Behind The Face Of A Stigma

Walls

"I could not help but notice you, noticing me, noticing you."

A guest in his early thirties, funny eyes with quite a large aqualine nose and fixed gold teeth was openly flirting with Naomi at work the following day.

Is there something wrong with that sentence?
She cocked her head to one side and looked at him weirdly, blinking doubtedly. She quickly pushed the thought away, making a mental note to assess that statement later.

He looked like a Northern French person with brown hair and lighter eyes.  

Apart from his stripey white T-shirt and red berets with a scarf wound around his neck which are the features of a typical French man, he also had an heavy French accent and his mouth moved asymmetrically as he spoke. He had a cigarette in one hand and red wine in the other.

"I'm sorry but you're not allowed to smoke in here Sir." Naomi said trying hard not to transfer her aggression on him.

"Don't worry Ma belle. I'm not smoking here. I'm going towards the bar."

She had woken up with an air of irritability and had taken it to work. On a normal day, she would have laughed at his advances and led him on a little, only to end up stuffing his card in the bin or forgetting it way down below her bag.

Refusing to accept their cards was never an option even though it was against the company ethics yet the guests defiled that. They either considered it embarrassing or plainly rude. Every job has its hazards and Naomi knew what she was getting into.

"You're a hard one Ma belle." Mr gold teeth continued. "I like them hard." He laughs. "That makes the game more fun."

Concentrate on what he's saying. Use him as a distraction. Don't think about what happened yesterday. Ah no...! Not again. How did it manage to come back?

She had left the party clandestinely without informing Nathan. She had decided she couldn't see him in that emotional state lest she breaks down in front of him.

She consistently cursed herself for stooping so low and getting involved with Katherine.  But there had been something different. While those in her past had only lashed words directly at her, Katherine had involved her mother and if there is one person she doesn't joke with, it was her mum and so she had no regrets for standing up for her mum. She assured herself.

So why was she still cranky this morning?

She was mad at Nathan. He had pieced her bubble and she was angry at him for it and even more angry at herself for allowing it happen. He was the reason behind all that. If he hadn't taken her to that party in the first place, none of that would have happened.

Her mood grew darker by the day. She snapped at annoying guests and spoke rash on the phone. She knew she was acting wrong but she just wasn't in control of her mood at the meantime.

"Naomi are you okay? Would you like to take a break?" Her supervisor asked when he noticed her unusual mood.

"I'm fine. Thank you Sir."

She consistently went to the ladies to splash water on her face. It did her no good.

She was grateful when it was finally time to  close from work.

The weather matched her mood with its unfavorable dark clouds. It looked as if it was about to rain and it was unusually cold. She couldn't wait to get out of there.

"Emoji!"

There was only one person who calls her that. She took another route which was different from the one she took daily. She walked faster, ignoring him, hoping he'd give up and leave her alone.

He didn't and sooner than later, he caught up with her and grabbed her by the hand. She glared back at him horrified. His eyes widened in shock before they became flat and cold.

"Hey I was calling you."

"Hey." She nodded curtly, her voice clipped tight.

"Are you avoiding me?"

"No I'm... I'm not avoiding you." She stammered.

"I never pegged you for a liar. I didn't see you leave the party, where did you go to?"

"Something came up."

"And you couldn't inform me that you were leaving?" He asked incredulously.

She shrugged.

"I'm protecting you." She said under her breath but he heard.

"Protecting me? From what? Talk to me!"

He suddenly went still staring at her.
Silence, they say is golden but this kind of silence, she found it frustrating. His gaze bore a hole in her and she felt he could see through her soul.

Don't flinch that would make you look weak. Raise your chin, look into his eyes. Stop avoiding his gaze.

His gaze travelled over her as if he was undressing ber, breaking down barriers and walls of Jericho, stripping her like an onion only to find another new wrap, opening her up like the red Sea and breaking down her walls like the Germans broke down the fore fronts of France in the first world war and she had no idea what to do.

She could feel his gaze bore through her and cut through her soul. Her heart beat faster and she didn't like it. She felt naked, exposed and vulnerable.

"Naomi, you've erected walls around you and I'd make sure that I break down everyone of them till I get to you if that's the last thing I do before leaving for America. I always get what I want. Make no mistakes about it."

And with that, he strolled off.

We'd come back later to the whole things he said just now but there was something wrong with that statement. Naomi pondered.

Everything was wrong. Her day had gone wrong, the people she met had done something wrong one way or the other, the route she was taking right now was wrong and even her thinking organs have been disorganized in the wrong way but that wasn't what bothered her now.

Something was off not wrong, she corrected. Ah there it is, she finally noticed.

He had called by her name and not by her nickname, Emoji.

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Yours truly,

Glownator ❣️