My Choice

chapter 1

Grrrr! Grrrr!

"What's that?!

I open my eyes.

"It's too early for people to be disturbing me". I shut my eyes even tighter.

Grrr! Grrr!

Ahhhhggh! I open my eyes again, my eyes go to my bedside table and see the alarm clock
"7:45"

"7::45?!
I'm going to be so late! God kill me now." I'm talking to myself which shows how riled up I am.
Today's my first day at the office and I'm late.
Ha ha ha!!!
I run to the bathroom,brush my teeth and shower.
I rush to my wardrobe and bring out the outfit I prepared last night. I put  on a pink floral design short sleeve shirt and a black pencil skirt.
I dab on a little makeup, then wear my black stilettoes.
I grab my black bag and rush out of my small but comfortable apartment, not forgetting to lock the door.
I run down the stairs and into the street,  flagging down a taxi.
"To Curtis Corps ".
"Okay"
"Step on it,  please"
"Of course, pretty"  He stepped on the gas driving faster.
Pretty?!
This man is pretty bonkers, I'm so not in a good mood. But as long as he will get me to work fast, I can let it go.
We navigated through the streets of New York, reaching the tall building where I will be working in almost record time.
I paid the driver and walked in. Sorry! Did I say walk? I ran in , abeg  I can't be later than I already am . I ran to the receptionist. There was a beautiful red head there.
"Excuse me. Where is the attorney's office?"
"It's on the seventh floor, fifth door."
"Okay. Thanks".
I started to the elevator, pressed the button. The door opens and in my hurry, I bump, into someone. A pretty masculine someone.
"Oomph!
"Oops! Sorry".
Awwwww, he's cute. The oh very masculine chest I bumped into belonged to a good looking man with black hair. He glanced at me , looking up from his phone, which had probably fallen when I bumped him. Hid eyes look pretty cool and blue.

Oh la la! Where did this angel fall from?

" Next time, keep your head up, if it's too heavy, then move it out of the way."

Rude much! I take it back, he is a devil.
" Geez!  I apologized. Did something crawl up and die on your ass? Even if it did , that doesn't give you the right to be rude to people so early in the day".
I stalk into the elevator, not waiting for a reply. I press the button for the seventh floor, while looking at my watch.

Gosh!  It's 8:22. That devil just wasted more of my time.

I run to the second door immediately the elevator reaches my intended floor.

"Ahh! Welcome miss Chukwu! Did you finally decide to join us."

There were two men in the room, one maybe in his late 50s, the other could be a little older than i am.
The older man should be John Davis, the chief attorney for Curtis Corps, and the other,i really don't know.
" Good morning gentlemen. I'm really sorry for my lateness". I make no further move to explain.
"Come! Sit down". He pointed me to the second chair in front of him. I sat down.

"You haven't met yet, this is Josh Curtis. He's the vice chairman and CEO of Curtis Corp and he is also your boss, you will meet Sarah, another attorney later, she's not in town now. Josh, this is Grace Ezih.."
"Excuse me, it's Ezeh."
"Ezeh, I get this wrong all the time. She's a new attorney here, take care of her."
Josh stared at me, I couldn't read him, which was strange because I can read people on the spot.
"John, you realize that this company is not looking for anyone to cuddle, if she lags, I won't hesitate to cut her off".

The hell?!!

Who does he think he is, I know he's my boss but that is just too much. "You have nothing to worry about, Mr Curtis, I assure you".

He doesn't reply, rather he gets up, gives a nod in John's direction, looks at me again, then walks out of the office.
I stared at John with a WTF look on my face.
" Don't worry dear, you will get used to it in time. If you have any problem, just come here, okay?"
"Okay sir, I'll like to go to my office now".
"It's the 4th down the corridor".
"Thanks"

I leave the room and walk to the said office. "Nice" I'll enjoy working here. The décor is just right, corporate in a minimalist design.
I sit in my chair behind the table , turn it around to a good view of central park. And
my mind goes back to 7 years ago.

                          ---- ****----
I have lived all my life in Nigeria. I was born in Aba, in the South Eastern Abia state. My parents have lived in our home on the suburbs of the well known commercial city, for close to a decade before we were born.
I have an elder sister and three younger brothers. I won't say we were quite comfortable but with my dad and mom's income from their commercial trading, we were able to make do each day.
I had quite an interesting childhood and adolescence living in a public house, in which all the five families living in the house were to share the two toilets and bathrooms provided by the landlord. The daily palaver and wahala which was probably the main source of entertainment for some of the neighbors each day.
My siblings and I went to a private school close to our home, and when it was time for my sister to go to high school, she went to a boarding school kilometres away from home in another state.
I was now the eldest child making me the one my parents expected to care for my younger brothers.
I practically grew up after my sister left because of the responsibility laid on me. My parents would leave home at 7 in the morning, the same time we left for school.
I was in basic 4 then at the age of 9. My younger siblings were 7,5 and 3 respectively. By the time school closed each day at 3, we went home and I looked after them till my parents came back at 8 or 9 in the evening. 
Things went on this way and when I entered high school, it was one close to an all girls school  close to home so that I could still keep an eye on my siblings.
Now that I think back, I always felt that my sister because I felt that she had gone far from home to escape her responsibilities thereby making them pass to me. This made me resent her for years. But I did my best to take care of my siblings in every way I could.
I didn't even have time for any  relationship with the opposite sex throughout my adolescence and teenage years. But trust me, I got a lot of proposals, after all,  growing into a pretty girl after my awkward puberty years brought a lot of attention my way. But I couldn't do that 1: I had little or no time for myself having younger siblings to care for. 2: Honestly I didn't want to get into any relationship as of then.
After high school, I bought bus tickets to Lagos, where I would spend some time with my aunt. On the scheduled day, I arrived at the terminal at 8 in the morning and at 9:30 am, the bus left the terminal to start the journey.
This was my first time away from home and I was scared and nervous the whole duration of the journey.
Luckily for me, the driver was a good one. 
We made stops at Asaba and Benin for rest and refreshments. And reached Lagos in the evening at 5. It was an almost 9 -hour journey. My aunt Chinwe,  being my mother's younger sister, was waiting for me at the bus terminal in Lagos.
We got to her home in the Isolo area of Lagos and her entire family was home. I was given a very warm welcome by her husband and 4 kids.
I called home to let them know that I reached safely. My brothers told me that they were already missing me, and honestly I missed them too.
  We called it a night at around 11:40 or so and went to bed.