Something deeper stirs
232 Words
Chapter 7: Storm in the Silence
After Jide left the salon, the room felt heavier. Ruby stood there for a moment, staring at the empty chair he had just occupied. Everything about him lingered — his voice, his cologne, the way he looked at her like she wasn’t just another girl behind a pair of scissors.
That night, sleep refused to come. Ruby lay on her small mattress in the corner of her room, listening to the buzz of mosquitoes and the distant sound of horns. Her mind replayed their conversation again and again.
Who was he really?
And why did his words touch something buried inside her?
At sunrise, she got up early, swept the salon floor, and tried to bury her thoughts in routine. But her phone buzzed. A text. From an unknown number.
> “Good morning, Ruby. Thank you for the best trim I’ve had in years. – Jide”
She stared at the screen. Smiling.
For a moment, her walls lowered.
But something about him still didn’t add up. She knew Lagos too well to trust charming men with mystery backgrounds.
Later that day, her best friend Zainab dropped by the salon. One look at Ruby’s face and Zainab narrowed her eyes.
“Who is he?” she asked, grinning.
Ruby shook her head, laughing. “Nobody.”
But deep down, she knew he wasn’t just anybody.
- Writer
