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W hen Timi returned downstairs; it was to find a deserted living room save Charles snoring on the sofa.

He swallowed his disappointment. Hadn't he stayed upstairs that long for this?

Alex and Nejeere must have taken their argument somewhere more conducive.

Or she might have stamped off, and Alex, unable to bear having a fight with her, had left for his evening job or gone home.

However, when he reached for Charles, a clatter sounded from the Billiard room.

Like someone had dumped the cue stick on the board.

He tamped down a surge of relief. Alex had stayed back.

Maybe they could figure out how to handle this latest inconvenience.

But when he got to the semi-ajar door, a low feminine voice drifted to him.

“How can you say that? What's more important than keeping a low profile and settling in fully?”

“It's not your place to tell me what's important to me and what isn't.” Alex spoke quietly, but the words carried steel.

“When I offered you the job, I never knew it would be temporary. Then, we agreed if the NGO called for an interview, you'll go for that instead. Why didn't you?”

“Doesn’t matter now.”

A brief silence ensued, then Nejeere said softly. “The stuff in the fridge. Did you…bake them?”

“Jeere…”

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“I don't mind staying on. Stop worrying.”

“You read his letter, Lex. He's going off after Red Tinsel.”

“I know.”

“So, leave. You need something permanent to settle Mum.

Shooting is starting soon; I can assign anyone from the office to take your place.

How can you throw your future away for someone who didn't deem people who loved him worthy of a goodbye?

You're my person, I brought you here. How do you expect me to keep quiet?”

Alex's reply was swift. “I can't leave. Not now.”

“Why?” It was a cry from the heart. “I don't get. Why can't you?”

Timi clenched his fists when nothing came from Alex. A long time ago, he'd heard a similar cry.

“Two of you are so weird. Am I no longer your best friend?”

“You know I'm allowed to have other friends aside you, right?”

“He's different! Let's hang out this evening.”

“I can't. Sorry.”

“Why?! Seriously, why can't you?”

The apprehension he'd felt earlier returned, so strong he could taste it. He'd maintained a distance even with his closest acquaintances, poised for when masks began falling, but he'd never expected Nejeere's falling first.

“Alex,” Nejeere whispered. “Are you…both…? ”

Timi's heart increased its pounding when Alex remained quiet. Deny, he screamed silently. Don't give them the reason to betray you as they did me .

“You know why I brought you on-board?” Nejeere asked, as though afraid of continuing that line of questioning.

“I was tired of the same old story. Assistants barely lasting a year.

Everyone, mooning and pining. You were the change I needed.

The most unruffled person I've ever met. If there was anyone to help me manage him, it was you. So, why?”

“Why what?”

“Why this...inability to escape his net.

This is his superpower. Getting everyone to fall under his charms. I've watched too many workers come and go, because they couldn't resist his wounded fawn…

facade. He's not your broken to fix, Alex.

He'll consume you, then, spit you out. He's done it to friends, lovers. What makes you think you're special?”

“I see.” Alex spoke softly, but the chill in his voice was unmistakable. “You should have informed me I was working for a quicksand. How about you? You seem too fine for someone whose boss swallows everything around him.”

“I've loved you for so long, I've grown immune to every charm.”

Despite the confusion tearing through him at hearing Nejeere's perception of him, the pain in her words struck his heart. Alex also seemed to have felt it because he kept quiet.

“Lexi, listen to me…” Nejeere's voice held an urgency.

“Jeere, no please. This is Unilag all over again. You don't have to be this person who…”

“Who what?”

Alex said nothing.

“Who what?” Nejeere repeated.

“Jeere, just…back off, okay?”

“No.”

“Nejeere…”

“Not this time. Not when I know whom you're making sacrifices for. What are you doing? What is he making you do? This isn't you.”

“I see. And who am I?”

“You're not…yo u'll never…are you going to pretend that night didn't happen?”

Timi grew cold.

Alex took his time replying. “That night shouldn't have happened. We can't…it won’t work. Let's leave it at that. I already anticipated something like today happening, he's an A-list celebrity after all. I'll be fine. Just…leave things be.”

Bile curdled Timi's stomach. Alex had told him nothing happened between them. Had he lied?

“That's because you've never given us a chance! It has always been everybody else before me. Alex, please…just…”

“Jeere, don't. I can't…”

Amidst the ensuing scuffling sounds, Timi escaped.

