Man of his word

Blacklisted

Lying on her bed Emma sobbed uncontrollably until she could not cry no more, she shut off her phone to avoid talking to anyone and soon dozed off.

Emma POV

I heard my parents walk into the house, they seem to be drank and were now laughing very loudly with my father making some very lewd suggestions to my mother who was giggling hysterically like a teenage girl.....GROSSS....I tried to drown out their voices using the pillow. After a few minutes, I heard a soft knock on my door, followed by my mother's soft voice

"Emmy dear, are you awake love?" I keep quiet

"Told you she is asleep, she wont hear a thing, come here" suddenly I could hear giggles at my door

"stop that....you..... stop it...she could wake up....lets go to our room" mother says mid giggles

"why not here?"

"Ahh" my mother gasped "that's so rude and besides I do not want her to know what we do"

"So what....she is an adult now" replied my father in a gruff voice, at this point I cannot take it any more, If I do not chase them they might just have s*x at my door. I throw my pillow at the door and that does the trick, I can hear them running off to their room giggling.

I turn and face the ceiling laughing, I wonder if I will be this happy and playful with my husband when I finally get married. Will my husband love me unconditionally and take care of me and still make me feel beautiful when am old? The husband option I have right now is very arrogant and aloof, probably only cares about money and business and deals. I need to switch on my phone, Mary has probably sobered up now and is wondering where I went.

I turn on my phone and the clock says its 3am, I can see some messages already streaming in so I put my phone on mute and continue sleeping. I will read them in the morning.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

What the heelll!!!why is there so much noise.....is the person knocking or breaking my door, I look at my phone and I can see missed calls from Mary. I take a wild guess, Mary must be at my door...

"Woman you better wake up now or I will break down your door" yells Mary

I get up and go to the bathroom first before I open the door for her.

"Good morning Mary, how are you?"

"What do you mean by good morning!!!!" glaring at me, "where do you get off leaving the party before it begins?"

"If I remember very well, you told me...no scratch that...you assured me that David was not in the country and who do I happen to meet at the party? I glare at her "The David who I was told would not be around, so at what point or time were you going to tell me he is back"

"Wait, what, David is around"

"Stop pretending, how much did he pay you or what did he promise you?" grabbing her wrist

"Nothing, I swear I did not know he was around, I did not even see him yesterday"

"Hmph how would you see him with the way you were high as a kite, I even came to you to tell you what happened but you were already drunk" I shout her.

"You know what I do not even want to see you right now....JUST LEAVE"

"Emmy you cannot be serious" she pleads with me trying to reach for my wrist that I quickly grab away from her, "Mary if you value our friendship you will leave now, I will call you when I have calmed down" turning and entering the bathroom.

"You promise?"

"JUST LEAVE"

I hear my door closing and now the memory of what happened yesterday flash before my eyes and I cant help but start crying again. I hear my door opening again and I can tell its my mother.

"Emmy...love...is everything ok?" she softly knocks on the door

"Am fine mum, I just need to be left alone for now"

"Ok dear, when you feel like you are ready to talk about it am right here" she then leaves my room

I have been moping around in my room for the last 3 days, I leave my room briefly for meals and go back.

I need to get my act together and have a plan, that is

1. Get a job

2. Move out

3. Get a husband before 2 years are up

That cant be that hard, especially the 3rd one because I know am beautiful and smart, who would not want that for a wife and to top it off am still a virgin. You could call me a unicorn....I quickly take a shower and freshen up, it is a new day with new goals.

Let the search begin

"Finally....you are out of your cage" exclaims my mother, "so what are your plans?"

I chuckle as I reply, "well am planning to look for a 2 month internship as I wait to graduate and then after that look for a job and move out."

"Why don't you do your internship in our offices?" asks dad as he walks into the kitchen pecking mum on her forehead.

"I don't know....guys will favor me and I will not get the exposure I need"

"Well if you say so...you know you will still inherit it at some point...its your birthright" replies dad, I can see the disappointment in his eyes

"I know, dad you keep reminding me" I hug him, "think of it this way, when you finally hand it over to me, I will have learnt a lot from other companies and I will bring that new knowledge to our company" looking up to him and I can see a small smile on his face.

"Ok if you put it that way, so where will you apply for internship?" he inquires as he opens the fridge to get a beer.

"I don't know yet"

"Why don't you ask Mary to ask her dad to let you intern in one of their companies" inquires mum

"No"

"Why or are you avoiding someone?" mum asks with a mischievous smile on her face, at this point I take this as my cue to leave.

