I had never seen a girl as beautiful as Cynthia my entire life. I had just graduated from the University of Technology Minna, Niger state and on my return to Lagos, my dad insisted I join my uncle’s firm until I was called up for my youth service. For me, working for my uncle wasn’t as enticing as it seemed and I sure didn’t look forward to it because of our rocky relationship. I only agreed to the arrangement because my family insisted it would be beneficial.
It was my first day at the office and as a “rookie”, I was asked to organize some files in the file room. This activity was like a rite of passage for every newbie before they eventually had to learn the ropes from a senior supervisor. Barely twenty minutes into my task, she walked in: a dark-skinned beauty with short hair. In this surreal moment, I imagined a romantic song playing immediately she opened the file room door, like in the Indian movies (corny, I know. I can’t help what my imagination comes up with). She walked past me to the cabinet close to the wall, picked up a file or two and walked back out.
That was the first time I saw Cynthia, she was the girl of my dreams and she satisfied every word of the phrase. I thought about her all the time since that day and the only problem was she didn’t even notice me. She was young; just about my age, and definitely out of my league for sure, but this made me even more determined to get to know her.
I got my opportunity about a week later. It was lunch time and I had gone to have my lunch at the cafeteria, and there she was seated at the corner. To be honest, the thought of approaching her at that very moment had me “shaking in my boots” but I knew this was the chance I’d been patiently waiting for, so I nervously walked up to her and said:
“Do you mind if I take this seat right here?” pointing to the empty chair opposite her.
“Sure you can” she replied politely
As I sat, I realized I didn’t think this through properly before approaching her and this made me more nervous, but I was already in the deep end so I carried on.
“Hi, my name is Koyade, I’m new here, I work in the IT department and I’m still just getting to know everyone. What’s your name?”
“Cynthia” she replied and said nothing further. There was an awkward silence, so I interjected with another question.
“Where do you work?”
“Err here” she replied sarcastically.
“Pardon me, I meant what department are you stationed?” I reiterated a little embarrassed at my lack of finesse.
“Finance” she replied.
It was getting really difficult breaking through the “German defence” she was putting up with her single-word replies, so I switched the game. What was there to lose anyway.
“I know you probably get this a lot” I said “but when I saw you in file room the other day, my whole world stopped for a moment, I was completely mesmerized by you and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you ever since” I spoke with so much passion as my confidence increased.
“Interesting,” she remarked with a slight giggle.
“You are very funny,” she said with a wide smile, “you have quite an imagination. I noticed you too, but you just kept staring at me, I didn’t know what to make of it. I thought you were going to have a heart attack” She laughed for the very first time and I didn’t mind being the object of her joke.
We carried on the conversation until lunch was over and we both returned to work. As I walked home, there was an innate sense of victory welling up inside me but that was cut short when I suddenly remembered the conversation I had with Chima the day after I had seen Cynthia for the first time. Chima had been working at the firm for over a year and was the first friend I made when I arrived. He was also the one I spoke to when I tried to inquire about Cynthia. His answer bothered me.
“Which babe you say you see, that dark babe wey dey carry low cut?” “o boi leave am o! That babe na wahala for this company o”
“Why? Wetin she don do?” I asked.
“Well, me don tell you sha. Na so dem tell me too” “if you know wetin good for you just zero your mind for her matter and face your work!”
What was it about her that people in this company were unwilling to speak about?