08

“You’re not from here, are you?” Carla asked. She crossed her arms and offered me a death glare. 

“Were you following me?” Noah asked in a matter of fact tone. He didn't look too ecstatic to see her.

“I would never do that,” she said but looking at her gave me the impression that she'd do it. She was wearing a white crop top and black leather pants with a resting bítch face. She was the personification of pretty but psycho. Considering my situation, I didn't want to have her as an enemy although I was sure she considered me one. Had I been a citizen of the United States, I'd have stood up to her to show I wasn't intimidated by her. For now, flight was my best alternative. Like they say, cowards live longer.

“Noah, I think it’s time for me to go.” I started to walk away but he grabbed my wrist, forcing me to stand. I sighed. He wasn’t making things easier.

“Carla, meet my girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend?” Carla asked, scanned at me from head to toe. “What are you talking about?”

“Do you want me to spell it out for you?” Noah snapped. “Or, is it so hard for you to imagine I can be with someone other than yourself? You're very important to me but you need to understand that things can't work out between us the way you want them to.”

“That’s it, I don’t want to be part of any drama.” I tried to shrug my hand off his hold. “You guys can deal with your issues when I’m gone.”

“I’ll walk you home,” Noah offered.

Noah and I left the girl glaring at us. When I looked back at her, she gave me a tight lipped smile. When a girl who looks like every villain in a romance movie does that, it's a sign that you need to watch your back. Things were about to go downhill.

“She’s quite intense.” I remarked, when we got out of a cab near my aunt's home “and very beautiful. Why don’t you want to be with her?”

“Can we not talk about that?” Noah asked. It was windy and I felt quite cold. The trees above the walkway swayed, their leaves swishing. 

“What should we talk about?”

“You,” he gave me one of those smiles I was becoming addicted to. “So, did you leave a man back home?”

I thought of Henry. No one had ever made me as happy as he did. He was a computer scientist who worked with one of our government ministries. Great guy, sensitive and good looking but a little too dependent and emotional. Sometimes, I felt like his mother but in a good way. In a lot of instances, I had to take care of him and I liked doing it. He was clumsy but his brain worked constantly. 

I couldn’t keep up whenever he started talking about his work, which he loved almost as much as he loved me. At least I thought so. We spent most of our evenings together in quiet places. We both needed to relax after long days and sometimes we just held each other, not saying anything. The silence was very comfortable. Our bodies and minds had a unique kind of connection I never thought I'd find with someone else. Leaving him was one of the hardest things I had to do. And I only informed him when I'd already left.

As far as I knew, he hadn’t come to terms with it. It wasn’t easy for him to get used to being without me. And it was not easy for me either but it was the way things had to be. I missed my dear Henry and if I made a decision to go back to Uganda, it would be because of him. He was a wonderful person and I always felt like he was my soul mate. But if that were true, we wouldn’t be a trillion miles away from each other, would we?

“That how life works,” Noah told me after listening to my summarized story about Henry. “Maybe one day you and Henry will be back together again. And you’ll live happily ever after?”

“Do you really believe in that?”

“What.”

“The Soul mate thing.”

“To be honest, not really.”

“Guessed as much.

“Why?”

“Never mind. So, why on earth would you tell Carla that I’m your girlfriend?”

“Should I have told her that you’re my wife to be?” He winked playfully.

“No,” I smacked his arm, laughing. His niceness made it so hard for me to come to terms with the fact that I might be stuck with Jeff. 

“Then what.”

“Your friend, perhaps?”

“We’re getting married,” he stopped and took my hands in his. “You should get into character. I guess it’s time for me to buy you an engagement ring.”

“You know this might never happen.” I said.

A man, walking his dog smiled at us and said 'hello'. “Hello Sam.” Noah said to him.

“Oh, it will happen.”

“How come you’re so positive about this?”

“You need to trust me, Lena. I’ll make everything work.”

“So, what will happen when were married?” Would we live together all the time? Would there be extra benefits? I badly wanted to know. “I mean if we do. Not that I think it’ll happen.”

“We'll see about that when it happens. Your aunt must be worried. Let’s get you home.”

“Okay,” I agreed although I knew I was the least of my aunt’s worries.

***

“Why are we here?” Lena asked, surveying the old ranch. 

“Too late to ask that question, isn’t it?” I tried what I hoped looked like a serial killer smile. Grabbing her wrist, I continued. “Should’ve asked that question before getting into my car.”

She stared at me, eyes searching my face. She had a passive expression and I couldn’t tell whether she was scared or not.

“It’s time for you to learn not to let someone you barely know drive you into the middle of nowhere.”

Lena Kamara was a box of surprises. When I expected her to freak out, she remained cool as a cucumber. It was either that nothing scared her or my act wasn’t impressive enough. Maybe, I just couldn’t pull off the serial killer look. Disappointing. Should’ve brought a pocket knife with me. Now, that would have been convincing.

“Can’t believe you’re not freaking out,” I commented.

“You’ll have to work harder than that to scare me,” she smiled.

“Okay,” I went to the car and pulled out a box. “I brought you something.”

“What’s in there?”

“Open it,” I handed it to her.

“Noah!” she looked up at me, her eyes shining. Her lips curved into a beautiful smile as she studied the brand new camera “Why did you buy this?”

“Well, you’ve taken up photography as a hobby so I bought this you’d use it instead of your phone camera.”

Awe transformed her face. “You’re amazing, really. By the way, did I ever tell you that I change hobbies like clothes?”

“Uh huh. I’m hoping you’ll stick with this one.”

“Thanks but-“

“No buts, you’ll need to commit to something one day.”

“I’ll try,” she said as we saw a car pull in. A few minutes later, a professional photographer and his assistant walked towards us. “Hi Jerry, Mark.”

“Hey, is this Lena?”

“Hello,” she said before turning to me. “What’s going on?”

“We’re here for a photo-shoot.”

“But you didn’t say anything about it.”

“So you could say no?”

Her eyes narrowed. “So I could wear proper clothing.”

 I gave her a once over. White crop top, black jeans and boots. More than okay. “Since you love photography, this will teach you some of the tricks. If you want, I can hire Jerry to show you the ropes.”

“You’re taking this more seriously than I am.”

“You should start taking it seriously.”

I organized the photo-shoot so I could know more about Lena. I was sure that I would see more of her personality in a quiet place far away from the busyness of south bend. If I was going to marry her, we might as well build some kind of friendship. This would help us get closer.

Later, as Lena struggled to keep a dog in place for a perfect photo with it, I couldn’t stop laughing with her.

“This dog is so stubborn,” Lena giggled before the animal finally broke free. Jerry had taken a few candid photos and I had recorded a video on my phone. I was never deleting it. That day, I was able to see the fun side of Lena as she let loose and enjoyed the moments. Jerry had us pose for a number of photos together. 

“I have soccer tomorrow with a few friends,” I told her as we made our way to my car. “Why don’t you come with? That way you can meet my friends.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to,” she replied.

“You’ll miss seeing me in all my glory. I might even take off my shirt.”

Eye roll. “I don’t think there’s much under there.”

“Hey, don’t bring down my confidence.”

“You have more than enough, Noah Elliot.”

“Just like you. Don’t think I haven’t noticed how you move that body.”

She let out a small laugh “Come on. Let’s go.”

“Wait, I have something important to do first,” I stopped walking.

“What,” she stood.

In one swift motion, I took off my shirt. Her eyes went straight to my abs. “What do you think?”

Our eyes met. “I think you’re behaving like a teen.”

“You have to complement me. I took my shirt off for you.”

“I didn’t ask you to but that’s an impressive body,” she smiled.