False Pretenses 12

Ise looked up from his desk as Izy walked in looking all dazzling and bright.

“Izy” he said not expecting her, consciously holding back on the ‘love’ part, he needed to do something

about the endearment before he mistakenly spilled it one day. His P.A hadn’t bothered with informing

him of her presence probably because of the history they shared.

“Sorry for barging in like this! I told Princess I wouldn’t take your time, I know how busy you are and I’ve

got to be somewhere else soon.”

“it’s okay, what’s up?”

She sat down on the seat opposite him and went straight to the point.

“Johnson is leaving our firm, I’ve been put in charge of your corporation.”

“Oh?” This was a surprise.

“You don’t have to worry,” she told him “you know I can handle it.”

He smiled “I wasn’t worried, I know you’re good at what you do. Just surprised, that’s all, it is a bit

sudden.”

“Yeah, it is, we were quite surprised too but nothing we could do about it.” She told him and then added

” and you can be assured our..past issues won’t affect our working relationship.”

“Okay.” He said, thinking there was a time he would move mountains to see her smile like that. “How’s

your dad?”

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“Good, always asks when you’re coming over to golf at the club. Keeps saying you owe him a rematch

from the last time or so.” She said as she stood up.

Ise smiled getting up also, her old man was crazy about golf. “ I’ll holler at him when I have the….”

He didn’t finish the statement as there was a sudden commotion in the next room which happened to be

the office of his P.A and secretaries.

Like an exchange of words between females. “What the hell?” He asked exchanging glances with Izy who

looked just as puzzled.

He walked ahead of her to the door, wondering what the uproar was about, was there a fire in the

building or what?

Izy followed closely behind him.

“What’s going on in here?” He asked taking in the scene.

The bickering stopped and all eyes turned to face him, all females. Five of them and in the centre, who

else but her? She stood out from them all.

Kitty, he frowned in understanding, where Kitty was, there was certainly going to be trouble.

“Kitty!” He said, not able to help the smile that cropped up on his face as he held her eyes. Gosh, the girl

was pretty.

“Sorry Sir,” Princess, his P.A began breaking their eye smooching, “this lady barged in here rudely and….”

“I wouldn’t have barged in rudely if you hadn’t kept me waiting out there for hours, with the excuse that

I had no appointment and it was……” Kitty began again but Ise had heard enough.

“it’s okay, Kitty, just come into my office.” He told her seeing she was really angry. He still remembered

vividly what had happened at Ola’s party when she’d lost her temper. He didn’t need a repeat

performance.

“it’s okay, you all get back to work….” He addressed his P.A, receptionist and secretaries before turning

back to Izy who had witnessed the scene silently. She even had a smile on her face.

“Alright Ise, we’ll see.” She said as she took her leave.

He saw Kitty watching her as she left wondering what was going through the girl’s mind now.

“Come in Kitty.” He told her again, opening the door for her to go in.

“it’s Kite,” she corrected “I’ve told you that a million times already.”

He smiled, he sort of liked the ring of Kitty. The name did fit her, she carried herself gracefully like a cat

and her catty eyes didn’t help either.

He wasn’t really surprised she was here, he’d sort of known he’d see her again, there seemed to be some

force that kept pulling them back together, he reasoned. He was happy she was around.

It felt like there was life whenever she was around him, some sort of invisible electricity her presence

brought. Was it just him or did she come with some sort of energy when she entered a room.

“I’m sorry, Kite!” He said not sorry at all.

He led her to the lounge part of the room where he entertained “please sit, to what do I owe this visit?”

He asked turning to see her admiring the room. Turning around as she took in the décor.

“Whoa! This is impressive.” She said.

“Thankyou,” he smiled amused. She looked like a kid who’d been taken to the amusement park for the

first time ever.

The room had been redesigned recently, they’d hired the same decorator who’d done the state house

and hadn’t held back on spending, so he guessed it had to look really good. He hardly thought anything

about it, didn’t even see it since he was always too busy to notice.

42

 

She perched on the edge of one of the sofas. Daintily as if scared it would collapse if she relaxed so much

on it. His eyes went down to her fingers which she kept wringing as if nervous. He looked up again at her

eyes. She was here to ask him for something, he figured.

