I watched him shut the door, and I knew for sure he was far from returning to barge into my room and say whatever be his stuff. As for the widow gown, it was the most powerful piece I had in my arsenal. When I wore it, the mask and the boot, I become the same with the dark of the night, and very much impossible to catch.
I selected a few clothes from my wardrobe and laid them on my bed, while I fetched my bag to pack them. the clothes I chose were more casual ones. The ones that would make me look as simple as college students.
But once again, my door was pushed open.
"Ma'am, that shameless general is back." Said Maria as she approached me. "He is back, and this time, he entered the compound with his men, and in fact…"
"Calm down." I made emphases with my hand on my chest. "Where is he?"
She took a long breath. "He is downstairs, waiting for you."
I smiled to make her regain comfort. "You know what?" I stepped off from the bedside. "Help me set these clothes in my bag. I'll go meet him."
"Okay, ma'am." She said, still with panic in her voice.
"Good."
I hurried for the stairs, taking them two at a time till my foot touched the floor of the room where the general supposedly was sitting and waiting for me to come to meet him.
"I made myself clear when I asked your ADC to ensure you all keep off from trespassing at my house," I yelled but stopped as I looked towards him. There were bouquets around the living room, all set in such a beautiful way.
I looked around, they were nice, but if he was wise and younger, he should have remembered I rejected his first bouquet. I didn't accept it because it just didn't entice me, mostly because I Knew its history.
"Sita Kouassi." He rose from his seat and ambled towards me. He seemed to be in the best of his suits today. It made him look a little younger than he ever was, and his brows were brushed and his hair styled. He was really up for the game of making me his damn lover.
"General." I lowered my head a little and looked up at once to look him in the face. Such a good-looking man who was old. Who knew how handsome he must have been in his youthful days?
"You promised to have me spoil you yesterday, but a lot came up and we couldn't meet." He said with a weak, manly smile. the smile of a man who isn't at a lady's foot to beg for her love. The smile of a man who has known nothing but getting what he wants when he wanted it.
"Because you came here the night before yesterday to grab me by force, general." I didn't let him close in on me. I stretched a hand to stop him from coming too close.
"Sorry, I was just overjoyed over something that could have caused me a problem." He said with a little broad smile. "You know the criminal den that was broken the other day, my men should have been the ones to give their lives fighting those monsters, but the special forces did it instead."
I raised a brow. I didn't expect him to make words of such. I thought it should be one of the top secrets of his business that he knew such a place existed in the first place.
"And that was why you brought your boys here to cause trouble. You took my driver and turned him into a girl." I didn't sound anything close to funny.
He laughed and slipped both hands in his pockets. A part of me felt the urge to remind him that we are not in the nineteen-nineties, so, his way of wooing a lady is far off an old fashion.
"I didn't turn him into a mere girl. I turned him into a baby girl and treated him like one." He said with a smile. "Money, nice wine, bouquets, and pretty princess gowns, I gave them all to him because he just didn't like being a boy."
I felt it well up in my stomach, I swallowed it back way before it could creep up my throat and hit my lips. Who on earth would hear the general and not laugh? He was funny, and he was everything interesting, but I didn't want him and I was ready to tell him it would never work out for the both of us.
"All nice things you think everyone on earth wants, general." I shook my head. "Look, I understand it seems hard to say no to you because you are older than me, but I won't hang out with you, sir."
He went cold. I had never seen him that way, but I tightened my heart against his little game of making me go emotional.
"Except you are wrong, Sita." He smiled suddenly. "I'm here to ask you to forgive the recklessness of my men."
For heaven's sake, it was his recklessness, not that of his men, but I have no issues forgiving both.
"I will, but I don't want them around my house again." I took up the sternest of my looks. "We are not in a military regime, so, I guess soldiers should be in the barrack, not in my house."
He laughed and slipped his hands out of his pockets. "Your mother was right."
I narrowed my eyes and watched him smile a wry smile.
"Stubborn, that's what she called you." He added. "Well, thanks for the time. I enjoy talking to you, and trust me, one day, we will surely hang out and have a good time.
***
It was hot with him in my living room, and next, he was gone from my house, his footsteps sounding like the cry of the past, yet, I stood still, tossing his last words around in my mind. Why did he mention my mother, did she have anything to do with him coming to my place to have me hang out with him?