He strode unseeingly past the front door, out his gate, and towards a small hill behind the children's park in the estate. No neighbour was in sight. Everyone, enjoying a quiet, fun-filled Sunday, eating white rice and stew, their lives so normal and methodical and absent of lies.

He climbed up the artificial rock and settled on the area free of ants and grasses, facing a sea of corrugated sheets lined by trees infested with too much greenery.

He picked up two smooth stones and began rubbing them against each other, willing the acidic weight rising from his stomach and crushing his heart to relieve him.

Alex had lied, so what? Honesty wore different faces, and individual perception was the mirror which reflected them. Alex had told him what he needed to tell him, and Timi had believed what he needed to believe.

So why was his mouth tasting the familiar mix of bitter leaf, lime and salt?

Why was the thought of Nejeere being with Alex first stabbing through him like a fiery pitchfork?

Why the fuck did he care if Nejeere hadn't hesitated to crush him under her heels to solidify her place in Alex's heart?

And above all, why was the thought of Alex having to eventually leave sooner than planned, sending his heart into palpitations?

He'd stopped his disappearance for a sole reason.

When had his lone road branched out to several winding paths?

When had he started to care about things he'd disdained?

And if there was a good chance of Alex being with Nejeere, how did he let himself become an obstacle?

Especially when he only had pain and ostracisation to offer.

He stayed on his hill till the harshness of the mid-April sun gave way to timid sprinkles. The rain came and went. Dampening him, letting him dry, before dampening him all over again. And while on this dance with nature, a voice spoke behind him.

“Edet said I might find you here.”

Timi sat still, eyes glued on the swaying trees ahead, his vision, a hazy green. Then, rain stopped pelting his face, and blue invaded his sight. He pushed away the offensive colour, muttering, “He knows better than to direct anyone here.”

Alex dropped the umbrella and settled beside him. “What's this place?”

Timi dropped his eyes to the wet smoothness beneath his feet. “My thinking-place.”

“Hm. What has got you thinking so badly you'd rather catch a cold than seek shelter?”

Many things, Alex. For one, what night was Nejeere referring to? Did you kiss her all over? Did you look at her with those eyes and whisper how beautiful she was?

Timi cleared a swelling lump with a cough. “If you hadn't gotten this job, what would you have been doing?”

Alex's gaze bored into his side profile as he said softly. “Where's this coming from?”

Timi's fingers sought out his wrist band. “It's a simple question.”

“Nothing is ever simple with you.”

The band went snap! “It's a hard question, then. Or is this another question too hard for you to answer?”

“Another—what's going on?”

Timi had always internalised experiences as shallowly as possible.

If he got uncomfortable with a situation or a person, he voiced his displeasure and cut off immediately, suffering not an iota of discomfort.

He couldn't understand when Charles or Nejeere came to him, complaining about a situation that only needed them speaking their minds to resolve it .

So, why was he finding it so difficult to marry the jumbled words in his head?

Alex had lied, but he'd also turned down a promising job for Timi's sake.

He and Nejeere had history, but his every word had shown where his preference now lay.

He needed to settle his family who had gone through hell, but he'd put the mission before them, despite knowing how everything would end.

Working with Agu was a comeuppance for him, yet he'd volunteered to spend minutes of his day being on the phone with him, reporting what Timi needed him to.

How could he make sense of the anger, gratitude, betrayal and loss churning within him?

Alex was that experience one could only have once. Birth. First baby steps. First kiss. AIDS. Death. Volunteering to be kicked in the nuts. Anything after became stale, stupid, selfish, or impossible. He'd had enough of being selfishly stupid.

His wrist band went snap! snap! as the words left his mouth. “Let's end it here, Alex.”

Alex took his time replying, and by then the intense pain on Timi's wrist had squared with the one in his heart. “End what?” he asked.

Has it always been this hard to speak? “Before it gets too far, let's end things.”

A hand covered Timi's fingers. “Stop,” Alex said. “You're hurting yourself.”

Timi withdrew his wrist. “There must be something else you wanted to do before—”

“I like you, Timi Lawson,” Alex's dulcet tones cut him off, and the rain chose that moment to forgo its uncertainty. Pelting his skin as unforgivingly as those shocking words.