Coming home at past five p.m. she headed for the bathroom to shower and change before sorting out the food left on her counter and she saw spaghetti and she picked it out and headed for the pot to cook it only to realise that was not what she was craving. She craved bean cake and bread with a very hot pap but she knew there was no way to get that with her current budget.
She earned a decent salary but there were always bills to pay, from light to water, to phone, to sanitary, down to food and then rent, she earned her money just to spend it again and it sucked but it was her life. And her living conditions didn’t allow her to save money for emergencies and all she could hope for was for such to never arise.
She groaned as a headache plagued her while she was trying to read the instructions written on the spaghetti can. She avoided reading and she poured the spaghetti into the pot and began to cook, she went back to her counter and searched through it, trying to find and only came across the almost empty bottle of mayonnaise and she grabbed it out and see the spaghetti cooked she set herself the plate to serve herself when the doorbell went off.
She paused and turned off her single burner gas cooker and walked to the door before asking. “Who’s there?” There was no response to her question and for a moment she wondered if she had heard the bell on her head and when she turned to leave, the bell went off again losing the little temper she had tamed she snapped, “Who’s there?”
“Open the door and maybe you will find out.” The voice belonged to Cainan and that didn’t do much to pacify her because she was taken off with his presence at her door. He had told her he was coming over to her place to finalise the agreement but she didn’t think he was going to follow his words up literally.
She shouldn’t be surprised because he found where she worked just by reading her name tag on her uniform, he could find out where she lived with the information he now had.
“Are you going to open the door or are you going to leave me standing here.”
“Ever heard of stranger danger before?” she asked with her brow rising.
He took a moment to reply and she realised the question she just asked made no sense at all.
“I don’t think I am a stranger, we’ve known each other for more than three weeks and in those three weeks, one of us have stolen the other’s Rolex, so if there is anyone whom might be in “danger” it’s me, Jasmin, now come open the door.” He said and there was a trance of command in his voice.
She grumbled but opened her door, “Let’s get one thing straight, there is a fine line between stealing and killing.” She was grateful she finished her words before opening the door because the sight of the man at her door, knocked the breath out of her lungs and left her speechless on seeing him.
He was in a blue long sleeve which was opposite of what he was wearing when she saw him during lunch. He looked neat and good looking as always but he seemed less formal as he did earlier and his eyes darker by the night but they held much life as usual.
“Yes, but statistically, most thieves end up as murderers so your fine line is blurry.” He replied and stepped up towards her.
“Then why are you here ’cause based on your own words I’m a threat to you as it is.”
He chuckled and took another step towards her so that they became close and she could feel the heat coming off his body. She quivered on the inside and almost reached out to touch him but stopped herself.
“Because I just made up those statistics, there is no proof to what I said, but nice to know where you stand,” he smirked and stepped into the room, his body brushing past hers and she couldn’t ignore the spark that lit up as a result of the few seconds touch.
“Some of a bitch!” She cussed through gritted teeth and she heard him chuckle harder. “I never said you could come in.” She slammed her door and turned to him with her hands crossed over her chest.
“You did very little to stop me though.” He replied, “you live here.” He looked around the room.
“No, just keeping an eye on it for a friend, of course, I live here!” She didn’t understand why she was so furious now when she had the upper hand during lunch. She noticed him still looking around and she didn’t mean to allow insecurity to get the better of her, but that was what she did, “I’m sorry might not up to your standard, your Highness.”
At her words, he snapped out of his thought and turned to find her glaring at him. “I think it’s decent enough.”
His compliment made her cheeks burn but she brushed it off and made her way to the kitchen as her stomach cried out for attention. She served the spaghetti into the plate just like she was about to before he came in and she takes a glass of water before returning to the living room.
She wasn’t surprised that he was already seated when she came out she was however not happy that he was comfortable than she wanted him to be.
“Make yourself feel at home,” she blurted out at him but he ignored her and she took her seat on the couch, pulled the stool beside it closer and set her plate and glass of water on it.
“Have you had the chance to go through the contract since then?”
“Do I look like I have?” She retorted.
“You know answering questions with questions is rude.” He said and for the first time in almost five minutes, she had triggered an angry side of him.
“And yet here you are.”
“This deal does you as much good as it does me if not better, so I will ask again, did you go through the files?” He asked again, his voice harder than the first.
She clenched her teeth, “No, I haven’t gone through it, I came home a while ago.” She took a fork full into her mouth and she almost threw up that instant because it wasn’t what she wanted to eat nor what her body was willing to accept.
He stood up immediately, “Come,” he said.”
Her brow rose, “Why?”
“It’s obvious you don’t want to eat that and I don’t see the need forcing yourself to. We will drive to a nearby restaurant and you can order what you want.”
“No thank you, I can’t do that?”
“Why not.”
“Because you will be spending, I might be a thief, but I still have my pride.”
“We are not going to go anywhere if you end up throwing up while we go over the agreement because you ate what you didn’t like. I am offering and not going to take no for an answer, I don’t give a damn about your pride.”
Spaghetti was one of her favourites and the sudden dislike for it didn’t make much sense, but the doctor told her that due to her condition, she would experience a minor change in her diet, but he made a mistake when he said it was a minor change because she now hated all the food she used to love and wouldn’t want to smell them from a mile away. Cainan didn’t know that and she didn’t plan on telling him just yet.
She knew there was no way she was going to escape this and she agreed. “Fine!”
“Great, grab the contract file and meet me in the car.” He said and got up as though having fire on his butt.
She went over to her bed where she had tossed the document to when she got home and picked it up and she grabbed her black jacket and threw it on before leaving the room.
