CAUGHT IN THE ACT BY GODFREY EMUZE
CHAPTER THREE
It was early in the morning, some minutes before a scheduled management meeting, so Charles and some of his colleagues were in the board room waiting for the meeting to commence. He took in his colleagues and they were all busy chitchatting with a smile on their face. He wondered if they were truly happy or just had secret pains just like him, he caught the eye of one of his colleagues and managed to smile back. He looked like he was about to say something but was interrupted by the entrance of Rose, the head of finance and supply department. She seemed to be in a really great mood.
"oh my God guys, I have great news! Frank finally popped the question, he has crossed the bridge from singleness," she squealed showing off her sparkly engagement ring.
Her colleague Adaobi joined her in the excitement, "oh! Shut the front door…he did what, wow your ring is so pretty," she said examining the ring on her finger.
By now, the rest of her colleagues had joined in the conversation and all chorused congratulations.
"ladies…so what's the excitement all about? Did someone win the lottery?" Wale asked as he was just entering the boardroom.
"even better! Rose is engaged," replied Adaobi.
"really? You are engaged?" he said as he stared at Rose in surprise.
"yes I am," Rose replied.
"wow congratulations, I never knew you were in a long term relationship," he said with a smile.
"oh… it's not been too long. We've been together for one whole month and
"you've known him for just four weeks and he proposed to you and you accepted?" Charles interjected.
"of course. Am I supposed to wait for forty years after meeting him before I can accept his proposal? Come on, this is the 21st century. Besides I know all his facebook profile and updates, LinkedIn profile, twitter tweets and all. We talk virtually all the time and even though he also lives here in Lagos we Skype literarily every day. We just have so many things in common and it feels right. I feel like I have known him all my life, like I have known him forever," she said with dreamy eyes.
"Errrmmm…enough of the explanations joor. See, don't mind them, they simply cannot understand. At 34years, should you wait another millennium before receiving a proposal? when all her age-mates are done giving birth already. I am so happy for you darling, this calls for celebration!" said Adaobi.
"well congratulations Rose, am happy for you. I just hope you know what you are doing, just be careful to avoid regrets in the future," Charles said as he returned to his seat.
"Seriously Rose, am happy for you. Just felt you should be cautious not to appear too hasty and miss important details about him but sincerely for the moment, congratulations." Wale added. It looked like Rose was about to say something but was cut short by the entrance of the MD as everyone suddenly stopped talking and took their seats.
The MD took his seat at the table and the meeting started. He noticed the joyous atmosphere and upon inquiry, Rose shared her good news and he congratulated her. Charles noticed the wide smile on Rose's face as she gushed over her engagement ring and it reminded him of when he proposed to Jenny.
He had gone over to jenny's place for Saturday night games and as usual he was losing. Even though he had never won against her on the game of scrabble, that didn't stop him from coming over every week to play. He loved playing scrabble with her and he didn't mind losing just to see that huge smile on her face and hear laugh unreservedly.
"you know, it's almost a year that we've been together and I've never won against you during game night" he said as he placed some tiles on the board, he didn't score much.
"well that's what you get for always agreeing to play my favourite game. Though I think sometimes you just let me win," she said teasing.
"oh how I wish! But the truth is you are very good at this, you are the word play master!" he said with a fist bump in the air.
"you can say that again," she said as she placed the last tile to get a bingo score.
"seeeee…you won again" he said pouting.
"come on, don't be sore about it, you might lose in the game of scrabble every time but you won the important prize of all, my heart" she said as she kissed him on the cheeks.
"well, that I can't complain about. Now that you are done whooping my ass, can we now play my favourite game? You know you can't beat me at that"
"Your favourite game huh? Son of man, I hope you aint planning on leaving here crying like a baby after losing all your games to me?" she said with a smirk.
"I should be the one telling you that you have an option to refuse the challenge, because I will be merciless in beating you. I will give you what lagosians call 'maximum shishi'," he said and they both laughed.
"I think you are forgetting something…" she said as she stood up to get the ludo, "do you realize that ludo was named after one of my ancestors? In a land of myth and a time of magic, the destiny of a great game lies on the shoulders of a beautiful heroine, her name J E N N Y, she will deliver the game from oppression and restore fun back to it," she said making scary face.
"ooooooh, I'm having goose bumps already." He said and they started laughing hysterically as Jenny dropped the Ludo board on the floor. When they calmed down, she decided to uncover the Ludo seed-case in order to arrange the seeds on the ludo board. As the seeds poured out, a beautiful shining ring dropped out with the seeds as well, Jenny covered her mouth in shock.
"oh my God! This is so pretty…" she said gushing over the ring.
Charles picked up the ring on one bended knee, "please…please Jenny" he said holding up the ring.
"oh Lord! I can't believe this is happening."
"please Jenny," he pleaded.
"oh Charles! I can see what you are doing, I can even feel it but I can't hear the words. I need to hear the words Charles, I need to hear you say it," she said with a teary eye.
"please sweety, help me with the words"
She feigned surprise but obliged him anyway, "what is my full name?"
"Jennifer Omolabake Oludurotimi," he replied.
She continued, "Good. how do you really feel about me right now?"
"I love you so much with everything in me, I can't live without you," he said staring into her eyes.
"Okay…and what do you want to do about that?" she prompted.
"I want to spend every moment of my life with you," he said with a smile.
"and how best can you achieve that?"
"I want you to be my wife."
"well you have a ring already so just go ahead and ask me," she urged.
"will you marry me Jenny?" he asked looking expectant.
She looked at him, skeptical, "are you sure this is really what you want?"
"I'm one hundred and one percent sure," he said nodding in the affirmative.
She held his hand and helped him up from his kneeling position to a standing position, "If we are doing this, there's one thing you should know, I don't do well with silence and assumptions so we must never stop talking. I won't spare you my words, I love you too much to do that. I won't spare you my wisdom because without it you will crash. I love you too much to stop talking to you, to stop talking about you. no matter what happens in the future we will always work it out, okay?"
"deal! I totally agree, we won't stop talking and no matter what happens we will work it out together," he said and slipped the ring on her middle finger.
She slipped her arms around his neck, "and to answer your question, yes, I will marry you," she said as she planted a kiss on his lips and he kissed her back.
"so Mr Charles, let's hear from you," he continued when he didn't get any response, "Charles, are you okay?" he said tapping on the desk in front him.
The voice of the MD brought Charles out of his reverie, "I'm sorry sir, I'm so sorry. We can begin now please," he said trying to gather his thoughts as he made his way to the front of the room to start his presentation.