Phew! So I’m posting the first part of my cheesy love story.

This story is full of cheese. Cliched tall dark handsome wealthy guy and beautiful everything heroine.

If you’re not into this, don’t bother.

I was in the mood for tall dark chocolate and created mine. 😋😋😋
1./ GLITTER

“How much longer did he have to endure this?” Siji wondered. “Wasn’t that girl dizzy?” She was certainly making him dizzy. She looked like she was having a good time whirling about like that so it was no skin off his nose; so long as he looked away.
2./ Why was he even stuck at this club? He wanted out of the place. There were too many people here and almost every one of them thought they needed to say “hello” to him. The owner of the club had taken a loan from the bank to finance a recent upgrade and expansion.
3./ This was Re-opening Night.
He had caved in to the pressure of their old friendship and agreed to attend. It had seemed like a good idea at the time; not anymore. He needed fresh air. He couldn’t wait to get out of here and take in a gulp of unperfumed air.
4./ Thank God for his penthouse apartment on Oyinkan Abayomi Drive. His apartment took up the entire floor; overlooking the Lagos Lagoon on one side and genteel Bourdillon Road on the other side. Looking out the floor to ceiling glass windows facing the Lagos Lagoon,
5./ he could almost forget he was in a noisy, bustling city. If he stepped out onto the balcony where he occasionally had an al fresco breakfast; usually on Saturday mornings and the occasional weekday morning when he could afford to take the time to do so,
6./ the balmy breeze soothed his soul.
Siji felt tired. Tired& old. This wasn’t the way people imagined he felt. People envied him, admired him, looked up to him& wanted to be him. They imagined he had an easy life& they wanted it. If only they knew the demons that pursued him.
7./ He admitted that he lived a life of privilege as the scion and heir apparent to one of the largest fortunes in Nigeria. But that privilege carried a ton of responsibilities. The strings attached to the privilege were so many that sometimes he envied those who had nothing
8./ and could go forth in life and forge a path for themselves. All his life, his father had ridden him hard. He had to be the best at everything. If he so much as slipped to second place, there was hell to pay. He didn’t doubt that his father had good intentions
9. but his methods were less than laudable. Siji dreaded becoming a father even though he knew that he couldn’t avoid it. That his life was mapped out from birth as sure as his DNA bore his father’s genes. He feared that he would be as tyrannical a father as Bashorun was to him.
10./ He had an odd relationship with his father. There was a level of mutual respect& in a detached way, he admired his father, yet he felt that his father was so driven to succeed that it had killed off much of the man’s humaneness.
11./ It was always about besting his rivals in business, climbing the next mountain, making sure that he didn’t fall off his perch as top dog. He wondered if his father ever took time to enjoy the rewards of his success. As much as he respected& admired his father’s achievements,
12./ he hoped he never became like his father.
He caught Bode’s eye and signaled to him that he was leaving. He knew that he could have left without a word to his host and that Bode wouldn’t have taken offence if he had done that.
13./But the rigid up-bringing of the finest of the British public school system was too deeply ingrained.Certain courtesies were expected of a gentleman& he found it hard to depart from his early training.
The next afternoon, as Siji sat at the Boat Club with his best mate Lanre,
14./ two gorgeous young women sashayed over to where they were seated, megawatt smiles pasted on their glossy, pouty lips.

The curvier one leaned close to Siji as she bent over to air kiss his cheeks, he could almost see her boobs though the low cut neckline of her top.
15./ She looked vaguely familiar but then they all did. He knew he had probably met her at one of the many parties or events he attended in his capacity as the CEO of his family bank but for the life of him, he couldn’t place her face.
16./ “Hello Siji” she said, her husky voice was laced with a slight suggestion of a British accent.
He smiled tersely and offered a “Hello” in return.
She went on. “You don’t remember me do you? I’m Busola. We met at Laolu’s Open House 2 weeks ago.”
17./ He couldn’t recollect. But he smiled vaguely. She kept talking for another minute until she realized that he wasn’t responding.

