Edegbe allowed the water touch him sparingly on the left side of his body. He turned the shower off when it was wet and used a bath dish to splash water on his right leg and arm, expertly avoiding his bandaged stomach.
"If you need any help I can come and bathe you," Efe teased from outside the bathroom.
"You've lost more than one nut in your head," he retorted. And then sighed. How did they suppose he would enjoy his bath?
"Are you okay?" Efe knocked to ask.
"Shut up and get out of my room."
"The advice was that you should not do anything that'll stress your wound, even if it's bending."
"Anybody hearing this now would think you actually like me." He waited for the slipperiness on him to turn into beads of water before, frustrated that he had to wait long, wore his boxers brief on his wet body. When he got out, Efe was perched against the wall, holding his towel. "Give me that." He snatched it from him and cleaned his upper body. When he got to his waist, he realized he had to bend.
"This is where a woman comes in perfectly," Efe took the towel to say. "Imagine that Mrs. Yasmin was here, you'd be excited to let her towel you and not look at me like shit from a bad diarrhea."
"Be fast and get out."
Efe smirked teasingly. "I'm going down on you, how can I possibly be fast?" His response was a harsh hit at the back of his head and he laughed. "Fine, sorry. Jeez, I did not know being sick made people easily irritated."
Edegbe did not answer, instead he asked. "How is work?"
"Fine, Sir." He switched to work mode.
"Did the police call to say another nonsense?"
"No, Sir."
"Did they catch the shooter?"
"No."
"Stupid place. If it was in Benin—"
"If it was in Benin, it would have not been any different, you know that. We're talking about one person in the midst of tens."
"That's not an excuse, they are just senseless, people who cannot use their initiative. People died in this, Efe, the culprit should be behind bars by now."
"The police is a human like you," Efe argued.
"But they've gone through training that sharpens their mind and make them more alert than I should be. I tell you something, in the coming weeks, this is going to be a closed case."
After a while, Efe said. "I heard they interrogated the man whose daughter died."
"Who told you that?"
"The officers. He said he did not do it, wished it had been him though, and had it been him, you would not have survived it."
"He's crazy."
"Let's leave, Edegbe. You are a rich man, you don't have to worry about Nigeria's problems, even if you wanted to, you could do it in Dangote's style, not this. Let's just leave."
"I thought we agreed on a year? If you're done, you can leave now." When Efe only stared at him unmovingly, he added. "Thank you."
A knock sounded on the door and they both turned to face it.
"What is it?" Edegbe shouted.
"It's me, Victor."
"What is it?"
"How are you, Sah?"
"Is that what you came here to say?" The annoyance was palpable in his voice.
"No Sah, that woman is here."
"Which woman?"
"Alhaji's wife."
He exchanged glances with Efe. "Alhaji's wife?"
"That woman that's always with him, the one that wears wrapper."
"Yasmin?"
"Ah yes, that one."
He opened the door and snuck his head out. "She's not his wife. Where is she?"
"Outside the gate, I came to—"
"You left her outside the gate?"
"I came to ask you first."
"Since when do you start asking for my permission before opening the gate?"
Confused, Victor said. "But I always ask you, Sah."
He glanced at him. "Tell her to come in."
"Inside your room, Sah?"
"You're crazy." Then he closed the door. "Are you not going to get out?" He asked Efe.
"Are you going to meet the woman in that foul mood?" He said but still headed for the door.
Grumpily, Edegbe wore his clothes. The restraint of his wound annoyed him, he hated the discomfort, and that he had to be attended to.
He joined Yasmin who waited in his study and she saw him, she said. "Here comes the man from south who nearly died in a place he so detest."
"Do you always talk like this?" He sat carefully on his swivel chair and stared at her. She wore another of her long hijabs which had a sleeve and stopped below her knees where her wrapper continued to her ankle. "It is Muslim law to be strictly decent or is it just you?"
"I feel comfortable in loose clothes and it's easy to take off when the need arises?"
"When the need arises?" Edegbe asked.
"Imagine that we wanted to do a quickie, you wouldn't have to struggle with the barrier of my clothing, especially when I'm not wearing any undergarments."
He paused for a while. "Are you always this bold?"
She shrugged and drew the chair opposite him to seat. "I'm surprised you're not running home."
"Do I look scared."
"Even when you might have been the target?"
"You heard?" He asked, as though surprised.
"Everybody did."
"So you also think it's true." It was not a question.
"Your senseless tongue might have gotten you into the blacklist of one or two people, myself included."
"So you want me to go back? Because of one stupid possibility? I came up north for business purposes and I won't run away because one coward cannot even point a gun to my head and sought underhanded methods."
"No," she replied. "I don't want you to go back. I've told you already, I want to spend time with you."
A lump caught Edegbe's throat and he cleared it away. "What are you here for?"
