Hidden Currents (Lagos Romance Series)

by Somi Ekhasomhi

  It only lasted for a few seconds, and then he was pulling away from her, his face set determinedly.

  Ada blinked, confused. What was he doing?

  He was breathing deeply, but the expression on his face didn’t change. He put his hands on her shoulders to steady her. “You’re sorry.” He said, “That’s okay. I forgive you.”

  Ada swallowed, there was a lump in her throat. “But?”

  He hesitated for a moment, then he shrugged, “But I’m here with someone.”

  Her heart had never felt so heavy. She was going to cry, she couldn’t cry, not here, in front of everybody. She started to say something, but she couldn’t articulate the words in her mind. I thought you wanted me, she screamed silently. Why did you make me fall in love with you? and now you don’t want me anymore?

  “I’m sorry.” He added.

  Why? Why was he sorry? She was the one who ruined everything. She turned away from him and saw his date coming towards them. She stepped back from him. “You’re right.” She said, forcing her voice to come out steady, “Of course.”

  He gave her a small smile. “Congratulations on your success.” He said, before walking away from her, towards his date.

  Chapter Twelve

  I’m here with someone.

  The words followed Ada around for the rest of the evening. Even after Eddie left, she kept on seeing his face, hearing those terrible words coming out of his mouth.

  I’m here with someone.

  The hall thinned out as people went home. Her friends left after congratulating her again and again. Mrs. Aina informed her that all her pictures had been sold, that she had been the highpoint of the exhibition, and that some of the guests had been from one of the oil companies. There had been tentative talks about a large order of pictures to hang in their offices nationwide, and for their New Year’s calendar. It would mean a lot of money.

  She could publish her books now, Ada thought. She would have the money, but she might not even need it. She might get so popular that the publishers would be competing to offer her their best deals. She could invest more time in taking more pictures, and she could create more books if she wanted. She would never have to stand for hours at a wedding taking pictures again.

  I’m here with someone.

  There was a scream building up inside of her, she wanted to let it out. I am devastated! She wanted to scream at the smiling faces around her. Can’t you see that I am devastated?

  She went home, finally. As she drove through the empty roads, under the bright orange glare of the streetlights, she resisted the temptation to stop the car somewhere and weep. An attack from the area boys would be all she needed to complete her misery.

  I’m here with someone.

  “I like you Ada, and I am not going to give up.”

  Those were his own words! From not so long ago, and now, just weeks later, she was just supposed to accept that it was over, just accept that there was nothing she could do or say, to change anything. She felt betrayed, angry, empty, sad and foolish. It’s not supposed to end like this, she thought sadly, it is not.

  She tried to remember everything she had said to him. A lot of those things she would gladly take back now, she accepted that she had been wrong, irrational and angry, but through it all she had believed that he would always be there, trying to convince her to change her mind.

  She had convinced herself that she didn’t want him around, and that she would prefer him to leave her alone, when deep down what she had really wanted was for him never to give up on trying to make her change her mind about him.

  Well he had changed it. Ada thought. She wanted him around now. So how could it be that he was no longer interested? She remember the concern on his face when she had run into him at the Sheraton hotels, that look that said that he cared about her, she remembered him kissing her in his car. Had all that passion disappeared in just a matter of days?

  She tossed and turned all night, drifting in and out of restless sleep peppered with dreams of Eddie rejecting her, Eddie dancing with someone else, kissing someone else, and telling her that he was in love with someone else, more than once she woke up with the wetness of tears on her cheeks.

  She got up as soon as the sky started to lighten to grey. A quick check in the bathroom mirror told her that her face would tell the story of the night she’d had all day long. Her eyes were red and swollen and her whole face was puffy. She took a quick shower and spent the morning on the floor of the living room looking through all her old pictures, an activity that usually cheered her. However, this time it didn’t, the more hours she spent looking through frame after frame of people and scenery, the more solitary, sad and alone she felt.

  As soon as the day became brighter, she picked up her camera and went out. She wasn’t going to sit around her apartment moping, when she could go outside and take some pictures, that was what she did anyway, she thought. She had done it long before Eddie and she would do it long after Eddie.

  After Eddie.

  The thought of an ‘after Eddie’ made the tears well up in her eyes again. She didn’t want an ‘after Eddie’. The idea of it was heartbreaking.

  She drove around, looking for things that would make a great picture. It was a Sunday morning, so the streets were fairly quiet and empty. As she searched for a view to inspire her, she drove over the empty bridges and through tiny streets. Apart from a few people going to church, Lagos felt empty, just like she did.

  Outside one of the local churches she watched people walk in. They wore long white garments and had no shoes on. She saw an impeccably dressed young man, alight from a bus and disappear into a side of a building. He emerged moment later wearing his own white garment and entered the church. Across the town she watched outside another church as people thronged in, wearing their Sunday best. In their bright clothes and shiny head ties, the women looked like colorful tropical flowers, beautiful, bright and attractive, but she never once reached for her camera.

