The following morning, Jessica was in the kitchen, preparing something to eat.
It had been a while since she ate breakfast at home, so she decided to prepare
some pancakes and sandwiches.
She had her earphones in her ear as she listened to music and danced.
She was so busy in her own world, dancing that she didn’t realize that Dean was
standing at the entrance.
When she turned around, she saw him standing there with his arms crossed and
he had this amused look on his face.
Seeing him, made her a bit shy.
“How long have you been standing there?”
“Enough to see everything I want to see”, he said, chuckling and she laughed.
The place became quiet and things got awkward. The two of them were still not
over what happened the previous night.
“Are you hungry?” She asked, trying to ease the tension.
“Yeah”, he said, rubbing his tummy.
“Okay, I’ll be done soon with the pancake. The sandwich is ready though, do you
want some of it?”
“Yeah, but I’ll wait till you’re done with everything. Is there anything I can help
with?”
“Nah. I’m almost done. But maybe you could just prepare the ice tea”.
“Alright”, he said, grabbing some cups from the cupboard.
“About last night”, he started to say and Jessica just wanted to enter the ground.
She didn’t want them to talk about it because it would make things more
awkward.
“Dean, it’s fine. We were watching a movie and got carried away, I understand”.
“Yeaahh, thank youuu! Because it was really eating me up through out the night”,
he said, heaving a sigh of relief and she chuckled.
The place got quiet again and it annoyed Jessica that a little kiss was affecting
them that way. Things were never awkward between them and they always had
something to say to each other but now it was just weird.
When she was done with the pancake, she took everything to the living room and
Dean came in with the Ice tea.
They both sat on the couch and ate together from the same plate.
As they were eating, Dean received a phone call. He looked at the caller ID and his
face changed.
“Why is she calling me now?”
“Who?” Jessica asked.
“Anastasia. After calling me a man whore and all sort of names, now she’s
calling”, he said in an irritated tone and he tossed his phone.
As they continued to eat, the door bell rang.
“Are you expecting someone?” He asked her and she thought about Richard.
“It can’t be him. He doesn’t know my exact floor or apartment”, she thought to
herself.
“No”, she said, shaking her head.
“Mmm”, he said, getting on his feet and he walked up to the door.
When he opened it, he was surprised to see Anastasia standing there and she was
in tears.
“Dean, I’m so sorry”, she said, crying and he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t like
seeing people cry especially people he cared about.
“Anastasia, is everything okay?” He asked, stepping aside for her to walk in.
When she saw Jessica sitting on the couch, she glared at her but Jessica didn’t pay
any attention to her. She continued eating her sandwich.
“Dean, I’m so sorry for everything I said yesterday. I didn’t mean any of it, I’m
really sorry”, she said, crying.
“Okay but that doesn’t mean you should cry about it. You’re making me feel I did
something so bad”, he said to her.
“Can we just forget about everything that happened yesterday and move on”, she
said, wiping off her tears.
“Move on? That’s what I’m doing”.
“I mean move on in our relationship”.
“No, I don’t like toxicity. You really hurt my feelings last night and it’s not
something I can easily forget and then just move on like that”.
“I know and I’m so sorry. I was just upset”.
“I know that but I’m sorry Anastasia, I can’t continue like this”.
“So you’re really going to let her ruin what we have”.
“That again? You know what, just go. I’m not ready for your drama this morning”.
“Dean can’t you see that if she wasn’t in the picture, we would be fine”, she said to
him and Jessica was confused.
“What have I done to this girl? I’ve been nice to her and now she’s picking on
me?” Jessica said to herself.
“Anastasia, I don’t want to get angry this morning. Just go”.
“After everything we’ve been through, you’re just going to throw it away?” She
asked he ignored her.
“Dean, please let’s work this out”, she said to him and he looked away.
“Fine! It’s not like I want to be with a broke man who doesn’t know his left or
right. You’ll regret this Dean”, she said in anger and she left.
Dean walked up to the door and shut it.
“I really don’t understand how this whole thing went left. Have you been having
issues already?” Jessica asked as he sat by her.
“I don’t even know. Before it was just little complains about you being here and I
understood her but I told her that you’ve been in my life since we were kids and
there was no way I was going to kick you out because of her insecurities. And she
kept bringing it up and making accusations of you liking me and a whole lot. I
can’t deal with it anymore and last night she really said a lot of mean things to me
which really hurt. And now she wants us to get back? She must be out of her
mind”.
“Ohhh, I’m really sorry about that. Maybe if I wasn’t here, it…”
“No, don’t even go there. You had nothing to do with this. I don’t think anyone
should have a problem with our friendship. If they can’t handle it, then they
should stay in their freaking lane”, he said to her and she was surprised.
