MY LAWYER AND ME

Not that into Her...

Tayo smiled at the charming waitress that brought food for he and Stella at STEVE'S. She was a tall lanky waitress with blue eyes and honey blonde hair. Not that he was flirting with her or anything but he loved to offer his charms whenever they were summoned. He could feel dagger stares from Stella and he knew he wasn't going to hear the end of it tonight. Honestly, the lady was choking him and they had just dated for 3 months. Not that she wasn't pretty. She was gorgeous, indeed classy. But her ways of living were highly unrealistic. Plus she had super control issues.

He met Stella, a Nigerian born Australian,at a BBQ lunch party two weeks after he arrived Australia for his current vacation. His three elder siblings and their families resided in Australia. He also had an apartment in Queensland, Australia which he bought and usually stayed at whenever he was around. He and his siblings were Australian citizens by birth so shuttling Aussie and Nigeria was no hassle. He only visited Nigeria to handle the family business. Their dad Justice Onilamo had acquired great status for himself and his family along with his wife Yemi, who owned a big five star restaurant back in Nigeria.

As they ate, Stella cleared her throat softly and began the interrogation. Her voice was stern, like she was forcing down alot of suppressed anger.

" Was that necessary?" She asked trying to still keep her composure. Tayo looked up from his food, his brow raised.

"Was what necessary?" He responded.

"Flirting with a damned waitress you jerk," Stella asked her voice pitch suddenly raised. Tayo dropped his fork in exasperation.

"Keep your voice down woman," he chided her calmly. It was impossible to have a nice eat out dinner these days without any drama. Stella looked around and saw faces turned slightly at them. She said the next words in a hushed tone.

"What am saying is that as my man, you shouldn't act as such. It's sort of irresponsible of you."

"Your man? Your man?" Tayo responded. The expression on her face showed much embarrassment that Tayo had to tone his anger down a notch. " Look," he started " What I am trying to say is that we have only seen each other, a few times. And in these times we seldom have a conversation. What I know we have said often to one another is ' Hey, are you free,' yeah we have shagged a couple of times but all these don't count for a f*****g relationship. Moreover we aren't exclusive, I mean we still have s*x with other people. So please diss the ' Your man' thing and just let's enjoy this evening." He concluded. Tayo watched her closely as she didn't say a word but only clutched her fork so tight in both her palms that her light skinned knuckles turned pale.

" I hope you eat soured cheese, Barrister Tayo," she managed to summon a reply. Then she grabbed her purse and car keys and hesitated a bit before she picked her wine glass and threw it in his face. All eyes turned to them and just like that she stormed out of the restaurant. Two waiters offered Tayo napkins so he could clean up. He collected both and wiped his face and hands.

"You alright Mate," one of them asked.

"Yes. Yes I have never been better." He said rather gleefully for the situation. He carried his keys and phone and left the restaurant. When he got in the car, he looked at his phone and saw a few message and call notifications. Some we're from his Nigerian Network which was on roaming while in Australia except at his house where he could receive better reception. He had barely checked his voice messages for that nework since the previous night, especially since he had told his secretary that he was on vacation. A couple of calls came in through the car Bluetooth, as he drove. Then his siblings called on conference and they mocked him about the incident when he informed them of his unfortunate evening. His elder sister laughed so hard that he smiled and hung up.... It was such mess... But the truth was he was never interested in dating Stella. He wasn't even interested in dancing that day with anyone at the party if she hadn't walked up to him. The truth was at 35, Tayo had had his fair share of relationship issues that due to his line of work he was utterly scared of marrying the wrong person. Or him being wrong for someone he liked. So he had only resolved to taking his love life one step at a time. His family had tried to intervene but had given up cause they knew he was very terrible when he had no interest in something, not to talk of a woman

When he got home, he heated a leftover pizza and ate it before he went to shower. On the bed, he picked up his phone and decided to check his voice messages, since the network was clear. He heard the call back messages from his clients back in Nigeria. Then he wrote the number that called but didn't leave a message. He dialed the number and a calm soft female voice received the call from the other end.

"Hello," He heard her say.

" Hello, I saw your missed call which my voice mail registered." Tayo replied. There was a hesitation from the other end.

" Oh... Please are you Barrister Tayo," the woman said. Tayo presumed that she was young, maybe in her 20s.

"Yes, am Barrister Tayo. " He responded. It was 10pm Aussie time so he guessed it was just Dawn there.

" My name is Effua Oladeji, " she said in a very calm and articulate voice. " And I would need your help."