When the silence became awkward, she ended with; “Well, I guess I’ll see you around.” Then she left with her friend.
18./ “How do you cope?” Lanre asked. Siji looked him square in the face;
“I don’t. Sometimes I wish I could escape from it all and return to the relative anonymity of London. It was bad enough, but nothing on the scale of what I’m experiencing in Lagos.”
19./ Lanre wondered if many people realized that being wealthy was not as easy as it looked from the outside. People saw the glitz and the glamour; the luxury and the perks. They saw the privilege and the multiple people hanging onto your every word.
20./But they didn’t see the total loss of privacy. They didn’t see that everyone& his wife thought you owed them simply because you were wealthy. People didn’t think wealthy people had real feelings. They often assumed that wealth insulated its owners
21./ from the usual vulnerabilities to which less privileged mortals were subject. They didn’t see the slight dimming of the welcoming smile when you realized that the person who was fawning over you was actually buttering you up to make a request.
22./ After a while, most people in Siji’s shoes wore suspicion like a cloak. They became primed to believe that no one wanted them simply for themselves. There was always an angle& it eventually showed up.
23./ Lanre thought this was a pity because Siji was one of the kindest people he knew. He had totally skipped the class on badass bastard& gone straight to gentleman. This was a major problem as far as Lanre was concerned. It meant that in situations when the response required
24./ (as far as Lanre was concerned) was a middle finger, Siji would smile and offer a mild response. He rarely ever lost his cool and Lanre worried that one day, there would be a gargantuan explosion from all the suppressed emotion. That degree of control was simply unnatural.
25./ Lately Siji was under a different kind of pressure. He was the only son and his father was getting on in years. Bashorun had no intention of leaving the earth until the next generation was secure. He was a colossus whose interests spanned banking and various industries.
26./ He was very particular about bloodlines and wanted Siji to get married to a wife worthy of bearing the next generation of Olukoyas. Sometimes Lanre thought Siji was exaggerating the pressure, then he recalled the occasions he’d spent time in Bashorun’s company
27./ and he realized that Siji was probably downplaying the situation. The problem was that Siji found most of the young women his father expected him to pick a wife from annoying or vacuous or simply disliked them.
28./ Where was he going to find a woman he could consider being glued to for the rest of his natural life (divorce was not an option) Marriage in the Olukoya family was like membership into a secret society once you took the pledge, you were in for life.
29./ Not surprisingly, all the families in his social circle with daughters in the right age band were aware of his quest and everywhere he went, women threw themselves at him. God knew that Siji wasn’t a saint. He had sown enough wild oats to win the gold medal
30./ if it were designated an Olympic Sport. Now however, he didn’t dare so much as exchange more than a chaste kiss with the women he took out on dates in the course of his quest. He couldn’t risk finding himself married to someone simply because
31./ he’d given in to his baser instincts and she claimed to be pregnant for him.
Later that evening, on his way back home after a meeting at the Exxon Mobil Head Office in Victoria Island, Siji uncharacteristically took off his jacket and tie
32./ and undid the top buttons of his pristine white shirt. He was in a mellow mood and was drifting off in a power nap as his driver expertly navigated the Lagos traffic. Traffic on the Lekki Link Bridge was typically crawling. After a while,
33./ he told his driver to bring the car home. Meanwhile, he would alight and walk the rest of the distance. As he got out of the car, the eyes of other motorists and passengers were drawn to him. He was accustomed to this. He knew he was good-looking,
34./ but since he had done nothing to contribute to his looks, he didn’t take any particular pride in them. At 6 ft 4, dark-skinned with a lean- muscled build which he kept in shape by jogging 5 times a week and working with weights at least 4 times a week;
35./ Siji knew that he was appealing to the eyes. He had deep set coffee-brown eyes and unnaturally long lashes. Women described them as come-to-bed eyes. His brows were full and well shaped but not at all bushy. He had an aquiline nose
36./ and well-shaped slightly full lips that hinted at the sensuality which lay beneath his serious demeanour. His hair when he allowed it to grow beyond his habitual extreme low-cut was soft and curly. He guessed this was a legacy from his mother who was half Lebanese.
37./ He didn’t take much after her. His sisters looked more like her with their lighter-toned skin and almost waist-length hair. He was the spitting image of his father. Apparently Bashorun had been quite the lady-killer in his youth according to his mother.
38./ As he strode down the bridge towards Bourdillon Road& on towards his apartment building, his mind wandered. He looked at the people who walked, jogged or cycled past him on the bridge& made up stories about their lives & wondered about how different his life
39./ probably was from theirs. He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he got to the end of the bridge& was now walking along Alexander Avenue towards Bourdillon Road without noticing. Unfortunately, so lost was he in his reverie that he crossed the road without looking to chec
40./ for oncoming vehicles and the next thing he heard was the screech of brakes as a car came to an abrupt halt just before it could knock him down.

