I was woken up by a phone call from a friend I hadn’t seen in a while , Solape, her father moved the family to Jamaica years ago, based on his job with the diplomatic service. I had not seen or heard from her since then, this was a long time ago. She sounded really dull on the phone, for someone who had not spoken to or seen me in years , there was little to no excitement in her voice. She said she got my no from another friend she had met a week ago and that she came back into the country a few years back but she no longer had the contact numbers of all the people she knew back then , she said she really needed to speak to me, it was urgent. I immediately sent a text to her with my address.

Solape arrived in an hour, with a suitcase in tow, I was a bit surprised but I didn’t let her see my confusion. I welcomed her in, she looked nothing like the Solape I used to know, bubbly and very confident, I sensed this was not the time to ask any questions , I ushered her to the guest room , she sat on the bed, kicked off her shoes and said would I mind terribly if she took a nap for a while, I said okay , and I walked out, asked her to let me know if she needed anything .

I went back to my room, worried about her, I was thinking, Solape just turned up, doesn’t say much , apart from wanting to rest, God please help me get through to her. I decided to call my ES to cancel all my appointments for the day, I had a feeling I was going to be spending a lot of time at home with Solape. I did my morning rituals , went back to check up on her, she was fast asleep . Went to get something to eat and back to my room to catch up on my writing.

Two and a half hours later , I went to check up on Solape, she was awake, had a bath and was just sitting on the bed staring at the ceiling. I asked if I could come in, she said yes, I asked if I should get her something to eat, she said later, thank you. I sat down beside her and asked what the matter was? She broke down crying, I cradled her in my arms and just let her cry for a while.

Once she was done crying , she began to narrate her story, back in Jamaica, her mother had died of cancer barely 3 years into their stay, her Dad had refused to remarry but had the occasional mistresses , who came and went as they pleased, she as the eldest child and only girl was allowed to get away with anything she wanted her father didn’t particularly know how to relate to her,on the other hand her 2 younger siblings who were boys , her dad had handled them with an iron fist , because he was worried they would go wild and probably join the Jamacain gangs that were all over the place.

Solape was sent to a plush private boarding girls school, she got mixed up with some other girls who were also diplomats kids and they started experimenting with cigarettes , then Indian hemp , then gradually graduated to popping all sort of pills, they were well known in the diplomatic community,they partied , snook out of school, took trips to the neighbouring Carribean islands with different guys, partying, her father was not aware , he was too busy being a diplomat. She was suspended a couple of times,each time she and her friends just stayed in a villa that had been rented for them by one of their man friends.

Trouble started when , one evening they were in the villa , 4 of them all diplomats kids , a group of men came to the villa , kidnapped them and demanded a ransom for them to be returned. Her father couldn’t believe a child he had put in boarding school was kidnapped from an island villa he had no knowledge of. Eventually the girls were all rescued and no ransom was paid.

Her father was livid , he immediately put her in a public school and made her go from home everyday, monitored her every move, the driver and a guard followed her everywhere . After A levels , she was sent to a convent university in Jamaica, more like a forcing her to become a nun, she cried everyday , had to wear a uniform , but managed to get through the 3 year course . Once that was done he insisted she went back for her masters , while she was doing this her father informed her he had found her the right suitor , a guy he had brought from their country . They were married forcefully and her father ceased her passport. Since he worked in the embassy, there was no way she could get another passport , she was stranded. She lived with the Man for years , he abused her both mentally and physically , her father didn’t care , no one did, until one faithful day.

She had gone to church with her husband as usually, they were a few of her country people in the church , this young woman walks up to her and asks her why she never smiles, and looks so sad all the time, a weight was suddenly lifted off her and she narrated everything to the woman. After all was said and done, the woman told her she knew her father, she was one of his staff, she worked at the embassy . She said she would get her a passport but it would be in a different name. Solape couldn’t believe it, after all these years of practically being a slave, she could escape out of Jamaica.

A month later her passport was ready, it had her picture but a different name, she was so happy, the lady had also promised to get her a ticket, which she handed to Solape with the passport, the flight was for Sunday the following week. They had agreed on Sunday because her hubby was always busy with church duties, so it would take him awhile to notice she was gone,……..Just then my phone rang, I had to take the call. I excused my self, the call was from a very important client , he was in my office and needed to see me , I told him I would be on my way. Went back to Solape, told her I had to go for a couple of hours, food was in the kitchen , she should help herself , we can continue our discussion when I got back.

