Beep...beep
A message came in.
'It must be from Henry', Angela said to herself as she smiled happily, she turned her body from her laying position and stretched out her hand to pick her phone from the small stool beside her mattrass.
It was 5:30 am, She had woken up about 10 minutes ago but just laid back to say her prayers and think through on how her plans for the day would go before her phone called for her attention.
She swipped her phone...
And just as she had expected, Henry had sent her a message.
She had expected him to be the first to send her a message today. A smile played across her lips as she opened the message.
"Angela, I thought I should tell you this. I am breaking up with you. I can't pretend anymore. I never loved you and never will. Its useless to continue with this shit, Don't come looking or border to call me, don't even message me ever again!!! ".
Did she read well or could she still be dreaming right now? This isnt the kind of message she anticipated.
Angela pinched herself hard on her lap.
'Ooouuchh!'
It hurt, of course she was wide awake!
'No no no.....this can't be happening, it just can't be true', she tried to convince herself with hopes that she must have read wrongly.
She blinked severely and quickly sat up.
'Ah, what is happening ?' she thought
This has to be a mistake unless my eyes have started playing games on me now. Why was he breaking up with me?'
They had not had any fights and were good even until last night, they had even planned on how to celebrate their val later in the evening that day, so what has come over him?
Why was Henry sending her such a message. She was confused as a lot of questions came running through on her mind.
She couldn't understand, her stomach churned, tears formed in her eyes but she quickly blinked them back as she tried to read through the message again. She read again and again
but there was no change in the message, she had read right the first time.
Henry her boyfriend whom she loved so much had just broken up with her through a text message.
Intuitively she quickly dailed his number but it wouldn't go through. She tried to send him messages but he had already blacklisted her and blocked her on whatsapp.
It finally dawned on her as reality struck her.
How cruel can he be?
Breaking up on a day like this and with just a text message.
Angela sat still there as she finally let her tears fall freely...
........
It was 12:45 pm.
Sharon Beauty World has yet to experience the usual rush from influx of customers today. Its that time of the year again when love is celebrated all over the world, 14th february...Valentine's day. On such days there is usually no rush until around evening time, so this leaves Angela and her colleagues with little or nothing to do at the moment in the plaza.
Today only Angela and Rita were on duty on the ground floor, they sat down and chatted when a young couple walked into the plaza. The girls watched on them been affectionate, all lovely dovey and Angela's mind had drifted off .
"Angela.....Angela!!!" Rita her colleague called while slightly shaking and bringing her back to her senses.
"Whats wrong?"
"Oh,e...m...nothing is wrong? Angela quickly replied
"You have been sitting there and not responding to all I was saying"
"Am sorry about that" she said as she adjusted herself and got ready to attend to customers.
She had thought of how lovely dovey she used to be with her ex and how he had dumped her like a peice of trash on a day like today one year ago.
It was a hard blow on her as he was her first love and boyfriend but she managed to get over it with the help of her family and best friend Grace. After the first few months of been sad and down she took the advice given to her to foget him and blocked her heart from any more feelings lingering. If he could treat her that way, and didn't even care how it would affect her then he was not worthy of her and her love. She was young and would still find love and so she would not brood over him, not a man who doesn't value her. The message he sent that day was the last they both heard from each other. She decided she will not get involved with any man anytime soon but rather stay focused on becoming better and helping her family.
Angela had just turned 20 a few days back, same day she started working at Sharon Beauty World as a sales representative. Prior to that she had been working as a cleaner in a local resturant. Her new boss Mrs Brown, the owner of Sharon Beauty World, a well know brand name that deals with skincare,hair and makeup products had personally come to look for her at the resturant and invited her over to her office out of the blue one day and asked her to come to pick up her employment letter as one of her sales reps.
On that day Angela was working at the resturant as usual when she was told by a colleague that someone had asked of her. Coming out,she met with Mrs Brown who asked to speak with her privately.
"I don't know who you are Ma'am , so why are you asking to speak privately with me?"
With a smile Mr Brown tried to explain herself.
"Because I do not want others to listen on our conversation, I understand your fear but we will just stand outside the restaurant, we won't go far"
"Look my car is just over there, we will stand close to it, everyone here can still see us but simply won't hear us"
At first Angela was skeptical to step outside and talk to her as she was a total stranger but decided to hear what this person had to say to her. She wanted to know who this classy looking lady was, why she had come looking for her and what she wanted from her.
Once outside Mrs Brown wasted no time to introduce herself. She told Angela that she had come to speak with her personally because it was important to her. She wanted her to quit her cleaning job and come work for her as soon as possible.
Angela wondered, 'who exactly is this woman, Does she really know me? Am sure I have never seen her, why offering me a job just like that?'
It all seemed like a joke and a trap too.
The offer was juicy, can she trust this woman? She had only gone to secondary school, hence she hadn't really found a better and well paying job. Was this woman aware of that? Therewere many questions running through her mind.
If she quits this job she already has and she ended up not getting this offer, what was she going to do? It was not end of month yet so she could at least get her payment besides finding another job won't be easy.
Before Angela could say anything else Mrs brown brought out her official business card and handed over to her
" Here, this is my card, i expect you at my office tomorrow, there we can discuss more"
"I can see you are suprised and also wondering if am serious about this. At least me coming over and giving you this card is an assurance that I really mean well."
"I will take my leave now, see you tomorrow, Angela" Mrs Brown said with a smile as she made to enter her car and drove away".
Angela had hornored the invitation and in no time she started working already at Sharon Beauty World.
Angela could not be more grateful as this will help her save up to realize her dream of becoming a fashion designer, better her life and that of her family. She had stopped her education after completing secondary school. The family of 4 had experienced a lot of hard times after her father Mr Donatus Aba, had an accident that cost him his legs 4 years ago. Her father was just a commercial tricycle driver while her mother Mrs Mary Aba was just a petty trader. After the accident a huge part of her parents savings was spent on her father's medical expenses which has left them struggling. She had started doing small jobs to help out after her secondary education.
Now working at her new place of work will surely open up more opportunities for her.