Leah comes up on deck, dressed in a jean trouser and white shirt, and greets the sailor. She then turns around on hearing someone's footsteps approaching. She sees it's King and he also is dressed in a navy blue trouser and a black shirt.
"you look nice. Where are you going to?" Leah asked.
"to the zoo, where they keep crazy people like you" King answered.
"ha, ha. Seriously" Leah said.
"I'm coming with you" King said.
"to where? You are so not" Leah said. She definitely did not need a bodyguard, to go shopping!
"it's not a request, I'm telling you, I'm coming with you. actually, you are coming with me, because I'm the one taking you out" King said.
"if it's about the money, I have money, so you don't need to worry yourself" Leah said. By all means she didn't want King to come with her, she just needed her own time.
"you have money?" King asked in surprise.
"I was able to take my ATM card with me before I got chased away from my car, so I have with me enough money. And no it's not my parent's money, it's mine. I'm a travel vlogger and I make a ton of cash…" Leah was saying but trailed of as she looked at King who was looking at her with a dry look, completely uninterested in what she was saying. "none of this is impressing you is it?" Leah asked.
"not in the slightest. Just sit and wait for us to get off shore" King answers and Leah goes to sit.
"I hope it's not a "men only" place you are taking me to shop at?" Leah asked, having zero faith in King's shopping expertise.
"yes, because that will confirm your suspicions that I'm dumb" King answered.
"I never said that" Leah said.
"you do every time you ask me "this is yours? You know such people? Are you for real?". You know what, just sit over there and don't talk, that can't be hard for you to do" King said and she was quiet for some seconds, but then she began to speak up causing King to sigh. It was indeed an impossible task for her to shut up.
"but really if you were me wouldn't you wonder how a th…" she is saying but trails off as King looks at her. "sorry, how a man as yourself acquires such things" Leah said. King ignores her and slouches on his seat and closes his eyes.
"oga Ben" King called, referring to the sailor. "abeg, when we reach land, wake me" he said.
Mr. Ben nods his head while Leah shakes hers and rolls her eyes then also slouches and closes her eyes.
* * * *
When they reached land, Mr. Ben woke both of them up, informing them that they had arrived land. They got up and waited for some seconds for their eyes to get clear. King stood up and Leah followed as they left the yacht.
"I want to sleep some more" Leah said.
"me too" King said as they were approaching some cars parked by the other side of the docks.
"see, you should be thankful for me" Leah said. King squinted his eyes.
"for what?" King asked.
"if I wasn't such a nuisance you wouldn't have been pushed to sleep so you wouldn't hear for me. And in turn I slept too. So I was a blessing to even myself to" Leah said and King couldn't believe his ears, maybe his hearing had gone bad along the ride. Not that, that would be a surprise, given her constant blabbering.
"please as we are shopping, remind me to get some glue. I mean, you don't even make sense with the things you say" King said.
"that's the point when trying to infuriate someone, you know what that word means right?" Leah asked with a smile, her plan being very obvious.
"iru isoro wo ni mo ti gba ara mi sinu (what kind of problem have I gotten myself into). Let's just go" King said as they got to where the cars were parked.
"that's our ride?" Leah asked in somewhat disgust as she pointed to a rusty taxi car, parked by the side. The driver waves to them with a chewing stick in his mouth.
"no. That's, our ride" King said pointing to a black, shinning Mercedes Benz). Leah hisses and then tsk her teeth as she sees the car.
"oh damn! Okay, okay, I feel, you. King alright" Leah said. Leah walks ahead of him smiling and happy, then King smirks, before he follows behind her. They get to the car and the driver opens the door for them, they get in. The car begins to move and they drive off. When they get to the mall, the driver gets down and opens the door for them. As Leah gets down, she opens her arms and breathes in the air, it was more than refreshing for her to finally be on land after two weeks. King chuckles at her action then both of them go into the mall.
"Leah? Leah boo is that you?" a woman behind Leah said. Leah rolled her eyes and groaned on hearing the voice of the person calling her. She turned around and her suspicions were confirmed as she saw Rose, an old and estranged friend of hers, standing there.
"do you know her?" King asked as he turned around too.
"sadly. If you think I'm annoying, she is worse" Leah whispered to King. "Rose dear. How are you?" Leah said, faking a smile.
"I'm great. It's been so long. What have you been up to lately?" Rose asked.
"you know me, same old, same old stuff. What about you? Still stealing people's boyfriends?" Leah asked.
"oh darling. That was ages ago" Rose replied.
"no, it was 4 months ago. And at the time, I still recall, he was my fiancée" Leah said with a stern look and a serious tone. Rose gulps, feeling the anger from Leah. She cleared her throat, and got herself readjusted.