Got to the office. The meeting took much longer than I expected , when I got home Solape was fast asleep, she would have to tell me the concluding part tomorrow , I really couldn’t believe she had been through so much.

I finally went to bed a couple of hours later , that night my prayer included Solape, for God Almighty to heal her and for wisdom for me to be of help which ever way I can.

Good night …..

Today I get my cheque, thank God , I have been asked to come to the liaison office for 10.30am, I must not be late.

Got to the office for 9am, we had our weekly meeting in the board room , My ES was not yet in and she hadn’t called to say she was going to be late, very unlike her. Anyway everything went well, we had to rush through the agenda because I had to leave, for my 10.30 appointment.

Got to the liaison office for 10.20am, I was ushered in to the CLO’s office immediately, we exchanged pleasantries , he handed me my cheque , it was 100% of what I had quoted, o my gosh , I was so happy , I thanked him and left. I went straight to the bank to deposit it, in 3 days the money would be in my account, I had a lot of work to do. We already had the work plan for the project , execution would start in 3 days.

Got back to the office around 12noon, My ES was in the office, as soon as she saw me walk in to my office , she followed me in, ” Ma, am sorry I was late and didn’t call in, I misplaced my phone, had to go to my friends house on the outskirts early this morning to check if it was there I left it yesterday, but it wasn’t, I can retrieve all the phone nos once I get a new sim, please forgive me Ma”. I didn’t say much, just asked her to go now to retrieve her SIM, she should come back once she was done.

Didn’t have any other meeting today , but had a lot to get ready , ordering furniture , getting all our workmen together etc, I was already putting things together , that should keep me busy for most of the day.

My phone rang around 3pm, it was my friend Bemmy, asking if I was in the office, I said yes and she said she’s was on her way. I had to quickly round up what I was doing cos I knew if Bemmy got here, no more work for the day. She arrived just as I rounded up. Great timing, she was dressed in her signature long Ankara skirt and top , with a head scarf, I always wondered why she never exposed her hair during the day, anyway that’s gist for another day.
Bemmy had come to drag me to see an old client of her’s, who came into town yesterday, he didn’t know anyone else who could take him around so he called Bemmy and Bemmy called me, hmmmmm, I wondered what this man was like.

We got to his hotel, Bemmy had already called ahead to say we were on our way, , he was waiting in the lobby, he got in the back of my car , Bemmy introduced me as her best friend , we exchanged pleasantries , she then asked him where he would like to go , he said we should go get a drink and something to eat. So we took him to our favourite restaurant. He was quite chatty, in his mid 40s , asked a lot of questions, I tried to answer most of them , but to some I just smiled and didn’t answer . On the whole , we did have a good time, around 7pm , I did make my excuses that I had to leave cos I needed to get to the dry cleaners to pick up my clothes before 8pm, Bemmy was still having fun , so he asked me not to worry about them , that he would get a cab for Bemmy and himself to take her home and to take him to his hotel. So I left.

As I was walking into my house , my phone rang, Bemmy was on her way to my house, she said she had something for me and it couldn’t wait until tomorrow. She got to mine, about 35mins later. She brought out an envelope and gave it to me, it was money , dollars to be precise. Her client had given us $5000 to say thank you for showing him a nice time, Bemmy had split it into 2 equal parts and she had just handed be $25000 . I looked at Bemmy and asked ” what did you do” she said ” honestly , nothing, as soon as you left , 15mins later , we got a cab, because his hotel was nearer we dropped him off first, when we got to his hotel he asked me to wait in the car , came back out and gave me the envelope and said, it’s for you girls , thank you for giving me a good time, and with that he turned round and walked into the hotel.”

Needless to say , I slept all though the night with a smile on my face .

Sunday, my favourite day because I was born on a Sunday , the day of rest, got back home from the first service , decided to cook paella rice with avocado and prawns , yummy, you should try it sometime, I might just share my recipe with you someday.

Anyway , while I was cooking , I heard some commotion coming from the house next door, the couple there were friendly enough, we waved good bye to each other almost every morning when we were driving out of our front gates, I did go over there once , when they invited us for a barbecue.

