Muna
My heart was beating like a drum in a crescendo, quickening its rhythm with each passing moment.
I was never one of those people that hated surprises. No, let me rephrase that. I never had an opinion on that, since I never got to experience it until now.
Imagine how I felt when I got a call from my mom, saying she was in New York to see me and was waiting in my apartment lobby.
Imagine how surprised I was when my best friend popped up in my face while I was tightly wrapped in my mother’s arm. Yes, Maya was here with my mom. When I told you, I screamed, attracting all the unwanted attention to us.
They perfectly hid it from me and when Mom said something about a surprise, I never imagined stuff like this. I was happy to see them, just like they were to see me. They were actually in New York since last night and as they happily narrated everything to me, laughing and talking, my apartment door opened, revealing Nicklaus.
That was when the big grin that was plastered on my mom’s face dropped, leaving a serious expression spreading on it. She glanced between me and Nicklaus before focusing her stare back on him.
Meanwhile, Nicklaus was rooted in a spot looking unfazed.
Last night with Nicklaus was special, and it stirred something stronger than what I was previously feeling for him. Something like fire which had my heart racing in anticipation of our future.
But my mom didn’t know about him or any of these. Anytime she asked, I told her I was taking as much break as she had advised. She wanted me to exercise at least a six-month period of healing, which made sense to me.
But then, Nicklaus happened and I desperately wanted to say that he was the best thing to have happened to me since moving here. Of course, he was. Deep down, I knew but I wouldn’t admit that now, because I didn’t know what last night meant to him. That was also the reason I didn’t want him to meet my mother yet. I wanted to be sure about him before he could meet people that mattered to me.
The look on my mom’s face intensified into a glare when Maya stepped forward from my right-hand side, grinning heavily at Nicklaus.
She smiled, her dimples digging deeper into her cheeks. “Oh my God, you’re Nicklaus right? I have heard so much about you.”
Many people always said we looked similar, if only I had those beautiful dimples too.
I mentally facepalmed when she told him that he looked even much better in real life than in his photos while shaking his hand aggressively.
She wasn’t supposed to say that to him. Hell, she wasn’t supposed to say that in front of Mom.
I could swear that I caught a glimpse of a smirk on Nicklaus’ face, but it quickly faded leaving his face blank and eyes back to my mom.
The next person to say something was mom. She asked if I had a roommate and if I was having a problem paying rent, which got Maya laughing like a giraffe.
When I went on and told her that his apartment was right above mine and he came to help fix my laptop, not only did she give me the ‘You think I’m stupid look,’ Nicklaus stared hard at me in something like displeasure.
But thank God, instead of spilling the whole tea, he went ahead and introduced himself respectfully, shaking hands with my mother.
Before he could excuse himself, Maya invited him to join us for the breakfast we were about to go out for, and my heart sank to my stomach. I was going to kill her later.
Nicklaus had left for a quick shower and a change of clothes. I was thinking he would come up with a good excuse and decline the offer but to my surprise, he didn’t. Everyone was surprising me today.
While my mom waited, I excused myself immediately, not just for a quick shower but because I was trying to avoid my mom’s questions. Maya’s inquisitive ass still followed behind wanting to know everything.
Right now, we were seated in a very beautiful restaurant having breakfast. At first, Maya and my mom continued to fill me in on everything happening with everyone we knew back home. It was a lot of laughing and talking, but the way Nicklaus was staring at me all through, had me a little distracted.
He was gazing at me like I was the only one present on the table.
Shortly our food came and for the first few minutes, we ate in silence until my mom decided to break the silence.
“So, Nicklaus,” she started, dropping her fork on the plate. “How did you and my daughter become friends?” she asked, causing me to choke on my food.
“Uhm—”
“I’m not asking you, Munachi.” She glanced my way and this time, I choked on my cough.
A small smile appeared on Nicklaus’ face and from the opposite side of the table, he glanced between me and my mom. “We met at the gym,” he said, and when I thought he was done, he continued. “Muna had crashed into me causing both of us to fall to the ground.”
Someone please tell him, he could say all that without gazing at me like he wanted to fuck me right now. And why did I want that too? We were staring at each other when my mother cleared her throat, causing me to glance at her.
“Wait, sweetheart, Is he the man you were complaining about a few months ago?”She quirked her brows up, looking at me. “The one you called arrogant and—”
Maya choked on her food. We both knew what Mom was trying to do.
