To Be A Lover: A Proper Date
Fifi minimized the brand proposal she was working on her laptop and turned back to the camera. She could see Milo’s furrowed brows as he rubbed the back of his neck. He was working on one of their products and whatever they were doing was not working.
“You look stressed out”
Milo sighed as he turned to face the video, “I am stressed out. No matter how hard I try to fix this bug, it won’t go”
Fifi pouted, “So sorry about that. Ptff…..and there’s no way I can help”
Milo chuckled, “You don’t have to worry about it. I’ll fix it after a while. I just need to relax”
Fifi nodded, “You are not going to relax in that state”
Milo laughed, “Yeah, I know. Amaka did suggest that I hangout with them to take the stress off”
“That sounds like a good idea”
“I said no’
“Why?’
“Because I don’t exactly relax around them or when I hang out generally”
Fifi pursed her lips, “Really?”
“Yes’
“So you weren’t relaxed the last time you took me out for food”
Milo immediately shook his head, “No, no, not at all. That’s different. I enjoyed myself and I certainly relaxed”
“You did?”
“Of course I did”
Fifi licked her lips slowly and gave him a thoughtful look, “You know, I think you would enjoy yourself really better and take the steam off — killing two birds with one stone if you took me out again”
Milo stared at Fifi, speechless. He opened his mouth to speak but he didn’t have the words.
“You want me to take you out?”
Fifi shrugged, “I want to help you let off some steam. It seems easier for you to do that when you are with me”
Milo blinked and then a small smile spread across his lips, “Oh and this is a ‘help Milo let of steam’ hangout?”
Fifi scoffed, “No it’s not”
Milo furrowed his brows, “No?”
“Yes, it’s not a ‘help Milo let off steam hangout’. The last one, you hurt my feelings, you came to apologise, and I demanded compensation in the form of taking me out to eat; that was business. This time, you can take me on a proper date instead”
The silence that ensured after Fifi’s words was almost deafening.
“A proper date?” Milo asked after several seconds of silence.
“Yes”
Milo looked away from the camera for five seconds and then turned back to the camera, “Where do you want to go?”
Fifi’s heart did a little somersault and she tried to bite back a smile. She hadn’t thought that Milo would agree just like that. She had expected him to dodge it or even evade the question or ignore him but he was asking her where she wanted to go.
She had to resist the urge to scream, “Anywhere,” she replied, her efforts at reining in her smile futile.
“You can pick the place.”
Milo furrowed his brows, “That’s not helpful.”
“I’m a very easy person to please.”
He raised an eyebrow, “Say that again”
Fifi burst into laughter, “Alright, let me rephrase, anything you do is pleasing and impressive to me”
Milo puffed out air and chuckled, “Your mouth is too sweet for my liking”
Fifi winked at him, “Just for you”
And then they both burst into laughter.
“Alright. You are not busy tomorrow are you?” Milo questioned.
Fifi shook her head, “For you, I’m never busy”
Milo laughed good naturedly, “Fifi, I’m serious”
“I’m serious as well”
“So, you are free?”
“For you, aways, any time”
Milo shook his head and Fifi watched as he leaned forward, she could hear him typing over his laptop.
“What do you think of Misturi Five?”
“M5?”
“Yeah. You’ve been there?”
Fifi nodded, “Had to seat down through a torturous meal with my Dad and one of his associates”
Milo chuckled, “Okay, Let me check somewhere else”
“No, no, no. M5 is fine, going there with you will change my experience. I’ve heard only good things from there”
“Are you sure?”
“As sure as the fact that the earth is round”
Milo laughed as worked on his laptop as he quickly booked a table for the next evening.
“I’ll pick you up at 7pm, is that okay?”
Fifi was close to jumping, “Yes. I’ll be ready by then”
Milo relaxed back into the camera frame, “Alright then”
“I suggest that you close your laptop or maybe watch two episodes of Matlock. Whatever the problem is; after tomorrow, you’ll be able to fix it”
Milo smiled and nodded, “Yes ma’am!”
Fifi blushed as Milo turned the camera to his laptop and closed it, “Aye aye captain”
Fifi burst into laughter. Their call lasted for nearly ten more minutes before they both bid each other goodbye.
The moment the call dropped, Fifi rushed out of her seat and towards her closet. She called the girl group via video call immediately.
Siji was the first to pick up, “Fifi, since you met Milo, the ungodly times you call us is increasing, It’s almost 10pm”
Nini yawned on the call, “I bet a million dollars that this is about Milo again”
Joya sighed, “What is it?”
Fifi clapped her hands, “Guys, throw your whatever opinions down your throat. I and Milo have a date tomorrow”
“Excuse me?”
“A date?”
“A date? Not a hangout?”
