DIARY OF A SINGLE MOM: I’M NOT A MAN HUNTER (PART 3) Temitope Rotimi
I pretended not to hear my name the first time, but Mayowa said it again, loud and clear.
“Urm, yes.” I cleared my throat. “Yes, Mr Mayowa.”
He paused, and smiled. He seemed a little offended. Ha. As if I was ever going to use his first name. That would definitely be crossing the line.
“Have you finished compiling those results?” He asked, totally ignoring Miss Yemi’s little tantrum where she was hitting the computer keyboard pretty hard.
I nodded and ran off to my cubicle. God help me. I took a deep breath, sat on my chair and made the decision to create more distance between myself and Mayowa to avoid all the drama and toxicity.
“Lola.”
I almost jumped off my chair. Miss Yemi was in my cubicle. Just the two of us; I never thought I’d die this way. She had dropped “Mummy Valerie” too and called me by my last name, not because we were now cool friends but ’cause she was ready to kill me.
“Bring your laptop to the long table, I need to work with some of your data,” she spat and walked away.
Working on the long table always had me tensed up and worried but we were with two other employees so I felt a bit easy. Well, not until they both left and it was just the 3 of us again. I struggled to finish my own share of the work so I could disappear too. Miss Yemi left the table to sit in a cubicle. She looked kind of sick but her face was usually in a frown so it was hard to tell. Mayowa started telling his silly jokes while we worked and I tried to laugh reasonably. When she didn’t come out after a long while, he asked me to go and check on her.
“Why don’t you do that?” I must have sounded a bit jittery.
“No now, what if she’s not wearing anything?” He looked really innocent and dumb at the same time.
“Okay then.” I got up and walked to the cubicle making enough shuffling sounds with my flat shoes so she would know someone was coming.
“Miss Yemi.” I peeped into the cubicle. She was lying on one of the examination couches we used to scan patients. “Are you okay?”
“Yes I am. Thank you.” She did not open her eyes. “I’m fine, please.”
I knew I had to leave then.
“Is she okay?” Mayowa asked.
“She said she was, but she looks ill. I think you should go and check on her. She’s dressed.”
Mayowa nodded and walked up to the cubicle. He peeped in and asked if she was okay like five times. She said she really was and just needed to rest. So he came back to sit down and continued his jokes.
She came out a few minutes later and started to pack her stuff. Something was wrong. She looked like she was about to explode. I had a feeling there was going to be an outburst some time soon.
“Are you ready to go home?” Mayowa asked. “Let me just finish this page and I can take you home.”
“I can find my way home, thank you.” Miss Yemi hissed.
“Are you okay?” Mayowa asked for the umpteenth time and that was the last straw.
“Do I look like I am?” She spat. “And what did you do? You sent her to check me. You couldn’t check on me yourself?”
The hall suddenly became too hot with all the air conditioning. The look she sent my way when she said, “her” was so disdainful, it hurt. I wished there was a way to turn myself into a tiny fly and just fly away from the building.
“Who do you think you are Mayowa?” She put her packed bag down and faced him squarely.
“W-What do you mean?” He still had the stupid innocent/clueless look on his face.
To be continued…
