I TOOK IN a deep breath and stared up into Philip’s eyes.
He had done a very big job at surprising me. I wasn’t expecting him to ask me to be his girlfriend.
“What do you say?” Philip demanded, bringing me closer to his chest.
I touched the side of his lips. “Yes.”
“Yes?”
“Yes.” I repeated and played with his hair.
Philip ran a finger down my cheek and smiled. He smiled. Philip smiled like he had just won the lottery, not that it would actually matter to him. Yet, he smiled.
“Why are you smiling like an idiot?” I demanded, wrapping my hand around his neck.
“You just made me the happiest idiot alive.” Philip replied.
I smiled and leaned in for a kiss. Philip pulled back from the brief kiss and I stared at him, baffled.
“Allow me.” He whispered and held me gently by the crook of my neck. After staring into my eyes for a while, his lips swooped down on mine bearing fire and so much energy.
Two minutes later, we were still in a fierce lip battle, however, the sounds of hands clapping startled us. For an instant, I thought Philip had orchestrated it, but judging the flustered look on his face, he didn’t know what was going on.
Standing before us was Philip’s parents, Gabriel and Adeline, their daughter, and her cousin Tanya.
Instead of the sour looks I expected, I received warm smiles from Gabriel and his wife.
“Don’t be such a traitor son, I asked you to bring her in.” Adeline spoke, moving towards me.
“Mom…”
“Hush… Delfina, I believe we’ve met twice. Under different circumstances though.” Adeline embraced me and pulled away after giving me a chaste kiss on my cheek.
I smiled awkwardly. “Yes we have.”
Define awkward.
Felcia and Tanya stood there with stupid grins on their faces. Felcia made kissy faces at me and I scoffed at her behavior.
“Behave yourself Felcia.” Tanya scolded Felcia.
Gabriel cleared his throat. “Before they lose it, let’s go inside.” He placed a hand on my shoulder and gave me another smile.
I noticed there was a car waiting for them a couple of feet away. Gabriel drove his wife and the girls while Philip drove with me.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you had all these planned out?” I queried as Philip drove past the automatic sliding gate. The security men there gave him a polite bow and he nodded.
“I like surprises of course, babe.”
“Babe? I like that.” I smiled at Philip who stopped the car beside his dad’s.
“I love you, Delfina.” He placed a kiss on my lips and shrugged off his seatbelt.
“I love you too.”
“So, Terence has gone on full gangster mode with Maya.” Felcia informed me while we sat on my bed in my room.
After yesterday’s dinner, the girls invited themselves over to mom’s house for a sleepover. I just couldn’t resist them.
“The little witch.” Tanya added with a frown.
I raised a brow. “Gangster mode?”
“He started smoking, clubbing, doing things he stopped doing since he was a teenager. Then, when Maya suddenly reappeared, bam!” Felcia yelled and slammed her hands together, making me flinch. “…they took off.” She concluded.
“Just like that?”
“Yes, just like that.” Tanya replied, playing a game on my phone.
It suddenly clicked. The day Maya came to threaten me, she had spoken to someone on the phone and entered a car much like Terence’s.
“But why?” I demanded, still puzzled.
Tanya put my phone down. “I don’t give a flying donkey.”
“Tanya.” Felcia warned.
“That wasn’t a swear word.” Tanya argued and slipped away from the bed.
“No, we aren’t arguing today.”
Felcia and Tanya exchanged looks and grinned at themselves.
“Of course we aren’t, or are we?” Tanya asked Felcia who shook her head in dissent.
What are they up to?
“Of course not.” Felcia purred and scooted closer to me while Tanya sat on the other side of the bed.
“Girls?” I questioned.
Tanya smiled at me. “Tell us.”
“What?”
Felcia rubbed her hands together in pleasure. “How was the kiss? Describe how he did it in details.”
I groaned. And I thought Edana was trouble enough.
