Beneath The Surface

Winter Out Of Season

I spent the rest of the weekend engulfed in work, watching movies and reading without even returning messages except business.

Most of them were orders from the Christmas holiday and also chapters for my online novels. I woke up late on Sunday morning because I worked late into the night the previous day. The moment my surroundings became clear, I pulled out my phone from under my pillow.

As soon as the Wi-Fi connected, several notifications began flashing through my screen. The one that caught my attention the most a text from an unknown number.

Not that I didn’t have unknown numbers texting me, but the number the message came through was a personal number that no one had access to unless a few close friends.

I swiped up and opened that message first and it read.

[Hey. this is Iris]

[Is everything okay. You were quite on the ride home on Friday and Wendy said you barely return her messages. Did I say something that upset you]

It was there. Clear and plain. I kept staring for a whole minute not knowing how to respond. It wasn’t as though we were friends. No, we barely knew each other. But then something in me just connected with her. And there was also the fear of having anything to do with love.

[I am good. Thanks for asking. I’ve just been busy]

I replied and closed the chat.

I went to bath, dressed up and went out to meet a friend. Lincoln, an old friend from Junior high. We spent the rest of the day catching up on each other’s life. I found out he was also a Student of the University of Ghana and would move to Legon the following weekend. The meeting was fun, and at a point I forgot about Iris and the rest of the world.

The next day, I stared at myself in the mirror on Monday afternoon mustering the confidence to go out there. I had an afternoon class with Wendy and knew I was very likely to meet Iris and so I needed to suppress this feeling of fear.

After a few minutes of struggle, I was able to convince myself this wasn’t serious as I was imagining it. I decided to just look to her as a friend like I was with Wendy.