  She drove to the beach, and spent a long time walking across the sand. In her shorts and T-shirt she must have looked like part of the crowd. She watched as people played all around her. Every now and then she thought she saw someone who looked like Eddie, her heart would start pounding and then she would see that it wasn’t him.

  She spent the whole day drifting from place to place, normally it would have been soothing, to spent the whole day in a solitary activity, doing something that interested her. But it was no longer enough. Being alone had lost its appeal. Now she wanted to be with Eddie, because she was in love with him.

  She was totally, painfully, irrevocably in love with him.

  Towards evening, she started the journey back to her apartment. She was already outside Eddie’s house before she realized that she was driving there. She parked across the street from the gates and sat in the car waiting. She had no idea what she was waiting for, he couldn’t see her from inside the house, and if he drove out he could even miss her, or worse, maybe he would be with someone and not want to see her.

  She waited anyway.

  At some point, she thought she saw the gates opening, her heart started beating wildly, and her fingers became clammy. It was only a false alarm though, as the gates remained shut.

  You’re only making a fool of yourself. She thought deploringly, Even if you see him, what would you say to him, that you’ve become his stalker?

  She wondered what he was doing inside. It was torture, to be so close to him and not be able to reach out to him. She wanted to tell him that she was in love with him. She wanted to see his face as she said it, to see happiness and acceptance and not rejection. She wanted a lot of things.

  When it started to get dark she drove towards home, feeling worse than she had when she left in the morning.

  She left the unused camera inside her car, too distracted to take it inside. As she walked up the stairs, her mind registered that she hadn’t eaten all day, and that she was weak and tired. She didn’t care, all she wan
ted to do was to lie down on her bed and cry until the feeling of sadness was gone and the weight in her chest was lifted.

  At first she couldn’t believe that it was him. She stopped, her heart leaping wildly, her hand trembling on the banister. She wondered if her eyes were deceiving her, if perhaps he was unreal, like a mirage in the desert.

  But it wasn’t a mirage. It was really Eddie.

  He was standing in front of the door to her apartment, his tall figure leaning forward, one hand resting on the door where he had been knocking and the other hand holding his phone to his ear.

  He was at her house, waiting for her.

  Her eyes welled up with tears. She blinked frantically, trying to hold them back.

  He started to knock again. She took one more step. The movement must have caught his eye because at that moment he turned away from the door and saw her.

  Her stomach shifted with joy as she saw the worry on his face change to relief. She wanted to run into his arms, to tell him everything she was feeling. But she was also afraid.

  “Ada!” He exclaimed, his voice sounding strangely tight. He started to come down the stairs, towards her. She stood still, waiting until he was standing right in front of her, on the landing.

  “Where have you been?” He asked softly.

  “I have no idea.” She looked up at him, into his eyes, she knew her eyes were glistening with tears, and that soon, they would run down her cheeks. Whether they were caused by her happiness at seeing him, or the sadness that she had been feeling before, she couldn’t really say.

  “I’ve been waiting for you.” Eddie was saying, his voice still soft. “I’ve been calling you all day.”

  Ada sighed. She had left her phone in the apartment when she left in the morning. “I didn’t have my phone with me.” She explained.

  He nodded. “I was so worried.” He said. He took a deep breath. “I’ve called everybody trying to find out where you were.”

  Where had she been? She had no remembrance of anything she had seen or done all day. “I was looking for you.” She whispered softly.

  “I was always here.” He murmured.

  Ada’s heart tightened at the memory of him and those painful words he had said to her. “You said you were with someone.” She accused.

  He touched a hand to her face and stroked her cheek. “I was being an idiot.” He said, shaking his head. “I’m sorry.”

  Ada laughed. It was a mixture of relief and happiness and joy. She was going to ask him something else, but she forgot it, whatever it was, when he kissed her.

  I’ve been lost, Ada thought, as she drank in the taste of him, and now I’ve found home.

  He kissed her as if he would never stop, and she didn’t want him to. After a long while, he pulled back and they grinned at each other like idiots. Then Ada pulled him down and kissed him again.

  “We’d better go inside,” Ada said finally, still grinning.

  They ascended the rest of stairs together, Eddie holding her hand in his. When they got to her door, she fished in the pocket of her shorts for her keys, while Eddie kissed the corners of her lips.

  “So you’re not with someone?” She asked, as she opened the door. She knew she shouldn’t, but she still felt trepidation in her heart as she waited for him to answer.

  He shook his head.

  “So the girl at the exhibition yesterday?”

  He looked shamefaced. “Her name’s Estella, she’s someone’s assistant at my office. We were at a meeting together and she mentioned that she just moved to Lagos and had never been anywhere, so I asked her to come with me. I didn’t want to arrive alone looking like an idiot, and stand around while you ignore me like you did at the awards…”

  “I didn’t ignore you,” Ada protested. “You ignored me! I kept hoping you would talk to me, and then you just left without saying goodbye.”

  He sighed. “I just felt… I don’t understand how I felt.” He took her hands in his, “You confuse me, Ada Arinze, I don’t know where I am when I’m around you.”