He came to the present immediately. His heart was thumping madly at the realization that he’d just had a narrow escape.
41./ He was shocked to hear a female voice beside him screaming at what seemed to be the top of her lungs. In the attendant shock, he couldn’t make out her words but it was obvious that she wasn’t best pleased with him.
42./ She was now holding on to his upper-arm and asking if he was okay in between bouts of what sounded like harsh scolding for his carelessness in crossing a busy road like that without looking.
Siji turned to look at the face of the woman who held his arm.
43./ His immediate impression was that she was beautiful. Slightly taller than average height, he would put her height at about 5ft 9. He couldn’t tell if she was in heels or not as his gaze was riveted to her face.
44./ Her silky-looking skin reminded him of the café lattes he was so fond of. Not too dark and not too light; just right. Her full lips were painted a deep red and she had eyes a man could get lost in. Her nose was small and upturned. He allowed his eyes to wander downwards.
45./ Underneath her top which clung in all the right places, he observed that she seemed really curvy but he couldn’t tell for sure. He couldn’t see much else but he arched his neck and noticed that her behind seemed fairly curvy as well.
46./ Siji felt a lightning bolt of lust shoot through him and felt a stirring in his trousers. This was unusual enough to pull him up short. Lately most of the women he met left him cold. He decided this was a reaction to his near death experience
47./ and his body was reaffirming to itself that all was well with it.

He decided it was time to take charge of the conversation. He pulled out of her grip and turned to look her full in the face.
“I apologise; this is all my fault.
48./ I was distracted and I wasn’t looking where I was going. I’m grateful for your quick reflexes otherwise we would be telling a different story.”

His calm measured words halted her tirade and she stopped and took a few steps backwards.
49./ The cars behind hers were now hooting noisily because she had stopped in the middle of the road and traffic had begun to back-up all the way past St Saviours’ School. Siji suggested that she might want to move her car off to the side of the road
50./ before they continued the post-mortem. She got into her car to do that and came out again. As she got out of her car, he took a better look and confirmed that most of his first impressions about her were on target. She was curvy everywhere a man need a woman to be curvy
51./ and had a tiny waist. She didn’t have heels on but was wearing a pair of driving shoes.

Yetunde took quick stock of the situation as she got out of her car. She was mad at the man she’d nearly knocked down, but she was also mad at herself.
52./ Ordinarily she was super careful when driving along these Ikoyi roads because there was always someone or the other jogging or walking who might not be paying attention and she preferred to drive as if everyone else was mad and she was the only sane person on the road.
53./ Unfortunately, thoughts of her rat of an ex-boyfriend had distracted her. She had broken the relationship off a bit over 6 months ago and really she had moved on but occasionally as had happened today, she remembered how naïve she had been
54./ and she began to flagellate herself all over again. Granted it was a mistake anyone could have made. But she wondered how it hadn’t been obvious to her that he was a fortune-hunter. All her friends had warned her that he wasn’t what he projected himself to be
55./ but she allowed what she now admitted was her desire to tick off her personal to do list within the time frame she had allocated herself becloud her good judgment.

Yetunde was what people generally referred to as an overachiever.
56./ She competed with herself and always wanted to best her previous records. She had graduated Summa cum Laude in Management Engineering at Stanford and had gone on to complete an MBA at the same institution in record time.
57./ She was recruited by a major tech company even before she completed her MBA and literally walked from graduation to the job. After 2 years with them, bowing to unrelenting family pressure and a sense on her own part that she wanted to experience life in Nigeria as an adult;
58./ she returned home.

It hadn’t been an easy transition. She’d spent the majority of her developing and dating years in the United States, the dating rules in Lagos seemed alien to her. The intricacies of the Lagos dating scene,
59./ the games and the unspoken rules were unlike anything she had ever experienced. Add to that the fact that people often took one look at her and assumed she was a fun-loving socialite and nothing more. This didn’t capture the entirety of her persona.
60./ She was a cocktail of socialite, career woman, fashion-maven with a huge dollop of nerd thrown in. Yetunde had been raised by loving and doting parents, all she wanted after ticking off other items on her 5-year development plan which she had written
61./ in 2nd year of engineering school was to get married, have 3 kids while she was young enough to enjoy them and continue her steady climb to the pinnacle of her career. She had only one caveat. She believed in true love and did not intend to settle for less.
61./ The example of her parents was one she was determined to replicate. Her ex had zeroed in on her deepest desires& had nearly had her totally hood-winked. She had fallen for his smooth sweet-talk but thankfully she had escaped narrowly before irreparable damage could be done.
62./ The next time she allowed a man into her life, she was going to x-ray him.

