After the storm (5 page)

"Good to
be back, Mum!" Yemi hugged her back and then went over to hug her
father. "Good to see you again, Dad. Thanks so much for super
hols!"

"You 're
welcome, dear. I can see you enjoyed yourself."

"Very
much so, Dad." She chatted with them about her holidays and how
much fun she'd had in the UK.

"Go and
get some food," her mother said a few minutes later. "Bose says you
have not eaten anything since you got back."

"Better
still, bring your food out here and come sit with us," her father
added.

Just
then, her phone rang. It was Akeem. She smiled and went into the
kitchen to take the call, but they did not speak for long. After he
realized she had only just seen her parents, Akeem promised to call
her back.

She took
her food back to the sitting room and joined her
parents.

"Your
holiday has done wonders for you. You' re practically
glowing!" her mother said, looking at Yemi's smiling face
fondly. "It's a good thing the weather was nice all
throughout,"

Yemi smiled at the compliment.
If
only you knew, Mum. This glow is due to a certain attractive man
and has nothing to do with the English spring
weather
.

∞∞∞

Yemi
attended her cousin's wedding that weekend. She had been asked to
make the bridesmaids' dresses and felt very pleased to see how good
they looked in them. She knew that her cousin had been trying to
cut costs by asking her to make the clothes, but that hadn't
dampened her enthusiasm, and she had completed the outfits before
she travelled to the UK.

Designing and sewing was something she enjoyed. It was more
of a natural talent, but she had also done a few courses over the
years when her mother had noticed her interest in it. Her friends
often teased her about why she hadn't taken up fashion designing as
her course of study rather than accounting. But to her, sewing and
designing was just a hobby she enjoyed, and accounting
was serious stuff—something everyone would expect
from the daughter of Professor Delano.

She was
very excited when Akeem came in on Sunday. They were not going to
be able to meet that day because she still had to attend her
cousin's wedding thanksgiving service along with the rest of her
family, but nevertheless it felt good to know that he was now
only a few miles away.

School
resumed the next day. She and her classmates at the University of
Lagos, or Unilag as it was popularly called, swapped stories about
their holidays and what they had done. Lectures were not that
serious yet, so she had only a couple scheduled for that morning.
She was planning to start studying almost right away, though. So
far, she was on a 4.5 GP aggregate, and she didn't want to take any
chances with her last semester at school.

"Aren't
you just looking good, girl!" A voice interrupted her thoughts as
she hurried out after her last class. Akeem had already called to
let her know that he had sent his driver to pick her up. He
had a few things he needed to do in the office but assured her he
would be back home when she got there.

"Hello,
Ada." She smiled on seeing her course mate behind her. "You're
looking good yourself. How were your hols?"

"Good,"
Ada replied, admiring Yemi's top. "How was yours? I learnt you went
to England."

"Yes,
and it was lovely. Had a really swell time." 

"So what
goodies did you bring back?" 

"Hugs
and kisses."

"Thanks,
but you can keep those," Ada retorted. "I'll pop by your house
later in the week, so have my real goodies ready."

Yemi
laughed and continued on her way. Her phone vibrated as a text came
in. It was Akeem's driver, letting her know he was around and where
he was parked. She called the driver's number to let him know she
was on her way.

"Hey,
Yemi!" She heard her friend Sesan's voice and turned around. She
had been so focused on getting to Akeem's driver on time that she
had not seen him approaching.

"Hi
Shez!" she said, calling him by his nickname. "How've you been?"
She and Sesan had been close friends since they were kids. His
parents were lecturers as well and lived two streets from Yemi's
house.

"Good,"
he replied, catching up with her. "Looking great," he said, giving
her outfit an admiring glance.

She
flashed him a smile. "Thanks, Shez." She hoped Akeem would think so
too. She had taken extra care with her appearance before leaving
home.

"Finished lectures for today?"

"Yep, I
only had a couple of lectures. What about you?"

"I'm
done as well. I'm off to the library now."

"I'm
heading in that direction as well. Meeting up with someone
there."

"Good,
we can walk together then," Sesan replied, falling in step with
her. "We've not really had time for a proper talk since you
returned from the UK. How was your trip?"

"Super!"
Yemi smiled. "Best holiday I've had in a while."

"Really?
You did say you had something to tell me when we spoke on the
phone. Was it anything to do with your hols?"

"Yes,
but we need plenty of time to talk about that bit." She was
definitely going to need his masculine perspective on
Akeem.

They
rounded the corner just before the library, and she saw Akeem's
car. It was easy to spot from the description he had given her. The
driver was standing by it, and Yemi waved to him. He waved
back.

Sesan
arched his brows as he looked at Akeem's black BMW jeep and the
driver standing beside it. "Is that the person you are meeting up
with?"

"Yes,"
Yemi replied, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious. "Or rather,
he's the driver of the person I'm going to see."

Sesan's
brows went up a notch higher. "Okay…"

Yemi
glanced quickly at his face. His voice had disconcerted her, but
his face was expressionless. "Let me leave you, then," he said
quietly. "I'll talk to you later."

"Okay,
Shez," Yemi called after him as she hurried towards the car. "We've
got lots of stuff to talk about."

He gave
her a small wave, but his face had lost some of its cheeriness. She
wondered what was wrong with him. She decided she would catch up
with him later to find out.

"Hello,
you must be Mike," she said to the driver as she approached. "I'm
Yemi. Thanks for coming to pick me up."

