Efe Walked Away

Efe looked gloomy and was unable to order anything when the waitress arrived, he made the waitress stand for a very long time waiting for him to make up his mind.

Aisha didn't like his mood and she began to feel uncomfortable and also a bit of regret for coming up with the decision for them to go out. She thought that going out would cheer him up and make him sort of forget about Nkechi and focus his attention elsewhere because she knew Nkechi would not want to get to love him after she had seen and met her perfect man, and Aisha agreed to go out with him as a way of helping to bring him out of his depressed stage, but it all proved to be the wrong decision as he was unable to let himself enjoy the moment or rather let loose.

In one instance, she felt the urge to abort the mission and leave him there, but it would be unfair to do that to him, so she thought, but instead, Efe was the one who stood up to leave and the waitress and Aisha just looked on, dumbfounded.

Efe walked away without looking back and Aisha didn't want to make the situation worse, so she instead turned to the waitress and asked her to bring the menu. She scanned through the menu and ordered a plate of spaghetti, a piece of chicken and a bottle of soft drink.

"Sorry for what happened earlier," Aisha said to the waiter as soon as her order arrived.

"I was thinking I did anything to offend him, or maybe I didn't come to attend to you guys earlier," said the waitress.

"Don't worry about it, you did absolutely nothing, he has been off today. Thanks for the food though."

Aisha thought about the incident one last time and chuckled and then began to eat.

"What would a beautiful girl like you be doing here all alone? Can I join you?"

Aisha looked up to see a fine-looking young man smiling at her, on each of his ears were a piece of earrings dangling on them, and his beards were full but well trimmed. He didn't wait for Aisha to say anything, he sat down on the chair directly opposite her, at the same table.

"I am shola, but most people call me Sholly. And you are?"

"I am Aisha."

The waitress walked to the table to take his order.

"I will take whatever she is taking."

"So, I was thinking about sitting way over there." He pointed in that direction. "But I saw you, beautiful and sitting alone and I decided to come to join you." He touched his beard.

"I hope you don't mind," he continued.

"Well, you are already seated and you've placed an order, I can't ask you to stand up."

"Did you come here alone?" asked Shola.

"No, I did not, but I am alone now."

"You didn't come alone, but you are alone. Right, got it.

"What happened to the person you came with?"

"It's a long story, one I don't want to talk about right now because it wouldn't make any sense to you." Aisha tried to force a smile. "So, can Shola tell me about himself?"

"Shola is a dancer and a professional road cycler or biker as most people would like to call it.

"I've featured in a lot of dance videos, and music videos and I've been in a lot of cycling competitions as well."

Aisha took her phone and searched for him on the Internet and his data popped up, her eyes were full of surprises as she kept scrolling because she didn't think he was saying the truth.

"I guess this is you." She showed him the data and images on her phone. "You must be famous."

"I am not that famous, but I can say that I am popular, well-liked."

"Here's your order," said the waitress.

"Thank you," replied Shola.

"What brought you here, Shola?"

"Well, a day before a major competition, I usually love to go out to a cool or calm place to ease tension and clear my head."

"The big competition." Aisha gestured with her hands. "That's a good strategy, has it ever worked for you though?"

"Yes, it has worked plenty of times, I have won the competition 3 times in a row, except for the last one though where I was the runner-up."

"Wow, you must be really good."

"Not as good as I'd like though. There's this new kid who came to town newly and won the last competition and I heard he'd be participating in this one as well."

Aisha nodded her head because she knew who he was referring to.

"If I was good enough, I would have won it and most times I give the excuse that my brakes failed the last time, but it wasn't the brakes, I was just overconfident and it cost me a lot."

"I guess you've gotten all the strategies you need this time around for you to do better."

Shola nodded his head in agreement as he used the fork to roll the spaghetti on the plate, and then put it in his mouth. He seemed to like the taste of the food because he began to eat faster after the first bite and he was done eating in less than 5 minutes and then drank from his bottle of soft drink.

"You must have been really hungry," said Aisha.

"Yes, I was hungry. I did a lot of workout and pieces of training this morning and I hadn't eaten ever since."

"Should I tell the waitress to get you water to drink? I think you'll need it."

"Yes, please," replied Shola.

"Can you please get a bottle of water for him?" Aisha said to the waitress.

Aisha began to worry about Efe, hoping he doesn't hurt himself for any reason, she began to put herself in his shoes to relate to what he was feeling.

"Efe would have just let this go, I wonder why he's holding on and hurting himself," Aisha thought to herself.

The waitress came around and dropped the bottled water on the table for Shola.

"You look bothered about something, are you okay?" asked Shola.

"I am okay."