Chapter 24 Chapter 24 LET’S START AFRESH

E V E

Life always has two sides to it, just like a coin.

Pleasure and pain.

One minute it's pleasurable, the next --- that coin can flip so fast you won't know what hit you.

It seems sorrow and happiness plays hide and seek in the life of a human being; my life, more specifically.

Ever since Ebere told me to accept Nathan's overtures, I've been doing the opposite --- running far away. If he comes in my direction, I'd go the other way. It doesn't help either, that Aurey and Dipo are taking more time away than expected. The Structural Engineers they were expecting from Australia had a job to do in China. Unfortunately for them, they got quarantined as a result of the Corona virus, so they had to request for a different set of engineers, and that takes time.

Meanwhile, work is going on at the land they're both working on, and they need to be on ground to oversee it. Being the head project manager, I should also be there, but Aurey wants me to stay and get some rest until the other replacement engineers show up.

I thought the whole point of coming here to the beach house is to spend some quality one-on-one time with each other, but fate has other plans for us, as usual.

Instead, it's been one week of time away from each other, eating, sleeping, getting bugged by Ebere, and of course, trying to stay out of Nathan's radar.

I spend most of my waking days here at the beach front, just gazing at the sea. Fiku and Ebere try to get me to join in some activity or the other, but I always decline and come to my favourite spot. The sea side. I sigh as I stare at the deceptive-looking water. It's at peace now, but can, and will change to a turbulent state later on, that's for sure.

"Hey!" From the corner of my eyes, Nathan startles me as he plops onto the sandy bank beside me. He's topless, save for the track downs riding dangerously low on his waist.

Is he trying to give me a heart attack?

I act like he's non-existent. At least I try hard to, but my squirming and fidgeting isn't helping matters.

Silence reigns like a wet thick blanket, except for the distant call of birds to each other. Just when I think he's gotten the cue to get up and walk off, he chuckles, and I go rigid instantly and begin scrambling to get up, but he puts a hand on mine. "Please don't go. I would like for us to be friends." I look pointedly at his hand on mine and he retracts it and sighs.

From the corner of my eyes I notice the slump of his shoulders and the woe begotten expression on his face. I feel a twinge of regret at the way I reacted, but shrug it off immediately when a smile creeps onto his face as once again he faces me.

"Alright, I'm sorry. I know at the beginning I came off as brash, abrasive and ----"

"You think?" I raise a brow scornfully at him.

"I really am sorry. Can we maybe, start afresh?" He holds out a hand to me, but I recoil in horror from it. You'd think he was offering me snakes instead of a handshake. His eyes go big and round as he see's my reaction. "I don't bite, I promise, at least not unless you want me to." He shrugs, and breaks out in a goofy grin.

I shake my head and spear him with a look. "I don't mean any offence, but I can't be friends with you. I hope you understand that."

"Why not?" He looks confused.

When will this dumb head get it through his thick skull that nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, can take place between us. We can't even be friends, because that's how it starts. I'm already attracted to him, heaven only knows why, because it's not like Aurey isn't attractive enough, no, that man is pure fire and he's been scorching me ever since.

What would I need another man for?

Ebere's words immediately rear up unbidden in my mind, and I shake my head trying to will them away.

"Actually, your friend sent me to check if you were okay. She's pretty worried about you." Nathan pipes up from beside me. I watch as he picks up a stone and throws it into the sea. He toys with another one in the sand, picks it up and also throws it. The sea swallows it up whole.

"Why would she be worried about me? I'm perfectly fine." I say with an edge in my voice. Trust Ebere to do stuff like this. I'm going to have to give her a good talking to. She needs to realise her place and know not to meddle in my love life. Some best friend she is.

"Best friends can be a real pain in the butt but they mean well, so don't take what she did to heart. I was actually looking for you and she pointed me in the right direction, and here we are."

I say nothing in reply to him, except to stare stoically at the sea. It's begun to churn restlessly now. It's high tide. It always gets this way towards the evening time.

"Why have you been avoiding me?" His voice suddenly steals into my peaceful ruminations and I stiffen. "I'm sure not going to jump you every time we see, rest assured. Yes, I think you're gorgeous and yes, I know you've got a man, who by the way isn't around at the moment, so why not let me keep you company till he comes. I've got lots of jokes up my sleeves. I could crack you up within the twinkling of an eye, get that stiffness off your shoulders." He taps my shoulder gently and I inch away from him.

"Alright, that's it." I shoot up and begin dusting myself off, aiming to walk away, but stop as the words spill from my lips like hot larva. "Everytime you get close, you want to reach out and touch me. What is your problem, or do I have to walk around with a placard on my forehead that reads 'taken?' And why is it that everytime I set my eyes on you, you're always half naked?" When I'm done, I'm breathing so hard, my chest begins to heave. I try to get myself under control by putting one hand on my hip, but when I face him, anger begins to uncoil in my chest like a snake.

He sees the murderous look on on my face and dashes up with a hand out in supplication. "Woah! Calm down, please. I'm sorry, okay. Please just take it easy. I'll put on a tee if it makes you feel more comfy, but I'm so used to strutting around topless cause of my modelling job, and sometimes I even get to take everything off."

Freeze mode activated.

Vivid thoughts immediately assail my head. I know he said it deliberately, because he glances at me and smirks.

"You're a pompous asshole, you know that, right?" Try as much as I want to sound venomous, it comes out sounding like admiration. This sets him in fits of laughter. Seeing the irony of the situation, I'm soon joining him and we're both giggling our heads off.

Still laughing, he pulls me back onto the sand and I let him. After awhile, we come down from our laugh-induced high and retreat into our thoughts, until he breaks it. "So . . . friends?"

I sigh deeply and nod without looking at him. After a few seconds, he speaks out. "You know my hand is still raised, right?"

I turn to him in surprise. Sure enough, his hand is raised towards me in a handshake. It takes a few seconds for me to stare at it, and another few seconds for mine to raise, as if in a trance towards his. Just before our hands clasp, he blurts out. "What's a man got to do to get locked by you . . . assuming you didn't have a man?"

"I've already got a m ----"

"Yeah, I know. It was a hypothetical question."

I shrug and say nothing except to keep staring out to sea.

"So . . . another hypothetical question." I feel his eyes on me as he continues speaking. "Who're you gonna call when you're feeling blue . . . assuming  you didn't have a man?"

"Ghostbusters?!" I reply with a smile.

He gives me a flat look and I shrug.

"Alright Eve, I've overstayed my welcome, I'll leave you if that's what'll make you happy." He begins getting up.

Like a meteor, loneliness flashes across my eyes. Companionship hasn't looked this good, not since Aurey left me here all alone. As he dusts himself off and begins walking away, I speak out tentatively. "Wait!"

He turns round with an eyebrow raised. "Yes?"

"I . . . " But I can't get the words out.

"Yes, Eve, what is it?" He turns around fully to face me, and that's when I see the look of yearning in his eyes.

"Are you doing anything back at the house?" I jerk my head towards the direction of the house and he shakes his head without saying anything, still with the same yearning look on his face.

"I . . . " I stare down at the white sand where tiny crabs have begun scuttling from their holes. Try as much as I'd like, the words won't leave my lips.

We stay this way for a few seconds until he comes close to me and stoops to my level. "Would you like me to keep you company?"

I nod, still staring at the tiny crabs which have begun moving towards the sea in a scattered file.

He says nothing more except to get comfortable beside me, putting some space in-between us. And for the next one hour he regals me with tales of his modelling job, cracking jokes as he speaks.

By the time dusk steals across the horizon, I can't believe we've spent almost two hours bonding.