The sound of the alarm from his phone was what woke him up. Damola hissed, without looking up he lazily reached out for the phone on his bedside drawer and dragged the alarm icon to a side of the screen. The alarm stopped and he sighed back into sleep. But his journey back to la-la land was short lived as the alarm started to ring out again after only ten minutes. He groaned, this time he picked up the phone from the drawer and brought it to his face so that he could sure he doesn’t end up snoozing the alarm again. The phone began to ring just as he was about to put it down. Damola sighed in frustration. This time it was a call from one of his mentees, David. It’s like the world means me morning. Why is this one calling me this early on a Saturday? He grumbled as he answered the call.
“Good morning sir. I just called to know if you are still coming...” David started but Damola cut in before he could finish ...wait, are we meeting today?”
“Yes sir. 10:30”
Damola put the phone away from his ear to look at the screen. It was already 11:15 He was never late for his meetings and his students knew that.
He got home from his parents very late the previous night. It was a few minutes past one when he arrived, the gate to his streets were already locked. He had had to go through another street whose gate was still opened and drove through a couple of adjoined street before getting to his. His parents and brother had wanted him to spend the night, telling him that it was dangerous leaving that late but he had insisted on going back home that night.
As he got home he had called them to inform them he had got home safely so that they would quit worrying and he had headed straight for his bedroom and thrown himself on his bed. His shoes had been the only thing he removed. He was too tired to do anything else.
He had the familiar voice in the background before the phone shifted hands. It was his friend, Jare, a vocal coach. Damola usually asked him to come around for the vocal training, other times the students go to Jare.
“Guy, where you dey? No tell me say you still dey house o”
“I still dey house.” Damola confirmed. Even if he hadn’t, the lazy way in which he talked and hoarseness of his voice would have given him away.
“You dey house and we dey here dey wait. I have spent over forty minutes here waiting and the students have been here for longer. You know weekends are my days off.”
Damola knew that. Weekends were strictly appointment based for Jare and he only took few people. Even though Damola rarely held Saturday lessons or asked his friend to come over for them, he still had to inform him in advance. Jare took his rest and fun time serious. He would always say ‘Guy, weekends were created for rest and fun.’ But even at that Jare would still make time for him when ever he asked. He would do the same for him too.
“I’m sorry guy, I no know say time don’t go like this. I came home very late last night. Please, just give me an hour, I’ll be there.”
Damola knew it would take him half of that time to get there. His studio was not far from where he stayed but then it’s Lagos, traffic could be unpredictable at times.
“Forty minutes is enough oga, it’s not like your house is far. Just get your ass here.”
Damola chuckled, Jare was a lively one. Sometimes it was hard to differentiate when he was serious from when he was not.
“And you will tell me the reason you got home late last night. You don dey join bad gang abi?”
“Yes sir, No sir.”
Damola replied in a mocked tone and they both laughed before the phone went dead. He remembered his mother had packed him some food and soups. He went to the sitting room where he had dumped the bag last night. Clearly it wasn’t just his body that was tired, it had affected his mind for him to have forgotten to put the packs in his deep freezer. He took out the packs one after the other and said a silent prayer as he took of the lids off them one by one that they hadn’t gone bad.
After checking through all twelve packs and sniffing the air around he sighed in relived. They all still looked and smelled fresh. He packed everything back into the plastic and headed for the kitchen were he lined six packs over sick packs. He thought of microwaving one of them that had jollof rice in it but on a second thought it would have gone cold by the time he got to work. But since he had nothing to warm up the food or even a kitchen at his office, he thought to forgo the idea. And eating before leaving was out of the equation, he needed to get to the studio as soon as possible.
After much deliberation as he go about preparing himself for work, he finally concluded to eat out. Something his mother would cringe at if he were still living with his parents. She always made sure they took food to work, even after eating at home. On days they were in hurry to bother, she would send one of the domestic staff to take their lunch to them. But eating out had become second nature to him since he started living alone. There were a few times he would prepare his own meals but that didn’t happen often. Cooking skills was a must for the Adetula men. His mother usually said to them if you can eat it, then you should be able to cook it and his father would always agree.
As he donned his face cap he thought he should try out the mai shayi at the end of the street where his studio was situated instead of making his own cup of tea or coffee himself at the office. It was something he usually saw some his students do and would wonder why they would prefer buying that over making one themselves at the office since the water dispenser ran both hot and cold water.
He would find out why today. And after the lessons he would go to Chop and drink for a proper meal. Home cooked meal is the best a tiny voice in his head that sounded like his mother’s admonished. He would have come straight after the lessons and boil some pasta or even cook rice, after all he had the sauce to go with it but he needed to work on something. A secret. Being alone would offer him the opportunity to continue what he started over a year ago. He had put it away for far too long, one he was hardly alone during the week days and two his weekends were either full on rest, or he was hanging out with loved ones. There were times unplanned activities popped out too that he had to attend to. Like this one or maybe not. At least this was planned, he only forgot about it.
11:45 he thought as he glanced at his black leather wristwatch. He needed to hurry or he would be later than he already was.
As he drove off he decided he was going to work on that secret and he would need the fuel that Chop and Drink provided. But in his mind, he knew food wasn’t the only reason that was he was going to that eatery.
...To be continued.
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