“Mom,” I called out, eyeing Nicklaus, “He apologized, okay,” I assured him.
“Of course he did, I mean if not, he wouldn’t be leaving your apartment this morning.” Maya who was seated across me, said, throwing me a wink. I swear I was going to kill her for real.
“He apologized and we became friends,” I said, glaring at Maya.
“Oh, I mean, if you were going to cry about how rude he was, and how you were going to kill him if you had a chance.” My mom shrugged. “You should have at least said something when you guys made up.” She finished and placed a fork full of bacon in her mouth.
I opened my mouth to say something but Nicklaus beat me to it.
“Ms. Amadi,” He started with a warm smile on his face. “I apologize for the wrong first impression. I and Muna had a conversation about it and I assure you, I’ve learned my lesson and I’m grateful for the chance to make amends. Muna’s friendship means a lot to me, and I’m glad we could move past the misunderstanding.” When he finished his sentence, he shifted his attention to me, “I guess I owe you a thank you for not following through with that threat, even though I kind of deserve it.”
I chuckled, hoping to clear the tension my mom was filling the air with. “Of course, I wasn’t going to do that.”
“I bet you weren’t,” Maya threw me yet another wink and when I glared at her, she reached for a glass of water pretending to not say anything.
All of a sudden, my mom said, “So how often do you have to fix her laptop.”
I snapped my gaze at her, my eyes widened in shock. She was just the older version of me, except that she was a shade darker and I was a bit taller than her.
Maya on the other hand choked on her water, and even though Nicklaus looked calm as fuck, I knew that those words also took him by surprise.
“Mom,” I yelped.
“What?” She looked at me like I shouldn’t be talking right now. “Look baby, I’m glad that you have friends here. It just…” My mother slowly shook her head, the light in her eyes dimming. “Remember when you moved in after what happened with Carl, you couldn’t leave your bedroom or eat something for almost a week. Then, you got sick and lost consciousness. The fact that it took me time to know still hurts until now. I only hope you won’t have to experience that again especially since we are not here with you.”
What she said affected all of us. For Maya, a frown appeared on her face, which was an indication that she was still angry at Carl. Neither she nor my mother had forgiven him for everything he put me through, and now, I wondered how they would feel if I broke the news of him coming to New York to find me. All hell was going to break loose and I knew they wouldn’t leave until they find him, have him arrested and then, make me get a restraining order.
Meanwhile, Nicklaus’ face hardened as he got to know more about me and Carl’s breakup story.
As for myself, I was the one who went through all of the pain and heartache so I knew the story page by page. But that was not why I was getting annoyed, it was the fact that Carl had the guts to appear in front of me after all of that.
This time it was Nicklaus who broke the silence, he softly cleared his throat and we all directed our attention to him.
“I am going to make sure that nothing like that happens to Muna ever again, Ms Amadi. I might not know everything that happened with her ex but I know enough to promise you that I won’t hurt even a strand of hair on her head nor would I let anyone who hurt her live, no matter who they are.” Nicklaus finished his last line, staring at me and I couldn’t help the smile that crept up my lips.
I didn’t know if he meant that. Like, was he really going to kill someone because of me? Well, even though I didn’t know the answer to that, it made me feel safe. I always felt safe around him.
We stared at each other for a passing second, not wanting to break away. It wasn’t until Maya cleared her throat, drawing me back to the present that I glanced at my mother, who for the first time since this conversation started, smiled at me.
Turning to Nicklaus, she asked. “So where are you from, Nicklaus?”
“I’m from here. New York, Ms. Amadi.”
“Just call me Eugene.” My mother was smiling at him now.
Did he just pass a test or what? Wait, had there been a test?
My mother turned to me, “Oh baby, I spoke to Mrs Phillips and his son the other day, and Jonathan asked of you.”
“You mean Jonathan, the one little Muna had a crush on when y’all still lived in Nigeria?” Maya asked.
“Oh yes,” my mom laughed. “Well, you remember Kachi, his older brother, his wedding is in two weeks and they are flying me to Abuja. They wanted to know if you wish to attend with me.”
“Two weeks is too soon to make a decision, Mom. I don’t know.”
“Well, you will get to see your Jonathan again,” My mom smiled at me.
Okay, enough of my old crush conversation. I mean, I loved Jonathan and his brother Kachi but they were like family. My mother worked for them when she was back home and when she got pregnant with me, things went south with her and the man who was supposed to be my father.
