Networking

Networking

“Tell me you are joking. Kola, I am supposed to start my I.T next two weeks at Ojo and sons ventures.” I raged stomping around in Kola office showing my disagreement with his decision. “You cannot change it with a snap of your fingers.”

“Yes I can’t do that but I can with a phone call.” Kola replied as I sent a glare his way, my glares seem to have stopped working because he just still look at me with his calm face on. “Come here babe.” Kola adds as I glared more at him.

“No, I don’t want to be with arms reach of you, I might rip your hand off and beat you with it.” I retorted and Kola just smiled at me, it has been two months since we first met and we are still friends or I think we both know that we are more than friends already, we already act like we are dating but I wasn’t so certain about my reply if he does ask me out, I think he sensed that hesitation in me so he hasn’t brought it up yet.

“Sometimes I wonder if you listen to yourself talk.” He chuckled.

“Kola.” I said and I hated the whiny tone in my voice.

“Come here.” He said again and I sighed as I moved to him, he sat me on his desk and sat on his chair. “Let me teach you about something called networking.”

“This isn’t networking, it’s you making my choices for me. I never wanted to work my way.”

“I know, that is why I did it for you instead. This kind of opportunity is not common, you know how this will boost your G.P. the salary will help too although you are not hurting for cash. And it is networking. You might meet a lot of people who will help your future. Don’t turn this down Stella.” Kola said as I thought about it.

He was right and I was being pig headed about it but I have always wanted to make my own way, I didn’t want to use connections before but this will help me and I understood why he did it. Kola knows me, since our first meeting, I have mentioned my I.T and he knows my kind of person will not use connections and technically, I did not use connections, he did for me and told me about it after everything was finalize. “I hate it when you are right.” I breathed out as Kola smiled at me happy about my words.

“So, I have this family thing coming up, you want to go with me.” Kola started and when I folded my arms and raised an eyebrow, he continues quickly. “I just need a date, I will owe you one and don’t worry about being interrogated, and my family will behave.”

“Sure I will go, as long as it does not collide with anything in my schedule and besides, I will not waste this opportunity to see the great Tomisola and golden boy Femi.” When Kola glared at me I laughed. “Relax e, I will be on my best behavior.”

“That is what I am scared of.” He muttered.

***************

“Thank you for coming to our party Kola.” Tomi said in an unsure voice like she didn’t know where to stand with me, I smiled at her discomfort. She finally reached out last week when she saw that I have moved on with my life without telling her after some friends of ours showed her my status update that Stella was in and if there was something Tomi hated more than not apologizing to me was being out of loop in my life.

“It wasn’t like I had a choice, my brother strong armed me and also, it is a good place for networking.” I tell her as she winced, I knew I was being cruel on purpose but I wanted to see how far she would get before asking what her curiosity will not let her keep quiet about.

“So you didn’t come with your gi… your friend?” she asked nonchalantly but she failed at inserting a disinterest tone.

“No, my friend who is a girl that you don’t know didn’t come, she has something doing tonight.” I replied her before leaving her in the hallway of my brother’s apartment to greet the people who were already inside.

“The ever busy Kola chose to grace us with his presence.” Femi said jovially but I recognized the hit he just took and I was not in the mood for his playful, harmless but no so harmless banter.

“Yes oh, I decided that it has been too long since I visited you guys so I used the opportunity to escape my workload on my desk.” I returned with a smile as I kissed Flora cheeks. She was the one who showed Tomi my status.

“Stop bragging about how you don’t have a slow period in your firm, instead brag about your new girlfriend.”

“You give me girlfriend keep?” I asked her in surprise. “Because last time I checked I was still single oh.”

“But who was that girl on the clip.” Flora frowns as her eyes lit up. “Stella, you called her Stella when she was running her mouth.”

“Stella is a very good friend of mine who has made it her mission to make me have grey hairs at the young age of 27.” I replied Flora as I moved towards the bar. “Bros Femi, shey this is a party of twenty na, I think we are complete since I came alone. Tell your future wife to enter so we can have a game night or something less boring than making small talks while drinking.”

“It’s called catching up Kola.” Femi disapproval shone brightly through his tone and I scoff at his attempts and dad’s own when dad does it, it no longer affects me and he thinks that his case will be any different.

“What for? We all have each other contact and we see each other status so there is no need for this boring catching up session.” I respond as the door opened and closed.

“Hey guys, look at who I’ve found.” Tomi said as I turned and stared into the face of Cynthia.

“Cynthia.” I breathed her name out as a familiar pang affected my chest, if only I had given up on Tomi then the way I have now, maybe me and Cynthia would still be together.

“Hello Kola.” Cynthia said with a smile.

“Hi.” I replied then glance at Tomi face to see her watching me intently, that was when I knew this wasn’t a co-incidence, she invited Cynthia on purpose just so she would see how Stella reacted to her, I would have laughed at her attempts if it wasn’t so painful. Tomi don’t need to find another girl to take my attention off Stella, she is already doing that job to perfection.

When I frown at her, her eyes widened because she knew I had put things together and knew what she was doing. She implored my patience by joining her two hands in a begging motion and my glare increased.

Love doesn’t die in one day and no matter how angry I was with her, I was still partially in love with her. And that was why I nodded my head at her and allowed myself to be blind for one more day, to pretend like everything was alright between us, to pretend like I still had a chance with her.

When we all seated to have a meal before the games night was started, my phone started to ring. I glanced to see who is calling and saw Stella’s name flashed across the screen and without a second hesitation I picked her call only to hear her frantic voice as she tried to go a mile in a minute “Calm down and tell me what happened.“ I said quietly as I nodded to Femi and Tomi and started moving towards the door quickly and the phone still pressed against my ear.

“She went to a club…” Stella started. “Or at least I guess she was in one, and now I can’t reach her. Oh God, maybe something has happened to her, I should have never allowed her to leave alone, I can’t reach her, what if something had happened?” Stella choked back a sob.

“Stella calm down… You cannot do anything in the state you are in.” I tell Stella who tried her best to control herself by doing some breathing exercise, when she finally calmed down. “Explain.”

“We had a fight about her recklessness, she ran into her bedroom then stormed out a few minutes later all dressed up, she left the house and I have been calling her, her phone always rang but the last few minutes it changed to switched off. If anything happens to her, it is all my fault.” Stella voice broke and I could hear her sniffling.

“No, it is your job. Look she is alright, she must have turned her phone off so that you would stop disturbing her and besides you said it yourself, you guys had a fight. This is her retaliation, nothing more.” I forced out instead of saying that Ivy was a spoilt brat and she will soon find what she was looking for if she can’t act like a responsible girl. If I had voiced those words out instead, my still somewhat new friendship with Stella will die so fast before I knew what happened.

“Okay, what should I do?” Stella asked.

“Relax and wait for her. She will be home eventually.”

“Okay…” Stella paused like she wanted to add something but thought better of it and said goodbye instead.

As I pocketed my phone and headed back to others, I couldn’t help but think that maybe I was at the wrong place, maybe I could have been with Stella. I knew she would have told me her house address if I asked for it.

“Who was that? Our girlfriend?” Cynthia teases me as I raised my eyebrows at her.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“You don’t have to hid it that you love this girl whom you still haven’t shown us, or is it like?” Tomi prods but I just smile and faced my food.

She didn’t need to know that it was her I love at that particular time although me and Stella were close.