Oyinprince:

CHAPTER FOUR

Amarachi woke up as early as five a.m to prepare for work, she had been nervous all through the weekend since she had received a mail confirming her appointment. Even when Ini took her out to Erinsic, she could only keep her mind off temporarily due to distractions by their newly found friends. Not that she was a timid or fearful girl but she was anxious because it was her first employment and her first day at work.

Her Mum had advised her when she called during the weekend to be hardworking , reminding her that she was the only hope of the family. Her Mum always told how she met her Dad, how Amarachi's father had married her even though she was from another tribe due to her hardwork.

Six years ago, Amarachi's father had a major setback in his business and since then struggled to make ends meet. He managed to cater for the family and get Amarachi through school by petty trading. Her mother engaged herself in tailoring and was able to also help the husband meet some needs.

As Amarachi took her bath, she had Ini calling to her " Hey, Ama. Hope you are awake, we need to leave by seven a.m on dot."

"I'm taking my bath already" Ama shouted back

"Ok, I just wanted to know if you were awake, let me go take my bath too"

It was five minutes past six when Ama came out of the bathroom. As she took a look at her phone, she saw an incoming call from an unsaved number.

" Hello"

" Hi Ama, It's Frank"

"Frank?"

"Yes, one of the guys who helped you and your friend on saturday"

"Oh"

" Yeah, how was your night?"

"Fine, thanks. Please, you can call me later in the evening, I'm preparing for work now"

"Alright then, have a nice day"

"You too"

Frank, she remembered him now, the funny guy who made them laugh excitedly with his jokes on Saturday. They were three guys, one was just talking casually and always taking long glances at Ini, Frank was making them laugh all through while the third one was quiet and only smiled occasionally. But how did Frank get her phone number? She didn't remember giving it to him. He must have gotten it when he askwd for her phone and pretended to be observing what kind of brand it was.

By the time Ini came out of her room dressed, Ama was alreafy taking a breakfast of sliced bread with tea.

"Good morning Ini" Ama said to her as she sat on the dinning table.

"Good morning Ama, I can see you are already prepared for work this morning"

"Yes, I am" Ama replied and continued , "You know Ini, I don't know how to thank you enough, you've been so good to me"

"Come on, you don't need to say that. What are we friends for? Lets hurry up and get to work early enough."


By seven thirty they got to the company in Ini's car and Amarachi resumed her job as the accounting research analyst. She was already seated in her office shown to her by the secretary by 7.45 am. She busied herself studying some files found on the table. At about 8.15 am, she received a call from the accounts manager summoning her to his office.

"Good morning sir" Amarachi said as she walked into his office.

"Good morning, Miss Amarachi" Dennis Michaels replied looking up " you may be seated"

He took his time to admire her looks as she sat, he didn't take notice of her pretty face when she came for the interview. She must be a goddess or a "mami water" if they really existed, he thought to himself.

" Welcome to the company Miss"

"Thank you sir"

" Some documents have been sent to remind you of your duties in here, but I just thought I should talk to you to let you know the import of your job, we need you to be alert always. If your job is done well, it would cause an increase in the progress of the company"

" Yes, I know sir. I promise to do my best and you'll have no regrets having me here"

"Good, you can go now , tell the secretary to come here at once"

"Thank you sir" She said and stood to take her leave.

Dennis watched her, he was enticed by her curvy little shape and the way she walked. He thought of asking her out, but waved of the thought with the excuse that it was too early, he wasn't known for flirting with females in the office.

.............................................................................

Frank shook his head to the sound of Lecrae's Church clothes mixtape as he shaved the hair of a customer in his Unisex salon, he had two other branches in the city. Frank did no office job, he decided to invest in the hair styling business after he graduated and couldn't get a job. He had three hair stylists working in each branch of the other two salons and he worked in the newest branch also managing the others from there and visiting them occasionally.

"Done sir, do you like the cut"? Frank asked as he clean and applied antiseptics to the man hair.

"Yes, thank you." The man replied "How much is it?"

"It's six hundred naira"

"No o, I will pay you five hundred please"

"It's okay, I'll collect it because you are a first timer here"

Frank sat in his office seat and recorded the transaction. As he dropped the pen, his mind raced to Amarachi, he had been thinking of her since he woke that morning. He thought of calling her, but it was eleven am and he didn't want to disturb her work. Why did thoughts of her occupy his mind like this? He had so many pretty girlfriends but none of them took over his thinking capacity like this. Well, time will tell.