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I was quiet for a few minutes before I said, “Thank you Viv.”
“You’re welcome. I’m exhausted and I need to go to bed. I’ll see you in the morning,” she said.
“I should finish up here and go to bed too. It’s been a long day.”
“Goodnight,” Vivian said and left the room. I packed up my paints and moved the drawing board to the corner of the room before going into my room for the night.
Chapter8
Leon
While I was neck-deep in work, my phone kept getting notifications. I tried to ignore it but it kept distracting me, so I finally picked it up to check and it was Paula reminding me of our lunch plans. I had forgotten that we had planned to meet for lunch today.
She even sent me the name of the restaurant and the GPS location for it. I liked how Paula operated. She always liked to plan out everything because she didn’t like surprises. I looked at the time, it was 11am. I still had some time until lunch. I responded to her messages and continued with work.
Thoughts about Valentina were creeping into my mind but I kept shutting them down with work. I was excited to see her again after all this time, no doubt but I was also intrigued. She looked very different, more mature and more interesting. Her eyes were still bright and it looked like a portal to a whole new world. I knew deep down that I’d try to find her again. At about 1 p.m., I set out for my lunch date with Paula. When I got to the restaurant she sent me, she was already sitting there.
“You’re late.”
“You said 1p.m. I’m not.”
“1p.m. means get here before that, not after,” she pointed out.
“Alright. Noted. I won’t be late next time.”
We ordered and while waiting for our food order, Paula started, “Remember my friend? The one I told you about.”
I looked at her, “Paula, are we still doing this?”
“Of course we are. Why wouldn’t we?”
“Because after you didn’t talk about it for a while, I thought you had changed your mind and moved on from it.”
She laughed. “You know my mind doesn’t change easily. My friend has just been out of town working. That’s why I haven’t brought it up since then.”
“You’re bringing it up now because?...”
“She is coming back into town soon, so we can set up the whole date.”
I sighed. Valentina came back to my mind and, this time, I didn’t fight thoughts of her. I still kept thinking about how unusual it was for me to run into her in Chicago, after three years. Why? I remembered all the times I visited the club Valentina and I met at in New York to see if I would find her. Those emerald green eyes of hers kept flashing in my head. I couldn’t shake away the image of the way she laughed, throwing her head back, from my mind. The heat of the intercourse between us was more intense than with anyone I had experienced before. I wanted to know more about her and feel that heat again.
All my efforts to locate her in New York were to no avail. Little did I know that she was in Chicago all this while. Our lunch orders arrived and Paula started telling me about her work. She worked as a principal at a center for special needs children.
Her work saw different cases of special needs children and she helped them to the best of her abilities. I asked her if she needed funding but she shook her head and said, “Money is not the problem. Some of these children have parents that are unwilling to put any effort in them or be patient with them.”
“I understand. You just have to keep trying.” I responded to her.
“Don’t even for a second think that I’ve forgotten about the date.” She said, taking us back to the topic,
“This again? Paula, can you let it go?”
“I cannot. I’m sorry. I’ve taken it upon myself to make sure that you get a girlfriend. Like I’ve said before, this time will be different. This time, I know this girl personally.”
It was useless trying to get away from Paula and her dates. One can only refuse so many times.
“Promise me you’ll go. It’s not even now. Whenever she comes back into town, it will be set up. Just promise me you’ll go so that I stop bringing it up every now and then.”
I sighed and nodded. “I promise I’ll go.”
