CHAPTER FOUR Flipped Stephanie’s countenance came alive whenever she had a mouthful of her favourite whiskey. Nothing buoyed her spirits with as much gusto as the heightened feeling of being free and happy. She chose the world she lived in. It was exactly as she wanted it. Her liberation would come at a cost. The cost for which she cared less about. 

She had for so many years played second fiddle to her wants. All she wanted was a taste of life with reckless abandon and there was no better time than now. 

Tall, slender, and curvy, the chocolate skinned 29-year-old was breathlessly beautiful, full of life and sassy. Her face immaculately adorned with modest make-up, yet giving her the look of royalty and elegance only a few men could resist. 

Her fantasy was about to come true and she had it all figured out. A perfect getaway was already in the offing and she had gotten her companion to book a trip to an exotic seaside resort in Victoria Island. 

For so many years, she had longed desperately for the clean fresh air, cold sea breeze, whispering palm fronds and waters the colours of the skies. With the vacation booked, the missing puzzle was the man! 

She carefully packed her suitcase, her prized lingerie and everything else in between neatly tucked in for the weekend of her life. Right inside her head, she craved for the satisfying sight of men stopping in their tracks to stare as she waltzed by—something she had missed for so long. She yearned to watch them knock their drinks off the table the moment she stepped into a bar, and wink as they drooled over her luscious body. The weekend was all about her and no one else, and she planned to enjoy it to the fullest! 

She arrived at the seaside resort in high spirits accompanied by her loyal confidant. She needed his company for protection. ThatThat was all he was worth for this trip. His mere presence would scare the lily-livered away. Only the best deserved her attention. 

She always thought he didn’t approve of her lifestyle. Sometimes, he came across as being overly protective of her. But she barely cared what he thought about her. He only had to stay out of her hair. They would share a room at the resort. But that was all they had to do together. As long as he protected her from the sad, evil world, she was okay with it. 

That night, while he slept, she snuck out of the deluxe room they lodged. Dressed only in the sexiest lingerie carefully concealed under a pull-over jacket and bum shorts that she had packed for the trip, she made her way to the only bar in the resort. It was late and dark. 

When she walked into the bar, it didn’t take long to find that she was the cynosure of all eyes as both the men and their companions swooned on her lustfully as she walked into the VIP lounge where she joined the exclusive list of special guests.

Then, she saw him. He was seated on the barstool across the room. He had the kind of face that stopped you in your tracks. And he looked like he was used to that—the sudden pause in a person’s natural expression when they looked his way, followed by overcompensating with a nonchalant gaze and a weak smile. His face was strong and defined, his features moulded from pure perfection. She must have been staring too hard because when this chocolate piece of a man turned his gaze at her, she was caught out with a smile and it was a dead giveaway of her invitation. 

His eyes widened in surprise like he was trying to place her face, and he bent his head in a gesture that suggested that he was picking up the invite. 

With the calmness of a lion, majestic and with grace, he started the short walk to her side of the lounge. His grey, satin shirt half-buttoned up as she couldn’t see his chest. Part of her wished she could. The other very small part said she should get a hold of herself. She let out a shaky sigh and waited. She longed for this very moment all her life. And this eye candy was all hers for the night. 

That night was the first of their interesting and weird tryst. One person, the prey and the other, the victim! Alex was his name. 

*** 

Alex was a returnee. He left the shores of Nigeria immediately after completing the compulsory youth service to pursue the world of glitz and glam in God’s Own Country. He thrived best in the neon lights. He was a dashing young man no airs, but intelligent and witty with a good sense of humour—enough to have the ladies drooling all over him. 

His broad shoulders filled out his shirts nicely and accentuated his impressive dressing style. He was handsome from the depth of his eyes to the gentle expressions of his voice and this won him the admiration of the ladies. He had quite a reputation too and was reported to be sly and manipulative. He never lost sight of his ultimate objective even when in ‘love’. 

But in faraway Houston city, he hit a purple patch. His well laid out plans did not pan out as he had hoped and it began a downward spiral of fortune. 

After he had struggled in futility for a few years failing to break into the big money league, his chickens came home to roost. A failed shambolic marriage to an ‘Americanah’ was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. 

His ‘Americanah’ was his supposed last shot to a life of affluence, wealth, lushness and opulence in the United States. Like a pack of ill-fated dominoes, his plans fell through under nine wasted years. Broke and spent, he desperately reached out to his long-standing friend. He was his closest buddy back in his university days in Nigeria and he was getting on quite well in his career back home. 

“Come home and pick up the pieces of your life,” his friend encouraged calmly, offering him a welcome he just couldn’t resist. A semblance of the life of glitz and glam. In celebration of his return to Nigeria, his friend had promised an all-expensepaid weekend getaway to a seaside resort somewhere so exotic that there was no way he could turn down the offer. He wondered if, perhaps, he could restart his fortunes from there. His friend’s wife, Julia, had suggested the getaway to welcome his buddy. 

Although Alex had met Julia a couple of times before he travelled out of the country, she didn’t make much of an impression. She would easily pass for an overly polite, yet very standoffish woman who came across as almost controlling. And this was the way their mutual friends felt about her too.

His shock at knowing the getaway was her idea was quickly replaced by the excitement of having a weekend of fun and bliss with his best buddy. His best buddy’s name? Danny.