sigh before he continued to speak, “I was intrigued by your confidence, your works first, and your sass, and your friendliness later. It’s been really nice talking to you day after day. If I had any wicked agenda under my sleeve, I would never use it on you but any other person who left me shredded. Akoma, I am not lying to you. I have not been married before. I almost married my fourth lady. We went as far as 'knocking' and the parents agreed and all that, but before the traditional wedding, something awful happened and I pulled out. Marrying her would have been a mistake.”

“So that’s why you hesitated when I asked if you had ever been married?”

“Yes, Akoma. That’s why.”

Akoma shook her head and grinned. “Are you sure you are not lying to me? Because if I – “

“Wait. Let me ask you this question.”

“No. Answer the rest, and then you can ask.”

Akoma listened while looking at the clock on the wall behind her. She heard Rich suck air through his teeth and the sound of something soft flump onto the floor.

“OK. Fine,” Rich said. “My name is Richard Ampofo. Doctor Richard Ampofo. I am a lecturer at Central University College. I am a public speaker and CEO of Sikadwa Jewelleries. I hold degrees in – “

Akoma clicked her fingers quickly to interrupt him. “Skip that part. Don’t make me yawn.”

“Um – OK. I am not a virgin.”

“Praise the Lord.”

“I have a car.”

“Fair enough.”

“I don’t think I know your neighbour. I don’t remember meeting him anywhere. He sounded like he knew me or my sister. Strange.”

“And Gracefield? You don’t know her either, do you? You cannot lie about that because I saw your face on her phone and she named your contact as ‘Rich Bae’.”

“Oh I know Gracefield. Silly Gracie Mouse and her squeaky voice. Of course. She is a very close friend of mine. That’s it. I hear she is getting married. She does not want to tell me about the guy and I don’t want to talk about it either.”

Akoma bowed her head and frowned. At that instant she felt relieved within her, and that made her think she was being gullible, which would make Nii’s description true. Nevertheless, she felt peaceful about the answer concerning Gracefield more than the others. She turned to look at him and opened her mouth to ask for assurance, but she yelped and dropped her phone.

Rich’s clothes were off. Akoma’s heart pounded rapidly. She found herself questioning both her own dignity and morality because she stared without blinking – and it was hard to look away.

“Rich,” she squeaked. Her lips trembled.

“What? You dared me. Nothing is hidden,” Rich said through gritted teeth.

In Akoma’s mind, she was fighting to avert her eyes, but something was going wrong. Something was not right. Something had changed in her suddenly and it had not been there until she had seen Rich’s body. She felt petrified, and it was not out of shock or awe.
It was either terror or something more than the mind could explain.