I'm depressed.
I paced around the large office nervously waiting for my supposed to be mentor to arrive. According to Mr Matthews, she would be in charge of telling me how things work in a real estate office and she'll also be in charge of assigning a suitable duty for me.
"Who are you?" A deep feminine voice asks, snapping me out of my clouded thoughts. I look around and my eyes with me a pretty lady dressed in a cream coloured jumpsuit.
"Good morning ma, I'm Imade. Imade Adeleye." I stutter a reply nervously.
"Oh, you must be the new girl. It's nice to meet you dear, I'm Lydia Brown Balogun." She stretches her right hand forward and I shakily return the gesture for a quick handshake.
"Take a sit." She tells me, pointing towards the chair opposite her table and I immediately comply.
"So dear, I heard you've never worked in a real estate office before and I'll be honest that sort of made me feel glitchy about where you might stand but after checking your résumé, I'm even surprised you want to work with us." She says with a short laugh that made me feel so little in front of her.
"Well, you could say, things didn't exactly go the way I planned but I promise, I'm a hard worker and I'll put one hundred percent effort into whatever I'm given." I assure her enthusiastically.
"I don't doubt that one bit dear, believe me. And what I said earlier was a compliment. Your résumé was very impressive and I'm sure you'll do great here. I know this is just an internship of three months but if you impress me within a month, the job will be yours officially." She tells me and a wide grin spreads across my face. Could this be my guardian angel?
"I'll do my very best ma, thank you very much." I respond excitedly.
"You're welcome dear. Anyways, in this office, everyone has their own line of duty. For example, I'm a broker, and Mrs Momodu, whom you met earlier is a real estate agent. Note that both duties differ. Mr Seun, whom you also met earlier is an associate broker because he works under me and you'll meet several other people with different lines of work and my job with you is to find the perfect one for you." She explains calmly.
"So, since today is your first day, I'll only teach you the basics on how to relate with buyers or sellers. From tomorrow, I'll appoint different tasks to you and by the end of the week, I'll see where you fit." She tells me and I'm quick to thank her.
"Thank you very much ma."
"You're welcome dear. Take these files, read through them and meet me back in my office during lunch time. I have a meeting to attend to in a few minutes, so you'll have to excuse me please." And with that, she gets up to make her way out and I thank her one more time before walking briskly to the table Mr Seun had assigned to me earlier.
***
Three hours has passed, which means it's time to meet up with Mrs Brown as planned.
Lucky for me, I found I wasn't the only intern around and that they were two others; Joseph Oburoh and Temilade Odewale. Joseph was surprisingly very friendly towards me. He helped me understand a few points that the books I read couldn't help me with and he has also made sure to check up on me, to make sure I don't feel too lonely.
Unfortunately, I couldn't say the same about Temilade. Her attitude towards me baffled me so much so that I began to wonder if we had met before and maybe in the past, I had offended her or something. Although Joseph had told me to ignore her because that's how she was, it still felt odd to have someone who seemed to totally dislike me for no known reason and truth be told, she looked scary.
"Good afternoon ma. You asked me to see you during lunch." I tell her as soon as walk into her office.
"Oh, it's you!" She exclaims with a smile on her face.
"I just wanted us to have lunch together but unfortunately, I have an impromptu lunch meeting with a client and that won't be possible but I'll definitely reschedule cause you and I have a lot to talk about." She tells me and I deadpan.
"Did I do something wrong?" I ask.
"Oh, no, no, no, of course not. I just wanted us to talk, that's all. I assure you, you've done nothing wrong. My kindness comes from a good place. As much as I'd love to char with you more, I have to leave but we'll definitely continue tomorrow. Have a nice day dear." She chirps excitedly and Lord knew, I was beyond confused. Why is she being so friendly towards me? Does she know me?
"Aren't you leaving?" Her voice says, snapping me out of my daze.
"Oh, I'm so sorry ma. Thank you for everything ma." And with that, I walk out of her office again but this time with a different cloud of thought on my mind.