“Yes, yes. A date date. I need to stun him tomorrow so we need to pick my outfit and jewelries together”
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
It was 6:57pm when Milo honked at the Fifi’s gate. The gateman opened the gate and Milo drove out. He got out of the car and stared down at himself.
He had changed his outfit at least fifteen times and even got Victor to vent his outfit before leaving the house. He almost couldn’t believe what he had turned into when it came to Fifi Dele-Ajayi.
It was weird and crazy and he wished he could explain his actions but there was no logical explanation for the kind of patience and time he had towards and for her. He hadn’t expected that the apology hangout would turn them into such good friends.
He woke up sending or replying a message from her, he spent the entire day either texting her, exchanging memes, sending random pictures or a voice call. His evenings and nights were now spent on video calls with her. Whatever the internet thought Firefunmi Dele-Ajayi was, he couldn’t care.
He knew the real Firefunmi Dele-Ajayi and she mesmerized him.
Taking her on a date hadn’t been on his list but it didn’t mean that he minded. Not one bit.
“Fifi, you forgot your power bank” Tanya’s voice drifted into his ears and Milo got to his feet and turned towards the hallway.
The moment Fifi appeared, he felt his brain freeze over. She was breathing, stunning and just…… she took away the oxygen in his lungs and left nothing in its wake.
She wore a teal coloured long fitted dress that fell elegantly around her figure down to her ankles, and she had to hold part of the extra cloth sweeping the floor in one hand. Her ears, wrists and neck were decorated with delicate and yet elegant matching jewellery. Her hair was also let down and her face was just beautiful made up. Her heels clicked the marble floor until she stopped few metres away from him.
“Heyy” she greeted.
Milo’s lips parted but no words came out again.
Fifi smiled, “I did it again, didn’t I? Felt you speechless”
Milo couldn’t stop the smile that spread across his face, “You do that more often than you think”
Fifi chuckled, “Oh really?”
“You are so beautiful, Fifi. Very stunning”
“Thank you”
Milo stretched towards Tanya and collected both her bag and Fifi’s power bank from her. He put out his hand and Fifi took it.
“Gentleman duties”
Milo laughed as he led her outside, “I’ve told you many times Fifi, I am a gentleman. Believe me”
Fifi burst into laughter as they got to his car and he opened the passenger door and she got in. Milo packed the rest of her gown and put it carefully into the car and closed the door.
Fifi smiled to herself as Milo crossed over into the driver’s seat and started the car.
“You look good yourself” she told him.
Milo smiled, “Thank you Fifi”
“You look good all the time so I guess it’s not a big deal”
Milo laughed, “Fifi, I need to keep my eyes on the road. I can’t do that if you keep making me laugh”
Fifi bit back her smile and raised her hands in mock surrender, “Yes, captain”
Getting her joke, Milo shook his head, her heart beating unevenly in his chest.
M5 was an elegant as its name. The décor was beautiful and the tables were evenly spaced that you wouldn’t even hear or guess what the people at the next table were saying. They were immediately led to a table which to the two of them delight was at a corner and looked almost segregated from the rest of the table.
Milo pulled out her chair before taking his own seat, and she thanked him with a smile. The waiter immediately stood with them and took their order. Both Fifi and Milo fell into a conversation almost immediately.
Neither of them ever had to think of what to say or talk about. Words and things to talk about came naturally to them. They could talk across several topics in the space of hours without repeating the same thing.
Fifi scoffed as she put down her glass of wine, “You would think that it was a joke. You guys sent me the wrong shipment with another influencer’s name and then get the guts to tell me to ‘manage’ it like that”
Milo looked irritated, “That’s not nice”
Fifi chuckled, “I didn’t reply to their mail, I just had Tanya mail back the package to their headquarters in Atlanta”
Milo burst into laughter, “That’s cold”
“And then they sent repeated apologetic mails and then sent me my proper package alongside with a giveaway pack to give out”
Milo chuckled and his chuckle made Fifi’s heartbeat speed up again. She took a spoon of her food and raised her head.
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She could gamble with everything but not this one. She needed to find the reason why he hated the one thing that made her shine.
“Milo?”
“Hmm?”
“Can I ask you something?”
“You can ask me anything”
Fifi blushed. She liked to tease and flirt with Milo but whenever he said innocent meaning words like that, she didn’t know what to do.
“Why do you hate attention so much?”
Milo’s actions froze and the smile on his face slowly evaporated. Fifi’s heart dropped, had she asked the wrong questions.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to answer. I’m sorry I asked” she tried to adjust the new tensed atmosphere.
