Bimpe - A Night to Remember 5

 

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Mr. Akpan was about to be made a  partner at the law firm; he was a brilliant Lawyer and could whip his way out of any legal bundle, the only thing was that he had an intonation, but that is a story for another day. As if the intonation was not enough, he had an attitude, he loved to keep people waiting on him. Therefore, as soon as Bimpe checked google maps and realized that it was a good time to leave she quickly called Mr. Sheriff to prepare for them to leave, with a little luck she would be home early for a change. But she had to first walk across Mr. Akpan's office. He had to approve her draft for the negotiations the next day. She wondered how to get him to look at it immediately.

 

Hmmm... she smiled as she sent him an email apologizing for the delay explaining that she had to attend to an inquiry from Mr. Benson. But she thought to present her draft to him before completing Mr. Benson's task, she had lied.  Massaging Mr. Akpan's ego worked; he immediately asked her to come through his office, they went through the presentation and he approved in no time. Voilà! she had earned her quick getaway, straight to her office she grabbed her bag, and dashed into the car, as soon as they left the premises she reached into her bag for her novel, it was none other than the popular “there was once a country” written by Chinua Achebe.

 

She arranged her sitting position very well because she did not want to be distracted while she read the book through the journey home, it took Mr sheriff a little over 20 minutes to drive into Aina street, in Surulere. As he handed her the car key, she reminded him they had an early start tomorrow. Bimpe stayed up reading her book until it was a minute to midnight, she wanted to wish Mr. Benson a happy birthday before she went to bed, having fulfilled this she was about to doze off when she got a "thank you" message from Mr. Benson. "A little birdie said you got off pretty early from work", he added a smiley. "You deserved it, good night".

 

The atmosphere at the Event Centre in Iponrin, the venue for the negotiations was charged and it took the presence of armed mobile policemen, to douse some of the tension. There were agitation placards and chanting of war songs. Bimpe had driven in the same car as Mr. Benson, while Mr. Akpan was in the other vehicle with Mr. Idris a junior colleague. They got into the venue without a hitch and soon the negotiations were underway. After 3 hours of heated and stressful negotiation, they came to an acceptable middle. It was a win-win situation.

 

Mr. Akpan and Idris had left the venue by a different entrance, and the agitators had paid them little attention. Little did anyone know that Mr. Benson had been marked out to be attacked by one of the fractions that had wanted to make a statement.

 

Incidentally, Idris had gathered all the files when he left with Mr. Akpan allowing, Bimpe and Mr. Benson to walk to their vehicle without carrying anything except but their briefcases. The car park was full because of the large attendance from the community, and as they waited for the driver to pull up, two thugs alighted from a parked minibus that had the Lagos commercial vehicle colors; the armed policemen were distracted by the agitators and so had no idea that they had a job to do.

 

Bimpe saw a flash of the machete, that one of the two thugs brought out from his clothing early enough, Mr. Benson had not even noticed. She nudged Mr. Benson and asked him to stay calm as she handed him her briefcase, he must have thought she was scared; as he asked her not to be afraid, "you will be safe", he said as he looked back only to realize that the police were beyond earshot. The situation did not look good and Mr. Benson believed that the worst was about to happen, he felt helpless and as he wondered what to do in the situation he saw Bimpe as she calmly inched towards the well-built thug, she was in no particular hurry, moving like everything was normal.

 

The overconfident thug swore beneath his breath, as he raised his weapon to scare her, she first tried to talk to him and when he didn't expect it, she delivered the most damaging round powered kick to his temple, which brought him to his knees.  Mr. Benson watched in shock as Bimpe drove a knee into his back and dislodged his right arm from the socket; in a split second, he was damaged for good. the second thug took to his heels like a coward.

 

The movie-like scene got the attention of the police who ran to finish the job Bimpe started, she had envisaged such and so came prepared in comfortable clothes and a pair of loafers. Bimpe walked over to the confused Mr. Benson, took her briefcase from him as they both walked into the vehicle that had pulled up.

 

Mr. Benson was visibly shaken by the incident as he made it into the car, and he could hear the policeman tell the thug “See as you let that girl beat you like this, una no dey hear word, how we wan put handcuff now as the girl don wound you finish" that almost made him laugh out loud but he was still too shocked to laugh. There was a silence all the way back to the office.

 

She said to Mr. Benson, I must go home, as I need to clean up I would be back, before the close of business, "Take your time", he turned and walked away, towards the reception. He headed straight to his office as though in a trance, as he walked past YJ, he said "no visitors".    

When he got to his office, he went for his cabinet and poured himself a double scotch, downed the first and a second then sat in his chair and sadness engulfed like smoke. What a life! he thought to himself. What a life! he voiced out slowly shaking his head.  

 

Mr. Benson had asked that Mr. Pius took Bimpe wherever she had to go but she declined the offer she would rather go with Mr. Sheriff, she did not want to cause a stir at home.

