Chukwudi Eternal Udoye is back again with the part 2 of the Moondlight tryst. If actually you read the part 1, surely you will appreciate him for this part 2.
To read the part 1 Click here
#Moonlighttryst
MOONLIGHT TRYST
(Part Two)
D . U . S . T
“PLEASE CAN WE SEE BRIEFLY IN MY OFFICE?” BARRY ASKED POLITELY WITH A SMILE.
“Oh sure,” my reply popped out, as I tried to battle the flood of thoughts rushing into my head. My stomach wobbled, and I felt a sting of giddiness creep into the front side of my head, closer to my right eyes. I closed my eyes and placed my hand over my head, slightly over my forehead.
“Are you alright Ikem?” Barry’s voice pierced and broke into those few unconscious moments I had, jolting me back to life.
“Yes, yes,” I replied sharply. “Just a slight headache, that’s all”.
“I’m sorry about that. Perhaps we talk later, preferably during lunch. What about that?”
No! No!! No!!! Now is absolutely fine. I mean very fine. Not like I have much to do at the moment anyways”.
“Okay then, shall we?”
“Sure”.
I walked slightly behind him as he led the way to the office. There was no angle from which Barry was viewed that would reveal any atom of ugliness. His, was cuteness in totality. He was awesomely handsome. Soon, we were at the door of the one of the secluded rooms within the premise. The staff hardly come here, unless when they were called for. This also is where Mr. Donald, Barry’s father, has his office – a bit distant from the offices of the rest of the staff. Barry turned and gave me an inviting smile, which didn’t really go down well with me. Then he opened the door, walked in, and then in his wet, whispery voice said,
“Come right in Ikem”.
I stepped inside and started feeding my eyes on the exquisite beauty of the office. “Intriguing,” I thought. His office looked much like a collector’s room, with lots of artworks including sculptures, ceramics, and some framed paintings hanging on the walls. His desk was neat and well-arranged that the sight of it made me doubt my own meticulousness.
“Do sit down please,” he said.
I pulled out the seat from under the desk and sat down. I heard the door keys tweak and its locks click. My heart skipped.
“So, it was you,” Barry reiterated, as he walked up from behind and sat on the top of his desk, adjacent where I was seated.
I kept quiet. I didn’t want to be too quick to admit that I had seen him earlier that morning in a bus. But come to think of it, what would make the son of a renowned company such as INK & PEN AD-AGENCY board a public bus? Well, maybe his car broke down and he had no other option. Anyway, that was the least of my worries. My major worry at that moment was being locked up all alone with a cute stranger, in a secluded room. It made be highly vulnerable, and I was already beginning to get uncomfortably attached to him. Don’t blame me; I like fine things.
“You don’t seem to say a lot, do you?”
I smiled and passed him a glance again.
Our eyes met.
He smiled back at me.
“It was you I spoke with over the phone on the night I was with my father. You are the Ikem I spoke with that night right?”
“Yep,” I answered sharply in disappointment. I thought he was going to refer to our meeting in the bus, but he seemed not to be concerned about it at all. He didn’t even show any signs as if we had met before.
“Yes, it was me you spoke with”.
“You know, ever since I spoke with you that night, I’d always wanted to meet with you, and talk extensively. There was something about you, your voice and it was authentically captivating.
I shrugged my shoulders and adjusted coyly on my seat, so he wouldn’t notice.
“Honestly, I would on a very good day take this as a flatter, because I can’t remember much about what I said that night Mr. Barry. But whatever they were, I also don’t think they were as captivating as you are repainting them to be. They were just normal words I would have said to anyone in your shoes then. Good a thing it’s all in the past now”.
He smiled and shook his head lightly.
“Please, call me Barry. I know… we know we are misters already, so there’s no need for the emphasis again, please”.
“Alright Barry”.
“Thanks”.
“You’re welcome Barry”.
“I like you already”.
“Ehhhnnn?” I muttered as if I didn’t hear what he said. As if begging for a repetition.
He chuckled at my facial expression.
“Stop making that clownish face”.
