21 Logun

The next morning, I woke up feeling like crap once again. Except today, my mental state was actually less painful than my physical. My bones ached like they wanted to escape my body, and my skin was blotched with various shades of black,blue and purple. I could taste blood in my mouth. I had slept with an ice pack on one side and Ade on the other, but I still felt like shit and I was sure I looked like shit too. I slid out of bed and into the bathroom and when I saw myself in the mirror, my throat closed up. I was sweating profusely and my heart pounded in my ears as I walked toward the counter and gripped it with one hand as the other hand touched my face. My fingers traced over my black left eye, my busted lip, puffed cheeks, and scratches. My heart was palpitating and all I knew was that I was dying. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't do anything but sit there and watch myself hyperventilate. I don't know how long I sat there on the floor, gasping silently. It could have been a couple minutes, or an hour, or an eternity. I wouldn't have known. I just sat there until I could finally breathe again and lifted myself into the shower. I put the water as hot as it could go, even though it made my bruises burn. But I let it. I sat there and didn't move until the water turned cold and I jumped out like a roach smelling raid. I slathered on tons of aloe vera then walked out in a robe, my fingers pruned, to find Ade typing on his laptop with his reading glasses sliding down his nose.

"Are you feeling better? Do you need anything?"

"I'm good" I croaked, walking past him and into the walk-in closet to put on a long sleeved jumper that covered all my bruises. Then I grabbed my makeup bag and went to sit in front of my vanity, avoiding eye contact with Ade. When my concealer flew out of my hand I looked up to realize he was right behind me.

"Where exactly are you going?"

"What do you mean?"

"You need to rest and allow your body to heal."

"I told you, I'm aight."

"Look in the mirror without wincing then." I turned to look at myself and almost had a seizure.

"How I am is irrelevant. I have shit to do."

"No, you don't."

"Okay I don't have time for this. I need to catch Ximenes before he leaves."

"You're joking."

"He's guilty and I can use that to our advantage."

"He's crazy and he can use that to his advantage."

"So am I."

"Can you be serious for a second? "

"I am. You know you trust me, so act like it. I'll be right back." As I closed the door I forced myself to stop limping and sped down the stairs and into the kitchen where Ximenes was drinking coffee. I walked up behind him and began stroking his hair, suppressing cackles when he began choking.

"Oh.. you're up?"

"Yes, for once. Why do you always leave so early? It's like we never even see each other."

"Baby I have work."

"So does Ade but he has time to spend with me. It's almost like you want me to be with him instead." I barely flinched as his cup crashed against the wall behind me, it was the exact reaction I expected, and wanted.

"Are you fucking serious?"

"Are you?"

"You can't use my best friend against me as if you can hop from dick to dick whenever you want."

"Have you seen me? Of course I can."

"Nani-"

"Do you see my face? Do you see the black and blue and fucking purple? My skin is fucking dark brown! I don't bruise easily but you still managed to make me look like a damn emo landscape painting! I still love you after all this shit and you can't even spend some fucking time with me?"

"I just have so much to do baby or I promise I would"

"You have staff for a fucking reason! Are you powerful or not? Just assign it to other people!"

"You aren't the one in charge here. Stay in your place. I run my business how I want. You can't make me do a thing."

"Okay. That's fine. But I can make things go back to the way they were. I should've known you weren't worth loving." As I uttered those words, for one second I almost felt bad as I saw his heart break before my eyes. But he gripped my jaw and I remembered the beatings, the children, Ade, and his sister.

"Take it back."

"No.I barely know you! How am I supposed to love you when I never see you?"

"I've already told you-"

"All I'm asking is for you to take one thing off of your plate. Even Ade can do it in your place. But how can you force me to wait for you when you never pay attention to me?"

"You know what? Fine. I'll even let you choose."

"Okay. The finance department can go to someone else. It sounds time consuming."

"Wait-"

"Why the fuck would would you tell me to choose if you were going to object?"

"I thought you would choose something like foreign relations or PR. I'll still be gone a lot if the only thing you're taking off my plate is economics."

"That's okay. I don't want your life to completely change. I just wanna get to know you. I've accepted the way we are and I know you'll take good care of me. I want to take good care of you too, but how can I without knowing you?"

"Thank you princess. Please don't be mad because I still need to go in today but I promise from now on we'll spend more time together."

"Okay baby, I'll see you later." I began to release the breath I was holding until he sped back to me and gripped my chin once again.

"Nani."

"Yes baby?"

"Take. it. back."

"Take what back?"

"You know what."

"Fine, I take it back."

"Say the words."

"I-"

"SAY IT!" Another cup shattered.

"You know eventually we'll run out of dishware right?"

"STOP FUCKING PLAYING WITH ME LITTLE GIRL!" A new hole appeared in the drywall behind me courtesy of Ximenes as Ade jogged down the stairs pretending to have just woken up.

"Yo what the fuck is going on here? I can't fucking sleep no more?"

"Go back to wherever the hell you came from, this doesn't concern you."

"Did you not just hear me say you interrupted my sleep? That fucking concerns me."

"Go upstairs."

"Go to work and leave that damn girl alone. You've obviously done enough, she looks like she just fought Floyd Mayweather."

"I'm sick and tired of you always being involved in our shit. Our relationship does not concern you! Maybe without your influence she'd stop talking out the side of her damn neck."

"There's nothing you could do to make me stop talking out the side of my neck, first of all..." I interjected

"Shutcho ass up" Ade yelled

"Shut the fuck up- hey don't tell my wife to shut up"

"Then stop treating your wife like she's your meat on December first."

"Baby you're gonna be late for work, can we just talk about this later?" I inserted as I tried not to laugh my ass off.

"There's nothing to talk about. Just say it." Ximenes responded.

"Fine."

"Well-?"

"Oh you meant now?"

"Nani"

"Oh so you serious, serious?"

"Na-"

"You....you are worthy of being loved. Okay?"

"Thank you princess" He tried to kiss me and I quickly hopped aside.

"I still have that nasty stomach bug remember? That's why I was throwing up last night." I prayed he would believe me and not start some pregnancy bullshit again. Thankfully he just nodded and stepped outside, closing the door behind him. I stood still until I heard his car pull out of the driveway then turned to Ade.

"You mad annoying." I spat

"What?"

"You really said meat after no-nut november, bye!"

"You have to admit that shit was funny"

"Electric chair!"

"Whatever. I'm hungry there ain't no food in this motherfucking house."

"I want jollof."

"Do you even have the energy to make jollof?"

"No. Which is why you're making it."

"I'm a man. I don't cook."

"Liar."

"Fuck. Who told you?"

"Ximenes."

"His bitch ass ain't good for nothing."

"Boohoo. We'll need to make a trip to the African market. Come on I'm gonna go put on makeup so it doesn't look like you beating on me."

"No one will believe I could touch your mean ass"

"Fuck you."

As I sat down at my vanity, Ade sat on my bed watching me.

"So why did you do that?"

I kissed two fingers and snapped above my head three times, a way my mother taught me to ward off evil and also the signal we had developed to alert each other that what we're talking about has something to do with the trafficking {in case there were mics or cameras watching). Considering most technology in the world is Ade's, it's unlikely there were any because he would have definitely noticed. That's why I didn't mind talking shit about Ximenes in there, but him finding out about what we were doing was so risky that even a 1 in a million chance was too much.

"Isn't this such a good concealer? Basically can't see what's right under your nose." I whispered.

10 minutes later my bruises were covered and I was racing Ade down the stairs to the car, trying to ignore my body protesting. Finally my work paid off and I was able to hop in the drivers seat just in time to utter:

"Get in loser. We're going shopping."