"why so touchy. Who is this fine man here?" Rose asked, replacing the previous look of fear on her face with a smile.
"a friend and I remember telling you to stay away from my friends. And me" Leah said.
"friend, is that what they call it now. Last I checked, he is not Jude" Rose said.
"and last I checked, your mother told you to mind your business but you never take good advice seeing that you ended up the way you did" Leah fired back. Rose attempts to launch at Leah then she sees King giving her a stern look which causes her to withdraw. Leah remains unmoved in her spot all this while. She looks between Leah and King then chuckles.
"I see what you got going on here girl. I'll be back. And I'm taking both of them with me" Rose said and gave a short laugh then turned around and left. King gave Leah a look as Rose left.
"don't" Leah said. King hands up in surrender. She sighs. "mood wrecker. Now I don't even know what to get now I'm here" Leah added.
"do as you please. It's your money anyways" King said.
Leah smiles and then gets to shopping. She picks a couple of things and drags King along with her to wherever she was going. She stops at a place and sees a silk petty coat, she goes to grab and shows it to King. He shakes his head and takes it from her and drops it back as she refuses to do so. They keep going around till Leah is satisfied and then they head to the cash point to pay for the things.
Leah goes ahead and King stands aside, while she stands on the line. As she is next on the line, the cashier sees her and recognizes her.
"ah! Ma. Well done ma. Oh, my God. Ma I'm a fan" the cashier said. Leah smiled back at the cashier's enthusiasm and greets her. The two ladies beside her begin to gossip between themselves.
"who is this one sef?" the first lady asked the second lady.
"see the way she dey smile. One yeye smile like that. She think say na by accent" the second lady said.
"no mind am. The smile no even fresh sef. After she don spend her bobo money, she con dey form. Abeg e. I no know if na her own dey pain me pass or na the cashier sef" the first lady said. Leah hears them, but looks up at King and King shakes his head. She gives a tight smile to King and ignores them.
"abeg, madam cashier, attend to people who came here to spend their money and not the one they borrowed from the boyfriends or even their parents" the second lady said and her and the first lady laughs. The cashier gasps at what they said to Leah.
"no mind am. She think say na only her wey sabi twist tongue" the first lady said. Leah looked at King again, desperately wanting to give the ladies a clap back. This time things go in her favour as King nods his head in a yes.
"excuse me ma, that was rude. Besides, do you know you are talking to the most influential travel…" the cashier was trying to say, in a bid to defend Leah but Leah cut her short.
"it's okay" Leah said.
"travel kini. Answer me jare!" the second lady said.
"please, whatever it is they are buying, is on me. You can take something for yourself too. What's your name by the way?" Leah asked as she stretched her credit card and the Cashier took it.
"Anna ma. Anna Igwe" the cashier replied.
"I'll be sure to make a shout out to you on my next video. And also, just write out your account details on the receipt. In fact…" Leah was saying but trailed off as she looked around the place, looking for what else she could pick. She then spotted a row of clothes and smirked, before she resumed speaking to the cashier.
"consider that row of clothes sold" Leah said.
"ah, ma I should package it for you?" the cashier asked.
"no, it's giveaway season. What's the total of what they are getting… don't worry, whatever it is, triple it, so they can pick something else of their choice, within that range" Leah said, clearly not negotiating on it. The cashier added everything that the second lady was buying together and saw it was 20,000 naira in total.
"ma, are you sure?" the cashier asked, seeing as Leah had already bout a lot of things, could she be able to afford tripping 20,000 naira? She writes the price down and shows it to Leah. Leah sees it and chuckles.
"I'm positive" Leah said with a smile, that price was too little to scare her. Leah looked to her side to look at the ladies, but the ladies were already looking at her, in shock.
"oh, don't be worried on my behalf, my account balance, won't notice it. Yours might" Leah said to them and they remained frozen in their spot. Leah looked back to the cashier who gives her back her credit card after charging her for the bills, as she requested.
"thank you ma. Ma let this people carry your things for you ma" the cashier said and motioned for two security guards to come over and they rush over and take her things from off the counter. Meanwhile, King let's out a small smile as he was watching all that was unfolding. The power of plenty money, he thought.
"give away oo. Give away everybody!" the cashier shouted and people began to head to the counter as the cashier motioned for some of the employees to bring the row of clothes that Leah had paid for over to the counter. Leah turned to face the two ladies who are still standing in awe, looking at her, then said,
"you want to chill with the big boys?" she smirks then put on her shades and walked over to King, leaving them in the same state they were.
"that was… that was nice" King said as he put on his own shades.
"oh please, I was awesome. And I know you like it, you are smiling" Leah said with much pride.
"no comment" King said, resisting the urge to smile.
"none needed, because sweetie, I'm a boss" Leah said. She smirked and so did King as they walked out of the mall.