Anyway am not one to be nosey but the shouts and screams were so loud, so I lowered the burner and decided to go do some “busy body”.
I went upstairs to the balcony, from there ,one gets a great view of the house next door , no obstruction , I saw that their gate was wide open, 3 ladies were screaming , I listened carefully, they were screaming the husband’s name, asking him to come out and be a man, he should come claim his pregnancy , I looked to see which one was pregnant, she was the tall ,slim model looking one,she looked about 4 months pregnant , Mr B, as I called him, was a dashing man, he drove a Xjs jaguar , always dressed nicely. Mrs B, was a business woman, she ran a boutique selling children’s things .

Neither of them came out despite all the commotion, I could see they were at home , cos all their cars were in the compound , the shouting was still going on when the police pulled up, the ladies kept shouting “arrest us, you coward, we shall be back, own up to your responsibility , useless man and so on and so forth. The police finally walked them out , not without them putting up a fight, the police made them get into their car and they drove away. Once they were gone I saw Mrs B , come out and thank the police, they too drove off, all this time a crowd had gathered in front of their gate peeping in. She gently shut the gate , turned to walk back inside , that’s when she saw me , she smiled at me nervously and walked straight into her house.

Hmmm, this was serious , very embarrassing, they mostly kept to themselves , their 2 children, hardly came out to play with the other kids. At that time I wished I was a fly on the wall in their house, not to worry , I have my ways I will find out exactly what the truth was, . Just then I could smell my paella burning, o my gosh, I ran to the kitchen , was just on time to salvage most of it. Hmmmmm….busy body doesn’t pay, ha ! Ha,ha!

Abby was due in my house at 4pm, it was 2.45pm, I had about 1 hour to “chillax” .At 3.55pm Abby pressed the door bell, I was ready for her , she came in looking all glamorous, I found out she was on her way to her mother in law’s for 6pm. We sat down on the lazy boy , She started talking. ” Babes , I want to thank you for talking to my hubby, he told me everything you discussed and he explained his own side to me, I have decided to give it a try , I guess it can only bring us closer together , I initially felt bad that I had to involve you in our relationship but you really helped me see the errors of my refusal to make my hubby happy. Thank you dearie , you are a blessing” I was so humbled , I hadn’t even said anything and she had decided to change, Thank you Lord , my prayers had been answered , I had asked God to give me the wisdom , to know what to say to her and how to resolve this for them, but the Lord had gone ahead of me to make the way perfect. I was delighted. There was nothing else to say, we talked a bit about this and that and then she was on her way .

After she left , I thanked God for everything,I usually pray that God should please grant my prayer, that one day shouldn’t go by without me being a blessing to someone, me advising people, being a blessing , encouraging them etc, was totally impossible without God’s infinite wisdom,mercy, Grace and favour, I thank God for the gifts everyday.
The rest of the day was spent on my quiet time, I had a lot of reading and writing to do, before I knew it, it was time for bed. Tomorrow is Monday , I got to go to bed .
Goodnight, sweet dreams , don’t let the bed bugs bite

Dear Diary – Day 11

Saturday , hmmm, had to wake up early to go play badminton, this was about the only exercise I got every week, 2 hours of straight playing and my exercise routine was done for the week. Most times it can be fun , we don’t always count points we mostly toss the ball back and forth, have fun and burn fat at the same time.

Got back around 9am , remembered I was meeting my friend Abby’s hubby around 2pm at a restaurant not to far from my home, we felt a neutral place would be better for our discussion, also at that time the restaurant would be practically empty, so chances of anyone sitting close enough to eavesdrop was slim to none

To pass time I decided to tidy out my shoe closet, the house had been cleaned by the cleaners yesterday, everywhere was sparkling clean. I looked at all the shoes and decided it was time to give away any pair I hadn’t put on in 6 months , sorted through the lot put the give away ones in a duffel bag and placed it near the front door, would drop this off at the thrift shop on my way out . Between packing shoes, rustling up some breakfast the time passed quickly , at 1.15pm I left the house for the restaurant , I didn’t want to be late, I got there, had about 10 mins to spear, just as I was getting comfortable in walks Abby’s hubby.

He was tall and handsome , had this boyish charms about him , we exchanged pleasantries and he asked if we should order first, we ordered lunch and drinks , and decided to start our discussion while we waited for the meal.