“I’m sorry for the drama out there.” She apologised.

He smiled and shrugged “I’ve learnt to expect drama whenever you’re in the vicinity.”

She laughed a bit nervously. “Very funny, but seriously she caused it. Your P.A is like really wack, I could

teach her a thing or two about receiving visitors. She started it, believe me.”

“I’m sure she did.” He simply replied, just looking at her, she didn’t know he loved looking at her face.

She was growing on to him and he wasn’t sure yet if it was a good thing or a bad one. It had started that

Saturday morning when they’d hung out for a while, it was getting worse seeing her again.

Her face took on a serious expression “seriously she just kept me out there for hours, I was tired of

waiting, I had to do something.”

“So you barged into my office screaming and shouting and bringing the walls down. What if I’d had really

important visitors in here?” He said, he wasn’t angry, he just thought she needed to act a little calm

sometimes.

She looked away, “I really didn’t intend for it to blow up that way, but she wasn’t even sorry, she

threatened to call security on me, can you imagine? It was a good thing you intervened or else, I would

have shown her that I have more madness than security.”

Ise shook his head suddenly chuckling, she was a fighter, it was obviously the only way she knew how to

express herself.

“That was exactly why I intervened when I did, I didn’t want a repeat performance of what happened

Saturday evening. Fifi is still not speaking to me.” He joked. He’d tried apologising but Fiola had been

even more pissed that he’d left without a word or finding out how she was doing after the fight. He

wondered what she wanted her to find out, there was nothing life threatening about hair being pulled.

Kite laughed. “Fifi, what sort of name is that? I’m sorry I acted the way I did but the girl tried herself,

hope I didn’t cause a rift between you two?”

“Not really.” He replied, he’d not really felt Fiola anyway, she was okay, interesting but nothing really

memorable.

Kite continued “Anyway, I don’t want to take your time or anything, so I’ll be brief.”

He found himself wanting her to take all the time she needed “it’s okay, I was about going on Lunch

break.” Then he got a sudden idea. “Have you had lunch?”

“Ummm, no, why?” She asked carefully.

“Let’s go have Lunch.” He got up from the sofa as if expecting no opposition from her.

43

 

“Wait, what? Why? I mean…are you sure that’s erm ….a good idea?”

It was his turn to be confused ” what do you mean?”

“Duh, you’re like Ise Williams, would you really want to be seen in public with me, as in…you know nao.”

He paused, was this some sort of inferiority vibe he was getting from her? “So you want us to hang out in

secret?” He joked

“Oh, be serious, I meant…”

” I know what you meant, look Kitty, I don’t give a damn what anyone thinks, okay?”

“Okay, well maybe you should hear me out first before lunch. it’s really important.”

“Okay then, spill.” He told her crossing his arms in front of him.

“I can’t keep the cheque and the jewelry, I would rather you gave me a job. That’s more sustainable” She

said quickly not meeting his eyes.

He was surprised but kind of pleased, so she was ready to take things seriously and was trying to change

her lifestyle, that was good. Maybe there was really hope for her after all.

She continued “I know I don’t have the best record but I promise I-“

“Done!” He cut her short

“What?”

“You have a job”

“Just like that? You won’t ask for my past experience or anything?”

He shrugged “I know you ….well, sort of. You’re resourceful but promise me no stealing, no shady

thingsand no fighting!”

“I won’t steal and I won’t be shady but…if someone provokes me, I’m not sure about not fighting.”

“You can exercise self control, fighting isn’t the only way to get your point across. If anyone insults you,

you could always report it, that’s better than brawling. This isn’t the streets.”

She shrugged “I’ll try, I guess.”

“And also, I insist that you keep the things I gave you, consider the cheque an advance on your salary.”

He said. He knew she needed the money but was being proud. She Could steal but was too proud to

accept hand downs, the irony made him smile.

Her eyes held so much gratitude. “Why are you being so nice to me?” She asked.

He smiled not sure himself. He just thought she’d been dealt enough blows already and needed to catch a little break.

He shrugged picking up his suit jacket, preparing to leave. “Because I’m a nice person, I guess.”

*******