Indeed I was taken aback a bit by his last statement. He couldn’t possibly have meant that.
“Well, it’s normal and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with liking someone,” I said, trying to pretend I didn’t already know where he was headed.
“I mean I like you. I really do like you, and would want to get to know you better, if you don’t mind. I like your depth and maturity, and the way you approach things about life. They are way, way out of the mundane”.
I quietly stood up, putting up a plastic smile and facing him.
“Mr. Barry,”
“Barry,” he reiterated.
“Oh! My bad. I’m sorry. Please if you don’t mind, I have got work to do, and would love to go take them up right now”.
“But you told me couple of minutes ago you didn’t have much to do”.
I avoided replying him and simply walked towards the door.
“Where are you going to Ikem?”
“Obviously to my office, Barry”.
“Come back here and sit down”.
My lips dried up. My heart sank into my stomach. My eyes teared up.
“Not today please! Don’t let these demons in me out today, please,” I muttered under my breath.
“I have the keys with me here. All I wanted is for us to talk – man to man. Maturely. But you’re acting up like a kid. Come back here and sit your ass down”.
There was a subtle fierceness in his voice this time when he spoke. I feared making a scene of the conversion, and attracting any third party. Maybe I should just calm down and know precisely what he truly was asking for, instead of jumping into conclusion. So, I turned around quietly, and was going to take my seat, when got down from the desk on which he’d been sitting and blocked me, standing close to me. Very close.
“You should be happy I found you attractive. Many people would die to for such proposals as this,” he said, his face directly opposite my bowed head.
“I don’t want trouble Barry. I am not interested”.
“Trouble? Who is making trouble here asides you, acting up like some sissy. And for your information, I am not begging you. You don’t have an option. I get whatever I want, and you shouldn’t even think quitting your job here would save you either,” he threatened with a smirk.
I kept quiet.
“Ikem look at me. C’mon look at me and stop being a drab”.
I raised my eyes gently and our eyes met again. What I saw this time around in those eyes were dark and painful – like a child that had been starved of love all his life. Within splits of seconds, the hatred that I had started nursing towards Barry for his actions, which I had thought insensitive and inhumane, began to quell down. A swoosh of care and loving affection began to blossom.
“You think I’m not good enough for you? What do you want, tell me? Take a look at me and tell me what one thing you find about me that you can hate. You should let me spoil you. I like you Ikem”.
“Damaged”.
“Pardon?”
“You’re damaged”.
“I’m damaged? What the hell are you talking about?”
“You asked for one thing I hate about you?”
“Yeah… what?”
“I hate the fact that you are damaged, and you are trying to take you revenge of on innocent helpless souls you think you can intimidates and scare into succumbing to your will with money and connections”.
He adjust a little bit away from me, and sits on the edge of his desk – his eyes squinted and steadily cast on me.
“Barry you are not just beautiful outside, you have a beautiful inside, but the battle within you is ravaging, and you have really done great damage to yourself unknowingly. You need to let go.
“What the fuck did you just say?”
“I’m so sorry Barry. I said what I saw when I looked into your eyes few moments ago. I saw a damaged…”
“Shut the fuck up…” he yelled cutting me short from continuing what I was saying.
“I’m sorry, but that’s the truth”.
“Stop talking. Just shut up”.
A huge silence invaded his office.
He got up and paced restlessly for few minutes, then slowly took his seat and sat down. He heaved a deep long sigh and then asked,
“Who are you?” his face showing utter despair. “Who the fuck are you?”
“Was it your father? Was he the one that did it?”
He snarled and then gave me a grave intense stare. Tears filled his eyes. His mouth quivered, with his fists clenched.
“Fuck! Fuck!! Fuck!!!” he muttered under quick succinct breaths, boxing and kicking at an invisible opponent.
I stood and walked up to him, my heart palpitating so hard, and held him from behind.
“Hey Barry, it is okay. Calm down”.
He fought as I held him, but I held on tightly. He fought again, and then let out a deep soulful wail. I swirled him around and held his head to my chest. Cried and clenched to my clothes like he’d tear them.
“No one! No one ever saw me. No single one had ever seen me,” he moaned in deep despair.