"Bye mum"

"You know at some point you will have to let someone love you" she shouts as I close the door

I shake my head and flag down a cab as I make a call.

"Where are you?"

"At home"

"Don't move I will be there in 20 minutes" I cut the phone before she begins squealing.

The cab finally stops in front of Mary's home and she is waiting for me outside, clearly someone has really missed me. She hugs me tightly once I enter the gate

"Hey let me go, if someone saw us they would think we are lovers" as I try to pry her off me laughing

"I thought I would never see you again" as she continues to hug me tightly

"You know you can be over dramatic"

"Am sorry.." pouting her lips at me

"Next time will be the last time, do not pimp me out again"

"I promise, in my defense I honestly did not know he was around"

"Fine apology accepted, so I have a request"

"Can we go in first, or you wanted to ask and bounce" looking at me annoyed

"Of course not, speaking of which, do you have some grilled chicken wings and wine?"

"Of course we do, I told Stella to make some when you said you are on the way" pulling me in to her home which already has the aroma of grilled chicken wafting in the air. My mouth is already watering at the thought of the wings, I missed this.

Soon we are seated on the sofa, Mary is filling me in on what I missed after I left the event and laughing our heads off as we wait for wings to get ready which finally arrive after one hour.

"So what did you want to ask me?" as she heads to the wine cabinet to look for some red wine.

"I was wondering if we could move out together after we graduate"

"You are serious?"

"Yes I am"

"That would be awesome" as she slums back into the sofa with 2 glasses and a bottle of wine that I cannot pronounce, "I do not think my parents will object because I will be with you."

"Great, so we need to see where to stay"

"That's not hard, I have an apartment already in my name, its just that my parents do not let me use it. They say am not mature enough"

I laugh at her and she hits me with a pillow, soon we are digging into the wings and watching some movies which I honestly do not know the names but they seem interesting or is it the alcohol kicking in. We decide to change port to her room, I do not want her parents finding us making a mess in their sitting room. At least in her room we can fall asleep in front of her tv in our bras and panties without any hindrance. 

Time has really flown and its already two weeks to graduation, I managed to get an internship in a small company that deals with horticulture export of mainly flowers and they have been trying to convince me to continue working with them but I cant, I have bigger plans.

Soon we are picking up our gowns, confirming our details, and doing rehearsals. The day is finally here and my mum is over the moon, she is so proud of me because I managed to graduate top of my class in Business Administration. The event went fast without any dramas and soon we are back home to the party, mum has agreed I can go to the club with Mary for the post graduation party

The Dj seems to be outdoing himself tonight and the cocktails are off the hook, at some point I lose site of Mary. I soon find her wedged between two men, after confirming she is ok I leave to continue dancing. My feet are aching so I head back to or booth to rest my feet and chat with other classmates.

As I stretch down to remove my wedges, I feel a soft tap on my shoulder and a deep voice asks

"Hi, can I sit here for a few minutes?"

"Yeah sure" I bend down to finish removing my other shoe

"By the way, am Sammy I graduated from the Engineering class"

"Oh pleasure to meet you, am Emma from Business Administration class"

"Yes am aware" as he blushes, rubs his neck and continues to speak as he looks down "Please do not get me wrong, I have always been trying to get a way to talk to you but you always seemed engrossed with your studies."

"Oh is that so"

"Actually I would have approached you earlier but I was scared of your friend, she looks like she could beat me up."

"Who!! Mary," and I laugh, if anything am the one who would have beaten him up, Mary is harmless she is all talk no bite.

"So is it ok if we can meet later maybe for coffee"

"Yes, I would love that" and we quickly share numbers and he excuses himself and leaves

Am so excited, am going on my first date, this is awesome "project get a husband" is taking off well now I just have to make sure I do not chase him away. Mary has finally detached herself from her latest night conquest, she is excited when she hears I will be going for a date soon.

Its been two weeks since the celebrations and its time to get serious and start looking for employment. We have already moved in to the apartment, bonus, we do not have rent to pay and all expenses are covered by Mary's parents. They say its a thank you for taking care of their wayward daughter, the perks of having a rich bestie.

I have been chatting with Sammy almost every evening since we met but we are yet to get a suitable time to meet. He suddenly seems so swamped, he got a job offer 3 days after graduation with very good pay for a beginner, and he quickly took it up. Seems like this coffee date will not happen because 3 weeks into the job he was suddenly posted to another town overnight with a promotion which meant we wont be able to meet. One month has passed and we had to accept to break off our contact because he was getting too swamped to even make calls. We still kept in touch but after a few weeks, he confessed he met someone else and wanted to give it a try and that meant also stopping our communication with each other completely. It was painful but I accepted it, I had already become used to our phone calls but I had to let him go.