Despite his initial words of apology, past experience had pre-disposed Yetunde to assume that Lagos was full of chancers& she had made up her mind that never again was she going to fall victim
63./ to their tricks, she girded her loins for any indications that the man she had nearly knocked down was going to claim he needed to go to hospital or request some sort of financial compensation. A glance would tell anyone she was well-to do. Her car was a sporty
64./ late-model Mercedes-Benz and there was a certain “je ne sais quoi” about her that suggested “pampered princess.”
To her surprise, as she approached him, he reiterated his earlier apology& offered to buy her lunch sometime to make up for nearly giving her a heart attack.
65./ At his offer to buy her lunch, Yetunde nearly burst out laughing. She stepped back& took a good look at him. For the first time, she got a proper look at her “almost victim”& she allowed herself a silent “Wow! Prime!!” She thought. This guy was a 10/10. BUT! NO! NO!! NO!!!
66./ Not again girl. You’ve been down this road, never again. Her ex had also been as handsome as he was smooth talking. She took a second look . . . Okay, maybe not in the class of Mr. Buy You Lunch, but he had been a looker.
67./ By the way, all these men with their faux British accents, who were they trying to fool? Was that a market-mover in Lagos? Anyway, she had had her fill of handsome men with faux British accents in Lagos. She smiled coldly at him and said she would pass on the offer.
68./Siji didn’t get where he was in life by being blind to nuances. He’d noticed the way she’d assessed him quickly& written him off. He wanted to laugh. He’s become so used to womenfalling over him that the novel experience ofbeing written off by one was aweird thrill in itself.
69./ For the first time in ages, his blood zinged with the hunger for a challenge. He was suddenly grateful that it was impossible assess his financial status from his appearance. Yeah, his skin had that sheen of wealth and he was obviously well-groomed but any playboy
70./ worth his salt knew the value of grooming. He had a natural air of command which he often wore like an invisible cloak but obviously in the shock of the events that brought them to this point, some of his innate self-possession must have gone over her head.
71./ He had taken off his watch and jacket before he left the car and his shirt tails were flying free. In keeping with his more casual look while he walked, he had pulled on a disreputable pair of trainers which he habitually left in the car for moments like this so at a glance,
72./ he could be any other average young man.

Oh I insist.” He said in his deep baritone. “It’s not every day I’m almost given a one way ticket to meet my maker by a beautiful woman. Allow me to buy you lunch.”
73./Yetunde thrilled inwardlyat the timbre of his voice.For a minute her thoughts driftedto cool, starry nights& being held in thrall by a lover’s gaze& her dream lover saying to her in that deep baritone “take it off.”Immediately she caught herself veering into dangerous waters,
74./ Yetunde steeled herself and firmed her resolve. This man was trouble with a capital “T”. He was definitely up to no good. He probably thought he could worm his way into her good graces.

People peddled all kinds of stories
75./ about how wealthy young women were so desperate to meet men that they were easy. Well she was not going to live down to any stereotypes. “It’s perfectly fine. Just assure me that you are fine and we can put this incident behind us and go our separate ways.”
76./ “I would love to do that, but unfortunately, I can’t do that.” He said. “You know how these things can be. I may suffer from delayed shock later tonight. Who knows? I suggest that we meet up for lunch sometime in the next 24 hours,
77./ or perhaps you can give me your number and I will call and let you know if I suffer from any ill effects.”
Yetunde was torn. She was almost 100% sure that he was fine but what if he wasn’t? She didn’t want to have it on her conscience if he suffered any internal injuries.
78./ The lesser of 2 evils was to agree to have lunch with him. No way was she letting him have her number. “Fine. I will have lunch with you tomorrow.” Again she took a look at him& decided that he would be stretched by paying for lunch and announced that it would be her treat.
78./ Siji caught the assessing look she gave him and nearly burst out laughing. Damn these tatty trainers he thought. But they were so comfortable that he didn’t want to replace them. “No I insist. I will pay for lunch.” He wondered whether to let her know who he was,
79./ or to play along. He realized that this was the first time in ages he was speaking to an attractive woman who was not making a swift assessment of his assets and how quickly she could lay her hands on them.
80./ Siji found that exhilarating and decided to play the role in which she had cast him. He suggested a midsized restaurant within Lekki 1 which he often drove past but would ordinarily never patronize.
81./ This assured that there was little risk of meeting anyone who knew him and could out him.
They agreed to meet for lunch at 3pm to accommodate her schedule and they parted ways.

End of Part 1&2
This has turned out much longer than I planned. I’m not sure how exactly. But yeah. 🤷‍♀️

If you’re still reading, you’re made of stern stuff. So I’m going to start a new thread for Part 3.

I’m still editing most of it. But I’ll put up the beginning.
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