“Mmm, you’re right”, she said to him and they continued with their food.
Jessica was asleep when her phone went off and she opened one of her eyes to
see who was calling.
“Richard!” She exclaimed and she quickly sat up.
“Hey”, she said, picking up the call.
“Hey, how are you doing?”
“I’m good. You?”
“I’m awesome. I hope you had a good night sleep”, he asked.
“Yeahh, I did. How was your night?”
“It was great”.
“Okay”, she said, smiling.
“So, I’ll be there in the next 30 minutes. Is that okay?”
“Yeah yeah, it’s okay”.
“Alright. I’ll see you then”, he said and he hung up.
Jessica quickly tossed her phone and ran into the bathroom. She took a quick
shower and when she was done, she looked through her clothes in the wardrobe.
“Oh God, what am I going to wear?” She said to herself as she looked through her
things.
“Arghh!” She said in frustration when she couldn’t find anything to wear. “This is
why I need female friends!! But they’re all in their own world!” She said in
frustration.
She continued her search for an outfit and she finally settled with a blue jean
trouser and a white top. She wasn’t feeling the outfit but that was what she could
come up with.
When she was done wearing her outfit, she stood in front of the mirror and
wondered what she was going to do to her hair.
“Should I just hold a pony tail or leave it as an Afro”, she said to herself as she
passed her hands through her hair. She looked in the mirror for a while and
finally decided to hold it in a high Afro bun.
As she was trying to fix her hair, her phone went off and she picked up the call.
“I’m at the car park”,’ Richard said to her.
“Okay, I’ll be there soon”, she to him and she quickly finished up with her hair.
She wore a pair of white sandals and stormed out of the room.
“Deannnn, I’m stepping out. I’ll be back before 6”, she exclaimed and he stepped
out of his room.
“Where are you going to?” He asked her.
“I’m going on a road trip with Richard”.
“A road trip? With Richard?” He asked and she nodded.
“So you two are now a thing?”
“Not really. I’m just going with the flow. I have to go now, I’ll back soon”, she said
to him and she left.
During the car ride, Richard played a country song and surprisingly, Jessica knew
the song.
“So you’re really into country songs”, he said to her.
“Nope, my dad played these songs almost everyday at home when I was little, so I
kind of know most of them”.
“Oh okay, my dad did the same when he was alive”.
“He’s dead?” She asked, surprised because everyone knew Erica’s parents. They
were seen as the fashion moguls in the country.
“Yeah, my biological dad is dead. Mr Billiard Day is my step dad. My mum
married him years later”.
“Oh I see. I didn’t know that”.
“Really? When you google my dad, it’s the first thing that pops up. The blogs are
really into the whole rich step dad thing”.
“Ooh, I just know about him and your mum. Didn’t really bother to research the
whole family dynamics”, she said to him and he chuckled.
“But why do you have his surname?” She asked.
“He adopted us and gave us his last name”.
“Aww, that’s so sweet of him”.
“My mum made him do it. She wanted us to have the Day name and the prestige
that came with it”.
“I see. That’s still sweet of him”.
“Yeah, it is. He’s actually been a good father to us”.
“I can see that”, she said, smiling.
“So, does he have kids of his own?”
“Yeah, my mum gave birth to my brother after she got married him”.
“Eric Day right?”
“Yeahhhh”.
“The playboy everyone talks about”, she said to him and he chuckled.
“He’s just enjoying himself at the moment”.
“I see. Are you two close?”
“Yeahh! That’s my baby brother and he usually spends the night in my house
when he’s avoiding one of his concubines”, he said, laughing.
“Wow, I see”.
“Yeahhh, do you have any siblings?” He asked.
“Yeah, two. A younger sister and a younger brother”.
“I see. Are they both in school?”
“Yeah, my sister is in the university and my brother is in high school”.
“Oh okay”.
“So you live with Dean? Or he just passes by?” He asked and she was surprised
that he remembered his name.
“I live with him. It’s his house and I’m just crashing till I get a place of my own”.
“I see. So have you started searching for one?”
“Not yet. When I receive my first three pay, I’ll start searching”.
“Mmm, you can actually request for an advance”, he said to her.
“I can??”
“Yeah, you’d have to write and explain why you need one. I think getting a place
to stay is a good reason to get you one”.
“Don’t you think it’s too early for me to start asking for that?” She asked and he
shook his head.
“Richard, I think you’re not thinking of me as a regular employee”.
“You’re not a regular employee. You’re the personal assistant to Erica and it
should come with some incentives. If Lisa requested for one, I’ll do that without
blinking”.