I have been sending out my CV for the last 6 months since we graduated but all I receive is rejection letters in my mail, with some even claiming not to have received my CV at all. I even tried walking into offices with my academic papers but every time I was faced with the same response "we are not hiring right now." What is annoying is that my classmates who scored much lower than me have already been employed and am still languishing without one, its just not fair. I even tried to look for work in a fast food store as a cashier. They said they would review my papers but barely two hours after leaving their premises I got an email stating I was too over qualified for the job.

Am at my wits end now, its like everyone is avoiding me and I seem to have been blacklisted for some unknown reason. Could this be David's doing or am I hallucinating?

I decide to go out for a jog, when I get off the lift I could have sworn I saw David's creepy assistant at the lobby. When I look again I cannot see anyone, may be its just my imagination and I take off into the nearby park.

I have been jogging every day to keep my mind occupied for the last 3 months and the highlight is that I get to have drinking chocolate and a muffin at a nearby café 2 blocks from our apartment. I must admit I find the barista very attractive and I feel like he has also noticed me. After awhile we start having small chats, after 2 weeks we are on first name basis. Everything seems to be going well, we have even started jogging together in the morning, he waits for me downstairs ever morning at 7am and is never late.

It has been 2 months since Tim and I became jogging buddies, am wondering whether this could build into something more. He always looks like he wants to ask me something but holds back. Finally he asks me out for dinner, am sure today he will ask me to be his girlfriend. I make sure to look my best and wear an outfit that flatters my figure, I want to look picture perfect when he finally asks.

I meet him downstairs, I never knew he would look this good in a suit, we soon drive off to a restaurant that is facing a manmade lake with fairy lights. The setting is so romantic, we are soon directed to our table and our orders are taken. I am feeling tingly everywhere, this is it, he is going to ask me. While he is holding my hand, I notice a commotion at the entrance of the restaurant. There seems to be a very important person who has just arrived.

My eyes almost roll off my sockets when I see who steps in, DAVID, and he is heading to our table. I try to hide my face behind the menu after quickly withdrawing my hand from Tim's clasp.

"What's wrong?" Tim asks, suddenly I can feel his presence next to me with his distinct cologne choking my nostrils and Tim looks up.

"Oh Good evening Sir, fancy seeing you here" Tim greets as he stands up, am now in shock because am scared about what David will do.

"True it is quite a fancy seeing me here" he replies rudely "it seems like the café must not be thriving to a point that you actually have extra time to gallivant and court different women in the evening "

"Its not like that Sir"

"Its not? so who was it you brought here yesterday and last week?"

"How do you know him?" I ask Tim

"He is the owner of the chain of cafes I work in" replies Tim looking down like he has been caught with his hands in the cookie jar.

I turn and face David "You are overstepping your boundaries, your employees are allowed their privacy when they clock off"

He turns to me and says very loudly and sternly, its like he wants every one to hear him, "it is my business when the Lady being pursued is my fiancé, I have already overlooked the jogging dates but this I will not overlook"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN FIANCE? I DO NOT EVEN KNOW YOU THAT WELL, HOW DARE YOU COME HERE TO INTERFERE WITH MY DATE. PLEASE LEAVE AND FOR THE LAST TIME I AM NOT YOURS" am beyond pissed, at this point I think I have fumes coming off my ears and hair.

He ignores me and turns to Tim, "Choose your job or her?"

"WHAT, YOU CANT BE SERIOUS" I yell at him

Tim stands up and bows to David "am sorry for disrespecting you Sir, I will leave now"

I cannot believe my ears, this prat is actually choosing his job, I thought we had a connection. Tim then turns to me and says "am sorry I can not lose my....." I raise my hand and walk off. Tears are now rolling down my eyes, I am feeling so humiliated, I quickly flag down a cab and head to the apartment. I quickly run up and lock myself in my room, lucky for me Mary is not around for 2 days because she is attending a function out of town. I can hear my phone buzzing and when I look its a message from a number I do not know and it reads

"Hope you got home safely. Your husband"

"ARGHHH" 

I throw my phone on the wall and bury my face in my pillow, what did I do to deserve this. My stomach growls, reminding me about my hunger pangs that have been made worse by my anger. I quickly check my phone if its still functioning, luckily it still is, I place an order of sticky garlic chicken wings and open a bottle of red wine to let it breath as I wait for the wings to come. I might as well be sad, full and drunk, at least David cannot block that from me. I change my outfit and sit in the sitting room watching a movie to distract me as I wait for my order to come