IMADE AND JAMAL

JAMAL.

She stared back at me with a confused expression as if trying to process my presence. I didn't think I would be courageous enough to actually come here but after thinking about it all day, I came to a conclusion that paying her a visit might not be a terrible idea.

"I don't mean to sound rude or anything but, may I ask what you are doing here? How did you even get to know my place?" She asks, with a hint of irritation in her tone. "Trust me, I would not be here if it wasn't important. Can we please just talk? I promise, I won't take your time." I request politely.

"It's actually not a problem, I just thought I needed to ask but anyways, you'll have to give me a few minutes to dress probably. It's way too cold out here." She replies, swiftly shutting the door in my face and it almost felt like she did that on purpose.

I couldn't possibly say I didn't deserve it though. I'm not even supposed to be here after everything but I suddenly felt the urge to get to her personally and talk calmly, hoping she will understand and comply with my decision.

"Jamal?" Her voice calls out, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"You're good now?" I ask.

"Yes, I am. Can we talk here though? I mean, I would be prefer we go downstairs cause I don't want the neighbours eavesdropping and misunderstanding." She says and I shrug nonchalantly whilst she leads the way down.

She stops suddenly by a bench side and takes a sit, immediately offering a sit to me but I'm reluctant to sit.

"What? You can sit here? Does it look to dirty for your highness?" She drawls with so much sarcasm and after what seemed like hours of contemplation, I finally sit beside her on the bench.

"What is it you want to talk about? Does it have anything to do with your girlfriend cause if it does, I'm not interested at all." She spits out with so much venom and I immediately knew Natasha had crossed the line with her.

"Firstly, she's not my girlfriend, she's a friend and no, I'm not here to talk about her but I got your sister's message and I'm here to address it and also offer you a solution to it but only if, you will agree to it." I explain and she tilts her head a bit before replying.

"I'm skeptical about this sudden solution cause like you said, she is your friend. You might see no wrong in her actions towards me and the solution you propose may not be favourable to me." She replies, earning a light chuckle from me.

"I highly doubt, I would bother coming here if what I had to say wasn't going to favour you in any way. As you already know, I can be very ignorant but I know how Natasha is when she gets silly ideas in her head and I can't let you take the heat for her insecurities." I tell her.

"Hmm, okay o. Let's hear this solution you have in mind. I'm honestly fine with anything as long as the harassment stops." She says with a snappy tone that indicated how quickly she wanted this to be over. "It's simple Imade. I have spoken to the director at one of my dad's construction companies and I have gotten a permanent job for you with three times the pay you earn here. All you have to do now is quit here and by next week you resume work over there." I say to her and her facial expression switches.

She stays quiet for a while as if trying to soak in what I had just explained to her.

"I'm sorry to ask but why are you offering this to me just like that? You could have just fired me and saved yourself the stress but why would you transfer me and even worse, give me such a promotion?" She asks with so much doubt in her tone and I heave a frustrated sigh.

"Is it that hard to take the job? I mean, I don't necessarily need a motive but if you must know the motive, take it as a consolation for whatever Tasha has done to you."

"I honestly wasn't even aware that she had transferred you to work under her and I'm deeply sorry for whatever you've gone through." I apologise sincerely and her doubtful expression eases a little. "She's the one who has to apologise but I will accept your apology since she's been this way because of you. The only thing I'm asking of you is that you please, keep her away from me when I get transferred. Knowing how jealous she is, she won't like the fact that her man is helping me out and she might look for other ways to get to me." She says but I assure her otherwise.

"Tasha only has power at the real estate company. Anywhere else, I'm fully in charge. So you don't have to worry about anything and if something pops up, let me know. Please." I reply and her previously stiff expression softens.

The dim light from the neighbouring house was all I could use to make out the features of her face and I must admit, she is beautiful. Even more beautiful than she was ten years ago, although I could tell by the endless stress lines on her face and eye bags under her eyes that she had being through a lot over the years.

"I don't trust you but I have no other choice but to take your word for it." She says with an adorable pout and I chuckle a little as I remembered just how childish she could be at times.