  Ada smiled and moved into his waiting arms. “I don’t think I’ve known where I was around you since the first day I saw you.”

  “Really?” He chuckled. “I always knew you were into me.” He teased.

  Ada giggled, and then said seriously. “Well I am, I really am.”

  “I love you.” He said and kissed her again.

  Ada’s stomach fluttered gleefully as her heart swelled with pleasure, “I love you.” She replied, when she caught her breath. She had never been so happy.

  “What about that girl you were with at the Sheraton?” She asked him, much later.

  “Ada Arinze, Are you jealous?” He asked teasingly.

  Ada nodded.

  Eddie laughed. As his dimples sprang to life on his cheeks, Ada reached out and traced them with her fingers.

  “So?” She prodded.

  “Reunion.” He said distractedly, as she continued to trace the movement of the dimples on his cheeks, “It was a small reunion with some of the people I went to Sec. School with. She was just one of them.”

  Ada remembered the crowded table at the restaurant, of course, she had guessed even then that it was a reunion. She remembered how jealous she had been, it had been just a hug and a small kiss after all. She sighed.

  “Am I cleared now?” Eddie asked. “Can I kiss you again?”

  Ada smiled. “What are you waiting for?”

  From Ada

  Love is a beautiful thing, really. I have never been so happy in my life. Eddie is perfect, and I’m not just saying that because I’m in love with him and him with me. He is just perfect, utterly, utterly perfect.

  I don’t think Eddie knows how much I love him, he’s convinced he loves me more, and no so no matter how much I try to reassure him that he is the best thing that ever happened to me, he’s still convinced that he has to stay on his toes when it comes to keeping me happy, and he does.

  Every girl should have a man like Eddie doing everything he can to keep her happy.

  Seriously.

  His family is great too. I can’t believe I ever thought they might be snobs. His sisters are incredibly sweet, and they all agree that they’re happy Eddie finally has a real girlfriend. And their children! I have never been auntie Ada to so many adorable little tykes.

  His parents are an inspiration. Even with grown children they can hardly keep their eyes, and hands, off each other. Eddie’s mother loves my pictures. She’s bought some and even urged her department at the university to buy a couple to hang in the faculty. So she can boast about her son’s girlfriend, as she told me.

  Living Lagos is expanding dramatically too. We have new, bigger, office space and have hired yet some more staff. Yes, I said we. I am a partner now. Sophie offered me a small buy-in and I gladly accepted. Speaking of Sophie, she has become something of a minor celebrity these days, and she loves it.

  I feel lucky to have become so successful in such a short time. I have always known that my pictures were good, but there is something infinitely pleasurable about seeing the effect they have on people. It’s been a pleasure to see my pictures hanging in entrance lobbies of big companies, boardrooms and the like. Even my old pictures are in demand for calendars. These days when I go out with my camera, it’s just for the pleasure of doing what I really love to do.

  I didn’t even have to put up any money for my book, that’s the thing with success, people start to court you. Now there are four publishers who want to publish a book of my pictures, all trying to offer a better deal than the other. One of them is even an international company.

  As I said about success, people start to court you. I bumped into my father when my kaleidoscopic view of sunset in Lagos was unveiled in the lobby of the corporation where he works. He was too proud to offer more than a few gruff words of congratulations, but that didn’t bother me. My stepmother, on the other hand, suddenly knows that I exist. She called out of the blue to invite me to a soiree she�
��s attending in Lagos soon, maybe she’s heard the rumours of an engagement, which would result in me becoming an enormous social asset. Whatever it is, I haven’t decided to go yet.

  The rumours of an engagement, however, are true. I cannot stop looking at the lovely, lovely ring on the fourth finger of my left hand. It fills me with wonder and happiness. I love it so much.

  But what I love, so much more, is the person who put it there.

  Author’s Note

  Thank you for reading this book! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I have a thing for love, I love it, I love stories about it, and I love creating it in my head. Love stories are the ultimate moos lifter and I would recommend them for any and every one.

  There aren’t many love stories set in Nigeria. I grew up reading romance novels set everywhere else, and I thought perhaps I should write a series of romances that could happen to people like me, that people I know and work with every day would be able to relate to, that’s how the Lagos Romance Series was born.

  If you’ve enjoyed this book, you may want to read the first book in the series, ALWAYS YOURS.

  Don’t forget to leave a review at amazon.com so that others (and I) will know how much pleasure this book gave you.

  About the Author

  Somi Ekhasomhi is a twenty something writer who lives in Lagos, Nigeria. She has been addicted to books since before she could walk (this is subject to verification) and has read what she claims to be thousands of books.

  When she isn’t writing she volunteers, works as an Architect at a firm in Lagos, rescues stray animals, watches TV series no adult should be caught dead watching, reads Plato and Socrates, obsesses about the “Song Of Ice And Fire’ series, watches documentaries about serious issues, watches movies, knits, tweets, thinks of constructive ways to change the world for the better, fantasizes about La Dolce Vita and teaches Nigerian languages to confused expatriates, makes halfhearted attempts to learn French.