"You're
welcome," he replied, opening the door to the back seat for her.
"Are you ready to go now?"

"Yes,
thank you," Yemi said, settling into the car. She brought out the
magazine she had bought earlier in the day and looked through it
during the drive to Lekki, where Akeem lived.

There
were smatterings of traffic on the road, but it was not as bad as
she had expected it to be, and they arrived at the house about
forty minutes later.

The
house was picturesque, as was typical of houses in Lekki, and was
surrounded by well-manicured lawns and beautiful flower beds. But
she gave no more than a cursory glance around, as her attention was
taken up by Akeem walking out the front door.

He
hugged her tightly. "So good to see you, baby. I've really
missed you."

"Same
here," she said, breathing in his now-familiar cologne and reveling
in the feel of his strong arms around her.

Akeem
led her into the house and they went through what was probably his
reception lounge. It was a fairly large room with a polished white
oak floor and Venetian-style furniture. The sofas were upholstered
in a floral beige damask fabric. Beautiful drapes, in a darker
shade of beige, bordered each side of the ceiling-to-floor
windows.

"And I
thought your apartment in London was nice," Yemi said as they
entered into another, larger sitting room. "It's not even half as
lovely as this." She wandered around, admiring the soft leather
furniture and beautiful paintings. She did not need to ask this
time around; no one but a professional interior decorator could
have perfected the colour scheme and the furniture arrangement that
she had seen so far.

Akeem
smiled as he watched her moving around. "Glad you like it. That's a
plus, since you're going to be spending a lot of time
here."

"Are you
sure about that?" Yemi teased.

"Remember my threat in London?" he growled, coming closer to
her. "My ancestors didn't waste time in those days. They carried
off their women and sought parental consent later."

"Somebody help me!" Yemi said playfully. "But like I
told you then, I'd be such a willing captive that my parents will
be thoroughly ashamed of me."

"They
will get used to it." He touched her cheek lightly with his finger.
"Drinks, or do I show you around first?"

She
linked her arm through his. "Let's go around first."

"So
how's the Prof and his wife?" Akeem asked as they made their way
out of the sitting room.

"They're
good."

"I'll
take you home this evening, so hopefully I can see
them?"

Yemi
hesitated. She knew her family and had no fears that they would
like and accept Akeem, but she did not want to just spring him on
them like that without any prior notice.

"Let's
do it this way," she said, as they climbed the wide spiral
staircase, "I'll speak to my mum about you, and then you can meet
them at another time."

He
appeared to think about it and then nodded, "All right, but I want
to register my presence in your family." He pulled her close for a
moment. "And all those Unilag boys had better not come anywhere
near my girl!"

"There's
no competition." Yemi giggled at the possessive look in his eyes.
"They could not get me interested in the four years that I've been
there, and they definitely aren't succeeding now."

"Good to
hear that, but I'm still not letting my guard down."

"What if
a lady gets ideas about you?" she asked. "Come to think of it, how
am I sure that there aren't loads of them hanging around you all
the time?"

"To
borrow your words," Akeem said, looking down at her, "there's no
competition."

Yemi
looked into his eyes. She loved him, and that included trusting
everything that he told her. "Then there's nothing for either one
of us to worry about." She linked her arm around his. "Come show me
the rest of this beautiful house."

Chapter
3

Yemi
heaved a sigh of relief when she finished the assignment she had to
hand in the following Monday. She was going out with Akeem later
that day and wanted to have as little work to think about as
possible. She packed up her laptop, gathered her books, and walked
out of the library.

There
were two girls walking in front of her, but her eyes were drawn to
the one dressed in denim pants and a cropped top. She had such a
great figure—a proper mannequin. Yemi found herself mentally
dressing her up in couture and then in smart casual gear. She
wished she could sketch down the designs right there and then but
grinned to herself as she thought of the weird looks she might
attract.

Her eyes
were still focused on the girl when she heard her name being called
from across the street. It was her course mate, Ada. She looked
excited and was waving madly at Yemi.

"Whoa,
Yemi, aren't you a dark horse!" Ada exclaimed as she made her way
across the street to meet Yemi.

Yemi
looked at her curiously. "What are you talking about?"

Ada grinned. "You, my girl, are one lucky chick!" She
rummaged in her big bag and brought out a magazine. "I saw this
picture in the new edition of
City
Buzz
, and my eyes almost popped
out!"

Ada
flipped hurriedly through the popular magazine to the centre page.
She turned the page around and jabbed her finger at a picture at
the top. It was of Yemi and Akeem. Yemi just stared at it. She had
attended a party with him the previous Saturday, but she had no
idea that they had been photographed.

"You're
going out with Akeem Kadiri!" Ada continued, looking at her with
something akin to awe on her face. "I can't believe it!" She was
almost dancing with excitement. "Small wonder you've never been
interested in any guy on campus. You had your eyes set on much
bigger fry!"

Yemi looked at her indignantly. "Bigger fry? You know I'm not
like that." She looked at the picture again. It had been taken
during one of the moments that Akeem had his arm around her and she
was gazing up at him. The caption beneath the picture said:
Akeem Kadiri, scion of the famous Kadiri family
and CEO of Kadiri Holdings, with the beautiful Yemi…
The article went on to talk about Akeem and his
family, but apart from that reference, there was nothing more about
her. They had not even bothered with her surname.

"Girl,
I'm so impressed with you! How does it feel like to be dating one
of the most eligible guys in the country?"