 

As soon as she got home, she pulled out a bottle of brandy from under her bed and poured a shot for herself. She always kept a bottle under her bed for her monthly cramps and a stressful day like she just had. She sat for a few minutes, replayed all that happened and she felt pity for Mr. Benson whose birthday it was.

 

Ordinarily, she would not have dislodged that arm but she knew she did that because of the feelings that she had for Mr. Benson. She was a black belt holder in karate and was taught to only use the extreme measures in only dangerous situations; she wasn't sure if the earlier situation qualified as a dangerous one but she was out of control and had never been that way before.

 

She kicked off her shoes, unzipped her black dress, reached for her panties eased them all the way to her ankles, and stepped away from them, leaving them behind on the floor. Then she unhooked her bra dropped that on the bed, slowly she made her way to the shower, she set the right mix and, allowed the water to soothe her nerves, she immediately broke down crying as the water caressed her curvy body. She felt better after a long shower, grabbed a bathrobe, collapsed on her bed, and like a light, she was out. Bimpe woke up an hour later, washed her face, and then started to get dressed. She was really not in a mood for a party but she felt the need to be with Mr. Benson at least that night, she chose a shirt dress, it was nothing flamboyant but it looked really good on her; she appeared simple and classy.

 

She would normally have worn the Jacket over that dress especially when she would neither wear a bra nor panties but she just wasn't in that kind of mood to be descent. She looked in the mirror and felt good; there were certain benefits from being moderately sized. She did not have to bother about dangling boobs or dancing backsides. The only thing she had to do to arrest the boobs was to roll out about four inches of plaster band-aid, she used them to push her boobies a notch higher, she oiled her cleavage, did her makeup, and threw a colorful scarf around her neck in a vague attempt to conceal her oiled cleavage. As she looked in the mirror again, she could not wait to get to the office.  

   

She picked her purse and headed for the car, Mr. Sheriff drove her back to the office and she arrived a little after 6 pm, the shower had added more flavor to her looks, her dark natural hair looked somewhat wet and sexy, members of staff were drooling at the sight of Bimpe, But she did not do all this for them, she mingled with her colleagues, and for those who wondered where she had been all day she told she had a dental appointment. However, the celebrant was nowhere in sight, she reached inside her purse and dialed his number, and a gentle and sober voice answered, "Are you okay, where are you?" she asked, "we are all waiting for you".

 

Mr. Benson smiled and told her he would be out in five minutes.  She stood talking to Mrs. J, who had pulled her aside to ask what the matter was with her uncle when she heard the rest of her colleagues’ singing the 'jolly good fellow' song. There he is, she said to Mrs. J, who just sighed, as she walked up to the celebrant to congratulate him, on this milestone.

 

After a brief speech, Mr. Benson made his way into the crowd acknowledging each and every one of his staff; holding short private chats with them and when he got to Bimpe, he told her that it was an eventful day and thanked her for standing up to the thugs for his sake. She replied that there would be many more celebrations like this, but without the excitement that the day had presented, then she thought to tease him by asking when she was going to meet Miss Samsung.

 

He just hissed and wandered off into the crown, her phone buzzed shortly after and a text message from an unknown number dropped on her phone with a text that read "don’t run away" she smiled. He was watching her from a little distance, he raised his glass, she acknowledged by raising her glass to him too. Thirty minutes later she walked up to him, it was time to call it a night, she told him, she said that Mr. Sheriff had to get home as he had worked way past the official time. He told her that she looked stunning, she smiled and told him that she did it for him. Carefully revealing to him that she was not wearing any bra, "when did you become this naughty" he asked smiling, responding, she asked, "you like?" "Yes, and I want", he answered smiling.

 

"So, what are you saying?" he asked? "because I am an old man, and my heart can’t take this torment". She replied, "I want you all to myself, tomorrow is my treat, it could be lunch or dinner whatever, I will choose, we go with the flow and we see what we see; deal?" Mr. Benson agreed to the deal without hesitations, he knew he enjoyed her company, she was young but what did it matter? "You work too hard, let me pamper you". She left him and walked into the night, where Mr. Sheriff was parked loyally, ready to take her home, she got in the car feeling fulfilled. All she wanted now was to sleep in her bed.

 

Bimpe looked forward to spending a whole day with Mr. Benson, and that was all she could think of. She wondered what he would be like, she wondered if he would like her, she feared that emotions might complicate their friendship. "Why does life have to be so complicated?" she thought to herself.  Mr. Sheriff got on to the third mainland bridge driving at close to a 120kmph, it was too dark to read her book and so to stop her mind from wandering far into wonderland, she reached into her purse, brought out her phone activated the music folder and just before she pressed the play icon on the screen she connected to the car audio system by Bluetooth, Tevin Campbell’s voice came pouring out of the speakers singing his popular number “Can we talk?” Bimpe closed her eyes and sang along, as their headlights cut further into the night.

The ending coming up!

this story is inspired by true events, however all names of people and places mentioned are fictitious

Written by Ogieva Emokpae