She smiles at me with red lips and all color drains from Isren's face.

"Hi, I'm Yvonne Ujukwu." the woman says in a British accent, and my brows furrow at the name.

Her hair and complexion said she was mixed but her name told me otherwise.

I concluded one of her parents must be responsible for this and give her a polite grin.

"I'm Nimi and it's nice to meet you," I say purposely omitting my last name.

I would prefer to not have socialites digging up info about my personal life.

"Hi Issie, mind if I join you two?" she asks flashing him a dimpled smile.

I turn to him and his eyes flicker with regret before he turns back to Yvonne.

"You are welcome to but we would like to go dance now," Isren says motioning to the open floor with his eyes.

Her smile slips for a moment before she fixes it back in place.

"Well off you go then, I'll just help myself to the wine in the meantime," Yvonne says and averts her gaze to the table cloth.

Offers me his hand and I take it trying to abate my anger when I meet his gaze.

I must have failed because he winced as he escorted me to the dance floor.

The band changes their tune and the soloist croons new lyrics as Isren gently pulls me by the waist.

I ignore the heat emanating onto my side, focusing instead on our unexpected guest.

"Let me guess, family friend?" I ask sarcastically.

His jaw clenches and he sighs looking past my shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"For the public humiliation, or leaving me in the dark about your female friend who was attending the same event," I say tasting the bitterness with my words.

At this, his grip on my waist tightens and I force myself to reign in the butterflies -now was not the time for hormonal reactions.

"It slipped my mind but she's just what you called her. A family friend-"

To this, I raise a brow and he continues.

"-let me land. She's the latest girl my parents set me up with. I postponed refusing once again but after tonight I'm putting an end to it." he finishes and I nod, my eyes trained on the guitarist instead.

I tried to reason with him but couldn't shake off my jealousy.

She was perfect; used to his affluence, gorgeous with voluptuous curves, and closer in age to him. Not to mention kind and sincere, plus she didn't seem to be the boyfriend snatching type.

"Mimi look at me," he says and slowly I tear my gaze from the musician to the man guiding me across the dance floor.

"What," I answer after my eyes had collided with his honey-brown orbs.

They were luminescent and look otherworldly under the dim light. He brings his face close to mine so that his forehead touches mine.

"You're winsome, alluring every inch a woman as much as she is and to me, even more," he says to me as suddenly he's all I see.

Call it my overwhelming desire to be loved unconditionally despite my flaws, but he made me feel more loved than I had been in my entire life.

As we stare into each other's eyes, even if he asked me for my soul I would give it in a heartbeat.

The melody of the song explodes and I hear the lyrics around us all at once.

I love to love, I love all the ways

I feel so much, I get carried away

I love to love, I just wanna stay

And get carried away, I get carried away

We sway in tune to the post-chorus, and I want the moment to never end.

...................

I stumble into a figure on Victoria's doorstep and we both pierce the night air with our screams.

I stop batting away the mystery man when I notice the same sparkly press on nails I had gotten Vic for her 18th birthday.

"Why are you outside," I whisper to the girl and she drops her hands realizing it was just me.

"Oh. Funny story I'll tell you inside," she responds, her teeth glowing with light from the moon.

I cross my arms amazed at her gall but let her fish out the house keys from her silver clutch.

Once we're inside I relieve my leg muscles of the exercise and kick off my shoes.

I grimace when I hear the sound and rush to cradle the shoes worth probably half my school fees.

"Humor me," I say turning back to Victoria.

If she hadn't gotten back in time I would have been stranded outside the house at 11:30 pm with no food, protection, or way of fending off mosquitoes.

I shudder at the thought of how I had narrowly missed a tattoo polka dot session with those bloodsuckers.

"Well, I was chilling at home with nothing to do. Didn't feel like going out. But you remember Mark?" Victoria asks and I give her I clueless expression so she continues.

