Silent Seduction (24)

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Okay,
It's been days since she started staying with Janice and everything had been going quite fine. Tobi never called, nor text or anything.
Not like she cares anyway.
But if she really has to be honest with herself, she knows she missed him. There were times she had been tempted to stare at his number for minutes with the intention of calling and asking him why he did that but her pride really won't let her. In order to prevent future occurrence of such, she had deleted his number completely off her contact. One of the ways she thought would shut him out of her head.
She had received a number of missed calls from Tife and her mun who kept calling despite the fact that she had refused to pick. She wasn't picking their calls because she thought if she did, she'd be creating a connection between Tobi and her which would be contradicting her mission of cutting off that same connection.
Tori had switched from her playful and cheerful self to a calm and reserved person focusing much more on her work. She was determined to move out as soon as possible.
Although, there had been no issue with Janice who was actually trying everything in her power to cheer her up, Tori knew what was right and the only right thing is getting her own place.
Janice's husband, Korede, came around and ever since then, the couple always had one place or the other to go whenever it's Janice's leisure. Tori had no problem with them acting all 'lovey' but she really has a problem with Janice trying to involve her in what was supposed to be for only the two of them.
'You should come with us to see the movie.' Janice said squeezing her knees together and looking up at Tori with her bright brown eyes.
She was sitting on Tori's bed and she was wearing a big white shirt which revealed her long flawless thigh while her blonde wavy wig was left flowing behind her neck
'No, I shouldn't.' Tori replied after scrutinizing Janice's face for any hint of unseriousness which she ended up finding none. She was standing at one end of the room where a small wardrobe was, neatly folding a gown and placing it on other neatly folded clothing in the wardrobe.
'There is no excuse this time. You already got off work like an hour ago and you can't just sit back at home and study like you always do. It's so uncool and boring!' Janice tried to convince her as she moved closer to where Tori was.
Tori slammed the wardrobe door and turned to face Janice who was now a few width away from her.
'It should be your moment. Korede and yours. Adding me to the crew will only ruin that moment.' Tori said which was half of what she really had in mind. If she should put herself into consideration, she would consider how neglected she would be. Those two would be so into each other they'd forget she was there. It would only make her feel a lot depressed if all she would be doing all day is watch lovebirds do their thing and she'll be the one taking the pictures or putting on fake smiles all day trying to seem happy and all...
It's not like she isn't happy for them. She so much love how those two do their thing but the truth is, you can't expect her to be all smiles when she is actually the third wheel in their relationship considering her current condition.
'You have completely resigned yourself into some sort of depressed state and I don't like it. You should go out and have fun! You know, try to be happy!' Janice tried again putting so much efforts into explaining. Tori knew she meant good but she was in no mood for whatever offer Jane was offering.
'If you agree to come with us today, I'm never asking you to come along ever again, if you don't want to.' She added when she realized Tori wasn't going to say yes.
Her offer was a fair deal but Tori wasn't falling for that. Janice was trying to make her swallow the carefully laid bait when she wasn't going to fulfill the last part of her statement.
'I'm not so sure if I should trust you.' Tori raised her face and gave Janice a quizzical look.
'I promise!' Janice stressed the last word to show how serious she was. 'So, is that a yes?' She asked, her face litting up.
Tori tore her gaze away from Janice's expectant eyes 'I'm not so sure Korede would be comfortable with that.' Tori said.
'You shouldn't worry about Korede all these was his idea. So, since that is a yes, I'd go get dressed and you should too. Korede and his...er...would be here soon...' She hurried out of Tori's room leaving Tori to brood on her last incoherent and confusing statement.
Oh!
Tori clearly understands what Janice's 'Korede and his...er' means. It's her own way of describing this 'half-caste' guy before her. Phil as he introduced himself, was Korede's friend who knew all along this 'hangout' was a well planned double date which Tori was sure the mastermind behind it all was Janice. It appeared she was the only one who was oblivious to the plans.
Nice job Jane!
They were at a restaurant which was just beside the cinema. The movie would be starting in two hours...
Wait a minute.
How could she have been so dumb not to figure it out earlier.
Two hours is enough time for her to get to know Phil. Jane's thought.
Tori gritted her teeth between closed lips at Janice's deceit
They were all sitting around a table with Phil beside her while she was sitting right beside Janice who was busy feeding Korede a chunk of Suya, a bottle of drink before each and everyone of them. Janice was acting like there was no one else there but Korede and her as she completely ignored the faces Tori made at her.
'So, would you tell me about you?' Phil was trying to start a conversation and his style kinda put her off.
She doesn't know she seemed so hopeless that Jane had to think planning a blind date for her would help. She picked up her drink and slowly sucked through the straw amidst clenched teeth to hide her annoyance.
Janice was so getting it when they leave this place.
She dropped the bottle on the plastic table and faked a smile before turning to Phil.
'I'm Toriola.' She finally forced the words out of her mouth while she took her time sucking through the straw again. She doesn't know why she was acting like this. Phil is quite handsome but she really doesn't know why she wasn't in the mood to talk to him.