"There's a party I want to attend and I want you as my partner."
He wondered how she spoke so freely when the words he wanted to say replayed in his head but did not make it pass his throat. "No," he managed to say. "I've decided to avoid going to parties." That was not what he wanted to say, he wanted to tell her they could spend time somewhere, maybe when he got better, they could spend hours getting to know each other and he would finally have the chance to take off her hijab and see her hair.
"You're not going to come with me?" There was no hurt in her voice, no emotion in her voice, just the stoic feminine sound he was now accustomed to.
"I can't. Who knows what I'll see next and who else my reaction is going to send to her death."
"Your reaction sends people to their death whether you're in a party or not."
"Did you come here to insult me, Yasmin?" He blinked at her, one eyed.
"I came to ask you to be my partner in a party I want to attend."
"And I'm sorry, I can't oblige you."
"Too bad, I'll have to ask your friend then."
His reply came almost immediately. "Don't."
"Why?"
His eyes met with hers and he wondered why he couldn't tell her he didn't want her with Efe. Or Alhaji. Or anyone else. He said, "He will not agree to it."
"That's his call to make."
"You said you were not interested in him," he reminded.
"True, but I also said he's a handsome man." Then she saw her gift sitting lazily by his window. "That's a peculiar position." She nodded at it.
"I placed it there so it would be the first thing I see when I step into this office," he said.
"Oh. I wonder why a plant that looks that scary would be the first thing you'd want to see when you step into the place that helps you make money."
"You gave that to me," he said, and it was reason enough.
"A helpless romantic, I see. By the way, how's your wound?"
"Terrible, it does not allow me do anything."
She got up from her seat and walked around the desk to him. Then she raised his shirt and stared to loose the bandage.
"What are you doing?" He asked, alarmed as he brought his shirt down.
"Checking," she answered, going about her business.
"The doctor said I should come back later to check."
"Do you have a problem with me checking?"
"Yes," he deadpanned.
"I'm a paramedic, now do you have a problem with me checking?"
"You're too close." He could smell the top of her head.
"You're not a teenager to be affected by something like that."
"I'm not a teenager, but I'm affected. Very."
She paused her movement and stared at him. Calculatively, she applied a gentle pressure on his side and he winced.
"Jesus! Are you crazy?"
"For a man who is affected by the presence of a woman, the irony is not left out on you."
"But you're not just 'a woman'."
"I know." He did not reply and let her remove the bandage to reveal a patch of blood. "You're stressing your wound."
"I can't stay still all day if that's what you're suggesting."
"The wound is going to take a longer time to heal if you cannot stay still for at least one month."
"At least a month?"
"Why were you even allowed home? Again, I doubt that has a choice."
"You know why I don't like you? You always annoy me."
"Then what about the reason you like me?"
He averted his gaze from her. "I don't like you." Everything about her messed with him and he hated it. The strokes of her finger against his flesh as she unbandaged him jolted his inside and it was the pain from his injury that held him back from holding her hand. Or it was simply that he did not have the liver to do it. He was not a timid man, he knew how to put people in their places, but if it was a woman that gave him mixed feelings, then he was as clueless as s baby.
"Hmmm," Yasmin responded. "Could you tell your friend to get a new bandage?"
Edegbe passed the message to Efe through a phone call and while they waited in silence, Edegbe wondered if she was hurt by his response. Sure, they had kissed but did she expect him to like her because of that? Efe came in with the bandage.
"Before you go, Edegbe's friend, would you like to be my partner to a party?"
Edegbe almost shouted. "I told you he wouldn't agree!"
"And I said that was his call to make." She returned her attention back to the man. "So?"
"Why me?" Efe asked.
"I asked Edegbe and he refused."
"His wound would not allow him that leisure."
"The party is weeks from now, if he has sufficient rest, the injury should close up before then."
"You're wasting your time," Edegbe told her.
She's ignored him. "I don't want to go with you, I want to go with him, but he's being a pussy."
"Alright then, I will go with you."
She shrugged and turned to Edegbe who looked too shocked to speak. "You should not stress your wound if you want to heal fast," she advised when she was done. "Have a nice day."
"You're leaving?"
"I've done what I came here for."
Edegbe paused his lips and stared. He opened his mouth to argue but clamped it shut. "I'll see you to the door." He rose to his feet and walked her to the door.
Before she left she turned to say. "What you said about keeping the plant by the window? I like it."
And as he watched her, he realized he didn't want her to leave.
"You can tell her to stay," Efe said, as if reading his thoughts.
"She won't."
"She will, she wants you to ask her."
"How did you know?"
"She's that kind of woman, the kind that likes men with guts."
He watched Victor opened the gate, watched her leave.
Efe shook his head. "Why are you so stubborn to admit that you like her?"
"I don't."
"Do you know how you look at her? Like there are so many things you would like do to."