"Could you please check for any last minute cancellations? I really need to go back" Francine asked with the tone of her voice almost pleading and her eyes quivering with the tears she was trying her hardest to prevent from falling.
There was no way she could possibly bear to spend another night in the city. Tomorrow was not an option, it would feel like a death sentence for her.
"I'll Cancel" said a frail voice standing almost next to Francine.
She turned to acknowledge the presence of her savior, enough to notice the smell of his cologne and shoe but hiding from seeing his face, to prevent him from seeing hers as she was trying still to restrain the tears that were prickling her eyes and becoming almost impossible for her to. The pain she felt in her heart hounded her and all she wanted was a quick escape to a place where she wasn't known nor famous for the scandal trending in her name.
Perhaps if her savior were to catch a glimpse of her face, he would withhold his help from her, seeing how almost everyone on the internet were cussing at her with hate and bitterness.
"She's headed for Samdari sir. Should I cancel your flight since you're scheduled to follow the next departing plane?" The stewardess asked the man standing at her back.
"Please cancel" he replied her with his voice rarely heard as it was also very low.
She bowed to her savior and took the boarding pass the stewardess handed to her, heading to clear her luggage.
While waiting for her bags to be cleared, she brought out her phone.
There were no missed calls, not even a single message.
Her heart sank. Was that how irrelevant she had been to him all these while?
She recalled his last words to her like a tear jerker being shot to her brain;
"It's not a big deal Kasiemobi, don't act as if it is. You knew our end would be like this from the start but you still agreed to my proposal,why are you feeling cheated and betrayed now? It's not as if I have wronged you"
Her heart churned.
If only there was someone for her to cry on their shoulder. If only there was someone by her side to hold and tell her that everything would be alright in the ending.
It didn't matter to her when her ordeals would be over but she so desperately wanted to hear someone mutter the words to her.
"Ogadinma" like her grandmother would always say to her.
"Everything would be alright in the end"
Turning to head for the awaiting area, she bumped into someone on her way.
"Oh my goodness" he almost screamed with exasperation and bent over to begin picking the documents that were strewned all over the floor.
"I'm so very sorry" Francine said and on cue bent down to pick a few which she handed over to him, hiding her face still not just to prevent him from seeing her in her messed up state, but to withhold him beholding her face as well.
She didn't want to be pitied by him, So after picking a few of the documents and handing to him, she apologized again before sprinting away to the bathroom, forgetting the boarding area she had wanted to move to before.
She had bumped into the man from earlier, his musky cologne and polished shoe had told her so and didn't want him seeing her that way again, so haggard and disoriented from her thoughts.
It was only when she reached the bathroom and shot a glance at herself from the mirrors did she realize how truly disheveled she had looked all these while.
Her hair came undone and messy from the bun she had made them into ealier in the day. Worse was that she was still clad in her scrubs that had little patches of blood stains on some parts.
The tears she had tried so hard to restrain from falling slowly began to.
She couldn't control them anymore and allowed them to flow freely down her cheeks.
She didn't deserve this. The more she reminded herself how and why she didn't deserve the treatment she was getting from life, the more tears fell down from her eyes.
Seconds turned into minutes and then became hours but the stream of tears didn't stop.
Suddenly she heard an announcement from the walls of the bathroom, her flight would be taking off in twenty minutes time.
Only after she heard that did her tears stop coming forth since she had to leave the bathroom.
Crying had left her looking like an absolute mess but she didn't care, not even the slightest.
---------------------------------------
Tears were streaming down her cheeks but even in pain she still looked so beautiful.
Her hair was messy and almost like a birds nest but the few strands of it that fell all over her face appeared to be the perfect makeover for her bare face.
He didn't know whom she was but something about her was jerking his cores and he couldn't control it.
She was a nobody to him but somehow, or so it seems,fate seems to keep on making him collide with her.
First at the stewardess' desk, then at the clearing center and now at the Men's bathroom.
It seems her pain had made her blind not to read the notice before she entered, because she was at the wrong one and was crying her hearts out in front of the mirror of the mens bathroom while all he did was hide and of course stare at her.
He couldn't have his eyes off her.
The moment he had seen her at the stewardess' desk trying hard to restrain her tears from falling had been the first time he took an unusual interest in her.
"Who was she and why was she affecting him so much" he had asked himself and in the next moment, he had seen himself cancelling his flight for the damsel in distress.
He was himself surprised because "chivalry" was so not him.
He was an Alpha male who considered women B2B midfielders and so not worthy of aid from their opposite counterparts.
"Mr Marioo" a man screamed at him and began running towards his direction as he was alighting from the bathroom he had kept himself hidden in.
"What was the message you sent to me? You cancelled your flight? The president will kill you! You were mandated by him to be in Samdari before midnight today" the man voiced out desperately.
"I don't care Santa. The President can call back his heir and give him orders. I owe him no obligations" he replied and began to walk off angrily from him dragging his luggage behind as he did.
"You are. Your mother is. Your mother won't be...." He heaved a sigh and stopped talking
Mario paused in his steps. There was only one thing he hated and one thing that always kept him stagnant whenever he had made up his mind to go through with his own decisions at times. His mother.
"Book a private jet for me. I need to be at Samdari before midnight" he commanded and rolled his luggage to his assistant before walking off towards the exit of the airport.
"Already did so when I got your message sir!" Santa replied and began to drag the luggage with him as he followed behind in his steps.
There was no way he was going to let him lose such a good opportunity because his moods began acting. He had to make use of the opportunity at all costs. His father the president was not one to mess with and he wasn't gonna sit back and watch his boss try to mess with him when they both depend on him for their survival.