“Isn’t it something the HR is supposed to take care of?”
“Why go to the HR when you have Erica at your beck and call”.
“She has me at her beck and call. Not the other way round”, she said, chuckling.
“It works both ways”, he said, shrugging and she laughed.
“You hungry?” He asked.
“Not really”.
“Mmm, there’s a diner ahead. We can make a quick stop and grab some snacks.
Cool?”
“Yeahhh”, she said to him and he nodded.
He drove for a while and pulled over in front of a diner.
They both stepped out of the car and walked into the diner.
“Welcome to Shells”, a lady who looked just about the age as Jessica said, smiling
at them.
“Thank you”, they both said in unison.
“Here’s our menu, everything in here is available except the milkshake”, she said
to them and Jessica’s face dropped.
“No milkshake?” She asked, with a frown on her face.
“No ma’am but we’ve got smoothies and….
“I don’t take smoothies”, she said, interrupting the lady.
“Do you really want a milkshake?” Richard asked her.
“Yeah but since they don’t have it, I’ll just take…”
“We can go somewhere else to get you a milkshake”, he said to her.
“Oh don’t worry, I can take something else”.
“If you really want a milkshake, we can get it. There’s a restaurant ahead and I’m
sure they’d have it”, he said to her.
“Alright”.
“Do you want anything else?” The Lady asked and Jessica was about to speak but
Richard interrupted her.
“No, thank you”, he said, smiling and Jessica smiled at the lady too. She felt bad
that they were leaving without buying anything from the diner.
“But then they don’t have a milkshake, I guess we’ll get it somewhere else and
grab some snacks from the same place”. She said to herself and they both left the
diner.
Few minutes later, they arrived at a fancy restaurant.
They both walked into the restaurant and Jessica looked around and she found
the place to be beautiful.
When they both walked to the counter, they were welcomed and the menu was
given to them.
“Is the milkshake available?” Richard asked.
“Yes sir, it is”, the waiter said to him and Jessica’s eyes lit up.
“What flavor do you want?” He asked and she glanced through the menu and
made her choice.
“What else?” He asked.
“A croissant will do”.
“Is that all?” He asked and she nodded.
“I’ll have this smoothie and a croissant”, he said to the waiter and he nodded.
“You can take your seat and I’ll have it delivered to you at your table”, the waiter
said to them and they nodded.
They took their seats and waited for their snacks. As they waited, they continued
with their conversation till their snacks arrived.
Richard, took a look at the bill and handed the cash to the waiter.
He didn’t bother to take the change and they left.
As it approached 5pm, they decided to end their little road trip and so Richard
dropped her off.
“Thank you so much for today. I really had a nice time and I got to see new places
and yeah, I had fun at the park too”, she said to him and he smiled.
“Thank you too for making my afternoon an amazing one”, he said to her and she
giggled.
“No, you made mine an amazing one and I’ll surely visit that park again. It’s really
a beautiful place to hang out”.
“Just let me know when you want to go and I’ll be here”, he said to her and she
blushed.
“Alright, I will”.
“Okay. See you tonight”, he said to her and she was confused.
“Oh yeah, Lisa’s birthday dinner. You’re really going to come?”
“Yeah, to show my support. She’s been good to me”.
“That’s so sweet of you. I’m sure she’ll really appreciate it”.
“Yeahh”.
“And uhm, I wouldn’t be able to talk to you like we are doing now at the party”.
“Why not?”
“Almost everyone at work will be there and I don’t want them to assume things
and cook up rumors”.
“Mmm, I don’t think we should pay attention to what anyone has to say”.
“Richard, I’m working for your sister and at the company. If I’m seen with you, it
would affect my job and people would undermine me. You know how these
things go, they would assume a whole lot and Erica might not be cool with it. I
don’t want to lose my job and I want to have a safe space at work”.
“It’s alright. I understand”, he said to her and she smiled.
“Thank you, I have to go now”, she said, stepping out of the car.
“Take dare of yourself and see you tonight”, he said, winking at her and he left.
“Dean!!! I can’t find anything to wear”, she exclaimed as she knocked on his door
and he stepped out in his black pants and singlet.
“You’re almost ready and I can’t find anything to wear”, she said, whining.
“What about the dresses I got for you on your birthday?” He asked her, lifting his
left brow.
“Yeahh, how did I forget about it”, she said, walking into her room and she
stepped out again.
“Deaaaannn, which one of them do you think I should wear?” She asked and he
stepped out of his room.
“Mmm, try them on and let me see”, he said to her and she nodded.
He followed her into her room and she took out the dresses and walked into her
washroom with it.
