So, today was a big mess. It started with the general. It was bad luck seeing his old face, his styled hair and beautiful suit and bands of the bouquet, then Julia ruined the rest of the day by reminding me of what it meant to exist without a man I called mine, then my phone was stolen, and now, the man I wanted to see was given a week off and I should return next two weeks.
That's too cruel for one day.
I took a cab back to the hotel. This time around, I wanted my usual room, but there was this uncanny smile on the face of the receptionist, and the guard that attended to me earlier. They seemed to have known what I had been through, and they seemed to make a mockery of my misery.
"You are back, ma'am." She said with a smile.
"To book my usual room," I said in response to her words.
"Your usual room is taken, but a room better than it is available." She replied.
Unlike the hell you tossed me into, I muttered in my mind.
"Pass me the card and give me a guard to come help me get my bag," I ordered.
"Okay." She checked her system and passed me a card. "You look exhausted already. Sorry, we gave you a cheap room on a cheap floor."
I narrowed my eyes. it seemed she did it intentionally because I never meant she should give me a damnable place to stay, though I was rather too stubborn to bust out of the room and request a better one in the first place.
"I'll gladly escort you to that mad place and help get your bag, ma'am." The guard said with the best of his fake smiles.
"I need two guards, and by the way, that is if the bag has not been stolen already." I edged towards the lift without looking back to know if he was up for what I asked of him.
I counted the footsteps approaching, it was that of more than two guards, so, I turned, and lo, they were four. I smiled. The hotel is big, and the workers understand the mess of the floor and room they made me pay for.
We all piled up in the lift like sardines. The lift has enough space but not for five people at a time, not even some of the men who were plus size.
"Did they steal from you?" the first guard asked.
I did not answer his query.
"Did they break your door?" the second one asked.
They only wanted a reason to laugh at my back, but I have no such reason. Lift stopped and we alighted and made for my room. We passed through drunk people sleeping side by side on the floor, and rooms whose doors were wide open and those inside were either having threesome or orgy.
There was the stench of weed and alcohol and semen. We arrived at my room and there, we met the worst. Two men, the same fools I punched to pass were making love on the bed I paid for.
"Sorry, gentlemen, but this is not your space." The first guard said.
"Don't bother them." I edged for my bag and took hold of it, then, I passed it to one of the guards. "Let them warm each other in their best manners."
I walked out of the room, one of the guards, the one with my bag, followed me, but the rest, they said back, and before we could board the lift, we heard the loud cry of the two men, and the guard behind me chuckled.
That's Africa for you. Even when you are assured of your right to your own choice of sexuality and so on, they will steal pull you off from the camera, and beat you dirty for doing what they don't deem ethical.
The lift was fast. We were on the tenth floor, and the walkway here was enough luxury to let me know I wouldn't have the same experience as I had earlier, but right there was Yapi and his boys.
"Gosh," I swore under my breath and kissed my teeth. "Well, let's go on."
I checked my card, it was room A63. I don't understand the A there, but that wasn't my business at the moment. We made for the door and unlocked it with the card, but Yapi saw me already.
"At least, you should have said hello, even if you don't want me to disturb your peace." He hollered from his corner. "You look stressed by the way. I will let you catch some rest before I come and ask you to share a bottle of red wine with me."
"Thanks for the offer." I took my bag from the guard and shut the door.
The room was good. The furniture, the painting on the wall, everything was good, but the best was the view from the window. I will spend the night there, sipping from a glass of wine, maybe the one I will borrow from Yapi who claimed to have one.
I checked the room for bugs and secret camera, and the mirror in it, I checked it to ensure I wasn't being watched from behind the wall. It was clean like my favorite room, and even far better than it.
I dropped a bag and took a further walk around the room. It had a refrigerator, and in it were some pieces of stuff I love, ranging from chocolate to snakes, to juice, to wine, to bread.
I took the chocolate bar and tore it open. The taste was good as it was icy. I checked the wine in the fridge, this might be the best of the floors in the hotel, as the price tags on the things in the fridge were in euros, not in our usual currency.
I left the wine in the refrigerator and made it to the window with my chocolate bar. I will begin my day with a clear view of the city I grew up in, Abidjan.