'Oh that's nice but can you talk more about you? The things I need to know about....' Tori didn't let him finish before saying,
'You should tell me about yourself.' She tried to switch places faking abrupt attention. He fell for her acting and smiled before starting.
'Oh, I'm Phil and I graduated from Uniport. I'm a petroleum Engineer and...' The rest of what he said just seemed to fly off her head even though she tried to pay attention.
Okay, Tori is getting bored.
This dude sure knows how to talk about himself and it doesn't look like he would be stopping anytime soon. Tori had to steal glances at Janice who was still acting like she wasn't there.
Why did she really asked him to talk about himself?
'Can you excuse me for a minute?' Tori asked stopping him from saying some stuffs about his work.
'Sure.' He replied and Tori mummured a quick thanks before standing up and getting stopped almost immediately by Janice.
'Where are you going?' She asked turning all her attention to Tori.
Oh, so now you see me here?
'I'd be back' Tori said between clenched teeth which was meant to be a smile 'soon.' She added hurrying off before Janice could say another word.
She relaxed her tensed shoulders as she sighed relievingly, lifting the fake smile off her face.
If only she could just go home like this...
'Tori!' Okay someone screamed her name and she was so sure it wasn't from her head. She hopes it's not who she was thinking.
Well, it actually is.
Tife was standing before her before she could run away, breathing heavily as she had to run a the way down to Tori.
'Hi' Tife waved at her as sweat glistened on her forehead.
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Everyone is mad at him.
Tori would be mad at him wherever she is right now.
His mum and Tife aren't speaking to him. Those two snubbed him and there are sometimes they'll both sit down and look at each other for hours like that is some modern 'women communication skill' while they glance at him before continuing their staring contest.
It was all creepy but he had known his family to be weird from day one so he wasn't completely freaked out by their actions. It just annoyed him.
It was mental torture not knowing what those two were talking about.
He was regretting what he did.
He missed her and he was lost on what do. There was no denying he overreacted and he knew the right thing to do was to set things straight but he doesn't even know how to go about it.
The world seemed to have stopped turning and everything around him stopped being interesting.
She added a meaning to his life.
She gave him a mission in life aside pathetically chasing Jo which had always been a lost fight from the start.
A mission to amuse and annoy someone at the same time.
He used to be the only serial nuisance in her life and he enjoyed every bit of it. And he could tell she did too.
He had never really put more thought into 'if only I could turn back the hands of time,'. Now, he finds himself doing exactly that.
He was going through those hilarious pictures of her on his phone. The ones he took at the mall and he couldn't help smiling at how really cute she looked when she frowned. He swiped his phone's screen with his thumb to the next picture and he heard a knock on his door.
When was the last time someone knocked on his door?
It's like he has forgotten how a knock sounds.
Okay that would be exaggerating, but he really wasn't expecting anybody to knock on his door this early.
'Come in.' He said as he swiped his screen to the next picture when he saw Tife walked casually in.
'Hey.' She said as she walked to him, sitting beside him on his bed while she stretched her neck to see what he was doing on his phone.
'You miss her?' Tife asked. It was more like a statement than a question but Tobi nodded after hesitating for a while.
'Do you want to talk about it?' She asked folding her arms around her knees.
When did Tife start caring about him so much? It was so weird but this wasn't the time to think about that.
'Why did you do it?' She asked even though Tobi gave no reply to her last question.
Tobi dropped his phone on his bed before starting. Slowly at first, he couldn't believe he would be talking to Tife about it.
'We had a plan to visit Uncle Soji. She said I should come get her from work...'
'She told me. Everything.' Tife cut in.
Tobi was interested now.
'You called her?' He asked with all seriousness.
'No. I ran into her at the...'Tife didn't finish that before Tobi interrupted.
'She was doing fine right?' He asked, a guilty feeling gripping his heart.
'She looks like she was doing fine. But the reason you asked her to leave, was it because she ignored your plans to go to uncle's or was it because she left with Marcu?' She paused for inference before adding. 'Be honest.'
'It's both.' Tobi replied cracking his knuckles while avoiding Tife's eyes
'But seeing her with Marcus hurt more right?' Tife asked again and Tobi slowly nodded his reply with his head bowed.
'Okay, let me explain the obvious to you. Seeing her with Marcus hurt because you like her a lot which is something you don't know or you do know but you're still trying to fight. The reason you asked her to leave wasn't because you were angry, but because you don't want to like her much more than you already do. Which you were afraid would be the case if she stays and you would be at the receiving end if she doesn't like you back like you do or like Marcus.' She paused then continue. 'The summary of that is, you don't want her becoming another Jo you'd chase for the rest of your life.'
Tobi was awed.
Awed because his YOUNGER sister said this much about relationship. Analysing it like a pro, a skill which needs questioning. There was no denying the truth in everything she said though.
And how the hell did she know he liked Jo?
And like a psychic, she provided his answers.
'It was so obvious. A blind, dumb and deaf man will know you like her...'

©Fiyah