He started off by apologising for me being dragged into the middle of their affairs , he felt it should be an intimate private matter which he and his wife should work out. I quickly pointed out that I wasn’t there to apportion blame , that what I do is to hear both sides out and advice on how best they can be sorted by both parties involved . That seemed to relax him a bit and he started to talk- ” My wife is an amazing woman, she is strong, kind , loving and dedicated , I love her very much but when it come to love making she is boring, when we make love I have tried to get her to try new things but she is only comfortable with the missionary position. I want us to experiment , I have tried everything , talking , videos , getting upset with her , nothing seems to work, I even mentioned that some positions will guarantee she has not one but multiple organisms ” at this point I smiled , he continued , ” please help me , I don’t want to step out on her but am getting really frustrated, I tried to get her comfortable in a different position once , she asked me if I thought she was a prostitute , I said yes, you are , mine. She didn’t talk to me for a whole day, I had to apologise so many times , I will be so happy if you can talk to my wife and you can make her see my point.”

I had heard this said by Husbands all the time, wives set in their ways not wanting to go on a sexual adventure with their husbands , the picture was clearer to me now, I must talk to my friend again ,I then looked at him and said , ” you need to be patient , don’t get fed up or stop communicating your feelings to her , also you can still introduce foreplay, find her G spot with the missionary position and she will definitely climax, maybe once she’s satisfied she will be comfortable to try other positions . It’s difficult for a woman who doesn’t get fulfilled from one position to try something new, I would definitely have a talk with her” .

Just then our meal came , we ate, laughed and played catch up, we finally left the restaurant around 4pm. On my way home I called Abby to come by the house on Sunday for 6pm. She asked if we could make it 4pm, I said fine, so tomorrow 4pm had been fixed . Meanwhile, I had just over 1 hour before the girls arrived , the last time they were here I promised them pizza, so I stopped to get 2 large pizzas and some chicken wings , I had drinks at home , girls night was set.

Funny enough they all arrived in Tinus car, they had appointed her driver for the night, Tinu and I don’t drink , but Reniks and Bemmy , hmmmm another story. We started off sitting on the rug in my living room, I got to go first , tabled the Mont Blanc issue , decision was anonymous “keep it girl , it’s a gift” okay , Reniks turn , one of her girls was pilfering and she caught her red handed but she was the best Spa hand she had , what should she do , she had spent so much sending her to Malaysia to get trained , couldn’t afford to sack her ,Bemmy suggested that each time money got missing it should be deducted from her salary , chikena, we all agreed, next was Tinu, she only wanted to know how to get her hubby to buy her a new car, I pointed out that her current car was barely 1 year old, she said she knew but he had just got himself the latest Range Rover autobiography, she wants a jeep too, we all laughed and called her ole. Bemmy then said , I got nothing to say , all is well , we knew she was holding back, so we pressed her, she then said well she met this cute guy during the week and she was infatuated with him, I asked if she was planning to take it further , she said definitely not. Hmmmm, then nothing else to discuss , we all laughed and agreed , all cases closed .

They finally left around 10pm, straight to bed for me. Good night.

Dear Diary- Day 10

Thank God it’s Friday , I really had a good night sleep, allowed myself to get out of bed late this morning cos I didn’t get much sleep yesterday , got up finally around 8.30am, did my morning rituals , then went straight to work. The good thing about today was I had a really light day, just one meeting out of the office at 1pm, actually I was meeting a male client at his hotel. Please don’t start thinking , what’s she meeting a man in an hotel for, I have no other choice, he owns the hotel and wants my opinion on some stuff, not sure what , until I get there.

A couple of my staff had the day off, the rest were not in sight when I walked in to my office , my ES, was in my office looking for a file, as soon as she saw me , she starting apologising that she couldn’t find the clients file for my 1pm meeting , she had assumed I had given it to her yesterday. It was in my briefcase I had taken it home to read through , anyway that was the height of the drama in my office on Friday up until 12pm the office was very quiet , I sat in my office listening to some Jazz music and caught up on my writing .

At 12pm my ES came into my office announcing that I had a guest who refused to say his name , I sent her back to say , no name , no audience . She came back seconds later with a business card,
It had the initials P. C Prince , with a telephone no, no address, no designation , just a card made out of gold coloured metal . I asked her to let him in. To my surprise in walks Prince , the same prince that had asked me to Dubai a while ago.

