The Client

What Went Wrong? (13)

“Babim, what happened now? Why have you been so dull ever since you arrived? Are you shy? What is it please?” Opeyemi’s client spoke in an Igbo accented English language.

It sounded as if he was intentionally adding vowels to the back of every word he spoke. It sounded as if he was saying, “Babimu, what happunu nowu? Why have you beenu so durrllu ever since-u you arrivedi? Are you shy-ii? Whati ziti plizz?”

Opeyemi really disliked people like the client that was right in front of her. People who force themselves to speak English language, people who are so brazen, people who do not have courtesy. But what could she possibly do? She needed the money and the client in front of her is willing to secure the bag. What could she possibly do but concur?

The both were seated around the bottom right corner of the night club with loud music banging across every corner of the building. They literally had to shout into each other's ear before they could communicate. The sound speakers in the night club alone could be enough to hold a largely crowded ówámbè wedding party without stress.

Opeyemi was still yet to recover from the shock of the number of eyes that had managed to fix their gaze on her ever since she alighted from the car until that moment.

Amanda was also seated with her own client at a table not too far from Opeyemi’s so the both of them still managed some bits of eye contact. Opeyemi needed it. She needed to see a face that looked familiar because the number of strange faces that were turned towards her that night alone was enough to drive her into melancholy. “What did I do?” She kept on asking herself in dismay.

Even as she was seated at the corner, many people still noticed her and stared. It made her feel very uncomfortable and shy. All her life, she hadn’t attracted so much attention by doing nothing. She was so embarrassed to the extent that when she was asked by her client to order for anything she would like to eat, she was dumbfounded. She didn’t utter a word.

It almost caused a scene at the spot because the waiter was beginning to become restless as he was obviously getting tired of staying there to receive an order from a lady that wouldn't talk after over 15 minutes of standing. Although he enjoyed the time wasted because it wasn't really wasted from his point of view; he was also fantasizing at Opeyemi's body all through the time of waiting.

With the way he was staring at that time, he must have stripped Opeyemi naked in his mind. But the clock was ticking and he had to attend to other customers before he was sanctioned so he had to act up some drama.

Immediately the client noticed the uneasiness in the waiter, he was forced to make his own order of catfish pepper-soup and some bottles of beer for Opeyemi too. He wanted her to eat well so she wouldn't make excuses when it was time for their main business.

When the order finally came, it was such a disgusting scene for Opeyemi to watch. Her client didn’t behave as if he had just come back from abroad as Amanda had told her. He behaved like someone who had lived in the village all his life.

He continued to eat the catfish pepper soup like a prisoner who was just freed. He ate like he stole the food and he drank his bottle of beer like he was in a food competition. It was not until when he was about to finish the food that he realized that the person who was sitting in front of him hadn’t tasted the food.

“What a man!” Opeyemi exclaimed in her mind.

Dear reader, there's obviously more to this scene but we have to pend it here for this week. Do you have questions? Ask me in the comments section.

See you next week!😊