"That guy from our school choir. We've run into him a couple of times at Ginny Stores," she says referring to the supermarket in her estate.

I begin to nod, recalling the rough-looking boy with a tiny voice. "Ehn, how does he relate to this conversation?"

"He invited me to a little hangout he was having at his parent's, you know since they left him h-" she says abruptly hiccuping and the smell of alcohol hits me like a ton of bricks.

"Were you drinking?" I demand of her and begin to notice how she was swaying slightly.

She stares at me and erupts in laughter.

"Yes, and it's not like you don't know I take alcohol," Victoria responds and my face contorts into a scowl before I leave the room.

I come back with a bottle of water and force her to drink it before she says anything else. "Getting drunk is what I'm not cool with. Anything can happen you know those boys can't be trusted." I say to her.

She waved me off and continues her story. "Forget that one, they can't take what I give freely."

I only shake my head at her mentality.

"It doesn't mean you should sleep with every Dick and Harry." I retort.

She hisses at me. "Same thing I said before my first time."

No words come out of my mouth and she shrugs coyly. "Besides, I like to keep things spicy. Why eat the same meal every day when I can have my pick?"

I shut her down before she started scarring my eardrums. "It's okay, you like boys. Now back to the story."

Victoria slaps the arm of the chair in agreement. "Yeah! I forgot about that. So, I get to his place and we end up playing seven minutes in heaven. I ended up in the closet with Mark but ye! Never again." she says and I freak out at their theatrics.

"What?" I yell ready to castrate somebody's son right then and there.

"His mouth odor. It was as if he wanted to kill me and I didn't sign up for any suicide mission. I faked stomach ache and left the place." she says bursting into fits of giggles.

I try to keep a straight face because I was annoyed she had given me an unnecessary scare, but her story made my lips tremble.

Soon we're boll rolling on the floor and as the laughter dies down I speak. "You're a mad girl."

She nods along with me. "Abeg that mouth of his, e choke!" Victoria says clutching her aching tummy from all the howling.

We settle into a comfortable silence, watching the hands of the clock move one tick at a time.

It's 12 on the dot when I speak again. "Just give me a head up next time."

She acquiesces and we both rest our heads against the rim of the sofa cushions.

"Movie marathon?" Victoria asks traces of what would likely be a hangover tomorrow morning still in her eyes.

I scrunch up my face like I was contemplating options then slowly lift my cheeks.

"We're going to be stuck studying tomorrow, so might as well enjoy this break," I say and rise from my seat.

"Are you going to watch movies in that," she asks pointing a shaky finger at my dress.

I jump from the ground and dust the dress off before she can say anything else and when I'm done she had already gone to microwave popcorn.

"I'll be back in a minute," I yell to the kitchen as I climb up the stairway.

In fifteen minutes we're both huddled on the couch and Victoria presses the remote in her hand.

Expecting her to pick a movie I almost choke on the salted treat when questions me out of the blue.

"Have you and Isren kissed yet?" she says.

I slowly ingest the last bit of popcorn and make sure my esophagus is clear before I answer her.

"We went for a public event, Vic," I state dryly.

She rolls her eyes at me, turning back to the

Vidflix logo that had appeared on the dark screen.

As the opening credits for the movie roll in she finally responds. "Las las na the Pastor's children wey bad pass the congregation (At the end of the day it's the Pastor's children who are more corrupt than the congregation)."

I whack her with a pillow and give her a witty remark as well. "No one wants to hear your life story Victoria." I retort.

The smug expression on my face is wiped off when my head collides and with a much larger pillow that had been cushioning her butt.

Nasty.

Author's Note

If you've made it this far thank you for reading my book! I appreciate every single one of you so much❤️. Please remember to leave a vote if you enjoyed reading it as this really helps my books. Feel free to leave a comment to say hi! Or let me know your thoughts as you read. And share this book with a friend you think would like it.

Thank you and I hope you have a great rest of your day now.

Love y'a :)