“C’mon Barry. Stop this”.
“No fucking person ever did”.
His cry pierced my heart. Few thoughts from my past flashed into my head. I shook them off.
“Barry, stop already!”
“All I’d ever wanted was for someone to see me. To see me for who I truly am. But they never did”.
“Hey, look at me Barry”
He turned slowly and looked into my eyes.
“This should be between us. Let whatever happened here today be a bond we share; our little secret, okay. Whatever it is I can do to help you through this, I would give it my best shot. We all are hurting, but sometimes the only way we can heal individually, is to share and partake in someone else’s pain”.
He pulled me closer and hugged me wholly and warmly. He held me so tight, I felt his heart beating.
“Thank you! Thank you Ikem. I knew it from the day I heard your voice, that there was something different about you. Something unique and special. I just knew it. I felt it”.
“It’s okay Barry. We need to reschedule, so we can meet and talk better. I have to be in the office right now please”.
He disengaged himself from the embrace, stood before me, gazing intensely upon my face. Then he made a move to kiss me, but I held him back gently and smiled.
“I know how you feel right now Barry, believe me. I feel the same way too”.
“Then let me go”.
“No Barry. You don’t always need what you feel at all time. Sometimes, you just have to let them slide. It doesn’t make you weak, rather it should help you understand how powerful you really are towards taking conscious decisions for yourself”.
“Who are you,” he asked, this time with a smile.
“I am Ikem, and I would love to be your friend,” I said extending my hand for a shake.
Still smiling, he shook my hands in a very lively manner.
“Thank you Ikem”.
“Thank you too Barry, and by the way, thank you for openly appreciating what I did for that mama in the bus earlier today at the bus-stop”.
Barry’s head suddenly tilted as if to get a better view of me, and then his smile was slowly replaced with a straight face.
“What bus? Where?”
“At the bus-stop naaa. Hilltop bus-stop,” I replied confidently.
“Hilltop bus-stop? What are you talking about Ikem?”
“Ohhhhh! Stop this Barry. We boarded the same bus this morning. I was on my way here to work. I didn’t even know you were going my way. I was forced to come down, and then offered my seat-space to an aged woman who couldn’t get a seat. You were there”.
“Huh! We? I don’t understand still. How do you mean please?”
I was already getting irritated and slightly angry at Barry’s attitude, thinking he was just pretending about the whole thing.
“Yes, bus. Yes us. You and I. you even said what I did touched you in a different way”.
Barry’s mouth fell open as he stood watching me in utter confusion.
“Come Ikem. Come and see,” he said, moving towards the window.
I moved closer. He pulled the blinds.
“There! You see that car over there?”
“The black one?”
“Exactly. That’s what I drove to this place today. That’s my car, and here is the key,” he said, waving a car key before my face.
I gazed into his eyes and saw obviously that he wasn’t lying. I was confused. The morning’s incidence replayed quickly in my head again. I would swear it was Barry I saw in that bus. I was darn sure.
“Wait! Am I going crazy of any sort, or Barry is just pulling my legs?” I thought.
“Ikem? Ikem? Are you alright?”
“Yes, Barry, I am”.
“See, I think you should go home and rest. Don’t worry. I’ll talk to Dad about it. He’d understand”.
“No! No!! No!!!”
“Yes! Yes!! Yes!!!” he fought back. “Since you don’t have much to do in the office today, I’ll tell dad
I need to take you with me somewhere and we may not be back on time. So, you’d use the opportunity to go rest and resume on Monday. I know this work can be tiring at times”.
“No lease Barry, no. this wouldn’t look nor tell well for me, especially if the other staff gets to find out you facilitated such”.
“So, who’s going to tell the other staff I did? You? My dad?”
“No Barry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it in that way”.
“I’m dropping you off. I’ll call dad now. You’re good with that?
I nodded.
“Great”.
While he was trying to get his dad on the line, I felt my eyes shutting close. All of a sudden, everywhere went from ash to black.
Then nothing.
Chukwudi Eternal Udoye
#Mrnormanwrites2017
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