“I’ll tell you” Milo replied and smiled softly. He took a sip of his wine and started talking, “When I was younger, I used to think that being good at something meant people would be happy for you and I wanted to make my parents proud”
“I was always a good student. I liked learning, and I was good at it. I didn’t necessarily enjoy being praised, but I didn’t mind it either. If you were smart like me, it was normal to get praised. People congratulated you, praised your parents and teachers and moved on”
He gave a small, humorless laugh, “Then I learnt that people could congratulate you to your face and still resent you behind your back. I really can’t remember exactly how old I was. Primary school definitely, maybe Primary four or five. I don’t know. I had won an award for something academic; a competition and my parents took me to a family event afterwards. Everyone was happy with me; my aunties and uncles even gave me money to encourage me. They talked about how my parents had raised me well and how my parents must be pleased. It felt good to have everyone in your family be proud of you, don’t you think?”
Fifi pursed her lips and said nothing. She tried to picture a younger Milo standing in the middle of a room full of relatives, congratulating him while he nodded and thanked them respectfully.
“I wanted to change my clothes so I went to my cousin’s room but the door was locked so I had to go to my much older cousin’s room to change my clothes. I excused myself to the bathroom to and just before I stepped out, I heard my aunt and my older cousin come into the room. I heard my name and I stopped”
Milo met Fifi’s eyes with a smile, “Do you know what she said?”
Fifi didn’t reply, she could already imagine what hurtful words he heard.
“My aunt said that my parents were showing off and that they always wanted people to think they were raising some kind of genius. She said my parents were making the rest of the family feel inferior by bringing me around and letting everyone praise me. She said there was nothing special about me. She said I was too proud and that she was sure I believed that I was than everyone else and how children who were praised too much usually grew up with their heads in the clouds and never amounted to much in life”
Fifi’s jaw dropped, “How could she say that?”
Milo laughed, “Why wouldn’t she? She had praised him ten minutes before, given me money and even prayed for me. I couldn’t come out of the bathroom until they were gone. I was a child and I didn’t even understand what I had done to make them dislike me.”
His voice remained steady, but Fifi could hear the hurt beneath it. It was the kind of hurt that had been carried for so long that letting it out felt unbearable.
“I changed and went back downstairs and she still gave me the brightest smile in the whole world and told me how I was the role model for all my cousins. You would have thought maybe I was hallucinating”
Milo sighed, “I didn’t know how to handle it and I never forgot but I never wanted to hear that again in my life so I decided to settle for a life without any spotlight. That kind of life guaranteed that there would no one that would hate me because they wouldn’t even see me. That way, no one would be able to pick me apart of expose my flaws. That way, I can stay safe and everyone else can mind their business and I put it to you Fifi, it worked. It worked like magic”
Fifi’s throat tightened, “Milo”
They both stared at each other and Fifi stretched out her hand grabbing his hand, he allowed their fingers to interlock and he chuckled.
“To preserve myself, I grew up underselling myself”
Fifi held his hands tightly. She almost couldn’t believe that there was a real story behind Tomi’s aversiveness to why he hated attention. Her heart felt painful.
She couldn’t imagine how the young Milo would have felt back then to choose a life that affected him many years later.
“Did you ever tell your parents?” she asked.
“No. There was no need. But I never went to any family event again”
Fifi swallowed firmly, “Milo, I know that maybe I’m not the best person to say this or maybe this is not the time to say this but I need to get it off my chest. First, I am incredibly sorry that you had to hear what you heard. That you had to hear your aunt’s bitter envy and jealousy. You weren’t supposed to hear that. You were a child and then and now, you are not responsible for protecting an adult feelings that has showed you hostility”
“I’m sure you know how much what happened back then has affected your life. You made every decision with that in mind. Your current workplace, your expertise is way much more but working at a top tech company means getting into the spotlight so you didn’t bother applying to any of them, isn’t that true?”
Milo stared at Fifi and chuckled, he was both and not surprised that Fifi figured it out.
Fifi scoffed and threw her hands backwards and forward, “No apologies but fuck your aunty”
Milo laughed, his heart feeling so much lighter than it had done in years. He held Fifi’s hand tighter as she swore at every family member in anger and irritation.
He had long forgotten to bother about those grudges and grievances but listening to Fifi mention everyone and swear for them was making him laugh so much.
“Oluwatomilola Johnson” Fifi called.
“Yes?”
“Nobody is worth is making yourself smaller for. Nobody. Nobody at all”
Milo laughed and nodded, “Thank you”
“You don’t have to enjoy being the centre of attention. I know you don’t but you shouldn’t have to punish yourself for being good at something just because some people are determined to find fault with you. You should choose the path that makes you shines regardless for what anyone thinks”
Milo laughed again, “You should add motivational speaker to your bio”
The both of them burst into laughter, holding their hands even tighter. Their eyes met midway and they stared at each other for a few seconds before Milo looked away and stared at their hands.