"Just let me know if anything goes wrong. I'll be on my way now so I don't make you even more uncomfortable." I say to her, immediately getting up and she does exactly the same thing.

"Thank you for the surprise promotion and for actually being fair. I am honestly grateful for it." She replies calmly and I shrug it off before attempting to walk off to where I had parked my car but the sudden cry from a familiar voice halts my steps.

"Aunty Imade! Aunty mi!" A frightened Lolade screamed repeatedly till she was only a few steps away from Imade and with the dreaded look on her face, I knew all was not well for sure.

"Ololade ki lo sele?" An already frightened Imade questions.

"H...hospital, call, d...doctor, mommy. Help." She stutters a reply hurriedly and those words alone seem to have been more than enough for Imade's understanding.

Her eyeballs immediately grow twice

their usual size and even under the chilly weather, I could already see her forehead break into cold sweats. She tries her best to speak but for unknown reasons, her lips barely produces any sounds and that was when I realised I had to come in and take charge.

"Lolade, Imade, get in the car and direct me to the hospital immediately."

IMADE.

The drive to the hospital seemed longer than usual and that only made my anxiety much worse. My head aches like hell and the only thing I can thing about is my mom. Is she alright? Is she going to die? Can even help her at the moment? Thoughts like this took over my mind and worsened my fear.

Jamal seems to be driving as fast as he can and fortunately for me, he asked no questions and he didn't even make any attempts to speak to me although I could tell by his repeated side glances that he was curious and maybe, just maybe worried, although, I could be wrong and imagining things.

"We're here." His voice informs and Lolade and I waste no time before bolting out of the car and rushing into the hospital with Jamal following closely behind us.

"Doctor, what's wrong with my mother?" I ask immediately I spot Doctor Makinde standing outside my mother's room with a nurse beside him.

"Good evening Imade. I'm going to assume you can already guess why I called for you so late at night. Like I predicted, the dialysis treatment is starting to fail and your mother needs the transplant right at this very moment, if not, it may be fatal." He briefly explains.

"As you already know, we can not commenced such an operation until payment is made first and if you

can't pay in the next thirty minutes, the available organ will be donated to another urgent patient and your mother may not be with you for much longer." He adds quickly and I

could immediately feel my world

crumble.

"No, no, no, doctor, that's not fair. Where exactly can we get such an amount within half an hour? Please have mercy on us na and just save our mother." Lola pleads with tears streaming down her eyes, whilst I stood there, feeling confused and lost.

"I'm sorry Lola, there's nothing I can do for you at this point. Let me know how it goes within the stipulated time." He replies apologetically and attempts to walk away.

"Doctor wait!" A familiar voice calls out to him and he stops immediately.

"How much are we talking about here?" Jamal asks.

"3.5million young man, and you are?" Doctor Makinde asks with obvious curiosity dancing in his eyes.

"Jamal, you don't have to bother yourself. You already did enough by bringing us here and I don't want to burden you." I blurt out without thinking and he frowns but makes no attempt to reply me.

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"Jamal Balogun Sir and I'll head over to the account office immediately and settle the payment but kindly commence with the operation to avoid further complications." He tells the doctor before asking the young nurse with the doctor for directions té the payment office and

immediately walking away from us.

"Well, since the young man has decided to lend a hand, I'll begin with the transplant. Let's hope for the best." Doctor Makinde says with a small smile that didn't exactly sit well with me but I brush it off as unimportant.

"Thank God for Uncle Jamal o. Where would we have gotten that amount of money?" Lolade says immediately the doctor was gone and I sigh lightly, not exactly knowing how to reply to that. Should I be thankful? Obviously! I can't even begin to thank him enough for this huge favour that I plan on repaying back but asides from being thankful, I also felt uncomfortable and burdened. Now, I'm not only thankful for the new job, I'm also thankful for my mother's life which means that I owe him much more than I would like and the mere thought of that bothered me.

Putting aside my messy emotions, I decide it was best to focus on what was important at the moment and that was most definitely my poor mother, who is currently undergoing a surgical procedure. Any thoughts of Jamal can always be sort out at a later time.☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