Closure 7

Mawuli was right. Eddie was sitting next to his manager and the branch manager had some documents in front of them which I realised was a contract. "Oh Vanessa you are here. I guess I will leave you to handle the contract signing now." He said. He excused himself and walked out. My heart was pounding with anger but I couldn't let it show. When Eddie and my eyes met I instantly looked away.

"Vanessa long time no see. How are you doing?" Stanley, Eddie's manager said. I faked a smile and told him I was fine. I picked up a copy of the contract and marked the important areas with my pen. The contract wasn't very long so I was done in no time. My heart was pounding so hard my vision was a bit impaired. "So how are you, how is everything?" Eddie finally said. I stopped what I doing and was going to answer him when my phone rung. It was Frank. "One minute." I said picking up my phone and walked out.

"Hello, you called me at the right time." I said when I answered Frank's call. He giggled and asked why I said that. I explained the 'situation' in the office to him. "I really don't want to talk to him. I don't even want to see him." I complained. "This is what I tell my employees. If you don't like a situation at work tell yourself, this is purely business and the day will eventually end." Frank said. I must admit it was very good advice. I told him I was only in the meeting because my boss dropped it on me. Before I could fully explain everything I saw my boss staring at me. I rushed off the phone with Frank and walked back into the room.

"Sorry about that. Do you have any questions?" I said and sat down. Eddie smiled and nodded. He turned to Stanley and asked if he could excuse us. He claimed he wanted to discuss a few things with me in private. I wanted to object but remembered what Frank said and nodded. When Stanley was gone Eddie took off his shades. He hadn't changed much. He took a deep breath. "These past few months have made me believe in karma. I was a fool. You didn't deserve anything I did to you. You may never forgive me and I understand that but I just want you to know that no day goes by without me thinking about you." He said. I wasn't ready for what he was saying because I could feel tears about to form in my eyes.

"Eddie that's all in the past. I really don't want to talk about it." I managed to say. He nodded. "I know. I just want to let you know. I knew you wouldn't agree to see me that's why I set up this job. I told Stanley to propose to perform at this banks event just to talk to you. Nessy I'm sorry." He said. My heart started to race. If he had told me these words some months ago maybe just maybe I could have forgiven him. I put the files together and stood up. "I have heard you. Please sign the documents then. I think we are done here." I said. My eyes were teary as I walked out.

That evening Frank came to pick me up from work. He heard how gloomy I sounded over the phone and refused to let me go home alone. He took me to the beach. The same beach we went to the other time. When we sat down on the sand I told him very bluntly that I wasn't interested in playing his pebble game. He smiled and agreed we wouldn't play it. He put his arm around me and whispered. "We'll just sit here and watch the waves. If there's anything you want to say you can tell me or else we'll both just sit here and relax."

The sound of the waves was very calming. The breeze was chilly but Frank was nice and warm. After a brief moment a tear drop fell out of my eye and another followed. I could feel Frank hold me closer. I felt safe with him.

Just then I felt a sea shell hit my foot. I looked in the direction it came from and saw a man dressed in tattered clothes throwing shells at us. "Eii maame water! Papa water!" He screamed when he saw us looking at him. He looked mad. Without any warning he started throwing more than shells at us. He threw empty plastic bottles and and whole of of junk at us. "This guy is mad, let's get out of here." Frank said and  grabbed my hand to leave. As we were walking away the man noticed and started running towards us still yelling and screaming. Frank and I instantly broke into a run towards the car.

We entered Frank's car and locked the doors. Then the mad man turned around and walked away. When he was gone we looked at each other and instantly started laughing. We laughed for so long my sides hurt. When we were done laughing Frank leaned in and kissed me. His lips were a bit salty from the sea but the kiss was still amazing. "I'm sorry I just wanted to kiss you again before a mad man comes to stone me to death at the beach." Frank said and triggered our laughter again. Just like that I had forgotten all about Eddie.


To be continued...