We exchanged pleasantries , I motioned him to sit down but before I could say anything else , he produced a rectangular gift wrapped box from his suit pocket and said here is a peace offering for all my bad behaviour. I took it said thank you and dropped it in my drawer, I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of looking all existed with whatever it was . He politely asked me to open it , so I took it back out and carefully unwrapped it , when I did , I was surprised , it was a gold trim Mont Blanc pen, engraved with my name. I didn’t know what to say, I just blotted out, I can’t accept it but thank you. He smiled , ignored what I just said, got up and as he walked out he said i must take it to show I had forgiven him. With that he was gone.

I decided I wasn’t going to use it , so I just dropped it in my desk draw, got up and went to my 1 pm meeting . Chief Emma, the hotelier was a very nice man but his favourite colour was gold, he was determined to make sure everyone knew this by plastering the hotel with everything gold. When I worked in I thought I was in the Dubai gold soux , if you know what I mean , gold paint, gold color furniture , gold drapes , whoa , was all I could say. He was expecting me, he wanted my advice on what I thought about the decor for the hotel, I was planning to hold my tongue , How do I tell this nice man that the places looked very tacky with all this gold colour hanging around. Anyway I asked for a tour of the entire hotel , once that was done , I asked him to give me the weekend to come up with a proposal for decor. The hotel was new , most of the rooms had not been furnished , there was still hope , I smiled to myself.

Driving back to the office I decided to stop off at my friend’s place, Reniks had a boutique and a really nice Spa, she was there most of the time. I got there just as she was driving out, she had to pick the kids from school , it was 2.45pm, I didn’t even check the time , school run time. We decided she will come by the house later that evening .

I decided to go home, called my Executive secretary , to let her know I had closed for the day, and I drove home. Around 7pm Reniks called to move our girls night to tomorrow, she said bemmy and Tinu also want to come over . With nothing else to do , I had a salad , watched a bit of telly and went to bed, I was awake for a while thinking about prince and his gift, hmmm, should I keep it or send it back . Tomorrow I would see what my friends think, with that I went to sleep

Hardly slept a wink, was up all night putting finishing touches to my proposal, I was like a child looking forward to a trip of a lifetime. Finally rounded off around 4.30am , decided to take a few winks until 6am then get ready for work. The phone was ringing in the distance, I thought I was dreaming , I finally opened my eyes it was 7.45am .

Got to the office at 8.55am, panting and looking all frazzled. My 9am was waiting , barely had a minute to put myself together,
Mrs D, was one of my longtime clients she came into a lot of money recently ( don’t ask)-and was looking to start a new business , she had chosen my company to help with that . When I first met her I had asked what she enjoyed doing most, she said cooking, so we decided a restaurant cooking authentic ethnics food was the way forward , she loved the idea , I warned her though that it would require a lot of her time, she agreed initially now she was looking for a way that we can step in and handle the management aspect. We had had several meetings at which I pointed out to her that our hands were full and we would not be able to take on the management. Last week she insisted on coming to see me today for something really urgent , I was all ears .

Mrs D, was no longer interested in opening a restaurant , she now wants to package raw food .i listened to her all the way to the end, said I understood, called in my ES, and asked her to take Mrs D to our business development manager , he will sort her out.

I was due to go submit my proposal for 11am ,could not allow Mrs D to delay me. Got to the liaison office on time, they were waiting for me , I was ushered Into the Chief liaison officer’s office, he looked at my proposal went straight to the total cost and asked me to come back on Monday for my cheque I was in shock, just like that , no amendments, no reductions, whoa , My Father in Heaven was really smiling down on me. I got up quickly said my thank you and practically ran to my car. I was so excited , was still trying to wrap my head round it when I heard a tap on my side door. Standing there was the governors son, he had just pulled in to the car pack , I didn’t see him get out of his car, I must have ran passed him.

I got out of my car, we exchanged pleasantries, I told him I came to submit the proposal . He asked if I was in a hurry, I blotted out yes, he said okay we will talk later , I hurriedly got in my car and drove off.
My head was pounding, what did I say that for, I wasn’t busy or in a hurry , I just didn’t want the situation to get awkward. I was assuming , assumptions are the mother of all ‘F’ ups, so my uncle used to say. Hmmmm.

Much later when he called and told me he just wanted us to go over the furniture arrangement and colours he liked for the houses , I felt like a full. Big Lesson – ,not all men are the same , just because a Man is nice to you doesn’t mean he has an ulterior motive , silly me .

Anyway Got home much later , still have the Saturday appointment with my friends hubby, God please give me wisdom ,

Got to go to bed now , really sleepy ….see you all tomorrow