GOOD INTENTIONS

Chapter 9

The next morning, Frank woke up freezing half to death, apparently, his decision to sleep on the cold floor tiles with his air-conditioning system working perfectly wasn't well thought out. He ran into the bathroom, thankfully the heater was on for some reason, but that wasn't his issue at the moment as he was almost late for work that morning.

Seated on his office desk, he replayed the events from last night and heaved a sigh as he recalled all the emotions that went through his entire existence. He wasn't going to call Kaffi, he wasn't going to put himself in the way of such temptations anymore. "Frank!" called out one of his colleagues, "could you help me get those Peterson files from VP's office?" Frank expeditiously jumped out of his chair, "Sure, no problems" he fielded, grateful that something, anything, would keep him occupied right now. He ensured he kept busy at the office all through the day and when he closed from work, he went straight to a gym close to his house where he is a registered member but never works out for reasons only him can explain. The idea was to get home too tired to think of anything but sleep, and it worked.

The noise of the neighbours raking the compound and the noisy twins next door woke him up, it was Saturday, and the entire city was observing a city-wide cleanup. The grasses just outside the compound gate were being levelled by the caretaker, Mr Shola's wife who never leaves her house was on duty today to sweep the entire staircase and she had no trouble recruiting her four little boys to join her. Out of courtesy, Frank trudged towards his exterior door, lifting his sleeping robe from the lone chair in the room and wrapping his well-built body inside. The twins were outside, quite the cheerful lot, they liked Frank a lot and he always knew how to take advantage of that every Saturday to avoid doing any cleanups.

Opening his door, "Ladies," at the sound of his voice the girls turned and their smile knew no bounds. "Hi Frankie," the eldest twin shot out first, "hope you slept well?" she asked. "Yes I did," Frank said, trying to seem interested in the conversation. "You look like you need more sleep dear," the younger twin said with a concerned look. That was all Frank needed to hear for his plan to work, he quickly played the victim and the twins agreed as always to clean his share of the compound duty that morning and bought him time to shower and get ready for rehearsals that morning. It was going to be a street storm- a situation where the choir members go to a particular neighbourhood with their musical instruments and sound equipment, which they set up, then sing to create awareness for an upcoming program, he found his jeans and threw on a nice plaid red-shirt before heading out to meet up with the rest of the choir at the church premises.

While on his way, he was glad that he was intentionally a few minutes late, that way his choir director wouldn't have the time to ask if he followed up on Kaffi because he would be pressed for time and they will all head into the choir bus and head off. He relaxed a bit knowing this.

On getting to the church premises, he noticed everyone was still outside and he wondered why. "Where is Bro. Chuka?" he asked the closest person to him and was directed inside the hall. He could hear Chuka talking to someone and giving some instructions, "Hey, Bro. John you would have to accompany her to her place to get the generating set, ours has malfunctioned again today, go and get a taxi that would carry the two of you." said Chuka to one of his choir members. Frank came around to see the lady standing with Chuka, he was shocked to see Kaffi, this time she was smiling back at him. "Bro John nevermind, Frank is here," Chuka called out to the young man who he had sent to get a taxi. Frank got closer, trying his best to stop the shock that overwhelmed him from becoming glaringly evident. "Frank you are late, our new generating set is having some difficulties coming on this morning and Kaffi says we could borrow hers, could you accompany her to her place so you would help with the generator?" and before Frank could say anything, Chuka walked off towards the back of the church to see what the situation was with the new 6.5 Kilowatt diesel generator the choir had saved up some money to buy.

Gravity suddenly became real to Frank, he felt like his legs were too heavy but he didn't show it. Resolved to manage the situation as best as he could, he smiled towards Kaffi, looking directly into her eyes, he wasn't sure what he was looking for in there, but whatever it was, Kaffi was great at concealing it. "Shall we?" Frank said breaking the tension. They both walked out the church building, flagged down a taxi and headed towards Kaffi's. They were at Kaffi's in less than fifteen minutes. "Driver, wait here, we will be out in a few minutes, okay?" Frank said firmly and Kaffi surreptitiously smiled. They both got out and Kaffi led the way into her house. "Wait here for me," she said with a kind smile as soon as they got into the living room, then without waiting for Frank to respond, she disappeared into her room. Frank stood mummified, his mind reminded him that this was where it all happened before, so he stood very close to the exterior door and adjusted the collar of his plaid shirt, readying himself for whatever game Kaffi might be playing at. A few seconds later Kaffi came out with a key in her hands, "Let's go back downstairs" she said to Frank, Frank was confused. "Please where is the generator?" he asked, hiding the anger in his voice, "It's downstairs, I just went in to get the key, and I didn't want you to stand outside under the sun while I looked for it in my room. Ever since I moved in, I put the generating set in our compounds generator house and haven't had the need to look for the key till today. I am sorry." Something in her voice made him relax and he felt stupid for thinking the young woman had ulterior motives. She just wanted to help the choir out and he was here being a jerk. Frank calmed down and they both went downstairs and toted the 6 Kilowatt silent diesel generator to the car.