8:30pm~ Home
I'm depressed.
All through the day, I had tried my very best not to think about Jamal but it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I desperately wanted to know what position he held in the company but I didn't even have the courage to ask.
"Sister Imade, is everything okay?" Lola's voice asks and I turn my head slightly to see her big round eyes staring back at me intently.
"Yes yes, everything is okay. I'm just a little tired from work, that's all." I reply, but her raised brows showed she wasn't buying it.
"I know you're lying but I won't be persistent today cause I have something important to tell you but please I beg you in the name of Christ Jesus, don't cry. It will hurt o but please, I'm begging you not to cry no matter what. In life, they're things that work out and they're things that don't. Just consider this as one of those things that won't go your way, okay?" She asks and I scowl.
"Please stop beating around the bush and get straight to the point. I'm not in the mood for all this your epistle." I retort and she sighs.
"Okay o, you asked for it. Today, I met with somebody important." She simply states and my head boils.
"Before you eat me raw, let me continue." She quickly adds, knowing very well that I was about to lash out at her. "The person I met with was none other than the infamous uncle Jamal himself!" She exclaims dramatically and my brain goes blank immediately.
"W...wait, where did you meet him? How did you meet him? Did you say something t..to you? Did he react to your presence? What happened? How did it happen? Tell me!" I ask quickly, bombarding her several questions.
"Well, he and his super cute friends came to eat at my workplace and omg! Aunty mi, those guys are cute as fuck! They was the dark guy, the one with the dimples and finally the finest in the group our very own uncle Jamjam!" She fangirls excitedly and I roll my eyes at her.
"I can see you're very sick. Who is our very own?" I hiss back at her and she scoffs.
"Well, whatever. So sha, I was lucky because I was to wait their table and at first I was very happy to see him but las las, he ruined my night." She sighs with a disappointed expression on her face.
"What did he do?" I ask.
"Ahh!! Aunty mi, he disgraced me. He embarrassed me to the point of no return. He snubbed me so badly, I wished the ground would have open to swallow me. If it's that he simply forgot my face I wouldn't have taken offence but he even forgot my name and when I even tried to help him remember, he shunned me completely and I felt so ashamed to even look his friends in the eye after that hot slap he gave me ." She dramatises and I didn't realise a tear had slipped from my eyes till Lola pointed it out.
"I begged you not to cry now. He may have forgotten me but I'm sure he still remembers you." She says trying to console me and I burst into a very short laugh that soon turned into tears.
"He doesn't remember me either Lola. He forgot me completely and even forgot my name." I mutter in between sniffles and her hands are quick to pull me close.
"Did you also meet him? How are you so sure?" She asks whilst patting my head and I explain everything that happened today to her, leaving her speechless as well.
"Wow! That nigga deserves a tight slap across his face!" She yells angrily and I laugh.
"Will you slap him for me? He deserves it." I mutter childishly and she smirks.
"Shey you don't trust me ni? I'll slap him so hard, he'll feel it all over his body. He's a jerk and a jackass for forgetting the beautiful face of my awesome sister." She replies confidently and I laugh harder.
"Are you sure those his cute friends won't distract you from slapping him?" I retort jokingly and she rolls her eyes.
"Who dey epp? When it's not as if they're the ones I'm slapping. Aunty mi, e ma underestimate mi o. I will slap him and gbogbo won ma di didirin, simple!" She replies confidently and I laugh, temporarily forgetting the reason I was crying in the first place.
(Who cares?... Big sis, don't underestimate... They will all become idiots)
"This is exactly what I wanted. For you to forget that guy and finally move on from him. Ignore him at work and snag a nice, rich guy like we initially planned." She attempts a consolation but fails at the last part.
"You've started with this your rich guy speech again." I roll my eyes at her and she laughs.
"O necessatry o!" She exclaims and we both burst out laughing and she quickly rests her head on my shoulder with her arms tightly around me.
(It's very necessary)
"Don't worry sis, we'll be fine." She assures me with a smile and I hug her back very tightly.