“Thank you, Fifi. Thank you”
Fifi grinned, “Always welcome”
All of sudden, she could understand how Milo had felt the day his picture had been trending online. She cursed all the gossip blogs in her mind once again and wished she had increased the fine for the ones she sued.
“I’m so glad you told me you know. I feel closer to you and I feel like I understand you better” Fifi said softly.
Milo chuckled, “I know”
Their conversation moved on to lighter things as the evening progressed. They argued about random things and even played more rounds of rock paper and scissors.
By the time they were ready to leave; it was nearly 9pm and they had had the time of their lives. Fifi and Milo had laughed so hard that their cheeks were hurt and her hearts were full with warmness.
Milo paid the bill and they were making their way towards the exit when one of the staff members approached them.
“Good evening,” she said politely. “Would you like me to take a picture of you both?”
Fifi’s eyes lit up, “Oh, yes, please!” she quickly passed her phone to her.
Milo glanced at her and Fifi tried to get her phone back from the staff, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
He didn’t reply instead, he pulled Fifi towards him and wrapped his hands around her waist. Fifi had to bit back the squeal that jumped to her throat.
“Is this good?” he asked.
Fifi immediately leaned into him until her shoulder pressed against his chest, “It’s perfect”
She flashed a bright smile at the camera.
The staff took about four pictures and Fifi excitedly took her phone back, “Thank you”
“Thank you for coming.”
As they walked out, she scrolled through the pictures with a bright smile.
“Do they look good?”
Fifi grinned, “Where’s your phone? Let me send it to you”
Milo stretched his phone towards her and she collected it. One minute later, she handed the phone back to him and Milo tapped his gallery open.
His breath was immediately caught in his throat. They totally looked like a couple, the last picture where Fifi had held his had and he had stared at her with soft eyes made him heartbeat go into overdrive.
“Beautiful pictures, right?”
Milo nodded, “Beautiful”
The night air was cool and they slowly walked towards the car, both of them basking in the experience they had both just shared when Fifi’s heel caught a space in between the pavement. She stumbled and grabbed Milo’s arm.
“Whoa!” he exclaimed, immediately steadying her. “Are you okay?”
Fifi looked down and exhaled. The heel of her shoe had snapped.
“Ouuu, sorry about that”
Fifi laughed, “Nothing to worry about” she immediately bent down and removed her heels.
“You are going to walk barefooted?”
Fifi smiled, “The floor is paved. It’s fine”
“No”
“Huh?”
Before she could ask what he was doing, Milo bent down in front of her, “Get on.”
Fifi stared at him, “Are you serious? You want to carry me? I weigh a lot”
Milo turned to her, “I go to the gym, I can carry you, get on”
Fifi grinned and then carefully climbed onto his back, looping her arms around his shoulders. Milo stood, adjusting his grip beneath her thighs to make sure she was secure.
“Are you good?” he asked.
“Yes, yes. I am” she replied but her heart had flipped over at least ten times.
She rested her chin lightly against his shoulder, “Thank you.”
“It’s fine.”
“You’re very strong.”
“You don’t weigh a lot”
“Are you saying I’m malnourished?”
Milo laughed, “I’m saying that you don’t weigh a lot”
Fifi giggled against his shoulder, “You want to show off your strength so bad right?”
Milo shook his head amused, “Fifi — ”
“Take me around the carp park, two laps”
“Excuse me?”
“Prove your strength” Fifi replied and lowered her mouth to his ears, “I like you carrying you”
“Alright”
Milo took her on three laps around the carpark before taking her towards the car, he opened the door and let her into the driver passenger seat, not forgetting to scoop the overflowing part of her dress into the car. He then walked around to the driver’s side and started the car.
The drive back to her house was quieter than the journey there. Fifi was tired, happy, and still scrolling through the pictures on her phone. The fact that Milo had carried her on his back was enough to have her entire heart beat system in overdrive.
“What are you smiling about?” Milo suddenly asked.
“I’m thinking about how much fun I had.”
He chuckled. “Then I’m glad you had fun.”
“And you? Relaxed?”
Milo smiled brightly, “You truly lived up to your words”
Fifi grinned in happiness.
When they arrived at her house, he carried her on his back again and dropped her in the seating room.
“Thank you so much for today Milo. I wish I could explain how much fun I had but I’m sure you know already. Thank you for carrying me and for sharing something very personal with me”
Milo slipped one hand into his pockets, “You are welcome”
They stared at each other wordless before Milo pursed his lips, “Then, see you”
“Text me when you get home”
Milo nodded as he turned and Fifi trailed after him just to the door and watched him get into the car. She waited till his car had driven out of the house before walking back in.
She screamed into the empty house in excitement and happiness.
“Oh damn!”
She pulled out her phone and the first picture was still open. She traced her hands over the pictures as pleasure and happiness washed over her again.
“Too cute”