The Phillips family helped her all through the pregnancy until she had me. And after spending lots of time with the Phillips brothers, I grew a little crush on the younger one even though he was like four years older than me. Silly me.
“Are you okay?” I heard my mom say in the lingering silence and turning to whom her words were directed, my heart skipped a beat.
Nicklaus was holding tightly onto his glass of water, leaving his knuckles pale and his jaw tightly clenched. Guilt enveloped me as I took in the emotion on his face. First, I lied that he was in my apartment to fix my laptop, not that I knew any better excuse. And now we were talking about my childhood crush.
Nicklaus forced a smile, “Oh, yes, Eugene.” He said, releasing the glass on the table and at the same time, his phone alerted him of an incoming text that took his attention.
After reading his text, Nicklaus offered to pay for our breakfast but my mom insisted he shouldn’t. They were both stubborn but when my mom insisted on separate bills, he had no option but to give in.
After the payment, we left and Nicklaus excused himself, saying he had something to attend to. We spent the rest of the day exploring the city, visiting all the places my mother and Maya had on their list. I had it filmed too for content and we had mad fun. At the end of the day, we got home tired and after my mom went to bed in the guest room. I went into my bedroom and met Maya seated on the bed, speaking to her boyfriend on the phone.
I went into the bathroom and after minutes of my night routine, I was out. Only to meet Maya, who was no longer on the phone, seated on the bed and grinning at me.
“What?” I mirrored her smile because it was contagious.
I tucked myself into the bed and Maya mirrored, lying beside me.
“Did you change the sheets?” She scrunched up her nose.
“No,” I glared at her, causing her to laugh.
“Ewww, you need to change the sheet, babe,” She sat up and stared down at me. “Especially after all that sweating and shit that went down last night.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I grinned, trapping my lower lip between my teeth as the memory from last night flooded into my mind.
“Look at you! You look like you want more,” she said, smiling. “Oh my God, Muna, do you know what you look like right now?”
“What?”
“Like a horny slut,” she said and I jumped on her, causing her to fall back on the bed. I threw some playful punches at her and she pretended to cry, but at the same time, she was laughing her ass off. Shortly, I got tired and fell on my back.
“I am not horny!” I yelled.
“Okay, I hear you, Ma’am.” Maya continued to laugh as we went back to lying side by side.
“Was last night y’all first time?” she asked and I stared at her.
After a passing silence, I nodded and we both stared at each other, smiling.
“I love it for you.”
“Yeah?”
“Muna,” she called out my name and I raised my brows at her. “Do you remember the day at the hospital, the day you lost consciousness?” she asked, and I nodded. “When you woke up and said to me that you were moving to New York, I acted like I didn’t hear that. And that was because I was scared of what my life would be like without you. I mean, it was the first time we were going to be apart from each other and I was shit scared. But after today, I’m just going to say that I’m proud of you.” She placed her hand on my waist smiling, “I’m happy that you’re happy.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome baby,” Her eyes danced between mine, “So what about Nicklaus?”
“What about him?”
“Are you guys in a relationship or is it just sex?” She asked, turning to lie on her back.
I sighed, mirroring her movement, “Well, I can’t say, we didn’t really talk about that. I don’t know but with him, everything feels special and…” I sighed again.
She glanced at me, saying, “Muna, have you seen the way that man looks at you?”
I turned my gaze to her, “Like he wants to fuck the hell out of me?” I chuckled, using her words.
“Okay, I know I said that but girl, I’m not joking right now. He almost broke a fucking glass cup with his bare hand when your mom mentioned Jonathan. I mean if that is not love, I don’t know what else is.” She said the last line lacing her fingers together.
He wasn’t going to break it though. “You think so?”
“I know so,” she cheesed.
I didn’t know if it was Maya’s words but I suddenly remembered his face when I told him to leave this morning, and that got me feeling really bad. I picked up my phone from the nightstand and clicked on me and Nicklaus’ chat box.
“Thank you, Maya,” I murmured and when she didn’t reply, I glanced in her direction and saw that she had already dozed off.
Maya was still the Maya who would doze off in the middle of a conversation.
Turning to my phone, I ran my fingers through my keypad.
Me: I’m sorry about this morning, and I will take it back if I can. But since I can’t, I am going to make it up to you by fulfilling any of your requests.
After hitting the send button, I locked my phone screen and let sleep possess me.
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