After dinner last night with the Ross family, Philip had offered to show me around his parents house. He showed me a sculpture his mom was particularly fond of and showed me another of a horse which his dad loved. He took me to his dad’s gallery where his paintings were in full display.
The paintings were completely beautiful. My mouth had dropped open at the colours swimming around each other. I imagined Gabriel Ross bent over, painting the beautiful images I saw.
The last and my favorite part of the tour was the one we took to Philip’s library.
He showed me his wide variety of books on different subjects, Politics, History, Economics, Geography, Anthropology and a whole lot. We had talked about his choice of books and he answered every question I asked correctly.
“When I turned to leave, he just turned me around in the most romantic way and kissed me.” I continued my narration.
“Go on, don’t stop.” Felcia muttered. Her eyes were dreamy.
“He picked me up like a feather and placed me on the table there…”
Tanya shook her head. “…remind me to tell the maids to scrub that table with bleach.”
I snickered at that.
“Tanya, shut up, you’re ruining everything.”
Tanya ignored her cousin because she was more interested in hearing about my description of the moment.
“What happened next?” She demanded.
I gave them a sly smile, particularly thrilled at the memory. “He parted my thighs and came in between…”
“Stop talking, I want no more. Get me a jar of holy water please.” Tanya slapped her hands over her ears.
I grinned and wrenched her hands away. “You asked me to give you a detailed description.” I spoke, putting the ‘detailed’ in finger quotes.
“That wasn’t me, it was Felcia.” Tanya hurled something at Felcia who started muttering some incoherent words.
“Well, you have the full story.” I got off the bed and stood next to my dresser.
“That’s not really what I expected you to say. Put in all your emotions.” Felcia folded her arms in her chest.
Tanya rolled her eyes and stood up. “That’s it, I’m outta here.” She fled, carrying Felcia’s phone along with her. Felcia hadn’t noticed her phone was missing otherwise she would have gone after Tanya and I would have been freed from a questioning session.
“I’m actually happy you and my brother are together now.”
I checked myself in the mirror. “Me too.”
Even though I was really overjoyed at being Philip’s girlfriend, I still had my mom to worry about. She was still lying on a hospital bed in coma. That was something to worry about.
Due to the flurry activities resulting from Philip asking me to be his girlfriend, I couldn’t tell him or anyone that my mom was ill. It would just be a way to ruin the mood.
Edana had remained in her room all morning till a couple of minutes back when she sent me a text that she was heading over to the hospital.
“When I predicted some time ago that you’d end up together, you doubted me.”
I gave her a cheesy grin. “Who would have guessed? I mean, we were always fighting then so it didn’t make any meaning to me.”
Felcia shot me a dry look and started feeling around her for her phone. “Good for you. I’m hungry, can we get something to eat.”
“Sure.” I started moving towards the door.
“Tanya, where’s my phone!” Felcia yelled and rushed out of my room before I could.
Grinning to myself at my friends’ immaturity, I moved to my wardrobe and picked out some clothes to wear to the hospital.
“Where are you headed to?” Tanya demanded when I met them in the kitchen.
“I’m heading to the hospital.”
Felcia peered at me from where she was seated on the counter.
“What happened? Who died?” Tanya asked.
“Shut up Tanya, Why do you need to go to the hospital?” Felcia asked, ignoring Tanya’s eyes which had narrowed into slits and were now focused on her.
“My mom went into a coma.”
I watched as their countenance fell.
“Are you serious? Why didn’t you tell us?” Tanya asked as she stepped out of the kitchen.
“I…”
Felcia shut me up with her raised finger. “Don’t say a word, we’re coming with you.” I nodded.
“Who’s gonna drive?” Tanya yelled from outside the kitchen.
“Me.” Felcia replied and jumped down from the counter. She darted out of the kitchen probably to make sure her cousin doesn’t get mom’s car keys.
I trailed outside the house behind the cousins as they bickered over who to drive mom’s car.
“Delfina, why don’t you have a car?” Tanya demanded.