The Meeting

Everything stopped for a moment even his heart as she walked into the café; she stood for a moment searching the room for him and continued her casual walk to his direction. He saw heads spin to watch her move; men and women alike, that was the one thing he remembered about her; her uncanny ability to capture attention anywhere she was. She was still as beautiful as the last time he had seen her, when was that again? Oh!! He remembered that one night, the night that changed everything. She was smiling now as she closed in on him, he rose to meet her halfway, she fell into him in a warm embrace, it was awkward at first but slowly the feeling of familiarity began to creep in. They had done this a million times over the years but for some reason this felt profoundly different. He couldn’t tell how long they were in each others embrace but when he opened his eyes, he realized the eyes of the room were on them, so he slowly disengaged from her surprisingly fierce embrace. There was something about her hug that told him something was wrong, that and the sound of her voice when she had called earlier saying she wanted to meet. “Sit down.” Andy said pulling a chair out for her, as she gracefully stooped. He took the seat opposite her. There was as awkward silence as they sat there, fidgeting, smiling awkwardly at each other. “Wow, Oge it has been ages, how have you being?” “Well, I have been doing well for myself. You haven’t changed a bit; you still look like you did back in the University!” “I could say the same about you. You look amazing!! How is Chima?” Chima was her husband and had being his roommate back in the university. “He is fine.” She said offhandedly to his surprise. There was a brief pause before he asked; “would you want anything to eat or drink?” “A drink would be fine.” She replied. “Try their smoothie; you would like it, especially their banana split.” “Okay I will have that.” He signaled for a waiter and placed their orders and then turned his attention back to the woman he hadn’t seen for almost ten years. “Oge I did not know you were in town or that you even had my number. How did you even get my number?” He asked curiously. Oge smiled, he had missed the man sitting in front of her, there was a time she had thought they would be married and live happily ever after, the thought caused her to chuckle. But it felt good to be in his presence again, it was a lie what she has said earlier about him being the same, he had changed from that awkward teenager to a hunk of a man with an intimidating façade. She felt a chill run down her spine. Stop it Oge, you are married. “It a small world after all, I asked around and got it off of our w******p group.” “We have a w******p group?!” Andy asked genuinely shocked. “Yes we do, it has been in existence for almost 5 years now but you are a successful man now and those things don’t concern you!” She said teasing him. “Come on OG, you know that is a lie, I just like to be private but I would never turn down a chance to be in an alum group if I was invited. The thing is I wasn’t.” “That is probably because the only number of yours that is public is not on w******p and when you call, it usually goes straight to voicemail. You know how many times I had call before you finally answered? I would have given up if you hadn’t.” “I am sorry about that; I get so many unsolicited calls and text messages, that I never give out my private line.” “I totally understand.” She said flashing him a smile. There was another pause as they sat soaking up each other’s presence, reminiscing, remembering a friendship long ago that promised so much, a time when tomorrow seemed so far away, it had been a happier time. The silence was punctured when the waiter brought their order and placed it on the table before them. "What brings you to town?" Andy asked nursing his drink. "Err, well, my company was hired to cover a wedding this weekend, so I came in to familiarize myself with the environment." "Oh yea, I have seen some of your work, they are amazing. I follow you on i********: and you page keeps me entertained, I loved especially what you did for the wedding of the vice governor of Niger state." She was shocked at his revelation. "You follow me on i********:?!" He followed her on all social media but he was not about to tell her that he had kept a tab on her since they left school and how he religiously kept abreast of everything connected to her. "Yes I do." "Hmm that is interesting." She said wearing a broad smile.  "So tell me Oge, how did you go from studying world economies to photography and event planning?" "I have always loved event planning, photography is something I picked up along the way, found out I was pretty good at it and stuck to it." "That is nice." He smiled.